| Donald
Baechler |
Brett
De Palma |
| Michael
Byron |
Robin
Winters |
This exhibition was conceptualized by Aart
de Jong and is being presented in his memory.
Donald Baechler
In March and April 1986, in various hotel
rooms in Lisbon, Portugal, I developed a working method suited to
the peculiar restrictions attendant with any attempt to use the
hotel room as a studio. This resulted in an extensive and continuing
series of small blue ink drawings and collages, all of them produced
in hotel rooms.
From the start, the small blue drawings have tended to organize
themselves into suites, which I have sometimes named after the location
of production. The first of these was the 122 part York House Suite,
after the small hotel in Lisbon where the first works were produced.
Exhibited here is 1panema Suite, after the neighborhood in Rio de
Janeiro where I have stayed, at various times and in various hotels,
between November 1986 and October 1987. Certain of these hotel-specific
works have proved useful in coping with the increasing cost of good
quality hotel accommodations. Aart de Jong, while organizing the
original version of this exhibition, derived evident pleasure, when
purchasing two drawings made at the Palace Hotel in Madrid, in paying
for them exactly the amount I paid for the room as it appeared on
a credit card statement. Seven Hundred Seventy-two dollars and eighteen
cents.
Michael Byron
Drawing Statement
Until Redon and Blake the Artist's drawing
functioned primarily as a stepping stone and guide post towards
a greater end; the finished masterpiece; the Painting. Their works
on paper, however, became ends unto themselves, the reason being
the Symbolist content each explored.
No less important to Drawing's emancipation
is Modernism, where a work on paper's importance could stand alongside
the time honored practice of Painting without fear of being considered
a lesser activity.
So where have these two divergent paths led the state of Drawing?
Back to where drawing began, for like the wall drawings at Altamira,
knowledge of the vocabulary used, makes a drawing an historical
document, and when that knowledge evades the viewer, what remains
is the fascination with creation itself.
Brett De Palma
Artist's Statement on Aart
I remember doing the drawings on the kitchen
table in the country, in the rainy night, while waiting for the
linemen to come and fix the bare wires where sparks bounced up
and down. I remember going from the table, to the door, back to
the table to carve out small bits of the drawing at a time; honing
out the little statues like stone. Later that summer, I remember
going to the phone from that same table to hear a message on the
machine in the city from Aart's wife about how his birthday party
had been cancelled.
There was no explaining; no ego-maniacal posturing; no axe to
grind; no dealer's spy; not out to make a killing; no down-the-nose
perspective; no "I am here to help you-do as I say; " no power
broking; yet utterly unafraid. He took the artist on his own.
I remember Aart's lack of both pretention and bluff. I did not
get that all too tired sense of a poker game. There were no questions
of what exactly was it that I was doing, but rather the smile
of recognition.
There was excitement in meeting someone who seemed to be coming
from the other side of the fence, only to realize that he was
really a kindred spirit on the same side: a creative artist in
another guise.
Sometimes the brevity is actually a lifetime. This princely human
seems all the more missed to me now for his rarified humanity.
All of his taken away in a flash. What is the meaning in that?
The meaning is that I will remember Aart. The, tragedy for me
is now, when you are no longer here, I feel like I want to know
you even more!
Robin Winters
The drawings I am showing, Anticipating
The Inevitable, 1983, were chosen last year by Aart de Jong in
my studio at 591 Broadway. Aart brought up the idea of a group
show with Michael, Donald, Brett and Robin. It made perfect sense.
I said yes and we had some tea. We talked about James Ensor, Paul
Klee, Jose Guadalupe Posada and George Roualt and then some others
like the Flemish Expressionists Permeke and De Smeet, Symbolists
Kubin and Redon. Then we looked at drawings. Aart chose twelve
drawings which we agreed should stay together as a set.
12 Skeletal images made in a moment. The image of Death as a moment
of passage into several different afterworlds. The shared innocence
of the unknown that can only be assumed. What is so funny about
death anyway! Life can be death if you don't live it.
Happy sad mad glad we-do it and we die. The dance of death. Our
deadline is always around the corner. The facial expressions of
the wise and foolish follow us always. This body is a machine
whose manipulations are intentional metaphors for mind and spirit.
I know I will never get out of this world alive. We are a sleeping
unconsciousness made of postures and gestures. The spirit meets
the body. Heavenly and Earthly love embrace us. Can you miss someone
because you didn't get to know them better? Yes you can.
Read other essays
from the Lawrence Oliver Gallery
|
