Extended Drawing
Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold,
Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra
18.09.2011 – 15.01.2012
Second floor
Extended Drawing focuses on a specific aspect of the work of American artists Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Bruce Nauman and Richard Serra. The exhibition shows works in which line and drawing are taken beyond their original boundaries.
The exhibition brings four artists together, who belong to the 'classical' generation that gave direction to American art from the mid-sixties. These four artists have consistently used drawing in their zeal to strip art of easy (false) sentimentality and an over-emphasized subjectivity. Their endeavour to achieve universality leads them to a far-reaching objectification of visual means.
Extended Drawing stands for the art that transcends the limitations of all the traditional values that are part and parcel of the various mediums. For some time already, painting and sculpture have demonstrated all sorts of 'extended' forms, including significant contributions by these four artists. However, until now, the inclusion of drawing has not been on the agenda.
The exhibition will occupy the whole of the 2nd floor. This will give plenty of space to each artist and enable forty large works to be shown.
Sol LeWitt's first wall drawing dates from 1968 and was created in the Paula Cooper Gallery in New York. Creating a wall drawing was a sudden, radical, but for LeWitt logical switch from three-dimensional to two-dimensional. He had suddenly found a method whereby he could escape the limitations of paper and canvas, but even more importantly he could work directly on the wall (or floor) without the intervention of a support (canvas or paper). In his own work, he thus changed the role of drawing as a modest medium into drawing on a large scale in architectural spaces.
Robert Mangold has always adhered to the same strict formula of striving for a balance between surface, colour, line and form. His work is characterized by his use of the 'shaped canvas'. The artist, however, regards his works as paintings rather than objects, even though he claims not to be interested in painting techniques. Mangold starts each of his works by drawing quick sketches, in which he makes the most important decisions intuitively. The best ideas are developed on a larger scale, in graphite and pastel on paper, after which several versions are created on canvas. In pen¬cil on the shaped canvas, he creates a grid structure, which he uses to draw the thicker lines: ovals, waves, scrolls and circles.
Bruce Nauman abandoned early on painting and began a restless investigation into the possibilities of sculpture, performance, installations, film, video, photography and neon for his work. For the neons, Bruce Nauman made sketches in pencil, charcoal and watercolour. For the figures, he used the outlines of the bodies of himself and his wife. The double outlines in different colours indicate where neon is to be used, and the layered figures indicate how they will appear when the neon flashes on and off. The primary colours red, yellow and blue are used for the male figures, while the female figures are represented in softer shades like pink, green and orange. The timing of the sequences is very important and is fixed and repeated in a continual loop, each figure having its own individual programme.
Richard Serra is known mainly for his large-scale sculptures in Corten steel, which are constructed in such a way as to sound out the limits of the laws of gravity. Serra's drawings are not sketches for his sculptures, but autonomous works of art. Although he has been drawing since 1972, his first solo exhibition only came in 1974, at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York. Originally, he worked in charcoal, but switched to paintstick from 1973. He developed his own procedure for making large blocks of paintstick (a mix of oil pastel, tar, beeswax and resin), which enabled him to work large surface areas with a single movement. This material quality allows people to experi¬ence his drawings as an object rather than as a flat surface, which is what they actually are.
Film projection
An exclusive 'work in progress' of the documentary Sol LeWitt by Chris Teerink on the artist's work and ideas has been shown during the opening of Extended Drawing on Sunday 18 September. The chosen extract contented discussions with Lawrence Weiner and Flip Bool, who handles a letter from LeWitt to Enno Develing.
Publication
Extended Drawing is accompanied by a publication (375 x 265 mm, edition of 1500, 76 pages, 45 color illustrations). Available from the Museum Shop (€ 17.50).
Accomodation deal Extended Drawing
Book our Extended Drawing special deal ! Including hotel room at Eden Designhotel Maastricht, dinner at Brasserie Flo and free entrance at the museum ! Available for 95 € p.p. until 15th January 2012
Read more
Klara is the mediapartner of the show.
Work in progress
The installation of four wall drawings by Sol LeWitt has begun. More to see from September 18th on !
The installation of four wall drawings by Sol LeWitt has begun. More to see from September 18th on !
Download here the visitor's guide of the show.
Quotes by the artists in Extended Drawing
Sol LeWitt. Sentences on Conceptual Art, Nr. 8, first published in 0-9 (New York), 1969, and Art-Language (England), May 1969
The wall is understood as an absolute space, just like the pages of a book. One is public, the other private. Lines, points, figures, etc. are located in these spaces by the use of words. The words are the paths to understanding of the location of the points. The points are verified by words.
Sol LeWitt and Drawing,Bernice Rose, SLW ed. By Alicia Legg, MOMA, 1978. p.35
When I first started drawing on the wall, the logic of the idea took over. From line to form, from flatness to dimensionality, without illusion and the use of color. It might seem to some that color is synonymous with decoration, but I try to use color objectively.
At first I used colored ink, starting with the three primary colors. … Later I used acrylic paint with the addition of three secondary colors—green, orange and purple—but without mixing them. I do not use color for effect, although I see no evil in that.
Sol LeWitt, interview with Saul Ostrow, Fall 2003
To use black is the clearest way of marking against a white field, no matter whether you use lead or charcoal or paintstick. It is also the clearest way of marking without creating associative meanings. … A canvas covered with black remains an extension of drawing in that it is an extension of marking.
Richard Serra Drawings Zeichnungen 1969-1990; Notes on drawing, p. 11. Benteli AG, Berne, 1990
I like to draw. It is an activity I rely on, a dependency of sorts. Drawing gives me an immediate return for my effort and the result is commensurate with my involvement. It is an activity that requires solitude, it is the most concentrated space in which I work.
Richard Serra 1971
There is no way to make a drawing – there is only drawing.
Richard Serra 1977
Robert Mangold, Four Large Paintings/Vier grosse Malereien, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld/Kunsthalle Basel, 1977, n.p.
I think a lot about the relation of drawing to painting. … I was really concerned about whether drawing was a meaningful category, how drawing was separated from painting. What actually defines a drawing and what doesn't define a painting. And I don't particularly like the term "painting" because I think it does put the emphasis on this old idea of process, or applying paint.
Robert Mangold, interview with Robin White, View, vol.1. no.1, December 1978
I have wondered why the drawing connection has not been brought up in terms of my work, they are as much drawings as paintings.
Robert Mangold to Alexander van Grevenstein 06.01.2011
Brenda Richardson, Bruce Nauman Neons, Baltimore Museum of Art,1982, p. 29
Instead of organizing a formalized plan with violence as a theme, it seemed more interesting to take the idea and just go with it.
With the figure neons, the timing sequence is very important - it becomes violent. The pace and the repetition make it hard to see the figures, and although the figures are literally engaged with violent acts, the colors are pretty – so the confusion and the dichotomy of what is going on are important too.
Please, pay attention, please: Bruce Nauman's words, p. 374 (Talking with BN, Christopher Cordes, 1989)
SOL LEWITT
When words such as painting and sculpture are used, they connote a whole tradition and imply a consequent acceptance of this tradition, thus placing limitations on the artist who would be reluctant to make art that goes beyond the limitations.Sol LeWitt. Sentences on Conceptual Art, Nr. 8, first published in 0-9 (New York), 1969, and Art-Language (England), May 1969
The wall is understood as an absolute space, just like the pages of a book. One is public, the other private. Lines, points, figures, etc. are located in these spaces by the use of words. The words are the paths to understanding of the location of the points. The points are verified by words.
Sol LeWitt and Drawing,Bernice Rose, SLW ed. By Alicia Legg, MOMA, 1978. p.35
When I first started drawing on the wall, the logic of the idea took over. From line to form, from flatness to dimensionality, without illusion and the use of color. It might seem to some that color is synonymous with decoration, but I try to use color objectively.
At first I used colored ink, starting with the three primary colors. … Later I used acrylic paint with the addition of three secondary colors—green, orange and purple—but without mixing them. I do not use color for effect, although I see no evil in that.
Sol LeWitt, interview with Saul Ostrow, Fall 2003
RICHARD SERRA
I am aware that people call my black drawing installations sculptural. Not only are these drawings flat and flush with the wall, but they do not create any illusion of three-dimensionality. They do, however, involve the viewer with the specific three-dimensionality of the site of the installation.To use black is the clearest way of marking against a white field, no matter whether you use lead or charcoal or paintstick. It is also the clearest way of marking without creating associative meanings. … A canvas covered with black remains an extension of drawing in that it is an extension of marking.
Richard Serra Drawings Zeichnungen 1969-1990; Notes on drawing, p. 11. Benteli AG, Berne, 1990
I like to draw. It is an activity I rely on, a dependency of sorts. Drawing gives me an immediate return for my effort and the result is commensurate with my involvement. It is an activity that requires solitude, it is the most concentrated space in which I work.
Richard Serra 1971
There is no way to make a drawing – there is only drawing.
Richard Serra 1977
ROBERT MANGOLD
There are four elements in the works, the outside shapes or contour, the actual division of the piece, creating an infrastructure, the color-surface and the drawn line on the surface and in relation to the other elements.Robert Mangold, Four Large Paintings/Vier grosse Malereien, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld/Kunsthalle Basel, 1977, n.p.
I think a lot about the relation of drawing to painting. … I was really concerned about whether drawing was a meaningful category, how drawing was separated from painting. What actually defines a drawing and what doesn't define a painting. And I don't particularly like the term "painting" because I think it does put the emphasis on this old idea of process, or applying paint.
Robert Mangold, interview with Robin White, View, vol.1. no.1, December 1978
I have wondered why the drawing connection has not been brought up in terms of my work, they are as much drawings as paintings.
Robert Mangold to Alexander van Grevenstein 06.01.2011
BRUCE NAUMAN
I still get tired of working on one idea, in one medium, for too extended a period and, in that sense, I divert myself by moving to something else.Brenda Richardson, Bruce Nauman Neons, Baltimore Museum of Art,1982, p. 29
Instead of organizing a formalized plan with violence as a theme, it seemed more interesting to take the idea and just go with it.
With the figure neons, the timing sequence is very important - it becomes violent. The pace and the repetition make it hard to see the figures, and although the figures are literally engaged with violent acts, the colors are pretty – so the confusion and the dichotomy of what is going on are important too.
Please, pay attention, please: Bruce Nauman's words, p. 374 (Talking with BN, Christopher Cordes, 1989)