Guggenheim Presents Works by 13 Artists in "Off the Record"

From April 2 through September 27, 2021, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents Off the Record, a group exhibition featuring prints, photographs, and paintings that challenge the authority of mainstream documentation and question its role in constructing history. The 13 artists include Sadie Barnette, Sarah Charlesworth, Sara Cwynar, Leslie Hewitt, Glenn Ligon, Carlos Motta, Lisa Oppenheim, Adrian Piper, Lorna Simpson, Sable E. Smith, Hank Willis Thomas, and Carrie Mae Weems, whose works have been assembled from the museum’s collection. The presentation will also include a painting on loan by Tomashi Jackson.

Off the Record is organized by Ashley James, Associate Curator, Contemporary Art.

Sarah Charlesworth, Herald Tribune: November 1977, 1977 (printed 2008). Twenty-six chromogenic prints, 23 1/2 x 16 1/2 in. (59.7 x 41.9 cm) each, edition 2/3. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Purchased with funds contributed by the Photography Committee 2008.50. © Sarah Charlesworth

Historical, documentary, state, and other records became the collectively accepted communicators of “truth” through their perceived objectivity and comprehensiveness. They presumably tell a story from a place of remove, with all relevant details included. Off the Record confronts this pretense, bringing together the work of contemporary artists who interrogate, revise, or otherwise query dominant narratives and the transmission of culture through official “records.”

Drawn from the context of journalist reportage, the phrase “off the record” here refers to accounts that have been left out of mainstream narratives. The exhibition’s title can also be understood in its verb form: to undermine or “kill” the record as a gesture of redress. Across various manipulations of “records,” artists in this exhibition seek to call out the power dynamics obscured by official documentation, complicate the idea of objectivity and truth, and surface new narrative possibilities.

Sable SMith — Sable Elyse Smith, Coloring Book 18, 2018. Silkscreen ink and oil stick on paper, 60 3/16 x 49 15/16 in. (152.9 x 126.8 cm). Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Purchased with funds contributed by the Young Collectors Council, with additional funds contributed by Astrid Hill and Alexandra Economou 2018.82. © Sable Elyse Smith

Public Programs

A variety of public programs will be presented both at the museum and online in conjunction with Off the Record, including a talk between Ashley James and exhibition artist Tomashi Jackson that will be posted to the museum’s YouTube channel in the spring.

Funders

Off the Record is made possible by Lavazza.

The Leadership Committee for Off the Record is gratefully acknowledged for its support, with special thanks to Noel E. D. Kirnon and Ann and Mel Schaffer.