„The story of Ur-painting begins like this: An agent – he is yet no artist – holding a charged instrument places himself next to a support and deposits marks.” (Richard Wollheim – Painting as an Art)
A fictive genealogy of painting sketched out by Wollheim calls attention to a potential that can be imputed as something common to the activity and outcomes of all painting. The first mark signifies the establishment of the autonomy of this action. Each further mark demands reflection and intention, a reference to what was previously defined. New aspects of the activity come to the fore and become thematicized, the support, the edges, the surface. In most cases, contact is made with the support and movement and manipulation of the paint is effected with the brush, palette knife or another implement, sometimes with the hands, the fingers or through the pouring of paint. The presence of the artistic self is made manifest. In social life, touch and near-touch are subject to many rules and taboos, as they provide a means for exchanging communications, expressing feelings, generating and feeling desire and thus involve the body’s participation. A physical and mental presence of the painter also becomes visible and palpable on the surface of the painting. The painting reveals how it was created or it reveals nothing but its surface. Ingres dismissed the visibility of the brushstroke as ‘abuse of execution’ and as ‘...a quality of false talents, of false artists’. Yet the very brushstroke of the artist, his own particular technique, has long been accorded considerable attention. An explicit repudiation of such attributes and values thus also bears particular significance and can be understood as epochal change.
Who is this artist self that reveals and conceals itself? It would be a fatal misunderstanding to postulate a self based on our historically established notion of individuality. By no means is such a self reflected or depicted. The strong artistic self owes its development and impact to artistic action and access to the cultural inventory and cultural topicality. Richard Shiff recently published an extensive essay that makes the technique of applying paint with a brush – the ‘stroke’ in English, ‘touche’ in French – a central point of observation. (R. Shiff – Lucky Cézanne - Cézanne Tychique) More than through any other means, Paul Cézanne availed himself of the application and character of his brushstroke to open up aesthetic and ethical spheres, inspire and expand vision and knowledge. Shiff draws a connection between Cézanne and the works of contemporary artists. The painting of Sylvia Plimack Mangold is dealt with in detail. Over the course of more than four decades, she has created a wholly independent, significant painterly oeuvre. Her preoccupation with the painted image, representation and the motif possesses an extraordinary intensity and consistency. Her work is characterized by a great breadth, a rare artistic and analytical awareness.
James Bishop initially created large, deep, solemn paintings. The format, typically 195 x 195 cm, has a natural correlation to the physical height of the artist and an artistic connection to the handling of canvas and color application. A skin of paint, sometimes quiet and closed, sometimes more animated and open, divulges traces of the brush and a formal framework through a subtle transition from density to transparency in the color material. More and more, he has applied his painterly sensitivity and experience and his artistic desires to his dense, small paintings on paper. Initially more of an auxiliary endeavor, this increasingly dominant parallel action in his oeuvre is unparalleled in the painting of the last forty years.
Installation view room 4
Installation view room 1
Installation view room 2
Installation view room 2
Installation view room 2
Installation view room 3
Installation view room 3
Installation view room 3
Installation view room 4
Installation view office
Installation view office
Installation view office
Sylvia Plimack Mangold
Light on Rule,
Wall and Tape
1975
61 x 76 cm
acrylic on canvas
Sylvia Plimack Mangold
Before Painting
on the Tape Color
1977
76.5 x 92 cm
acrylic on canvas
Sylvia Plimack Mangold
Floor with Laundry #2
1970
91.5 x 116.8 cm
acrylic on canvas
Sylvia Plimack Mangold
Mirrors, 21 July 73
1973
66 x 56.5 cm
acrylic and pencil on paper
Sylvia Plimack Mangold
Untitled (staircase)
1968
61 x 45.7 cm
pencil on paper
Sylvia Plimack Mangold
Untitled (staircase)
1968
73.6 x 58.5 cm
acrylic and pencil on paper
Sylvia Plimack-Mangold
The Locust Trees
with Maple
1989
61 x 51 cm
oil on canvas
Sylvia Plimack Mangold
The Maple Tree,
Summer 2007
2007
114.3 x 152.4 cm
oil on linen
Sylvia Plimack Mangold
Summer Pin Oak
1998
152.5 x 152.5 cm
oil on canvas
Sylvia Plimack-Mangold
The Maple Tree 1998
1998
81.3 x 59 cm
lithograph
Edition 9/40
Sylvia Plimack-Mangold
Maple Tree Detail A
2009
46 x 35.5 cm
mezzotint and drypoint on paper
Edition 8/30
Sylvia Plimack-Mangold
Maple Tree Detail B
2009
46 x 35.5 cm
mezzotint and drypoint on paper
Edition 8/30
Sylvia Plimack-Mangold
Maple Tree
2009
38.7 x 76.8 cm
pencil on paper
Sylvia Plimack-Mangold
The Pin Oak 6/15/02
2002
56 x 76.2 cm
watercolor and pencil on paper
Sylvia Plimack-Mangold
Untitled (November 1990)
1990
57.8 x 76.8 cm
pencil on paper
James Bishop
Having
1970
194 x 194 cm
oil on canvas
James Bishop
Untitled
1974
192.5 x 193 cm
oil on canvas
James Bishop
Untitled
1974
192.5 x 193 cm
oil on canvas
James Bishop
Untitled
2009
16.7 x 18.1 cm
oil and crayon on paper
James Bishop
Untitled
2009
12.3 x 10.8 cm
oil and crayon on paper
James Bishop
Untitled
2009
14 x 14 cm
oil and crayon on paper
James Bishop
Untitled
2009
14.1 x 20.7 cm
oil and crayon on paper
James Bishop
Untitled
2009
16.6 x 17.8 cm
oil and crayon on paper
James Bishop
Untitled
ca. 1970
55.5 x 55.5 cm
oil on paper
Richard Tuttle
50 Years of Collaboration
September 25, 2024 to February 21, 2025
Richard Tuttle
Complete Interviews 1970–2022
Edited and with a Preface Interview by Dieter Schwarz
Glen Rubsamen
The Petrified Forest
Publisher: Glen Rubsamen
INSIGHT #3 spotlights the graphic work of Fred Sandback through three examples from 1974 and 1982.
Rita McBride, Momentum,
Dia Beacon, Beacon, NY,
July 1, 2023 to January 2025
Ree Morton with Natalie Häusler,
To Each Concrete Man,
Kunstmuseum Bochum, Germany
October 11, 2024, to February 23, 2025
Sol LeWitt (1928–2007)
A Wall Drawing Retrospective
Yale University Art Gallery and Williams College Museum of Art
November 16, 2008 – 2033