Philippe Cohen Collection: 20 Years of Acquisitions at Passage de Retz

The Philippe Cohen collection, previously shown at the Petach Tikva Museum in Israel, is now on view at Passage de Retz in Paris from October 21 to December 1, 2013. Curated by Ami Barak, the exhibition is structured around the titles of artworks, which serve as section headings. For instance, Louise Lawler's photograph Why Pictures Now? (1981) introduces a section on image appropriation. The selection emphasizes conceptual and language-based works that challenge representation, exploring themes of image and its disappearance, immateriality, and reappropriation. Key pieces include Bernhard Rüdiger's Manhattan Walk (after Piet Mondrian) (NY2 I Mean) (2002), Mario Garcia Torres's An Undisclosed Month in 1953 (2007), and Melissa Dubbin and Aaron S. Davidson's The New Noise (2010). The exhibition also highlights artistic friendships and loyalties, notably a corpus of works by Philippe Parreno and Mircea Cantor's I Am Still Alive (2004), which follows the adventures of Ann Lee. The catalog reflects the typological approach of the curation. The show presents twenty years of passionate collecting, though one might imagine a sparser hanging to better convey the radicality of the choices.