The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth Presents     

FOCUS: Terry Haggerty

November 17, 2013-January 5, 2014

The FOCUS series is organized by the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and Curator Andrea Karnes for the Director's Council, a group that supports acquisitions at the Museum. Each FOCUS exhibition presents work by a contemporary artist. FOCUS exhibitions are open to the public and are included in general Museum admission: $10 for adults; $4 for seniors (60+) and students with identification; free for children 12 and under; free for Modern members.

The first Director's Council FOCUS exhibition for the 2013-2014 season features the work of artist Terry Haggerty. The exhibition will present a selection of new works.

Haggerty draws on the vocabulary of abstract art to create his illusory paintings and large-scale wall works. The artist's central motif is created by painting patterned lines that alternate a light and dark color, such as white and blue. When juxtaposed, these colors play off each other, appearing to advance and recede.

Applying multiple coats of paint to his works, the artist creates sleek and fluid surface patterns. He also changes the direction of the uniformly painted lines at certain points - bending  them toward the edges of his canvases or walls, for example, and/or changing the course of their paths at the center of his compositions. By manipulating color and line in this way, Haggerty's imagery becomes a study in spatial and sensory perception, appearing to hum and even making his two-dimensional paintings appear to be three-dimensional. This combination of serial color and pattern, along with his redirecting of the lines, has a crucial impact on the overall pictorial appearance of the artist's works. It immediately transforms his simple painted stripes into vibrant and undulating images that seemingly alter the space in and around them.

Terry Hag­gerty was born in Lon­don, Eng­land, and stud­ied at the Chel­tenham School of Art in Glouces­ter­shire. He currently lives and works in Berlin. Haggerty has exhib­ited widely at gal­leries and muse­ums around the world, includ­ing the Ham­mer Museum, Los Ange­les, California; The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut; and PS1, Long Island City, New York. He is the recip­i­ent of sev­eral awards, includ­ing the FOR-SITE Foun­da­tion Award (2009), John Anson Kit­tredge Award (2003), and NatWest Art Prize (1999). He has par­tic­i­pated in two artist-in-residency pro­grams, at The Mac­Dow­ell Colony in New Hampshire (2002) and the Inter­na­tional Stu­dio Pro­gram for the Arts in Copen­hagen (2003). Com­mis­sions include wall draw­ings for AT&T Sta­dium in Dallas, Munich Re in Lon­don, and pri­vate col­lec­tions in the US and Ger­many.

The Director's Council

The Director's Council was formed in 1985 and assists the Museum with acquisitions through the FOCUS series. The series features three solo exhibitions organized annually by Curator Andrea Karnes , with Assistant Curator Alison Hearst making her curatorial debut with the second FOCUS exhibition of the 2013-2014 season. Each exhibition opens with an exclusive cocktail reception for Council members, an opportunity to meet the featured artist and discuss his or her work. One work by each artist is chosen by the Museum to be part of the final selection for the Council's Purchase Meeting. This format provides members with an in-depth understanding of the Modern's acquisitions process and offers a spirited and popular series of events. The annual dues, $600, include all the benefits of a Family membership and invitations to exclusive Director's Council events.

Related Event

Terry Haggerty will present the Sundays with the Modern Tour
Sunday, November 17; 1 pm