The Writing’s on the WallLanguage and Silence in the Visual Arts
The Writing’s on the Wall: Language and Silence in the Visual Arts
Curated by Hilton Als
Hill Art Foundation
December 12, 2024–March 29, 2025
The Hill Art Foundation is pleased to present The Writing’s on the Wall: Language and Silence in the Visual Arts, curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, critic, and curator Hilton Als. The exhibition will be on view December 12, 2024–March 29, 2025.
This group exhibition presents artists whose work explores the relationships between communication and language. In the curatorial text, Als explains: “for this exhibition, I wanted to show what silence looked like—at least to me—and what words looked like to artists.”
“Writing and erasure have been important sources of inspiration for many of the artists in my family’s collection, including Christopher Wool, Rudolf Stingel, Vija Celmins, and Cy Twombly,” says J. Tomilson Hill, President of the Hill Art Foundation. “Hilton Als has identified a fascinating motif and introduced important loans to illustrate the rich history of these lines of inquiry into the present day.”
In his accompanying essay, Poetics of Silence, Als probes the power of visual art to skirt the written or spoken word. The works included convey “the sense we have when language isn’t working,” evoke “EKGs of rhythm followed by silence, or surrounded by it,” reveal “painting as language’s subtext,” illustrate “what we mean to say as opposed to what gets said,” and “find beauty in the tools that one uses to erase words—and then to make new ones.” He reflects on his own entry into the art world as an art history student at Columbia in the 1980s, and his efforts as a writer and curator to create a democratic “language of perception” that transcends traditional connoisseurship.
The Writing’s on the Wall encompasses a range of mediums, from video installation to printed zine. Artists in the exhibition include Ina Archer, Kevin Beasley, Jared Buckhiester, Vija Celmins, Sarah Charlesworth, Ian Hamilton Finlay, Fang: Betsi-Nzaman, Ellen Gallagher, Joel Gibb and Paul P., Rachel Harrison, Ray Johnson, G.B. Jones and Paul P., Jennie C. Jones, Christopher Knowles, Willem de Kooning, Sherrie Levine, Judy Linn, Christian Marclay, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin, Claes Oldenburg, Ronny Quevedo, Irving Penn, Umar Rashid, Medardo Rosso, David Salle, Rudolf Stingel, Cy Twombly, Andy Warhol, Steve Wolfe, Larry Wolhandler, and Christopher Wool.
Ina Archer
BBMAMS: Minstrels (Painting/Collage), 2024
Acrylic paint and collage on paper
12 × 9 inches (30.5 × 22.9 cm)
Ina Archer
BBMAMS: Minstrels (Collage), 2024
Acrylic paint and collage on paper
12 × 9 inches (30.5 × 22.9 cm)
Ina Archer
BBMAMS: Topsy Turvy, 2024
Acrylic paint and collage on paper
12 × 9 inches (30.5 × 22.9 cm)
Ina Archer
Black Black Moonlight: A Minstrel Show, 2024
3-channel video installation
17 minutes 30 seconds
dimensions variable
James Baldwin
Notes of a Native Son, 1955
Hardcover bound book
8 × 5 × ¾ inches (20.3 × 12.7 × 1.9 cm)
First Edition
Kevin Beasley
Mophead, 2017
Polyurethane resin, polyurethane foam, mop head
16 × 15 ½ × 8 inches (40.6 × 39.4 × 20.3 cm)
Jared Buckhiester
“collaged reference diary,” 2011–present
Paper, glue, tape
11 × 17 ½ inches (27.9 × 44.5 cm)
Vija Celmins
Blackboard Tableau #8 (Edward), 2012
Acrylic, alkyd and pastel on found and made tablets and wood shelf
Each: 10 ½ × 7 ⅝ inches (26.7 × 19.4 cm)
Overall: 11 ¼ × 23 × 2 inches (28.6 × 58.4 × 5 cm)
Vija Celmins
Pink Pearl Eraser, 1966–67
Acrylic on balsa wood
6 ¾ × 19 ½ × 3 ¼ inches (17.1 × 49.5 × 8.3 cm)
Sarah Charlesworth
Book, 2002
Fujiflex Crystal Archive print with lacquered wood frame
22 ⅝ × 28 ⅛ × ¾ inches (57.5 × 71.4 × 1.9 cm)
Edition 2 of 8, 2AP
Willem de Kooning
Reclining Woman, 1951
Pencil and ink on paper
8 ¾ × 11 ¾ inches (22.2 × 29.8 cm)
Joan Didion, 2022
Ink on paper
8 ½ × 5 ½ inches (21.6 × 14 cm)
Ebony Magazine, October 1963
Stapled paper
13 ¼ × 10 ¼ inches (33.7 × 26 cm)
Fang: Betsi-Nzaman; Gabon
Male Reliquary Guardian Figure (Eyema Byeri), 19th Century
Wood, metal, pigment
20.5 × 4 ½ × 4 ½ inches (52.1 × 11.4 × 11.4 cm)
Ian Hamilton Finlay
Poster/Poem (Le Circus), 1964
Silkscreen
17 ⅜ × 22 ⅜ inches (44.2 × 56.8 cm)
Edition of 250
Ellen Gallagher
DeLuxe, 2004–2005
Grid of 60 photogravure, etching, aquatint and drypoints with lithography, screenprint, embossing, tattoo-machine engraving; some with additions of plasticine, watercolor, pomade and toy eyeballs
Each: 15 ⅓ × 12 ⅘ inches (38.9 × 32.5 cm)
Overall: 84 ⅗ × 178 ⅕ inches (214.9 × 452.7 cm)
Edition 10 of 20
Rachel Harrison
Hermes 3000, 2021
Wood, polystyrene, cardboard, chicken wire, cement, acrylic, Paillard-Bolex Hermes 3000 typewriter
81 ¾ × 48 ½ × 34 inches (207.6 × 123.2 × 86.4 cm)
Ray Johnson
Ice, circa 1972
Collage on cardboard panel
20 ¼ × 17 inches (51.4 × 43.2 cm)
G.B. Jones and Paul P.
Untitled, 2017.
Collage
9 × 6 inches (23 × 15.5 cm)
G.B. Jones and Paul P.
Untitled, 2017.
Collage
9 × 6 inches (23 × 15.5 cm)
Jennie C. Jones
Fluid Red Tone (in the break), 2022
Architectural felt, acoustic panel, and acrylic on canvas
48 × 36 ½ × 2 ¾ inches (121.9 × 92.7 × 6.9 cm)
Christopher Knowles
Untitled (Chilly Billy), n.d.
Typing on paper
11 × 8 ½ inches (27.9 × 21.6 cm)
Christopher Knowles
Untitled (Dance), n.d.
Typing on paper
10 × 8 ½ inches (25.4 × 21.6 cm)
Sherrie Levine
Flaubert: un cœur simple, 1991
Artist’s book (offset printed; sewn bound)
8 ¼ × 6 inches (21 × 15 cm)
Edition 34 of 50
Judy Linn
James Joyce on 23rd st., early 1970s Archival pigment print
26 ½ × 35 ½ inches (67.3 × 88.9 cm)
Judy Linn
Leaves of Grass.
title page
public library, 2016
Archival pigment print
Overall: 13 × 16 ½ inches (33 × 41.9 cm)
Edition 1 of 3
Christian Marclay
Light Blue Door (The Electric Chair), 2006
Silkscreen ink on paper
100 ½ × 51 ½ × 2 ½ inches (255.3 × 130.8 × 6.4 cm)
Christian Marclay and Steve Wolfe
La Voix Humaine, 1991
Wood console, oil and screenprint on aluminum
46 ¼ × 31 ⅝ × 17 ⅛ inches (117.5 × 80.3 × 43.5 cm)
Brice Marden
Letter Drawing I, 2011
Kremer ink, Kremer white shellac, and graphite on Rives BFK paper
11 × 14 ⅞ inches (28 × 38 cm)
Agnes Martin
Untitled, 1979
11 × 11 inches (27.9 × 27.9 cm)
Watercolor and ink on paper
Agnes Martin
Untitled #20, 1988
Acrylic and pencil on canvas
72 × 72 inches (182.9 × 182.9 cm)
Claes Oldenburg
Notebook Page: Study for a Colossal Structure in the form of a Typewriter Eraser “Medusa,” 1970
Ballpoint pen, crayon, pencil
11 × 8 ½ inches (27.9 × 21.6 cm)
Paul P. and Joel Gibb
Gay Goth Scene, Issue #1, 2001
Saddle stitched, illustrated wrappers, photocopy
8 ½ × 5 ½ inches (21.5 × 14 cm)
Paul P. and Joel Gibb
Gay Goth Scene, Issue #2, 2002
Saddle stitched, illustrated wrappers, photocopy
8 ½ × 5 ½ inches (21.5 × 14 cm)
Paul P. and Joel Gibb
Gay Goth Scene, Issue #3, 2014
Saddle stitched, illustrated wrappers, photocopy
8 ½ × 5 ½ inches (21.5 × 14 cm)
Paul P. and Joel Gibb
Gay Goth Scene, Issue #4, 2016
Saddle stitched, illustrated wrappers, photocopy
8 ½ × 5 ½ inches (21.5 × 14 cm)
Irving Penn
Oliver Smith with Jane and Paul Bowles, New York, 1947
Gelatin-silver print
9 ⅝ × 7 ⅝ inches (24.4 × 17.8 cm)
Edition of 28
Ronny Quevedo
body and soul (Reflection Eternal), 2022
Pattern paper, gold leaf, and metal leaf on muslin
48 × 36 × 1 ⅞ inches (121.9 × 91.4 × 4.8 cm)
Ronny Quevedo
puntero, 2018
Wax on paper
9 ¾ × 13 ¼ inches (24.8 × 33.7 cm)
Umar Rashid
Nexus of a cosmic crisis at the astrophysical location of the Swerve and Surf (plates 1–12), 2024
Acrylic, ink, and colored pencil on paper, mounted to panel with pumice gel
44 ⅜ × 42 ½ × 1 ½ inches (112.7 × 108 × 3.8 cm)
Medardo Rosso
Rieuse, 1890
Wax on plaster
12 ¾ × 9 ¾ × 11 ¾ inches (32.4 × 24.8 × 29.8 cm)
David Salle
Untitled, 2008
Oil on lithograph on paper
22 ¼ × 30 inches (56.5 × 76.2 cm)
David Salle
Untitled, 2008
Oil on lithograph on paper
30 × 22 ½ inches (76.2 × 57.2 cm)
Rudolf Stingel
Untitled, 2016
Electroformed copper, plated nickel, stainless steel frame
47 ¼ × 46 ⅜ × 1 ½ inches (120 × 117.8 × 3.8 cm)
Cy Twombly
Untitled, 1959
Oil paint, wax crayon, and lead pencil
on canvas
38 ⅜ × 55 ¾ inches (97.5 × 141.6 cm)
Cy Twombly
Untitled, 1970
Oil and oil stick on canvas
61 ⅛ × 74 ¾ × 2 inches (155.3 × 189.9 × 5.1 cm)
Andy Warhol
Close Cover Before Striking, 1962
Acrylic and collage on linen
16 × 20 inches (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Steve Wolfe
Untitled (Bookends), 1990
Bronze, lacquer
7 ⅛ × 4 ¼ × 6 ¼ inches (18.1 × 10.8 × 15.9 cm)
Edition 1 of 3
Larry Wolhandler
Bust of James Baldwin, 1975
Bronze
12 ⅝ x 6 ½ x 9 ¾ inches (32.1 x 16.5 x 24.8 cm)
Christopher Wool
Untitled, 1990
Enamel on paper
32 ½ × 22 inches (82.6 × 55.9 cm)
Christopher Wool
Untitled, 1992
Enamel and graphite on paper
33 ⅛ × 22 ⅜ inches (84 × 57 cm)
Christopher Wool
Untitled, 2016
Softground etching on Strathmore Bristol 3ply plate finish paper
26 ½ × 22 inches (67.3 × 55.9 cm)