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New
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FRANK
GEHRY
New Lithographs
Among the most innovative architects in history,
Frank Gehry's buildings seem to defy the natural laws of physics.
He makes solid materials appear fluid, and his buildings have
been compared to dancers and sculpture. Gehry pays no attention
to precedence or the "rules" in architecture that
bind his colleagues and predecessors. Scarcely anywhere in
his oeuvre is a traditional grid structure; pretending never
to worry about whether or not a structure will stand, he designs
without traditional restraints and finds a way to make his
buildings sound.
For
Gehry, drawing is inextricably linked with the germination
of his ideas and design process. Unlike traditional, utilitarian
architectural drawings, Gehry's fluid, lyrical lines simply
convey a loose relationship of space and form.
Working
with Gemini G.E.L., for whom he designed an early building
in 1979, Gehry has recently completed eight new lithographs
featuring his architectural sketches. Gemini provided Gehry
with litho-friendly drawing materials so that he could sketch
when ideas flowed. The resulting eight lithographs are intimate
sketches of chairs, houses, the IAC Building in lower Manhattan,
and the Guggenheim's new Abu Dhabi museum, that epitomize
the spirit of what has defined him as an architect.
BRUCE
NAUMAN
Infrared Outtakes and Soft Ground Etchings
One of the most versatile and influential contemporary
artists, Bruce Nauman moves effortlessly between sculpture,
video, film, sound installation, drawing and printmaking.
Since the 1960s, he has experimented with emerging technology,
including video, holography, neon, infrared film, as well
as a wide range of printmaking techniques. His two recent
series published by the Los Angeles-based artists workshop,
Gemini G.E.L., Soft Ground Etchings and Infrared
Outtakes, find their source in early photographs taken
on infrared film.
In
1968, Nauman approached photographer and friend, Jack Fulton,
and asked him to document a session of him contorting his
face with his hand using the then newly-developed process
of holography. These photographs became the source images
of Nauman's iconic series, Studies for Holograms (1970),
published by Castelli Gallery. In preparation for the exhibition,
A Rose Has No Teeth: Bruce Nauman in the 1960s, curator
Constance M. Lewallen unearthed some of underexposed images
captured 40 years ago in that photo session and Nauman worked
with Fulton to breathe new life into them digitally. Nauman
approached Gemini G.E.L., where he had been making prints
since the early 70s, to publish the series Infrared Outtakes
as part of the workshop's 40th Anniversary program. These
four inkjet prints are Gemini's first series of digital photographs.
Inspired
by these images and a return to the Gemini workshop, Nauman
began his work on the series of six Soft Ground Etchings.
Soft ground is an etching technique for drawing a softer,
more textured line similar to charcoal, crayon and pencil.
The soft ground process allows the artist to draw directly
on paper offering a more familiar feel than drawing on a polished
copper surface. For this reason, these prints rival the sensuality
and fluidity of his drawing. Initially, he drew Neck Pull,
Hands Only, and Cockeye Lips. He returned to the
workshop armed with images from Studies for Holograms-(Pinched
Lips, Pulled Cheeks and Squeezed Lips) to create
3 more editions for this series. Originally conceived to be
black and white, as the project progressed Nauman decided
that each image needed a colored background and an aquatint
was applied to achieve the effect.
ED
RUSCHA
Cityscapes
It's difficult to talk about Ruscha's work without mentioning
the west coast. A seminal American artist, he is more specifically,
a progeny of Los Angeles. He left his home-state of Oklahoma
to attend Chouinard Art Institute (now Cal Arts) with the
intention of becoming a commercial artist, and this has influenced
his work ever since. An excellent draughtsman, he's always
been drawn to clean compositions and has used text in his
work since the 1950's.
Ruscha's
new series of prints, entitled Cityscapes, are marvelous
examples of this artist's wicked and rather dark, complex
sense of humor. For each of the five lithographs, Ruscha has
laid-down a neutral "texture" background, made via
the photographic transfer of various fabrics. Redacted from
these neutral backgrounds are crime notes, either imagined
or actual, which are relocated to the bottom margin. The phrases
are both menacing and amusing, such as "STICK UP - DON'T
MOVE - SMILE" or "I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN YOUR TESTIMONY
PUT ME IN HERE". The font is small and very plain; its
format is slyly suggestive of an eye-chart, daring the recipient
to read the message. These are Ruscha at his best - deftly
manipulating a seemingly banal arrangement of imagery and
text into an engaging end-result.
RICHARD
SERRA
Paths and Edges
At 67, Richard Serra is at the top of his game.
With the permanent installation of 8 massive steel sculptures
in Spain at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, numerous public
and private commissions, and his wildly acclaimed mid-career
retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, his chapter
in the annals of art history is guaranteed. In addition to
being a sculptor, Serra has been making prints at Gemini G.E.L.
in Los Angeles for over thirty years. He returns to the workshop
often to draw and to collaborate with Master Printer Xavier
Fumat, leaving behind greasy remnants of Paintstik on every
surface of the artist's studio and exciting new images.
Following
his 2006 series, Between the Torus and the Sphere,
Serra returned to the workshop in the spring of 2007 to create
Paths and Edges. The 13 prints in this series are smaller
in scale than the preceding series but have much bolder lines.
Filling the sheet like a magnified close-up, the heavily textured
etched imagery covers much of the buff-colored paper, with
only small slivers separating the curved black bands.
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