Dean Kessmann
dal 18/2/2004 al 27/3/2004
Segnalato da
18/2/2004
Dean Kessmann
Conner Contemporary Art, Washington
Cover to Cover. For 'Cover to Cover' Kessmann combines the visual appeal of color-field painting with the conceptual foundations of appropriation and typology in a breathtaking installation. The artist attributes the inspiration for this new work to his habit of thumbing through art magazines, such as ArtForum and Art in America, rolling them into cylinders, and musing over the colorful patterns formed by the overlapping edges of their pages.
"Cover to Cover"
Conner Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the first Washington, D.C.
solo exhibition by Dean Kessmann, Coordinator of the George Washington
University's photography program. For "Cover to Cover" Kessmann combines the
visual appeal of color-field painting with the conceptual foundations of
appropriation and typology in a breathtaking installation. The artist
attributes the inspiration for this new work to his habit of thumbing
through art magazines, such as ArtForum and Art in America, rolling them
into cylinders, and musing over the colorful patterns formed by the
overlapping edges of their pages.
Kessmann identifies as an antecedent Sherrie Levine's photographic
appropriation in 1979 of photographs made in 1925 by Edward Weston. Because
art is reproduced in the magazines he images, Kessmann designates his works
as 'appropriations of reproductions of reproductions.' He elaborates, 'The
digital mutation - dots of ink placed on magazine stock, scanned,
manipulated and saved, then output with ink sprayed onto fine art paper - is
as referential as it is abstract.' Departing from Levine's direct
reproductions, Kessmann distances his images formally from their objective
sources. Selectively manipulating proximity, format, and scale, he reduces
magazine pages to thin streams of color in what appear at first sight as
nonrepresentational compositions.
Varying colors and linear rhythms distinguish Kessmann's images from one
another. Tema Celeste, November/December 2003 (front) has a warm palette of
yellows, reds, and oranges, for example, but Art Journal, Winter 2003
(front) has a much paler and cooler range of hues. Working in the tradition
of Bernd and Hilla Becher's typologies of the early 1970s, Kessmann
conceived his serial compositions as a study in variation among like
structures. Whereas the Bechers avoided the intrusion of personal presence
in their documentation of industrial artifacts, Kessmann's scanned images
bespeak his handling of raw materials. The action of the artist's hand is
evident in the slight crimping of the edges of the magazine pages. These
irregularities create gently undulating ribbons of pigment in Kessmann's
prints, which give them a pictorial affinity with the works of Washington
Color painter Morris Louis.
For the installation Kessmann adopts a horizontal format which is for him
both reminiscent of American landscape painting and evocative of
contemporary streams of digital code. Arranging prints in rows that wrap
frieze-like around the gallery, the artist varies the scale of his prints to
create the appearance of intermittently faster and slower flowing passages
of digital data. With this technological conceit Kessmann prompts reflection
on the impact of digital technology in the discourse on originality and
appropriation in art, a cultural exchange which will be meaningfully
advanced by this much anticipated exhibition.
There will be a reception for the artist Thursday, February 19, 6-8pm.
Image: ARTFORUM V.XLII N.4 (front) 2004, epson digital image, dimensions vary.
H: Tuesday - Saturday: 11-6pm.
Conner Contemporary Art
1730 Connecticut Avenue, NW - 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20009
V: + 202-588-8750