It would be easy to dismiss the Broad's latest exhibition, Creature, as simply a means of keeping the first-floor gallery warm until next year's sure-to-be-massive Infinity Mirror Room show. It's the first of two collection-based installations to follow the museum's first paid special exhibition, and it's more of a thematic offering of the museum's existing collection than a headline-grabbing exhibition. A quiet add-on to the museum's current offerings, Creature isn't necessarily a destination on its own, but rather a curated refresh in a museum that continues to be a must-visit.
Creature tackles different approaches to figuration and self-representation with works from more than 25 artists like Georg Baselitz, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Leon Golub and Jenny Holzer. It's an exhibition of faces, some more recognizably human than others, that draws on everything from Greek mythology to Japanese manga. The free installation opens November 5 and runs until March 19.
Many of the works within Creature have a less-than-subtle relationship with self-representation, from Bruce Nauman's suspended wax heads to Alex Israel's selfie-within-a-selfie canvas. The exhibition opens with an Andy Warhol screenprint of Bela Lugosi as Dracula as well as the U.S. debut of Thomas Houseago's "Giant Figure (Cyclops)," a hulking, 15-foot-tall figure. They're quite literal representations of "creatures" (see also: Meyer Vaisman's wool-covered turkey), but the installation's highlighted artists all tackle representation through diverse means: self-portraits, painted teeth marks, LED signs, medicine cabinets.
Most of the post-'70s works on display fall into one of the -isms that dominated the art world at the time: Neo-expressionism, primitivism, feminism. It's an installation of artists who conquered the contemporary art market but never quite captured the public consciousness. As a result, those expecting more of the crowd-pleasing works on the third floor might be disappointed by the muddy, muted colors on display here. But that's not to say the exhibition is humorless: A pensive Batman peeks out from behind a rock in Andreas Gursky's moody large-scale photograph, "SH III," while Takashi Murakami's sexed-up "Nurse Ko2" greets visitors with a a bible and a syringe of who knows what.
Photograph: Michael Juliano
The exhibit's biggest surprise comes from a frustratingly familiar face in the Broad galleries: Jeff Koons. The classical-inspired "Metallic Venus" is tucked into its own nook near the end of the exhibition where it sits almost comically alone in the center of the space, as if it was the Venus de Milo at the Louvre. Its super shiny surface bounces blue light onto the walls and ceiling of the gallery, and a basket of fresh flowers beside it will be replaced daily. The love-to-hate-him artist's metallic pop-art sculptures are a given at nearly any contemporary art museum, but in the context of this installation, "Metallic Venus" is a colorful, surreal standout moment.
Photograph: Michael Juliano
Creature runs at the Broad from November 5, 2016 through March 19, 2017. Like the rest of the museum, admission is free.