Bracha L. Ettinger in Psychic Wounds: On Art & Trauma

Psychic Wounds: On Art & Trauma examines over 60 international artists whose memory of historical trauma has provided them with a unique power to generate works of art. Although there have been important examples of art that address wounding, scarring, and healing throughout the 20^th century, the proliferation of violent imagery since World War II has led to new kinds of artworks that marshal consciousness of traumatic events and their cultural processing. These developments in art practice run parallel with the emergence of “trauma studies” in the mid-1980s, which confront the repercussions of psychoanalysis, the Holocaust, global conflict, sexual violence, and race and gender discrimination.

The curator wishes to thank all the artists and their galleries, particularly Kevin Beasley, AA Bronson, Miriam Cahn, Bracha L. Ettinger, Renée Green, Michelle Rawlings, Carrie Mae Weems, Cathy Wilkes, Yukinori Yanagi, and Anicka Yi, for their invaluable assistance to exhibition planning and installation; the generous lenders, which include the Collection of Marguerite Steed Hoffman, The Hartland-Mackie and Labora Collections, the Tony Podesta Collection, Deedie Rose, Lisa and John Runyon, the Dallas Museum of Art, and those who wish to remain anonymous; the entire staff at The Warehouse; and finally and most of all, Cindy and Howard Rachofsky.

Gavin Delahunty
Exhibition Curator

Participating artists:
Kai Althoff, Karin Mamma Andersson, Ida Applebroog, Michael Armitage, Georg Baselitz, Kevin Beasley, María Berrío, Louise Bourgeois, Cecily Brown, Alberto Burri, Miriam Cahn, Gillian Carnegie, Chung Chang-Sup, Jay DeFeo, Marcin Dudek, Bracha L. Ettinger, Lucio Fontana, Tim Gardner, General Idea, Robert Gober, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Renée Green, Mona Hatoum, Eva Hesse, Minoru Hirata, Jim Hodges, Michio Horikawa, Rashid Johnson, Hayv Kahraman, William Kentridge, Josh Kline, Yayoi Kusama, John Latham, Glenn Ligon, Robert Mapplethorpe, Kimiyo Mishima, Saburo Murakami, Kazumi Nakamura, Natsuyuki Nakanishi, Xie Nanxing, Bruce Nauman, Oliver Payne, Sigmar Polke, Carol Rama, Michelle Rawlings, Gerhard Richter, Mimmo Rotella, Cindy Sherman, Shozo Shimamoto, Kazuo Shiraga, Kiki Smith, Alina Szapocznikow, Jiro Takamatsu, Shelagh Wakely, Carrie Mae Weems, Hannah Wilke, Cathy Wilkes, Jonas Wood, Yukinori Yanagi, Anicka Yi, Toshio Yoshida, and Portia Zvavahera

An extensive and richly illustrated new publication is forthcoming and will include both new and historical scholarship on the subject by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Huey Copeland, Gavin Delahunty, Bracha L. Ettinger, Beatriz Colomina, Hal Foster, Erika Naginski, Griselda Pollock and Robert Storr.