New Jersey has eternally been plagued by stereotypes entrenched in pop culture from “Jersey Shore” to “The Real Housewives of New Jersey.” And yet, the state was the industrial mecca and the avant-garde muse for artists in the mid-20thcentury. Its abandoned manufacturing wastelands called to artists from across the Hudson, and many left their studios in New York to answer the call.
“When artists started coming to New Jersey, it was at a moment when they were seeking inspiration outside of the artist’s studio. For centuries the studio was where art was made. It was a haven, a respite, an escape,” Haskell Curator of Modern and Contemporary ArtKelly Baumsaid. “But then in the early to mid '60s, artists started to think of the studio as sort of a prison.”
"New Jersey as Non-Site," an exhibition at the Princeton University Art Museum curated by Baum, explores the pieces created during this period of cabin fever through the work of 16 artists, which reflect the unique character of the garden state. The exhibit, which is housed in a series of rooms to the left of the main gallery of European art, contrasts sharply with the more classic work in the main gallery. Immediately upon entering, one can sense the industrial inspiration. An interior gallery wall has been erected from sheet metal, and the pieces in the first room are all in grayscale. A video depicts a large saw cutting through the floors of a house. The project, created by Gordon Matta-Clark, involved splitting a condemned home in Englewood, N.J. in half. Beyond the wall, another video created by Charles Simonds shows a naked body squishing and squeezing reddish mud against itself. On the opposite wall hang four frames, with pieces of paper dyed earthy tones and small photos of a barren landscape by Michelle Stuart.
These pieces express the importance of the landscape of New Jersey, from the infrastructure to the soil,to the existence of these works. Further, they demonstrate an approach to art that seems dramatically different from the museum’s permanent collection.
Another fascinating piece in the exhibit is the “The Thousand Symphonies” created by Dick Higgins for an exhibition at Rutgers University. With the help of a police officer, he shot sheet music with a machine gun to shred the pages. Higgins wrote out a set of instructions explaining how to read the music depending on the way the paper had been damaged, and an orchestra performed the piece in 1968. Visitors can watch and listen to the performance.
The final part of the last room celebrates and commemorates the Yam Festival, a year-long event that was conceptualized by Robert Watts and George Brecht. Inspired by non-Western festivals celebrating the harvest, Watts and Brecht laid the groundwork for an evolving and ambiguous celebration that would allow artists of different disciplines to collaborate.
“It’s so hard to pin down because it was an event that was very much in flux,” Baum said.
"New Jersey as Non-Site" was conceived six years ago, when the George and Helen Segal Foundation was in the process of donating several works to Princeton. Baum wanted to create an exhibit that celebrated the new acquisitions.
In beginning of the process of gathering works, Baum was shocked to discover how many artists the state New Jersey had a direct influence on.
“As I started to research, more and more names started to pop up. I couldn’t believe it. I was totally surprised,” Baum said. “We don’t associate New Jersey especially with avant-garde art.”
She narrowed her selection down to 16 artists. Although the exhibit is not all-encompassing, it focuses on how this group of artists explored and mined the state for inspiration.
A main question driving the exhibit and its creation was: What is the appeal of New Jersey? The state certainly didn’t have a glamorous reputation at the time. Industry in the state was on the brink of failure. It was this tragedy that attracted artists.
Baum also addresses societal conflicts in New Jersey at the time, focusing on the racial inequalities in Newark. Included in the show are magazine articles, plays and videos by Amiri Baraka, the founder of a grassroots organization focusing on merging art and politics through avant-garde performances. These works emphasize the political power of art and illustrate the sociopolitical climate of the 1960s.
While the majority of artists included in the show found inspiration in fallen industrial wastelands, several also explored the Pine Barrens and other rural areas. Some even loved the suburbs. Most did, however, stay clear of the Jersey Shore and the Delaware Water Gap. Baum accredits this to the fact that these landscapes were too ordinary and “[not] ugly enough.”
And what role did Princeton play in all of this? Photos found by a student a couple of years ago indicate that by 1970, Princeton’s dance program was performing experimental and cutting-edge pieces. In that same year, dance professor Ze’eva Cohen arrived at Princeton and the dance department began to stage outdoor dance performances in Poe Field that doubled as Vietnam War protests.
“Dance at Princeton in the '70s was avant-garde both artistically and politically. It’s very interesting. And also we don’t associate Princeton with a sort of counterculture, but some of the performances that were choreographed by Cohen, there are hippies in the audience,” Baum said.
Although not represented in the show, it appears Princeton caught the avant-garde fever of the time.
So what happened? How did New Jersey return to its role as the laughingstock of all states, the cultural ridden wasteland?
Artists began to travel. At a certain point, there wasn’t much left to see of New Jersey. They became bored and were ready to move further out west and to Europe. While Rutgers still produces interesting, avant-garde art, it no longer responds directly to the state.
"New Jersey as Non-Site" provides a unique narrative about every Princeton student’s second home through unusual pieces of art. Baum has received overwhelmingly positive responses and given more tours and talks to students and classes regarding the exhibit than for any previous show. The works in the exhibit, though unconventional and often challenging a conventional definition of art, demonstrate a lesser-known but artistically rich time in New Jersey.
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