... may be a great t-shirt slogan, but they are the words said to have been uttered by Picasso and they resonate strong with contemporary art practice today. I was first introduced to The Rubell Family Collection this time last year when I was living in New York - the private collection, based in Miami since 1993, pioneered the concept of a 'Miami model' with such collections opening themselves up to the public to create independent institutions. The Rubell Family have 45,000 square-feet of independence and their current exhibition, Beg Borrow And Steal attributes Picasso's wise words. All 260 works by the 74 international artists on display, including Duchamp, Koons and Prince, are owned by the Collection and they explore the artistic practice throughout generations of appropriation as a reflection of their own moment in time. The Rubell Family are conscious of the speed which contemporary art travels and by referencing the earlier landmark artworks in the collection, a greater understanding of the past defines the present and embraces the future,
"... The most interesting contemporary art almost always engages with a future that is not yet known, and we believe this new work is dealing with that future. The same way Andy Warhol predicted our current culture of fame, artists today are working around something we are just beginning to understand. It has to do with information overload, time, the collapse of time, indistinct authorship, virtuality and intense individuality. In the future, there might be a simple explanation, but for the moment it is a glorious mess of things."
Beg Borrow And Steal runs to 29th May 2010 and the exhibition catalogue is now available through the Foundation's website.
