calendario eventi  :: 

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9/9/2013

Two exhibitions

Alan Cristea Gallery, London

Richard Serra Trajectory 11 September – 8 October 2013 “Few artists have pushed drawing to such sculptural and even architectural extremes as Mr. Serra.”
Roberta Smith in New York Times, April 2011

The Alan Cristea Gallery will present the first exhibition in the UK devoted to Richard Serra’s prints from 11 September – 8 October 2013 at 34 Cork Street. Serra is an artist well known for his monumental sculpture which explores and defies concepts of weight, balance and gravity. Since the 1970s prints and drawings have also been an important part of his practice and this exhibition will introduce audiences to the artist’s equally prolific work as a printmaker.

This exhibition focuses on three groups of etchings from the past ten years. Extension and Trajectory are both part of the Arc of the Curve series from 2004, and examine movement through space and the curve of a line, from broad, sweeping gestures to slight bends and turns. Some lean dramatically; others stoop. In contrast, Ballast (2011), is a series dealing with weight, stability and control; the black mass sits at the bottom of the sheet, revealing a small glimpse of white paper at the top. These prints are serious, minimal and sculptural – a closer look at their surface reveals a highly pitted, three- dimensional, intaglio landscape

In order to achieve the texture in these etchings, a ‘found’ surface in the form of an exterior stucco wall was used. Frosted mylar was taped to the wall and then lithographic rubbing ink was applied. The texture of the wall was then transferred to a copper plate photographically using a light sensitive emulsion, and the plate was then subjected to the traditional etching process using a tank of acid (Ferric Chloride).

About the Artist
Richard Serra was born in 1939 in San Francisco. He studied from 1957 to 1961 at the University of California at Berkeley and Santa Barbara, and from 1961 to 1964 at Yale University in New Haven, CT, where he worked with Josef Albers on his Interaction of Color (New Haven, 1963). He was elected Honorary Academician at the Royal Academy of Arts, London in 1995. He currently lives and works in New York and Nova Scotia. His drawings were shown at the Serpentine in 1993 and his exhibition Weight and Measure was held at the Tate in 1992. His public sculpture can be found all over the world and selected solo exhibitions and retrospectives include: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2011); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2011); Menil Collection, Houston (2011); Monumenta, Grand Palais, Paris (2008); Kunsthaus Bregenz (2008); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006); San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art (2006); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2005). Serra’s works are housed in the collections of Kunstmuseum Basel, the Guggenheim Museums, Bilbao and New York, Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, Amsterdam, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

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Linear Abstraction
11 September – 5 October 2013

Alan Cristea Gallery presents Linear Abstraction, an exhibition examining differing approaches to geometric abstraction in editioned form. By virtue of its constituent processes, printmaking offers the possibility to create, manipulate and define a mark or colour in far greater depth and precision than almost any other medium. The exhibition includes graphic work by leading artists; Eduardo Chillida, Ian Davenport, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Bridget Riley, Sean Scully, Frank Stella and Josef and Anni Albers.

Linear Abstraction runs concurrently with the exhibition of work by Richard Serra in the gallery’s other exhibition space at 34 Cork Street.

Josef Albers, a founding member of the Bauhaus, was one of the most innovative printmakers of the twentieth century, making use of numerous print media, including etching, engraving, woodcut, lithography and screenprinting. A pioneer of colour theory, he is perhaps best remembered for his Homage to the Square images, the square proving to be the ideal vehicle for his explorations into the interaction of colour.

Linear Abstraction will include Albers’ penultimate portfolio of prints; Mitred Squares (1974), compositionally a subtle variation on the Homage to the Square format, which Albers had introduced into a small number of paintings. The prints are distinct from their painted counterparts in their purity of surface and clarity of colour. In some ways they represent the distillation of his artistic theory and practice. As editions they became powerful tools for dissemination and education; as artworks they are technically brilliant layerings of colour and line. Albers taught at Yale from 1950 to 1958, where his students included Robert Mangold, Elsworth Kelly (whose works will also feature in Linear Abstraction), and Richard Serra.

Frank Stella is recognised as one of the most influential artists of the Twentieth Century and was at the forefront of the Minimalist movement. Stella began printmaking in the mid- 1960s, and is renowned for his minimalist aesthetic, as well as his innovative approach to abstraction in printmaking, experimenting with lithography, screenprinting, etching and offset lithography. His resulting prints are often characterised by bold, industrial colors and stark geometric logic.

Bridget Riley emerged in the1960s as an influential pioneer of Op-Art. Although similar to Albers in her method of serial production, she is less interested in technique, instead using screenprint as a way of realising and disseminating her own form of optical abstraction. Riley’s distinctive work actively engages the viewer’s perception, producing visual experiences that are complex and challenging, subtle and arresting. Linear Abstraction features Untitled (La Lune en Rodage – Carlo Belloli) (1965); monochrome and optically challenging, this work is characteristic of her earliest screenprints.

Whilst aesthetically there is a close affinity between much of the work of Riley and Ian Davenport, they have approached printmaking from very different backgrounds. Davenport is best known as one of the generation of Young British Artists and in 1991 he was shortlisted for the Turner Prize. His exploration of colour is allied with an engagement to process and this combination is fundamental to Davenport’s work. The editions he makes are borne out of lengthy experimentation during which he often realises a number of unique colour variations. Linear Abstraction includes several Colorplan Monoprints, variants developed from his most recent editions, Colorplan Series.

Over the years, Sean Scully has developed and refined his own recognisable style of geometric abstraction and most notably his characteristic motif of the ‘stripe'. Although he his predominately known for his monumental paintings, he is also a gifted printmaker who has made a notable body of woodcuts and etchings.

Best known for his monumental sculptures in iron and stone, Eduardo Chillida also has a distinguished oeuvre of etchings, lithographs and woodcuts, which retain something of the physical, weighty quality of his sculptures. Chillida’s work often makes reference to the work of poets, writers and philosophers admired by the artist. Linear Abstraction will feature a series of aquatints which were published to accompany a body of poetry by Swiss poet Charles Racine.

Ellsworth Kelly’s rigorous exploration of colour and form made him a key figure in post-war Abstraction. His pioneering works fuse Minimalism, Colour Field Painting and Modernism.

The exhibition will feature several lithographs by the artist. Exploiting the sharp contrast between its component colours, Yellow/Black (1970) suggests a three-dimensional form, whilst Red/Yellow/Blue (1990) continues an expansive series of two and three-colour paintings.

Robert Mangold elides lyrical structures with hard edge colour. Since the 1960s Mangold, an influential member of the American Minimalist school, has developed an artistic vocabulary derived from the idea of geometry and asymmetry in shape and form. Mangold's use of subtle colour and curvilinear abstract forms are associated with Minimalism but also recall other sources from Ancient Greek pottery to Renaissance frescoes.

About Alan Cristea Gallery
One of the leading commercial contemporary galleries in Europe, the Alan Cristea Gallery is the primary representative for a number of established international contemporary artists, artists' estates and emerging artists. The gallery opened at 31 Cork Street in 1995 and since then has expanded to a second exhibition space at 34 Cork Street, with both galleries showing a continuous programme of exhibitions including contemporary paintings, works on paper, sculpture and installations. In addition, the gallery is known for its commitment to original prints and editions, commissioning and facilitating innovative projects by outstanding artists, and is the largest publisher of contemporary editions and prints in Europe. Forthcoming projects include Gillian Ayres, Michael Craig-Martin, Edmund de Waal, Ian Davenport, Jim Dine and Howard Hodgkin.

The gallery is a member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association and Alan Cristea is treasurer of the Society of London Art Dealers.

Image: Richard Serra, Trajectory #2, Etching, 2004

For press information and images please contact:
Kara Reaney and Amy Sutcliffe at Pelham Communications
Tel: +44 20 8969 3959
Email: kara@pelhamcommunications.com or amys@pelhamcommunications.com

Private View: 10 September 6-7.30pm

Alan Cristea Gallery
34 Cork Street, London W1
10am-5.30pm Mon-Fri, 11am-2pm Sat
Admission free

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