Art works designed to surprise, mystify, shock or amuse those who view them are featured in the Yale University Art Gallery's newest exhibition, "Postmodern Transgressions: Artists Working Beyond the Frame." The exhibit of unconventional works, which opens Tuesday, July 20, includes close to 90 objects -- paintings, sculpture, prints, photographs and mixed media -- that deliberately blur accepted artistic limits. The works have been selected primarily from the Yale Art Gallery's holdings. "The artists we were looking at when we selected works for 'Postmodern Transgressions' were truly stretching beyond the conventional ways of making art," says Joachim Pissarro, the Seymour H. Knox Jr. Curator of European and Contemporary Art, who organized the exhibit with Richard S. Field, curator of prints, drawings and photographs. "The work may be located beyond the frame, on the wall, on the floor, in the landscape or even on the body of the artist," Pissarro explains. Included in the exhibition are works from leading European and American artists, ranging from Francis Picabia (1879-1953) to Angela de la Cruz (born in 1966). All of the featured artists made a point of integrating in their work attitudes, points of view or artistic media that were once considered "unacceptable." In many of the works, the artists have turned away from or broken through the conventional frame -- with some going so far as to include a smashed frame and canvas in their work. Other works on display transgress conventional boundaries in their focus on the body, or in the words or texts they use. The body serves as the central focus in the works of Lesley Dill, Herman Nitsch, Robert Mapplethorpe and Kara Walker, for example, while text and image interact in the works of Duane Michals, Peter Halley, James Magee and Ronald Jones. Magee recited his works' titles -- which have been described as "long and longer" -- on tape; by using the headset provided next to the art work, viewers could hear the artist recite its name. Other artists represented in the exhibit -- such as Gerhard Richter, Kiki Smith, John Coplans and Chuck Close -- confuse traditional boundaries through an interchange between printing, painting and photography. "Not surprisingly, among the most provocative of recent transgressions are those that concern our political and sexual identities," says Field. "The subtle ironies of many of the works in this exhibition often coerce the viewer to examine his or her own moral predilections and assumptions. A work titled "Self" by Angela de la Cruz, as well as a group of works by Texas artist Magee and by Annabel Livermore, who's been described as Magee's "alter ego," are on loan to the gallery. The exhibition marks the first time Magee and Livermore have been exhibited together. The curators have provided extensive wall labels describing each of the works on view in the exhibit, which runs through Oct. 17. The curators will also offer talks about the exhibit. These include a gallery talk by Field at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, July 20; a talk by Pissarro at noon on Thursday, July 22; and an art à la carte talk by Field at 12:20 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 25. The Yale University Art Gallery, located on the corner of Chapel and York streets, is open free to the public 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and 1-6 p.m. Sunday. For further information, call 432-0600. T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S Yale students working with city residents to revitalize New Haven . . . Top women in tennis to vie for Pilot Pen trophy Enterprise Center helping to transform ideas for new businesses into realities With NIH support, researchers seek ways to heal spinal cord Exhibit pays tribute to Fossey's work with mountain gorillas Entomologist verifies immigrant mosquito's arrival in state Artistic transgressions applauded in Yale Art Gallery show Fellowship winners devote summer to work in Elm City Dwight Hall internships provide opportunity for public service Accomplished high school students will attend Yale as Sterling Scholars Alumni honored for their success as scholar-athletes Support renewed for Yale-China's summer institutes Links between environment, economy explored in new books Yale affiliates featured in exhibit focusing on East and West Rocks Noted pediatrician T. Berry Brazelton to speak at annual conference Campus Notes Tentacled trek Bulletin Home|Visiting on Campus|Calendar of Events| Bulletin Board Classified Ads|Search Archives|Production Schedule|Bulletin Staff Public Affairs Home|News Releases|E-Mail Us|Yale Home Page

Among the artists "working beyond the frame" featured in the new Yale Art Gallery exhibit is James Magee, shown here with his work "The Mine Shaft #2," made of steel, glass and sprayed salt.