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RICHARD ARTSCHWAGER: LARGE CONCEPTS IN SMALL FORMATS
15 January 2008
Catégorie : EXHIBITION
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The Founders Hall Art Gallery at Soka University, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo, California, presents an exhibition of Richard Artschwager works from January 18 until April 18, 2008.
Richard Artschwager began his career making furniture before becoming the "jack-of-all-trades" of art –sculpture, painting, drawings and other objects – from the early 1950s and exhibited internationally since the 1960s.
Forefather of tag-art graffiti, he is the renowned father of "blps,"(pronounced "blips"). In the mid-60s, lozenge-shaped blps became his "tag" or signature when Artschwager placed them on the sides of buildings, at construction sites and on empty outdoor walls throughout Manhattan. Considered discreet, these forms were conspicuously individual, covered with camel hair and rubberized to appear fuzzy.
For a period of about ten years to the mid-70s, he was part of the inner circle of pop art that included Warhol, Lichtenstein, Johns, and Rauschenberg. His sculptures were whimsical objects of plywood and Formica. His paintings were monochromatic (grisaille) with a hint of color often seen through segments of Formica to produce a three-dimensional effect.
In 2003, politics, mirrored frames and acrylic on Celotex, (a canvas-weavevinyl) surfaced as his new materials of choice. Images of George W. Bushand the Taliban in Afghanistan reflected this phase. The next year, vibrant saturated color drove perspective and the use of crafted frames and spatial boundaries became his signature.
Now at eighty-four years of age, Richard Artschwager is an internationally exhibited American Master of contemporary art living in Hudson, New York.Challenging diverse material, space, form, perspective and color has been his peculiarity. His work has been shown in venues such as: the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Tate Gallery, London. He won the renowned and prestigious Wolfgang Hahn Prize from Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany with its associated purse of $100,000.
Artschwager's current exhibit at Soka University's Founders Hall Art Gallery features a wide variety of small format drawings and chromogenic prints selected from both his personal, gallery and private collections -- shown together forthe first time. This display of Artschwager's works highlights his intellectual and aesthetic sensitivity in interpolating and juxtaposing images of common objects, diacritical marks and ready-made materials into a unique iconography. The focus of the works is sharpened by the viewer as the unexpected plays with the certain, and the visual flirts with the concrete.
Artist Statement
Artschwager once described the blp as "a mindless invasion of the social space by a logo-like, totally useless art element. It is small, has highvisibility, relentlessly refuses to give up its uselessness."
"Portraits are for me a vehicle for ravening ambition. Photos give you a stupid, unassailable truth. Drawings give you touch. Painting gives you physical/mental invasion.
I want it all." (as quoted by Gagosian Gallery, 2003)
"The most striking property of doors (although not unique to doors) is RESONANCE between two states, which can be conveniently labeled as 'open' and'closed.' Resonance is never a simple, unqualified fluctuation between two states: even so in this case. A door - at any given moment – is in a state of being closed with the possibility of its being opened, or in a state of being open with the possibility of its being closed. This is not a speculative model for a door, but a description of the state of affairs which immediately existed when the first door was brought into being." (as quoted in Arts Magazine 42, no. 2, 1967)
Soka University of America is a private, non-profit, four-year liberal arts college and graduate school in offering leadership for peace, study abroad for all undergraduate students. About half of Soka's students come from the United States and half from 30 other countries.
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The Founders Hall Art Gallery at Soka University, 1 University Drive, Aliso Viejo, California, presents an exhibition of Richard Artschwager works from January 18 until April 18, 2008.
Richard Artschwager began his career making furniture before becoming the "jack-of-all-trades" of art –sculpture, painting, drawings and other objects – from the early 1950s and exhibited internationally since the 1960s.
Forefather of tag-art graffiti, he is the renowned father of "blps,"(pronounced "blips"). In the mid-60s, lozenge-shaped blps became his "tag" or signature when Artschwager placed them on the sides of buildings, at construction sites and on empty outdoor walls throughout Manhattan. Considered discreet, these forms were conspicuously individual, covered with camel hair and rubberized to appear fuzzy.
For a period of about ten years to the mid-70s, he was part of the inner circle of pop art that included Warhol, Lichtenstein, Johns, and Rauschenberg. His sculptures were whimsical objects of plywood and Formica. His paintings were monochromatic (grisaille) with a hint of color often seen through segments of Formica to produce a three-dimensional effect.
In 2003, politics, mirrored frames and acrylic on Celotex, (a canvas-weavevinyl) surfaced as his new materials of choice. Images of George W. Bushand the Taliban in Afghanistan reflected this phase. The next year, vibrant saturated color drove perspective and the use of crafted frames and spatial boundaries became his signature.
Now at eighty-four years of age, Richard Artschwager is an internationally exhibited American Master of contemporary art living in Hudson, New York.Challenging diverse material, space, form, perspective and color has been his peculiarity. His work has been shown in venues such as: the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York and the Tate Gallery, London. He won the renowned and prestigious Wolfgang Hahn Prize from Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany with its associated purse of $100,000.
Artschwager's current exhibit at Soka University's Founders Hall Art Gallery features a wide variety of small format drawings and chromogenic prints selected from both his personal, gallery and private collections -- shown together forthe first time. This display of Artschwager's works highlights his intellectual and aesthetic sensitivity in interpolating and juxtaposing images of common objects, diacritical marks and ready-made materials into a unique iconography. The focus of the works is sharpened by the viewer as the unexpected plays with the certain, and the visual flirts with the concrete.
Artist Statement
Artschwager once described the blp as "a mindless invasion of the social space by a logo-like, totally useless art element. It is small, has highvisibility, relentlessly refuses to give up its uselessness."
"Portraits are for me a vehicle for ravening ambition. Photos give you a stupid, unassailable truth. Drawings give you touch. Painting gives you physical/mental invasion.
I want it all." (as quoted by Gagosian Gallery, 2003)
"The most striking property of doors (although not unique to doors) is RESONANCE between two states, which can be conveniently labeled as 'open' and'closed.' Resonance is never a simple, unqualified fluctuation between two states: even so in this case. A door - at any given moment – is in a state of being closed with the possibility of its being opened, or in a state of being open with the possibility of its being closed. This is not a speculative model for a door, but a description of the state of affairs which immediately existed when the first door was brought into being." (as quoted in Arts Magazine 42, no. 2, 1967)
Soka University of America is a private, non-profit, four-year liberal arts college and graduate school in offering leadership for peace, study abroad for all undergraduate students. About half of Soka's students come from the United States and half from 30 other countries.
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