Contact: Sandra Kraskin (gallery) 212-802-2690


BARUCH COLLEGE COMMEMORATES SEPTEMBER 11

Exhibition Honoring Memories at the Mishkin Gallery
September 6ÐOctober 3

Drawing on a wide range of international and historical events, the
exhibition In Memory: The Art of Afterward brings together a selection
of paintings, works on paper, and mixed-media constructions that
comprise an unprecedented inquiry into trauma and loss in modern
and contemporary art. Artists from sixteen countries draw on abstract
and narrative approaches to confront the violence of war, genocide,
and the broader social and political systems that have decimated
cultures around the world. This cross-cultural study of art in the
aftermath of trauma commemorates the terrorist attacks of September
11th and provides a more universal context for understanding these
tragic events. Opening reception, September 5, 6Ð8 pm.  Free and
open to the public.

In Memory: The Art of Afterward is sponsored by The Legacy Project, a
non-profit organization that studies artistic responses to the enduring
effects of violence. The exhibition traces the subject of traumatic
memory through a three-stage trajectory: bearing witness, retreating
memory (the fading and changing of memory over time), and
remembrance (memory extending from private grief into public
commemoration). Clifford Chanin, president of The Legacy Project,
notes that Òthe extraordinary circumstances of September 11th call for
us to investigate the aftermath of trauma in other nations, in order to
understand how our memories will process what happened in ours.Ó


Soviet repression, the Cultural Revolution in China, slavery in the
United States, and the Holocaust are some of the subjects addressed
in this exhibition. In Memory includes works by such seasoned
American modern and postmodern artists as Betye Saar, Robert
Motherwell, and Frank Stella, as well as a selection of accomplished
international artists, including Zhang Xiaogang, Naomi Tereza
Salmon, and Shigeo Ishii.

In his Big Family series, Zhang Xiaogang paints contemporary
portraits of unidentified Chinese citizens in the style of photographic
portraits from the Cultural Revolution. Flat, atonal, and absurdly
formal, these Òfamily portraitsÓ challenge the social idealism of the
Cultural Revolution and suggest an inherited legacy of psychological
trauma in contemporary China. Using vintage washboards, text, and
appropriated images, Betye Saar confronts the physical facts of
slavery and commemorates the suffering and strength of black
women. Naomi Tereza SalmonÕs documentary photographs of relics
preserved from the HolocaustÑspectacles arranged in a minimalist
grid patternÑare physical traces of memory, a testimony to the
countless anonymous victims and to the act of remembering, of
preserving these fragments of individual lives.

The exhibition is presented in conjunction with the conference
ÒBuilding Memories: The Future of September 11,Ó sponsored by Pace
University and The Legacy Project, on September 5, 9:00Ð4:00 pm at
the Michael Schimmel Center for the Arts Theater, 1 Pace Plaza, New
York City.  The Sidney Mishkin Gallery is located at Baruch College,
135 East 22nd Street, New York City. The gallery will have extended
hours: MondayÐSunday, Noon to 5 pm; Thursday, Noon to 7 pm.

For more information about The Legacy Project, visit
www.legacy-project.org or call (212)843-0372.