Patti Smith: "9.11 Babelogue" on View at the Leubsdorf Art Gallery

Plane Folded Flight 11, 175, 2002 (Pencil on handmade paper, folded as schematic) © Patti Smith. Courtesy the artist and Robert Miller Gallery

The Hunter College Art Galleries are pleased to present "Patti Smith: 9.11 Babelogue." This exhibition, on view from September 8 - December 3, 2011, comprises some 26 works on paper by the esteemed poet, performer, and visual artist Patti Smith as a response to the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001. The artist's elegiac homage does not align the Twin Towers with one nation, religion, or race, but instead offers them as symbols of the universal resiliency of the human spirit. Smith's "9.11" series was created between 2001 and 2002 and will be shown in its entirety for the first time in New York in the Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery at Hunter to coincide with the tenth anniversary of 9/11. 

Patti Smith, equal parts writer, performer, and visual artist, has been a pivotal figure on the downtown New York art and music scene since the late 1960s. Her transformative words and uncompromising commitment to art has inspired subsequent generations of musicians, writers, and artists. Smith's work has been extensively exhibited in solo exhibitions internationally and is in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Musée National d'art Moderne, Centre Georges Pomipidou, Paris, among others.  The artist has been widely recognized for her multifaceted accomplishments. Smith was the recipient of the 2010 National Book Award for her memoir "Just Kids," and has also been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2005, the French Ministry of Culture awarded her the Commandeur des Arts et Letttres, France's highest honor for contributions to the arts and culture. Most recently, the artist was awarded the Polar Music Prize by the Stig Anderson Music Award Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden.

South Tower Skyline, 2002 (Silkscreen on canvas) © Patti Smith. Courtesy the artist and Robert Miller Gallery

The Hunter College Art Galleries, under the auspices of the Department of Art and Art History, has been a vital aspect of the New York cultural landscape since its inception over a quarter-century ago. This exhibition, titled "Patti Smith. 9.11 Babelogue," organized by Michelle Yun, Curator of the Hunter College Art Galleries, underscores the galleries' unique ability to share the highest levels of academic scholarship and curatorial connoisseurship with the general public, thus facilitating a dynamic cultural exchange.

"Patti Smith. 9.11 Babelogue" is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue that includes writings by Patti Smith; a forward by Dr. Joachim Pissarro, Bershad Professor of Art History and Director of the Hunter College Art Galleries and a critical essay by Michelle Yun. This exhibition is made possible with the support of the Hunter College Art Galleries Fund in collaboration with YoungArts, the core program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Additional funding provided by Morris and Wendy Evans of the Richard and Rebecca Evans Foundation.

The Bertha and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery at Hunter College is located in West Lobby at 68^th Street and Lexington Avenue, SW corner, New York, NY 10065. Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday, 1 - 6 pm.