Kirk Varnedoe: In the Middle at the Modern, on view September 22 at Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia, is a multimedia exhibition that challenges reality, questions authenticity, and ignites discussions about the power of museums to bestow objects with “high” or “low” value. Curated by Triple Candie, a phantom-like institution run by internationally-noted art historians Shelly Bancroft and Peter Nesbett, the exhibition will reflect on Varnedoe’s contributions to curatorial practice by re-examining his first major exhibition, High and Low: Modern Art and Popular Culture (Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1990), now with the hindsight of three decades.
 
Varnedoe (American, 1946–2003) was a figure deeply connected to Savannah, as a celebrated native and honored at Telfair Museums through our Kirk Varnedoe Collection, who achieved the status of a national art-world legend. In his role as chief curator of painting and sculpture at MoMA (1988–2001), he set in motion vital debates about art that continue to reverberate today.  “Varnedoe was the central figure at MoMA during our formative years--while we were studying art history and after. It was astonishing at that time to see either an art historian or a curator stir as much public and critical interest as he did. How many curators do you know--even today--that are recognizable to people outside the art world?" said Triple Candie’s Peter Nesbett.
 
Blending personal biography with historical scholarship, this presentation uses fabricated objects in the form of altered documents, sculptural recreations, photographs, sets, animations, modified posters, ephemera, and wall texts. Triple Candie’s curatorial directive is to raise questions about art and the often-unquestioned ideas surrounding it, such as originality, authenticity, influence, history, and value.
“How do you take a larger-than-life character and convey his legacy on a more bite-sized, intimate scale? This is what Triple Candie aims to do through this exhibition, which explores Varnedoe’s life (from his roots as a Savannahian, a Southerner, an athlete and young artist) and then draws out how that upbringing translated to his professional career at MoMA, where he came to be the foremost authority on modern art dialogue for over a decade” says Rachel Reese, Telfair Museums’ Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art.
 
Kirk Varnedoe: In the Middle at the Modern is on view September 22– February 11, 2018 at Telfair Museums’ Jepson Center in historic Savannah.