Win Knowlton
dal 18/2/2002 al 30/3/2002
Segnalato da
18/2/2002
Win Knowlton
Paul Rodgers / 9W, New York
The sculpture that Win Knowlton presents today at Paul Rodgers shows an artist developing from the industrial landscape based work with which he made his reputation in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. Paul Rodgers/9W has been pleased to present key examples of this earlier work, namely Ugly Beauty from 1989 and East River Landscape from 1993 in recent group shows, in order to reacquaint his public with this background. Although this industrial landscape is still key, the new work now evokes a more contained urban environment.
NEW WORK
The sculpture that Win Knowlton presents today at Paul Rodgers shows an artist developing from the industrial landscape based work with which
he made his reputation in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s in his well-received 1987 MoMA Projects exhibit and in subsequent exhibitions at the
Blum/Helman Gallery.
Paul Rodgers/9W has been pleased to present key examples of this earlier work, namely Ugly Beauty from 1989 and East
River Landscape from 1993 in recent group shows, in order to reacquaint his public with this background.
Although this industrial landscape is
still key, the new work now evokes a more contained urban environment.
In the current pluralistic art scene, it may be argued that Knowlton at mid-career presents one scenario for what contemporary sculpture can
offer today.
While his point of view encompasses the subjectively neutral stance of Minimalism, and may nod in passing at the whimsy and
nonchalance of the Pop idiom, he upholds the idea that art is made by individuals rather than movements. While he has looked carefully at and
absorbed the successive movements of contemporary art, he has paid more attention to what can be learnt from a small group of distinguished
predecessors, with the purpose of tracking down the enduring concerns of his medium.
The result, in the work that he presents today, is art of a
highly personal, even sometimes idiosyncratic, mold which is balanced by an understanding of how form must be refined in order to capture real
experience and hold the attention.
The work in the current exhibition continues the use of metal and concrete as its primary materials.
In the new work, Knowlton takes up
perforated sheet metal to both add a lightness to the material and a retinal density to the image.
These superimposed perforated layers act as
lens and/or filters for the act of looking itself. The perforated metal is sometimes framed, capped or grounded by the concrete. In Clouds Nine,
Knowlton develops the weather motif that has been present in previous work.
The clouds reverse the logic of the perforated pieces, so that
where the latter attempt to turn steel into a dematerialized vapor, the clouds attempt to turn vapor into matter.
Win Knowlton’s work is included in many public collections. A sampling of these follow: the Brooklyn Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum, MoMA and
the National Gallery in Washington DC. He is the recipient of numerous awards including a New York Foundation for the Arts Grant, an
Augustus St. Gaudens Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship and Studio Space at PS1.
A catalogue with text by the poet Michael Gizzi will
accompany the exhibition.
Tuesday-Saturday 11-6 and by appointment
For more information, please contact the gallery by phone at 212 414 9810 or by email
Image: Terminal Landscape, 1989
cast concrete and copper pipe, 47" x 66" x 47 ½"
Paul Rodgers / 9W
529 West 20th Street, 9th Floor
New York, NY 10011
t. 212.414.9810
f. 212.414.9844