The line of wit

Dates: June 11, 2020 – February 6, 2021

Curator: Lekha Hileman Waitoller

The artists represented in the exhibition employ unusual materials and techniques, and many playfully defy aesthetic conventions demonstrating ingenuity and wit.

In his iconic series Lenin and the Nightingale (2008) Baselitz presents the human figures upside down in expressive, large-format canvases, which serves to distance the viewer and to achieve a form of abstraction while maintaining figuration.

Hichiko Happo (2014) by Yoko Ono is a gestural painting made during a poignant public performance that the artist staged on the occasion of her 2014 exhibition at the Museum that synthesizes her performance and painting practices.

The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents The Line of Wit , a selection of works from the Museum’s Collection and long-term loans that can be characterized as clever and experimental. Bringing together artists of different generations working across a variety of media, the presentation includes rarely seen treasures from the Museum’s Collection alongside many beloved works. Relentlessly inquisitive in nature, the artists represented in the exhibition employ unusual materials and techniques, and many playfully defy aesthetic conventions demonstrating ingenuity and wit.

The Line of Wit is the first exhibition curated by Lekha Hileman Waitoller, who came to the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in October 2019 from the Art Institute of Chicago.