Hammer Museum’s ‘Take It or Leave It’ Explores Institutional Critique and Appropriation

The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles presents 'Take It or Leave It: Institution, Image, Ideology,' running from February 9 to May 18, 2014. Curated by Anne Ellegood and Johanna Burton, the exhibition examines two major artistic currents from the early 1970s to the late 1980s: institutional critique and appropriation. It opens with Barbara Kruger's text-based work in the lobby. The show addresses the paradox of critiquing institutions from within, highlighted by Andrea Fraser's 1989 video 'Museum Highlights: a Gallery Talk.' Key works include Adrian Piper's 'This is Not the Documentation of a Performance' (1976), Robert Gober, Jenny Holzer, Allan McCollum, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, and Nayland Blake's 'Gorge' (1998). The exhibition broadens the concept of institution, referencing Fraser's 2005 essay 'From the Critique of Institutions to an Institution of Critique.' It focuses on American artists, omitting figures like Daniel Buren, and touches on the 1990s culture wars. Director Anne Philbin notes the artists reveal and alter the parameters of their work and life, expanding preconceptions of art.