Al Taylor: What Are You Looking At?

November 17, 2017–March 18, 2018

Al Taylor, What Are You Looking At?was the first major museum survey ofAl Taylor's work in the United States. The exhibition included more than 150 sculptures, drawings, and prints spanning nearly two decades of the artist's career from 1981 until his death in 1999.

The exhibition was curated by Michael Rooks, curator of modern and contemporary art at High Museum of Art, who began working on the show in 1998. The accompanying publication features texts by Michael Rooks, Lawrence Rinder, Allegra Pesenti, and Robert Storr.

"Taylor grappled with and expanded the lineage of modernist experimentation," Rebecca Brantley writes in a review of the exhibition for Burnaway magazine, "This exhibition reminds us of the continuation of a transgressive strain of early 20th century artists. Yet, more importantly, this exhibition gives deep insight into the practice of a unique and thoughtful artist who still invites the question that Taylor suggested for his gravestone and that inspired Rook’s title: 'What are you looking at?'"

Related Event:

Saturday, March 3, 2018, 2–3 PM 
High Museum of Art, Atlanta

Michael Semff, German art historian and former director of the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich, gave a talk focusing on significant examples of the different media in which Taylor worked—from painting and sculpture to drawing and print. Semff explored the artist’s strategies of perception and objectification, as well as his radical infringement on the traditional rules of art making.

Images: Installation view, Al Taylor, What Are You Looking At?, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2017