CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/1/2024

Cooper Union presents Glenn Ligon launching 'Distinguishing Piss from Rain' in conversation with Dr. Kellie Jones & Julie Mehretu with readings by Helga Davis

Tuesday, October 1, from 7–8:30 PM, Cooper Union and Hauser & Wirth Publishers present the launch of Glenn Ligon: Distinguishing Piss from Rain, Writings and Interviews. Join an exciting conversation with artist and author Glenn Ligon, writer Dr. Kellie Jones and artist Julie Mehretu, along with readings from the book by legendary performer Helga Davis, at Cooper Union's historic Great Hall. This event is free; however, reservations are required. Click here to register.

This long-awaited and essential publication collects three decades of writings by and interviews with Glenn Ligon, whose work has delivered an incisive examination of race, history, sexuality and culture in America since his emergence as an artist in the late 1980s.

No stranger to the written word, Ligon has routinely used text from the work of James Baldwin, Zora Neale Hurston, Gertrude Stein, Richard Pryor and others to create art that centers Blackness within the historically white backdrop of the art world and American culture. He began writing in the early 2000s, engaging deeply with the work of peers such as Julie Mehretu, Chris Ofili and Lorna Simpson, as well as that of artists who came before him, among them Philip Guston, David Hammons and Andy Warhol. Throughout these writings, Ligon combines razor-sharp insight with anecdotes and autobiographical details, providing the fullest picture yet of the artist and his ongoing evaluation of the art and politics of our time. Complementing the essays are illuminating interviews with Helga Davis, Thelma Golden, Byron Kim, Hamza Walker and others, as well as an introduction by writer and curator Thomas (T.) Jean Lax.

Signed copies of Glenn Ligon: Distinguishing Piss from Rain, Writings and Interviews, edited by James Hoff with Introduction by Thomas (T.) Jean Lax, will be available for purchase at the event.

In Conversation: Glenn Ligon, Dr. Kellie Jones & Julie Mehretu with readings by Helga Davis
Cooper Union Great Hall
Foundation Building
7 East 7th Street, between Third and Fourth Avenues
New York
Register here