The Chazen Museum of Art starts the spring semester with new hours and new art. Beginning January 26, the museum adds evening hours on Thursday and Friday; the new hours are:
Tuesday–Wednesday, 12–5 p.m.
Thursday–Friday, 12–7 p.m.
Additional galleries on the third floor are now open, providing expanded access to the permanent collection. The Chazen will continue to observe pandemic procedures, including capping the number of visitors in the museum. Reserve a time to visit, or—if you’re feeling lucky—stop by and see if there’s room for an impromptu visit. For the safety of all, visitors must wear a mask and maintain safe distance from others.
In January, the museum received and installed a monumental gift from Simona and Jerome Chazen.
Jean Dubuffet (French, 1901–1985) Danse Élance, 1971, gift of Simona and Jerome Chazen, 2020.24
Danse Élance is one of a number of ground-breaking works from the series Praticables, which Dubuffet created in the fall of 1971. Klégécell, the PVC-based plastic on which these monumental works were painted, was a relatively new material intended for industrial use and was often used in the creation of boats, due to its light weight combined with strength. The Practicables were a group of flat, free-floating “cutouts” in which the artist “liberated” his compositions from their backgrounds. The color scheme of blue, red, and white alongside strong black contours appears through the entire series. The title of the series alludes to theatrical stage sets. In fact, the artist intended the works not to hang on the wall, but rather to stand free on legs with rollers or suspended from the ceiling. At some point before 1984, when the work was included in an exhibition at Marquette University, the artwork was retrofitted to hang in a more traditional manner.