Jim Hodges (b. 1957) is an American contemporary artist based in New York, NY. I loved his work at Barbara Gladstone (both locations) a few months ago, as well as at SFMOMA and Marc Foxx Galleryin LA in the past. His materials (including mirrors and lightbulbs), and themes (happiness) overlap with those in my work. I am finally getting around to doing more research about him.
The more I learn, the more it seems that I’ve been following in Hodge’s footsteps.
What I admire most about Hodges’ work is this: simple gestures generating expansive imports. In other words, 1 + 1 = 3. When two recognizable things or ideas combine for an unexpected outcome, it’s startling.
Hodge’s work can be luminous or colorful, and suggestive of pleasure or happiness, but it is also characterized by themes of death and fragility. The feeling of loss made sense when I learned that Hodges was a contemporary and friend of Felix Gonzales-Torres. I was also reminded of how Tom Friedman experiments with common materials too.
Below are some photos found online, and some scanned in from an exhibition catalog. I think the dates of the works are quite telling about the artist’s development.
Past Installations
I suspect that Hodge’s fake flower projects started with simple material investigations: taking apart ready-made flowers, arranging and re-arranging them, which culminates in monumentally-scaled curtains that drape on the floor.
Jim Hodges, Untitled (Threshold), 1993–4, silk, plastic, thread, steel wire, 92x58 inches. The Ann and Mel Schaffer Family Collection. Source: Hodges, Jim, Ian Berry, Ron Platt, and Allan Schwartzman. 2003. Jim Hodges. Saratoga Springs, N.Y.: Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College.
Jim Hodges, Changing things (detail), 1997, Silk, plastic, wire and pins (342 parts), 193 x 376 cm, Dallas Museum of Art, Mary Margaret Munson Wilcox Fund and gift of Catherine and Will Rose, Howard Rachofsky, Christopher Drew and Alexandra May, and Martin Posner and Robyn Menter-Posner, © martabuso / Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, From the exhibition Love, eccetera, Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa, 5 February-5 April 2010, Piazza San Marco Gallery, Venezia. Source: ArtTattler.com.
A massive curtain composed completely of fake flowers. It’s super colorful and translucent in person. It’s also very difficult to resist touching. Sometimes I think contemporary art is afraid of sentiment, but this work wholly embraces joy. Very pop.
Jim Hodges, No Betweens, 1996; sculpture; silk, cotton, polyester, and thread, 360 in. x 324 in. (914.4 cm x 822.96 cm); Collection SFMOMA, Purchase through a gift of Kimberly S. Light; © Jim Hodges Source: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Jim Hodges, Where are we now? (detail), 1999, silk, cotton, polyester, and thread, 24x18 feet, installation view at Miami Art Museum, Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz Collection. Source: Hodges, Jim, Ian Berry, Ron Platt, and Allan Schwartzman. 2003. Jim Hodges. Saratoga Springs, N.Y.: Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College.
Here’s a curious black version.
Jim Hodges, The end from where you are, 1998, Silk, cotton, polyester, and thread, 16 x 16'. Source: ArtTattler.com.
Jim Hodges, Into Life, 2001 Silk, cotton, polyester and thread; dimensions variable. Source: GladstoneGallery.com.
I’ve been sewing and thinking about flags a lot, so here’s one more instance of serendipity.
Jim Hodges, Here's Where We Will Stay printed nylon, painted chiffon and silk head scarves with thread, embroidery and sequins 230 x 225 in. (584.2 x 571.5 cm.) 1995. Source: Christies.com.
Immersive gold leaf.
Jim Hodges and still this 2005-2008 23.5K and 24K gold with Beva on gessoed linen in 10 parts 200" x 185" x 89". Source: JamesWagner.com.
2.5-D
(Works that are not quite 2-D or 3-D)
Jim Hodges, Folding (into a Greater World), 1998 Mirror on canvas in two parts 72 x 96 inches Collection of Eileen and Peter Norton, Santa Monica. Source: ArtLies.org.
Jim Hodges, Movements (stage II), 2006 Mirror on canvas; 84 x 96 inches. Source: GladstoneGallery.com.
Having spent so much time obsessed with light bulbs for previous projects, it’s strange that I’m only just now coming across this work.
Jim Hodges, Coming Through, 1999 Light bulbs, ceramic sockets, wood and metal panels 31 x 63 x 5 inches Collection of Rebecca and Alexander Stewart, Seattle. Source: ArtLies.org.
Jim Hodges, With the Wind, 1997, scarves, thread, 90x99x5 inches. Collection of Penny Cooper and Rena Rosenwasser. Source: Hodges, Jim, Ian Berry, Ron Platt, and Allan Schwartzman. 2003. Jim Hodges. Saratoga Springs, N.Y.: Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College.
I love how simple yet effective this is. It’s presented in an unfussy way, yet is beautiful and works beautifully.
Jim Hodges, Arranged, 1996, Folded book with metal paper clips, 33 x 16.5 x 26 cm, photo: Heidi L. Steiger. Source: ArtTattler.com.
Jim Hodges, Untitled, 2001, Prismacolor on wall, dims. var. Installation views, CRG Gallery, NY. Source: Hodges, Jim, Ian Berry, Ron Platt, and Allan Schwartzman. 2003. Jim Hodges. Saratoga Springs, N.Y.: Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College.
Works on Paper
Jim Hodges, Overlaps under there, 1999, tissue paper with cut paper, 30 x 22.5 inches. Private Collection, NY. Source: Hodges, Jim, Ian Berry, Ron Platt, and Allan Schwartzman. 2003. Jim Hodges. Saratoga Springs, N.Y.: Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College.
Happy III Jim Hodges (American, born 1957) 2001. Colored pencil on two pieces of paper, Installation: 60 x 44 1/2" (152.4 x 113 cm). The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift. © 2012 Jim Hodges. Source: MoMA.org.
Jim Hodges COMPLEX CHORD - GREEN CENTERED GOLD 2011 collage 15 1/8 x 11 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches. Source: 2by2catalogue.org.
Jim Hodges. Source: art-documents.tumblr.com
Found this today. Oddly, I’ve also been playing with photo transparencies of kitch imagery in the studio lately.
Jim Hodges, I've pictured us..., 2008, Folded archival pigment print on transparent Mylar, 36 7/8 x 27 x 2 3/4 inches. Source: ArtNet.com.
Text Work
Lift ticket for Aspen Art Museum’s partnership project. If this is not positive psychology, I don’t know what is.
Jim Hodges, Give More Than You Take, 2008. Image courtesy of the artist and CRG Gallery, New York. Source: aspenartmuseum.org.
For this billboard, according to the Hirshhorn:
Hodges invited international delegates to the United Nations to translate in their own language and handwriting the phrase “don’t be afraid.”
Originally used “to remind the artist to have courage in making his own work,” the phrase also takes on various political connotations.
Jim Hodges, Don’t Be Afraid billboard at the Hirshhorn, 2005-2006. Source: hirshhorn.si.edu.
Jim Hodges, Don't Be Afraid, 2004 Injet on vinyl; dimensions variable. Source: GladstoneGallery.com
Recent Exhibitions
Selections from the knock-out exhibitions at Barbara Gladstone this past winter. Rejoice, Minnesotans: these are going to be in the Walker’s 2014 survey exhibition, Jim Hodges: sometimes beauty.
Jim Hodges, Untitled (2011) installed at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York Photo: Gladstone Gallery. Source: WalkerArt.org.
Get the backstory on the monoliths at Walker Art Magazine.
Jim Hodges oversees the deinstallation of Untitled at Gladstone Gallery. Source: WalkerArt.org.
Installation using light, mirrors, motors, blackened water, the entire gallery space, and then some. It’s really riveting. Have a look at the video of a performance at jimhodges.com.
Jim Hodges, Untitled, 2011 Mirror ball, mechanics and water; dimensions variable. Source: GladstoneGallery.com.
Jim Hodges, Untitled, 2011 Mirror ball, mechanics and water; dimensions variable. Source: GladstoneGallery.com.
Jim Hodges, Untitled, 2011 Wood, canvas, tempera and mechanics; Inside: 120 x 180 x 180 inches (304.8 x 457.2 x 457.2 cm) / Outside: 163 x 185 1/4 x 189 1/4 inches (414 x 470.5 x 480.7 cm). Source: GladstoneGallery.com.
It’s interesting to think about how an artist develops—starting with modest projects made alone, in a studio, using materials at hand, and then orchestrating multi-venue, logistics-laden, monumental fabrication projects. This is a particularly contemporary way for an artist’s work to mature, as the latter is only possible with market success and the support of blue-chip institutions.
Perhaps if emerging artists bushwhack their way through creative territories, established artists have to remain true to course despite siren songs of numerous pathways (sorry for mixing maritime and terrestrial metaphors). Even in his recent massive metallized boulders, I think Hodges’ work retains its elemental, experimental and experiential aspects.
This seems to be true for viewers and for artists, including Hodges. Quoted by Heidi Zuckerman Jacobson of the Aspen Art Museum (HuffPo), Hodges said:
There are no guarantees [in art]. [Art] challenges and rewards. We get what we choose from it.
Surveying an artist’s life’s work is a great way to gain perspective. When I did a lot of research on contemporary artists in graduate school, I realized that of the artists whose work I love, the work they’re making their fifties is outstanding. Hodges is in his mid-fifties. (So is Cindy Sherman.) The message is to keep pushing, be patient, and never stop evolving.
I think it’s fantastic that the Walker is going to host a survey of Hodges’ work next year. Combined with the Walker’s amazing design team, I’m sure the catalog is going to be fantastic. Maybe a Phaidon monograph will be in order soon?
R+D 