Two Exhibitions
dal 17/3/2015 al 17/4/2015
Segnalato da
17/3/2015
Two Exhibitions
Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
Grand Canyon by Paul McDevitt consists of a series of large-scale charcoal drawings measuring two metres in height. Anne Truitt presents twenty-seven works on paper from 1962-1999 and shed insight into her investigations with graphite, ink, acrylic and pastel on paper.
Paul McDevitt: Grand Canyon
Stephen Friedman Gallery is delighted to present a new body of work by Berlin-based, British artist Paul McDevitt. This is the artist's fifth show with the gallery and follows recent exhibitions at the Henry Moore Foundation and Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts.
‘Grand Canyon' consists of a series of large-scale charcoal drawings measuring two metres in height which can be seen as contemporary re-appropriations of Pop Art. Throughout his career, McDevitt has deftly juxtaposed the tropes of art history with ‘lower' art forms such as cartoon imagery and graffiti. These arresting new works share Pop Art's vital energy and cartoon gesture, but resonate with more recent times of uncertainty, particularly in relation to the instability of the British economy. McDevitt found inspiration for the series in the whitewashed windows of derelict shops across the UK. Through the handling of two humble materials, paper and charcoal, he creates a poignant and dramatic trompe l'oeil effect in each work. Built up layer by layer, these monumental swirls encompass the entire sheet of paper and mimick the gestures of the white wash. In hidden areas we discover the textual remnants of faded signs and peeling posters. Executed with physical movement and energy, the works hover in the space between abstraction and figuration.
The drawings playfully and evocatively recall the changing face of the historic British High Street in light of the recent recession. They act in part as a celebration of the diversification of the High Street, and in part as a lament. The title of the show, ‘Grand Canyon', harks back to this idea of conflict and transition by referring to a popular and familiar place, but also to a sense of emptiness and the void. This element of pathos is continued in the textural nature of the works, a tribute to gestural painting which recalls the artist's teenage ambitions to become an abstract painter. Through the optimism inherent in their energy and Pop sensibility, the pathos conveyed in each work is infused with a lighter undercurrent. As such, the drawings suggest both intimate ideas of success and failure, and more widely, a ‘British' form of self-deprecation.
‘Grand Canyon' presents an exciting development for the artist both in terms of media, scale and conceptual intent. Each compelling drawing entices the viewer with its intricate detail, while relating to both our social fabric and to changing ideas of British identity.
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Anne Truitt: Drawings
Working on paper is marvellously freeing - something about the way in which it so generously offers itself to the hand, its absorptive perfect flatness, invites a kind of open play.' Anne Truitt, Prospect
Stephen Friedman Gallery is proud to present the first UK solo exhibition of drawings by renowned American artist, Anne Truitt. Featuring twenty-seven works on paper, directly from the Estate, they span four decades and offer unprecedented insight into the artist's practice and her daily ritual of drawing. The presentation follows on from retrospectives at Delaware Art Museum and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
Hailed as the first ever Minimalist by Clement Greenberg, a term she refuted, Truitt is perhaps best known for her painted columns of solid blocks of colour. Truitt's practice in all media generated a new language of abstraction. Most evident in her drawings, however, is Truitt's lifelong fascination with line, edge and colour. These intimate works shed new light on the way Truitt experimented with these key compositional elements throughout her career.
Following a period of intense exploration, in 1962 Truitt started to make drawings in deliberate and sometimes concurrent series. The works in the exhibition cover the period from 1962 - 1999 and shed insight into her investigations with graphite, ink, acrylic and pastel on paper. In the works entitled ‘Sable', Truitt applies black acrylic with the lightest touch: one or two simple lines strike across the sheet. When viewed more closely, the seemingly simple line is beautifully detailed. Similarly, a body of ‘colour-field' works included in the show each present an intense expanse of colour, but also contain a full range of light and shadow achieved through the layering of paint. Their intense luminosity shines with incandescence.
Drawing was a crucial part of Truitt's practice, and each work is imbued with both an authenticity of feeling and a raw physicality. These drawings bring us closest to Truitt's immediate interaction with art-making, and display the full breadth of her inimitable and committed visual language.
Anne Truitt: Drawings is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, which includes an in depth
essay by Gilda Williams.
Image: Paul McDevitt, Stob, 2014
Press Contact:
Mary Tagg: +44 (0) 20 7494 1434 / mary@stephenfriedman.com
Opening: Wednesday 18 March 2015, 6-8pm
Stephen Friedman Gallery
25 - 28 Old Burlington Street
Tue - Fri 10am to 6pm, Sat 11am to 5pm