Extended Drawing

Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Bruce Nauman & Richard Serra
18.09.2011 – 15.01.2012


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.

Please follow this link to see pictures of the preparatory works around the installation of Sol LeWitt's four wall drawings in Extended Drawing.

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 (premiere fall 2011) on the artist's work and ideas will be shown during the opening of Extended Drawing on Sunday 18 September. The chosen extract contents 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 from September.


Pers preview

You are kindly invited for a preview of Extended Drawing, on appointment from Tuesday to Friday, from 11 am to 5pm (pressoffice@bonnefanten.nl - T 00 31 43 329 01 10).
Alexander van Grevenstein, director of the Bonnefantenmuseum and curator of the show, will guide you through the rooms of the museum's second floor. 

Klara is the mediapartner of the exhibition.


Download here the press release as pdf.

Beeldmateriaal

lees de voorwaarden voordat u het beeldmateriaal download. Wij stellen het erg op prijs om een bewijsexemplaar van de publicatie te ontvangen!

	Sol LeWitt wall drawing #1183, 2005 Foto Peter Cox
	Sol LeWitt wall drawing #901, 1999 Foto Peter Cox
	Sol LeWitt wall drawing #366, 1982 Foto Peter Cox
	Sol LeWitt wall drawing #836, 1998 Foto Peter Cox
	Robert Mangold Plane/Figure Series C (Double panel), Study 1, 1993 Acrylic and black pencil on canvas 142,2 x 213,3 cm Private collection Foto Peter Cox
	BRUCE NAUMAN Sex and Death (1985) Neon tubing on aluminum panel 182,9 x 243,8 x 29,2 cm Herbert Foundation © ©Bruce Nauman/Artists Society (ARS), New York.
	BRUCE NAUMAN Sex and Death (1985) Neon tubing on aluminum panel 182,9 x 243,8 x 29,2 cm Herbert Foundation © ©Bruce Nauman/Artists Society (ARS), New York.
	BRUCE NAUMAN Sex and Death (1985) Neon tubing on aluminum panel 182,9 x 243,8 x 29,2 cm Herbert Foundation © ©Bruce Nauman/Artists Society (ARS), New York.
	ROBERT MANGOLD Curved Plane/Figure XI, 1995 Acrylic and pencil on canvas 274,5 x 550 cm Contemporary Art Collection »La Caixa «, Spain © »La Caixa « Foundation Archives © ©Robert Mangold/Artists Society (ARS), New York.
	RICHARD SERRA Egyptian Horsemix i: Squared to the Floor, 1979 Paint stick on paper 329 x 396 cm Private collection, Belgium © ©Richard Serra/Artists Society (ARS), New York.
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon
	Foto Ernst van Loon