The Menil Collection Opens Vibrant and Engaging “Chryssa & New York” Exhibition

Chryssa & New York, the first major survey of artwork by Chryssa in the United States since 1982, is co-organized by the Menil Collection, Houston, and Dia Art Foundation, New York

The Menil Collection has opened Chryssa & New York on September 29, 2023 and explores the work of the Greek-born artist who was one of the first to incorporate neon into her practice.

Her pivotal use of the medium, along with found elements of commercial signage and text, bridged ideas from the Pop, Conceptual, and Minimalist movements. Focused on Chryssa’s output while she lived in New York from the late 1950s to the early 1970s, this exhibition presents major loans from American and European museums and collections. Chryssa & New York debuted at Dia Chelsea, New York, last spring and after the Houston venue will travel to Wrightwood 659, Chicago, in May 2024.

“We have thoroughly enjoyed curating this revelatory exhibition of Chryssa’s work with our colleagues at the Dia Art Foundation,” said Rebecca Rabinow, Director, The Menil Collection. “Dia and the Menil share a commitment to artists whose work emerged in the 1960s and ’70s, and our institutions have partnered on exhibitions of work by Joseph Beuys, Brice Marden, and Blinky Palermo. We are proud to now turn our joint focus to Chryssa.”

“Though celebrated in her time, Chryssa’s work is now rarely seen. The art on view represents her prescient use of neon and industrial processes in sculpture and demonstrates some of her key concerns: abstraction, language, and technical innovation,” said Jessica Morgan, Dia’s Nathalie De Gunzburg Director. “I am delighted that Dia and the Menil Collection, institutions with a rich history of collaboration, are mounting this important exhibition for audiences across the United States.”

Chryssa & New York calls attention to the artist’s deeply formal concerns as well as her critical interest in exploring post–World War II America. The centerpiece of the exhibition is the largescale work The Gates to Times Square 1964–66, considered Chryssa’s magnum opus.

Other key early works include the reductive Cycladic Books 1954–57, a series of plaster and clay reliefs that highlight her interest in the interplay of light and shadow. This abstract series nods to both commercial culture and historic Mediterranean art. John and Dominique de Menil were early champions of her work and saw the connection between their collection of ancient sculpture from the Cycladic islands and Chryssa’s Cycladic Books.

“Chryssa was a leader within avant-garde circles while she lived in New York,” said Michelle White, Senior Curator, The Menil Collection. “She was fascinated with the sparkling and textfilled space of Times Square and wanted her innovative body of work to capture the energy of this unique postwar environment. By radically bringing together actual materials from the square, including lights and letters, Chryssa’s art stands as an early example of work that takes commercial communication as its primary subject.”

The exhibition is accompanied by the first major publication about Chryssa in more than thirty years, edited by Sophia Larigakis and co-curators Megan Holly Witko and Michelle White.

About Chryssa
Chryssa was born in Athens in 1933. She studied art at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris, and the California School of Fine Art (now San Francisco Art Institute) before settling in New York in the late 1950s. Following her first solo exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, in January 1961, Chryssa was the subject of a one-person show at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in November of that same year. Her early work with neon technology remains at the forefront of light art. Chryssa’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1963); Documenta, Kassel, Germany (1968); the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1972); the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (now Buffalo AKG Art Museum), New York (1982); and Tate Modern, London (2015). She died in Athens in 2013.

About the Menil Collection

The museum welcomes all visitors free of charge to its buildings and surrounding green spaces. For more information, visit menil.org.

Photos: V. Sweeten