Matt Mullican

Matt Mullican (1951, Santa Monica, California) is an american artist, son of the artists Luchita Hurtado (1920, Vargas, Venezuela – 2020, Santa Monica) and Lee Mullican (1919, Chickasha, Oklahoma, USA - 1998, Santa Monica). Matt Mullican graduated in 1974 at the California Institute for the Arts, Santa Clarita, California. He taught at Columbia University, The School of Visual Arts, New York, USA; The Rijksakademie, Amsterdam, Holland; Celsea College of Art and Design, United Kingdom and at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, Hamburg, Germany.

His work encompasses various media such as painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video, installation and performance. Mullican is interested in systems of knowledge, meaning, language and semiotics, in a relation between the planes of perception and representation. From the 1970’s onwards, he focused on the exploration and implementation of a system of symbols with pictograms and colours, to which he attributes an associated meaning or symbolic value and which serve as a work method.

Among his most important solo exhibitions, the presentation at Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan, Italy (2018); Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany (2014); Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany (2011); The Drawing Center, New York, USA (2008); Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom (2008); Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain (2001); Städtische Galerie im Lembachhaus, Munich, Germany (1999); Nationale Galerie, Berlin, Germany (1995); MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, New York (1989); Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Castello di Rivoli Museo d’Arte Contemporanea, Turin, Italy; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France; Cincinnati Art Museum, Ohio, USA; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., USA; Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands; Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona; Museum of Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, USA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; MoMA – Museum of Modern Art, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California; Tate, London; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He participated in Documenta in 1997, 1992 and 1983.

Mullican has his vast body of work represented in various institutions and museums all over the world.

 

PS, November 2020