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Small Talk

October 26, 2019 – March 2, 2020

Sepia-toned abstract collage of street scene with a man, vehicles, signs, and the word
Robert Rauschenberg, Untitled (detail), 1963, oil, graphite, and screen print on canvas, 40 1/2 x 52 in. (102.9 x 132.1 cm) Framed: 41 3/4 in. × 53 1/8 in. × 2 in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas, 2009.7 Photography by Steven Watson.

Small Talk is a free, focus exhibition that considers how contemporary artists employ language and text through themes of pop culture and word play, and techniques of assemblage and collage.

Whether text is the image itself or is assembled from different sources, it can reveal more than the letters themselves. Similarly, words used in popular culture to describe music, sports, and other categories can take on new meanings when seen from a different perspective. See how artists such as Kay Rosen, Robert Rauschenberg, Jeffrey Gibson, Cheryl Pope, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and more play with text and image to reveal hidden meaning and consider the power of language.