The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

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The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

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https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/13/arts ... wP1GWCmCC8
New York Times

Leonard Cohen Exhibition to Come to New York

By Sara Aridi

Nov. 13, 2018

An exhibition on the life and work of Leonard Cohen will be coming to New York next year.

“Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything,” first presented by the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, will make its first stop on a worldwide tour at the Jewish Museum in April. It will be on view there until September before traveling to Copenhagen and San Francisco.

Organized by the curators John Zeppetelli and Victor Shiffman, the multimedia exhibition features commissioned works by international artists and pays tribute to Cohen’s music, poetry and lyrics.

As the exhibition was coming together, Cohen died at 82 in November 2016. “What began as an incredible, dizzying celebration full of admiration for this great Montrealer and planetary star then necessarily also morphed into a much more solemn and commemorative experience,” Zeppetelli said.

“We’re so happy to be able to premiere the show outside of Canada, and to do it in New York is just so gratifying,” he added.

The New York show will be slightly smaller than the Montreal presentation. It will take up two full floors at the Jewish Museum, and an installation will be set up in a video viewing room on a separate floor.

Among the show’s highlights are two video installations: “The Offerings,” a piece by Kara Blake that loops clips of Cohen ruminating on the themes of his work in interviews, and “Passing Through,” an immersive, 360-degree video work that draws from 50 years of onstage moments throughout Cohen’s career.

The exhibition will also feature Cohen’s own drawings and a multimedia gallery where visitors can listen to covers of Cohen’s songs by musicians like Feist, Moby and Lou Doillon.

When Claudia Gould, the director of the Jewish Museum, visited “A Crack in Everything” in Montreal, she knew it had to come to New York. After all, that’s where the young Cohen mingled with Lou Reed, Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol when he first pursued a songwriting career in the 1960s.

“The show is extremely moving,” Gould said. “I walked in really excited and happy, and I walked out excited and happy — with tears in my eyes.”

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Re: The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

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https://macm.org/en/press-release/the-m ... york-city/

PRESS RELEASE

THE MUSÉE D’ART CONTEMPORAIN DE MONTRÉAL ANNOUNCES THE INTERNATIONAL TOUR OF THE LEONARD COHEN EXHIBITION: A CRACK IN EVERYTHING

With its First Stop in New York City

Montreal, November 13, 2018—It’s official: the tour of the exhibition Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, organized by the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC), will begin in the United States, at the Jewish Museum in New York City, starting April 12 and running through September 8, 2019. The tour will then continue on to Copenhagen, at the Kunstforeningen GL STRAND and Nikolaj Kunsthal in October 2019; followed by San Francisco in September 2020, at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. Plans are underway to extend this first phase of the tour and add other destinations. With this tour, the MAC joins forces with renowned museums in cultural capitals around the world, and strengthens its presence on the international art scene as many of its exhibitions are currently touring. The Museum also achieves its objectives of presenting and promoting Québec, Canadian and international artists, as well as promoting Montréal, Leonard Cohen’s hometown.

Developed as part of Montréal’s 375th Anniversary, Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything was inaugurated on November, 9, 2017, at the MAC, one year after the death of Leonard Cohen. A record number of 315,000 visitors attended the exhibit, making it one of the most viewed in the Museum’s history.

“I find it extremely moving to tour this exhibition, which was one of MAC’s greatest successes and also one of the most beautiful exhibitions I had the pleasure to organize in my life,” said John Zeppetelli, Director and Chief Curator at the MAC. “The great interest it piques on the international scene confirms the colossal impact of the work of Leonard Cohen, whose legacy remains alive and current despite his passing. I am extremely pleased that Cohen fans around the world will have the opportunity to discover this exhibition that has reached such a wide audience in Montreal, from all backgrounds and ages. It’s also exciting to know that the exhibition will travel around the world at a time when the MAC’s local offerings will be reduced due to the Museum’s renovations,” he added.

The MAC was honoured to have received Leonard Cohen’s personal approval and endorsement for the project. “When we came up with the idea for this exhibition, we went to seek the agreement of Leonard Cohen, who accepted because of the angle we were proposing. It was important for him that this exhibit would not be of a biographical nature. From the start, the project was conceived as a contemporary artistic exploration of a life’s work, and in that sense, he was thrilled to be able to inspire other artists through his art. Given his recent death, our exhibition has taken on a new meaning. It has also become a tribute to a local icon and a global star,” explained John Zeppetelli.

The tour schedule

The Jewish Museum
New York City, United States
April 12, 2019 – September 8, 2019

Kunstforeningen GL STRAND and Nikolaj Kunsthal
Copenhagen, Danemark
October 23, 2019 – February 16, 2020

Contemporary Jewish Museum
San Francisco, United States
September 17, 2020 – January 3, 2021

Quotes
“I greatly admire Leonard Cohen’s use of language and acute observations on the human condition. By presenting Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything to New York audiences, we look forward to offering our visitors this opportunity to experience contemporary works of art that powerfully evoke the essence of Leonard Cohen’s moving and thought-provoking songs and poems.”

– Claudia Gould, Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director of the Jewish Museum, New York

“We are proud to present Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything at Kunstforeningen GL STRAND and Nikolaj Kunsthal in the fall of 2019. The exhibition offers a unique way of showing the legacy, life and work of one of the greatest writers and singers of our time. We are happy to give the Copenhagen audience the opportunity to experience this highly innovative art exhibition.”

– Helle Behrndt, Director of Kunstforeningen GL STRAND, Copenhagen

“The Contemporary Jewish Museum looks forward to presenting this luminous exhibition in 2020. As the west coast exclusive, we are thrilled to share the late Leonard Cohen’s life and the artistic responses it inspired with our diverse audiences. Cohen’s many creative contributions transcend time and place, and we cannot think of a more fitting space to exhibit his life and work than in a museum whose very architecture proclaims ‘life.”

– Lori Starr, Executive Director, Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco

About the exhibition
A truly multidisciplinary exhibition combining visual art, virtual reality, installations, music and writing, Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything offers the public a collection of new works created by a remarkable group of local and international artists who have been inspired by Leonard Cohen’s life, work and legacy. The audience is invited to experience an in-depth, immersive, participatory and visually captivating journey, through an exhibition devoted to the critical celebration, loving tribute and quiet commemoration of a vast artistic achievement and inspiring life.

The exhibition, which ran five months, was accompanied by a series of five concerts. A major catalogue—the 400th published by the MAC since the creation of the Museum in 1964—details this unique exhibition by tracing the two years of preparation preceding its opening. It includes texts by curators John Zeppetelli and Victor Shiffman, artists, Leonard Cohen’s biographer Sylvie Simons and author Chantal Ringuet.

Works on Tour
The MAC leverages the expertise of its curators and technical teams who work with museums to tailor the exhibit and create a unique presentation for each destination. The selection of works may vary from one museum to another, depending on the specific needs and availability of space. The following artists are confirmed for the tour:

Kara Blake, Candice Breitz, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Christophe Chassol, Daily tous les jours, Tacita Dean, Kota Ezawa, George Fok, Ari Folman, Jon Rafman, Zach Richter, The Sanchez Brothers and Taryn Simon.

Leonard Cohen’s self-portraits are also presented as part of the exhibition, as well as the audio installation Listening to Leonard, where visitors can listen to cover versions of Cohen’s songs performed by guest artists, including Feist, Lou Doillon, Moby, and The National with Sufjan Stevens, Richard Reed Parry and Ragnar Kjartansson.

Acknowlegements
The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal wishes to first thank Leonard Cohen, who gave his generous consent to the exhibition concept while alive. The MAC also wishes to thank the family and friends of Cohen, in particular Robert Kory, Adam Cohen and Lorca Cohen, who provided important support for the organization of this exhibition.

The MAC is pleased to be associated with local institutional partners who have generously contributed to the production of this exhibition. The MAC extends its warm thanks to CBC/Radio-Canada, the exhibition presenter and creator of exclusive content for the exhibition. CBC/Radio-Canada also made its archives available at no charge to the artists creating work for this project.

The MAC also wishes to thank its exhibition partners: DeSerres, Aéroports de Montréal (ADM) and the Société de transport de Montréal (STM).

Co-curatorial partners provided support in the realization of this exhibition. The MAC wishes to thank the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), which also made their full archives available free-of charge to the artists. The MAC and NFB are co-curators and coproducers of a work of art with the Daily tous les jours collective.

The MAC thanks Sony Music and Sony ATV for granting permission to use the songs and archival video material of Leonard Cohen to the artists and for the purpose of the exhibition.

The MAC greatly appreciates the contribution of partners who directly supported the creation of artworks by the artists: Goethe-Institut (Candice Breitz), Spotify (Daily tous les jours), Audio Z (George Fok), Consulate General of Israel in Montreal and the Swiss Institute (Ari Folman), as well as Lytro (Zach Richter).

The exhibition’s presentation in New York is supported by the Québec Government Office in New York and has additional funding from the ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec, for which the MAC is grateful.

The MAC is a provincially owned corporation funded by the ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec. It receives additional funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts. The MAC acknowledges the support of the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, a partner for educational activities, and of the National Bank of Canada, a partner of the Museum’s and the Foundation’s events.

Finally, the Musée sincerely thanks the following for their generous support: The Azrieli Foundation, the Stephen and Lillian Vineberg Family Foundation, Nick Tedeschi and Sal Guerrera, and Claudine and Stephen Bronfman Family Foundation.

Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Located in the heart of the Quartier des Spectacles, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal makes today’s art a vital part of Montréal and Québec life. For more than fifty years, this vibrant museum has brought together local and international artists, their works and an ever-growing public. It is also a place of discovery, offering visitors experiences that are continually changing and new, and often unexpected and stirring. The MAC presents temporary exhibitions devoted to outstanding and relevant current artists who provide their own particular insight into our society, as well as exhibitions of works drawn from the museum’s extensive Permanent Collection. These may feature any and every form of expression: digital and sound works, installations, paintings, sculptures, ephemeral pieces, and more. In addition to its wide range of educational activities familiarizing the general public with contemporary art, the MAC organizes unique artistic performances and festive events. It is a window onto a myriad of avant-garde expressions that extend the reach of art throughout the city and beyond.

Source and Information
Roxane Dumas-Noël
Head of Public Relations
T. 514 944-4472 / roxane.dumas-noel@macm.org

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Re: The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

Post by danslenoir »

The MAC website states that:

"Plans are underway to extend this first phase of the tour and add other destinations"

Fingers crossed it makes its way to London as would like another chance to see it.
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Re: The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

Post by jarkko »

I have got some more info about the Copenhagen exhibition:
The exhibition is similar to the Jewish Museum [in New York] except that we will include one more installation of Zach Richter and there will also be two songs from Danish artist Steen Jørgensen and Katinka in ‘Listening to Leonard’.

The exhibition spaces are quite close to each other. 5 min walking 

MVH / REGARDS

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KUNSTFORENINGEN GL STRAND
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Re: The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

Post by oblivion »

Thank you Jarkko, cannot wait to see the exhibition again,
ute
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Re: The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

Post by Mabeanie1 »

I’ve never been in GL STRAND but Nikolaj Kunsthal is a lovely space. It’s an old church close by with exhibits going all the way up the tower. Both venues are very central.

I am in Copenhagen most years late November or early December and I am looking forward to seeing the exhibition again later this year.

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Re: The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

Post by Heather1969 »

I have Google translated this from the latest newsletter from Kunstforeningen GL STRAND.

I have already booked my flights and will miss all of the talks but still look forward to revisiting this fantastic exhibition.

It is now under a month before the long-awaited exhibition Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything opens in Copenhagen. The exhibition is displayed both in the GL STRAND Art Association and in Nikolaj Kunsthal, and we are very much looking forward to inviting you inside for a large and ambitious exhibition dedicated to the Canadian world star.

Originally developed by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal in Canada, the exhibition brings together new works by international contemporary artists, filmmakers and musicians who have all been inspired, influenced or otherwise moved by Leonard Cohen's life and works.

Look forward to experiencing Cohen in the interpretation of artists such as Candice Breitz, Taryn Simon, Ari Folman, George Fok and Jon Rafman and listen to reinterpretations of Cohen's songs in the installation Listening to Leonard - recorded by musicians such as The National with Surfjan Stevens, Feist, Moby as well as the two Danish musicians Katinka Bjerregaard and Steen Jørgensen.

Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything opens on October 24th. Read more about the exhibition here.
The ticket gives access to both GL STRAND and Nikolaj Kunsthal.

Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything is organized by the Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal and curated by John Zeppetelli, director and chief curator at MAC, as well as guest curator Victor Shiffman. The exhibition is presented in Copenhagen by the art association GL STRAND in collaboration with Nikolaj Kunsthal.
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When the new metro line Cityringen opens on Sunday, Gammel Strand resurfaces as a promenade without car traffic along the Slotsholm canal. Although we are currently closed during the preparation of the next exhibition, we would like to celebrate the re-establishment of our neighborhood by inviting you to an open café and free concert with the Jazz collective.

On the occasion of GL STRAND's upcoming exhibition Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, the Jazz collective gives a special musical tribute to Leonard Cohen's career. The setlist is a mix of Cohen's classical compositions and jazz standards, which vocalist Marie Mørck and guitarist Asger Søgaard Hajslund love very much. Experience a young jazz duo playing delicious vocal jazz and giving Leonard Cohen's classic hits a touch of jazz.

Our café and shop is open at. 2:00 p.m. to 17:00.
The Jazz Collective gives a concert at. From 15.00 to 16.30.

The event is free.


Friday, October 11 is the sign of Culture Night. We cross our fingers for mild autumn temperatures as we welcome in our beautiful patio from 6 p.m. 18.00 to 00.00.

Here you can try yoga for the whole family and come to a concert with Selma Judith, who with dreamy harp playing leads us into a world full of beauty and nostalgia. We end the evening with a live act with the musical ambience community, God Goes Deep, who takes us on a meditative journey to evocative soundscapes. The evening's program is inspired by our upcoming exhibition about and with Leonard Cohen.

You are free to access the Culture Night in GL STRAND with a Culture Pass. It costs DKK 95 and can be purchased in all 7-Eleven stores in the Greater Copenhagen area. Read more about ticket purchases here.
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In connection with the exhibition Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything, we launch a large event program, which offers, among other things, artist talks, lectures, concerts, yoga, community singing and a number of Cohen Sessions led by Klaus Lynggaard. Here you can read about some of them:

We start our Cohen program with two artist talks. On October 22, you can hear artist Candice Breitz talk about her work I'm Your Man in Nikolaj Kunsthal, and on October 24, artists Kara Blake and Ari Folman talk about their contribution to the Cohen exhibition in GL STRAND. Both talks will be attended by chief curator and director, John Zeppetelli of the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal.

In six Cohen Sessions, music journalist and writer at Weekendavisen, Klaus Lynggaard, together with specially selected guests, examines the many different facets of Leonard Cohen. In the first session on November 13, Lynggaard, together with music journalist Henrik Queitsch Cohen, reviews seven first LPs - from the debut Songs of Leonard Cohen (1967) to Various Positions (1984). In the second session, which takes place on November 20, Lynggaard delves into the world's seven star releases with Cohen expert Lars Knudsen.

The event program is constantly updated.

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Re: The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

Post by B4real »

It seems like it's almost San Francisco's turn :) Yeah, your city, friscogrl (Marsha) ;-)
Experience Leonard Cohen
Aug 5, 2021–Feb 13, 2022
The museum officially reopened, with reduced visiting hours, on April 15. It is now open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays. An exhibit on Levi Strauss is currently on view through Aug. 8, and two parts of a four-part exhibit on musician Leonard Cohen, called “Experiencing Leonard Cohen,” will open Aug. 5.
https://www.thecjm.org/exhibitions/116
GEORGE FOK: PASSING THROUGH
AUGUST 5, 2021–JANUARY 2, 2022
Swig and Dinner Family Gallery
George Fok’s Passing Through is an immersive audiovisual work that celebrates Leonard Cohen’s singular voice, influential music, charismatic persona, and inimitable stage presence through a collage of collective memories, concert footage, and emotions that have enchanted generations of fans around the world.

JUDY CHICAGO: COHANIM
AUGUST 5, 2021–JANUARY 2, 2022
Sala Webb Education Center Vitrine
Judy Chicago: Cohanim is a series of works by inimitable artist Judy Chicago, featuring twelve paintings on porcelain created as a personal tribute to Leonard Cohen's lyrics and what they have meant to the artist throughout her life.

CANDICE BREITZ: I'M YOUR MAN
SEPTEMBER 18, 2021–FEBRUARY 13, 2022
Koshland Gallery
I’m Your Man (A Portrait of Leonard Cohen) is a nineteen-channel video installation by Candice Breitz. The work brings together a community of ardent Leonard Cohen fans—each of whom has cherished Cohen’s music for over half a century—to pay posthumous tribute to Cohen in a poignant re-performance of the late legend's comeback album, I'm Your Man (1988).

MARSHALL TRAMMELL IN RESIDENCE
SEPTEMBER 18, 2021–FEBRUARY 13, 2022
Maribelle and Stephen Leavitt Yud Gallery
Marshall Trammell in Residence offers reflections on Leonard Cohen’s life, spirituality, and musical practice in real time. In a dynamic performance residency, Oakland-based artist Marshall Trammell will periodically inhabit The CJM’s Maribelle and Stephen Leavitt Yud gallery to explore diverse facets of Cohen's legacy through improvisation, performance, and collaborative re-contextualization.

ADULTS -TALKS
Sunday Stories: Hallelujah
Sunday, August 15, 2021 | 10–10:30am

MEMBERS - CELEBRATIONS
Member Preview Day for Experience Leonard Cohen
Friday, September 17, 2021 | 11am–5pm

ADULTS - CELEBRATIONS
Community Celebration: Experience Leonard Cohen
Sunday, September 19, 2021 | 11am–2pm
ADDRESS
Contemporary Jewish Museum
736 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

CONTACT US
415.655.7800
info@thecjm.org
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Re: The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

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Some more info about "Experience Leonard Cohen" in San Francisco - https://www.jweekly.com/2021/07/23/cont ... m-exhibit/

Contemporary artists riff on Leonard Cohen’s music in new CJM exhibit
BY ANDREW GILBERT | JULY 23, 2021
Tracking Leonard Cohen’s peripatetic trail around the world while researching her magisterial Cohen biography “I’m Your Man” inevitably led Sylvie Simmons to Montreal, where she sat down with the elderly rabbi emeritus of the historic synagogue that Cohen’s grandfather helped build.

“The rabbi was about 90 years old and had these great white eyebrows. It was like a scene out of that Coen brothers film,” she said, referring to 2009’s “A Serious Man,” in which a wizened rabbi may or may not be a source of profound wisdom.

Rabbi Wilfred Shuchat, who as a young man in 1947 taught Cohen’s bar mitzvah class at Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, recalled for Simmons the teenager destined to write some of the 20th century’s most acclaimed songs.

“I asked him, ‘Did Leonard Cohen sing?’ He peered at me. ‘Leonard, sing? Not so much. He spoke well.’”

Simmons, an S.F.-based music writer whose Cohen biography was published in 2012, will be weighing in on his life and career over the course of the Contemporary Jewish Museum’s immersive undertaking “Experience Leonard Cohen,” which will open Aug. 5 with the solo installations ”George Fok: Passing Through” and ”Judy Chicago: Cohanim.” Two other Cohen-esque solo exhibits will open Sept. 18.

Unlike other CJM exhibitions on illustrious Jewish artists and impresarios — including Bill Graham, Amy Winehouse, Warren Hellman and Stanley Kubrick — “Experience Leonard Cohen” doesn’t aim to tell a biographical tale.

The new exhibition “explores Cohen through the response of contemporary art,” said CJM senior curator Heidi Rabben. “The biography you can get in a lot of different ways, and we’ll definitely have Sylvie Simmons in the mix. But ‘Experience Leonard Cohen’ speaks to his artistic influence and enduring legacy reflected via other artists today. He inspired such a wide flock of creative people.”

Cohen, who died in Los Angeles in 2016 at the age of 82, spent a large portion of his 60s secluded at the spartan Mt. Baldy Zen Center in Southern California’s San Gabriel Mountains. Still, his persona grew increasingly magnetic as he aged — the jaunty fedora added 50 more watts to his old-school charm. But he kept the focus on his music. He wrote a bevy of beloved, oft-covered songs, including “Suzanne,” “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye,” “Bird on the Wire,” “Hallelujah” and “Everybody Knows,” and even with his droning croak of a voice he was often among the most effective vehicles for his tunes.

“Experience Leonard Cohen” gives a good sense of Cohen’s reach. The Fok and Chicago installations will be on view through Jan. 2, 2022; “Candice Breitz: I’m Your Man” and ”Marshall Trammell in Residence” will open on Sept. 18 and run through Feb. 13, 2022. (An opening celebration for all four components will take place on Sept. 19.) It’s an unprecedented undertaking for the CJM, the first time that every major space in the institution (come September) will be dedicated to one project.

Rabben started with an ambitious plan for the installations, which were drawn from the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) touring exhibition “Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything” and were originally slated to open in the fall of 2020. The pandemic not only delayed the exhibition’s arrival, but also forced the CJM to reimagine the undertaking.

He inspired such a wide flock of creative people.

The CJM expanded the MAC-commissioned Breitz and Fok installations, but other components of “A Crack in Everything” weren’t Covid-compatible. Virtual reality headsets? Forget it. A personal listening booth for one person at a time? Gone. Shared headphones and microphones? No thank you.

“There were so many interactive elements [that use] a lot of technology that wasn’t going to be inviting after what we’ve all been through,” Rabben said. “In normal times we’d have been so thrilled, but it was very clear they weren’t ideal in this time frame.”

Working with the same conceptual framework, the CJM scaled up two of the works that originated at MAC, turning Fok’s ”Passing Through” into the centerpiece installation. Presented in the Swig and Dinner Families Gallery, it’s an immersive video work that draws on a vast archive of audiovisual material spanning Cohen’s five-decade career.

Manifesting his singular voice, charismatic persona and evolving stage presence, “Passing Through” evokes various stages in Cohen’s life, from his early years as a celebrated poet in bohemian 1960s Montreal to his gradual emergence as an iconic performer. The hourlong video collage offers a seamless reflection on Cohen’s life on stage.

If Fok focuses on Cohen as public artist who embodied impulses both Dionysian and ascetic, pioneering feminist artist Judy Chicago offers a deeply personal response to the music. She isn’t the first artist one might expect to find inspiration in Cohen, who reveled in and often burnished his reputation as a ladies’ man. But the world premiere of “Judy Chicago: Cohanim” will feature a series of 12 intimate paintings on porcelain, each portraying Cohen lyrics to which she felt a particular connection.

The title references the birth name she once shared with Cohen (which she shed after becoming Gerowitz by marriage and then changed to Chicago), while the format of “Cohanim” echoes her epochal installation “The Dinner Party” (1974-79).

In writing about the work, Chicago said that “Cohen’s lyrics often seemed to perfectly express my feelings at various points in my life,” while suggesting that her affinity for his verse might stem from their “shared lineage.” She wrote, “He is the grandson of a Talmudic scholar and I am descended from 23 generations of rabbis.”

Landing “Cohanim,” which she created in the months following Cohen’s death and has been exhibited only online so far, is something of a coup for the CJM. The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco will be presenting “Judy Chicago: A Retrospective” starting Aug. 28 at the de Young, and in talking with Jessica Silverman, her S.F.-based gallerist, Rabben stumbled across a set of works based on Leonard Cohen.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Rabben said. “We just reached out and asked if they were available. It’s a really lovely addition to the exhibition. Judy created it as an impulse, a reaction to his passing. It wasn’t for a show. She felt the need to commemorate him, and created this really personal group of works that offers a uniquely intimate connection.”

Another longtime Cohen fan is featured in the CJM’s panoply. “Candice Breitz: I’m Your Man” weaves together a 19-channel video installation that captures men who have treasured his music for more than a half-century. Delivering track-by-track renditions of songs from Cohen’s 1988 album “I’m Your Man,” the sexagenarian and septuagenarian men turn into an impromptu video chorus (a feat that makes me long ardently for the great, 30-member Bay Area a cappella ensemble dedicated to Cohen’s music, “Conspiracy of Beards”).

The final component in “Experience Leonard Cohen” is also the most unpredictable. Oakland percussionist, experimental archivist, conductor and composer Marshall Trammell is an artist who thrives in frictive encounters with fellow creators. His intermittent residency in the CJM’s Maribelle and Stephen Leavitt Yud Gallery will encompass improvisation, performance and collaborative recontextualization of Cohen’s legacy via collaborations with an array of artists.

The encounters in Trammell’s progressive, participatory residency are intended to provide abstract reflections inspired by Cohen’s life, spirituality and musical practice in real time.

“I’m such a huge fan of Marshall’s as a thinker and talent,” Rabben said. “The way that he thinks about music is as a research strategist. I knew I wanted to add a local artist to the show, someone who can abstract this question about Cohen’s work and legacy. Marshall’s is by far the one component that’s still in process.”

Cohen was an artist who wasn’t afraid to fail. Creating a space where unexpected musical encounters can unfold in the moment sounds like just the kind of tribute that he would appreciate.

“Experience Leonard Cohen”
Aug. 5 through Feb. 13, 2022 at Contemporary Jewish Museum, 736 Mission St., S.F. Face coverings required. Purchase timed tickets in advance. $14-$16, free for members and 18 and under. Closed Mondays through Wednesdays. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. other days. thecjm.org/exhibitions/116
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Re: The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

Post by vlcoats »

We had tickets to go to San Francisco for this when it was first slated for the CJM in November 2020. Unfortunately, it was delayed due to the virus, and life has intervened since, making it doubtful that we will get to go. I know this sounds like sour grapes, but after reading about the CJM exhibits, I feel we saw the best of it at the MAC in Montreal and only wish we had been able to spend more time there. What an amazing weekend that was.
Vickie
its4inthemorning
Posts: 553
Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2010 7:59 pm
Location: Allentown, Pennsylvania

Re: The MAC Exhibition for LC to go to New York, Copenhagen, San Francisco

Post by its4inthemorning »

vlcoats wrote: Fri Aug 20, 2021 5:31 pm What an amazing weekend that was.
Gideon Zelermyer's talk...Leonard's boyhood house (with the tennis courts in the park behind)...Parc du Portugal...dinner at Moishes...and of course the concert. The MAC exhibit was the icing on the cake.
2010 DECEMBER 10 - CAESARS COLOSSEUM, LAS VEGAS / 2012 SEPTEMBER 28 - L'OLYMPIA, PARIS
2012 OCTOBER 3 - PALAU SANT JORDI, BARCELONA / 2012 DECEMBER 13 - K-ROCK CENTRE, KINGSTON
2013 APRIL 6 - RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL, NEW YORK CITY / 2013 JULY 9 - PIAZZA NAPOLEONE, LUCCA
2017 NOVEMBER 4-8 - MONTREAL "TOWER OF SONG" CELEBRATION - RIP, YOU GOT ME SINGING!
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