FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
ARKHAM’S PICKMAN GALLERY ACQUIRES CURIOUS COLLECTION OF GOAT ART, DEEMED ‘GREATEST OF ALL TIME’
Greatest Of All Time: Portraits of Genus Capra on view at the Pickman Gallery from September 22 to December 28, 2018, Arkham, MA

— On view from September 18 through December 28, 2018 at Pickman Gallery, Arkham, MA, Greatest Of All Time: Portraits of Genus Capra. Greatest Of All Time is guest curated by the Santa Fe Art Institute’s Antonia Vasquez-Thackeray, who also holds a degree in Livestock Science. In this first-of-its-kind exhibition, Mx. Vasquez-Thackeray explores the social co-evolution of humankind and goatkind, a history which stretches back at least 10,000 years. Researchers note that goat remains have been found at archaeological sites in Western Asia including Jericho, Choga Mami, Djeitun, and Çayönü.

Via their innate curiosity and horizontally-pupilled eyes, goats have enjoyed a unique view of human civilization, and our ancestors’ myths and legends have proven us nothing if not fearful of their scrutiny. “Our projections in terms of goat consciousness and goat archetypes have eclipsed anything a goat might tell us about us, or itself,“ Vasquez-Thackeray writes in the introduction to her upcoming MY GOAT, MY INQUISITOR, a salvo against the bias and anthropomorphism that has infected the relations between these two closely interrelated worlds — but which carefully does not disavow the propensity for deceit, diabolism and witchcraft within Caprian mind.

Greatest of All Time consists of works hand-selected to commune with our species’ most recent common ancestor. About this evolutionary MacGuffin, Max Robinson, Ph.D. Molecular Biology and Biotechnology & Evolutionary Genetics, University of Washington, has written: “Millions of years ago, there was some kind of animal that eventually evolved into both goats and humans. It probably had claws rather than hooves or hands. It had a liver, four legs, eyes, and a brain, just like humans and goats still do.”

Unfathomably, a lineage extends directly from that ancestor to this season’s exhibition, which will serve as a family reunion of sorts: several goats from Vasquez-Thackeray’s personal herd will be in residence as docents throughout the duration of the show. (Their reactions to the art as well as to the guests will be recorded via motion-capture and analyzed by individuals from SFAI, MIT, and, by special request, members of Arkham’s Thousand Young Lodge.
Greatest Of All Time: Portraits of Genus Capra promises to feature works by Francisco Goya, J.J. Grandville, Cornelis Saftleven, Johann Christian Reinhart, and Otto Goetze which have never appeared in the same collection before — and by special clause in our arrangement, never will again.

A private, goats-only reception will be held at Pickman Gallery on opening night, September 22, 2018, from midnight until 3am, featuring a special performance by New York drag troupe The Nobodies. RSVP required. Refreshments provided by our perennial sponsors, Sister Shoggoth’s Microbrewery (Home of the original Protoplasmic Bubble Beer), Innsmouth Harbor Fishery, and the Old Arkham Cheese Shoppe.

Sponsorship
Greatest Of All Time: Portraits of Genus Capra was made possible by the generous support of Elizabeth Barrial, director of the Black Phoenix Foundation for the Arts, and TJ Barrial, Visual Arts Professor and Department Chair at the Dunwich Academy of Arts, and was organized for the Celephaïs Athenæum by Brian Constantine, Curator of Sculpture for the Clark Ashton Smith Memorial Gallery. Negtotiatios for the re-aquisition of the Goya piece were handled pro bono by Tom Blunt of the NYC/LA firm Blunt Force Management.

About the Pickman Gallery
The Pickman Gallery is the Miskatonic Valley’s premier privately-owned art gallery. Founded in 1923 by interdimensionally renowned portrait artist Richard Upton Pickman, the Gallery offers the Miskatonic Valley community a dynamic roster of stimulating, dread-provoking exhibitions and enriching public programs. Though the Pickman generally focuses on Aestheticism and Decadence, nearly all artistic movements have been represented throughout the years. Exhibitions organized by the Pickman have featured the works of both local and international artists, and have encompassed all of the visual arts, including printmaking, photography, sculpture, video, film, and performance.

General Information
Pickman Gallery, 432 Sentinel Street, Arkham, MA 01914 Tel: 978/271-1300, Fax: 978/271-1313

Hours
Tuesday, Thursday, Friday: Dusk – 1am Saturday: Dusk – 3am Sunday, Monday, and major astronomical events: Closed