Behind every Grace Wales Bonner collection are thoughtful and deep-rooted cultural references and inspirations—often involving the work of Black artists and intellectuals whose work encompasses a variety of mediums. Her past collections have nodded at the writer James Baldwin, the painter Kerry James Marshall, the jazz musician Don Cherry, and the photographers Malick Sidibé and Sanlé Sory, among others.
In “Artist’s Choice: Grace Wales Bonner—Spirit Movers,” a new show opening at the Museum of Modern Art on November 18, she has applied the same practice to curate a selection of works from the museum’s permanent collection. It’s the first time a fashion designer has been asked to participate in the series, which launched in 1988 with a Constantin Brâncuși exhibition curated by the sculptor and performance artist Scott Burton, but it seemed like an obvious choice to Michelle Kuo, the Marlene Hess Curator of the department of painting and sculpture. “Grace is such a polymath, and she is so committed to archival research in her practice at the University of Vienna [where Wales Bonner was recently appointed as head of the fashion department] but also with her collections and her clothing designs, [where] every one is tied to a very specific story, historical episode, or cast of characters,” Kuo said.
Though there’s no fashion in the exhibit, it bears the designer’s unmistakable fingerprints. “I was quite interested in how sound and movement can be captured through different forms,” Wales Bonner explained, walking through the gallery before the show’s opening. “It’s a subject I keep coming back to—of how music and sound can be translated into something else.” The cornerstone of the show is the imposing Last Trumpet, four larger-than-life brass horns by the American artist Terry Adkins. “Adkins is an artist I really admire,” Wales Bonner added. (There are two other works by the artist in the show.) “He said he made these at the scale as if angels could play them—so the works are both a sculpture [and something that] could be used in a performance. So I was also interested in that kind of crossing over or intersection, when an artwork moves into other forms.”
Wales Bonner used to play the trumpet herself, and music plays an important part in her runway presentations— the jazz trumpeter Hermon Mehari performed at her fall 2023 show. “I love music, but I’m not very great,” she demurred.
There’s a distinctly tactile quality to the works Wales Bonner has curated. (Sorry, no, you can’t touch the art.) “I was drawn to artists that started to collect or assemble materials that had another life—so they’re finding a new way of repurposing something and bringing a new energy and life to it,” the designer added. “It’s also thinking a lot about craft and detail and a very intimate relationship with making, the kind of obsession and dedication to be meticulously gathering these materials and putting them together in a certain way, whether that’s assemblages or even a painter creating repetitive marks.”
Among the most impressive works in the show is Lady With a Long Neck by the Senegalese sculptor Moustapha Dimé. Made from a tree trunk that was used as a butcher block, stood on one end, it’s joined by an elegantly curved piece of salvaged iron to create an imposing figure that, despite its heavy-duty materials, carries within it a certain lightness. When you look at it, it’s easy to imagine the sound created by so many blades slamming against the structure, getting a piece of meat ready for consumption. Like many other pieces featured in the show, it is the first time it’s on view at the museum. There are also a number of books that have undergone transformations, including one stained with mud and water from the River Avon, by Richard Long, and another, by Lucas Samaras, covered in pins and stabbed with a table knife, scissors, razor blade, piece of glass, and plastic rod. Edgar Arceneaux’s Failed Attempt at Crystallization III is made from a copy of Alex Haley’s 1976 novel, Roots, which has been encrusted with sugar crystals that appear to grow from and overtake the book itself. Another hallmark of the exhibition is a piece by David Hammons made of human hair picked up from a barbershop and woven into a paper scroll named Afro Asian Eclipse (or Black China).
The exhibition continues beyond the gallery space—one of the few at the museum that is free to the public and accessible just off the main lobby—with a playlist that will be shared through Spotify, along with a book titled Dream in the Rhythm, which is less of a straightforward exhibition catalog and more of a compendium in which Wales Bonner is able to continue her explorations on the theme of sound through other mediums. “It’s been a really special project that’s almost describing this theme through photography and poetry,” she said. “I was interested in treating the different art forms quite respectfully and giving them their own space to exist in different ways.” The book features the poetry of Nikki Giovanni and June Jordan, along with photographs by Glenn Ligon, Ming Smith, and Dawoud Bey, among others.
“I hope the space can be a sanctuary for people, and I hope that they can start to feel some of the rhythms and to be present and have a direct interaction with the works,” she concluded. “But I also wanted to leave space for imagination, really, between the world, for them to have presence in their own life.”
