A Century of Drawing

Works on Paper from Degas to LeWitt

 A Century of Drawing
Works on Paper from Degas to LeWitt

Edited by
Judith Brodie and
Andrew Robison

National Gallery of Art

Washington
The exhibition was organized by the Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
National Gallery of Art, Washington
A century of drawing: works on paper from Degas to
Exhibition dates LeWitt / edited by Judith Brodie and Andrew Robison.
18 November 2001-7 April 2002 p. cm.
Catalogue of an exhibition held at the National Gallery
Copyright © 2001, Board of Trustees,
of Art, Nov. 18, 2001-April 7, 2002.
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-89468-287-3 (alk. paper)
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced,
in whole or in part (beyond that copying permitted by i. Drawing—2Oth century—Exhibitions. 2. Drawing—
Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law, and Washington (D.C.)—Exhibitions. 3. National Gallery of
except by reviewers from the public press), without Art (U.S.)—Exhibitions. I. Brodie, Judith II. Robison,
written permission from the publishers. Andrew. III. National Gallery of Art (U.S.)

This catalogue was produced by the NC95 -C46 2oooi

National Gallery of Art, Washington 74i.9'242'°74753—dc2i
Editor-in-Chief, Judy Metro 2001044163
Production Manager and Designer, Chris Vogel,
with production assistance from Rio DeNaro
Editors, Tarn Curry Bryfogle and Ulrike Mills

Typeset in Scala and Meta by Artech Graphics II,

Baltimore, Maryland
Printed on Scheufelen Phoenix Motion Xantur
by Balding + Mansell, Norwich, England

Cover: detail, cat. 25

Frontispiece: cat. 63
Page 20: detail, cat. 86
Back cover: cat. 131

Photographic Credits
Illustrations for cats. 61 and 62:
© 2001 Estate of Alexander Calder/Artists Rights
Society (ARS), New York
Illustrations for cats. 76, 115-117:
© 2001 Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko
Illustrations for cats. 95, 96, and 100:
© 2001 Estate of David Smith / VAGA, New York
Contents

7
Foreword

9
Acknowledgments

10
Abbreviations

11
List of Contributors

13
A Century of Drawing
ANDREW ROBISON

21

Catalogue

303
Drawn to Tradition:
Artists' Paper through the
Twentieth Century
JUDITH WALSH

315
Artists in the Exhibition

316
Photographic Credits
 Foreword

The National Gallery of Art has reason to From the outset the Gallery actively acquired
be proud of its twentieth-century drawings. twentieth-century drawings. Many donors,
The collection is remarkable in both its both collectors and artists, have added works
range and distinction. A Century of Draw- in this field, especially during the past few
ing celebrates this fact and also offers an decades, which have seen numerous beauti-
overview of the medium during the past ful and important acquisitions. To them—
hundred years. From a glorious pastel by our indispensable donors—we extend our
Degas and a rare color pastel portrait by deepest gratitude for helping the National
Kollwitz to a ten-foot-high graphite drawing Gallery build a collection worthy of its
of a beanstalk by Ellsworth Kelly and an founders' vision.
enormous colored gouache by Sol LeWitt,
the selection chosen from the Gallery's sub- EARL A. POWELL III
stantial holdings underscores the richness Director, National Gallery of Art
and brilliance of this national collection.
Although many traditional art forms
came into question in the twentieth cen-
tury, drawing not only endured the period's
upheavals but flourished. On the one hand
it retained its links to the past, for exam-
ple, in the graphite drawings of Matisse,
whose sheets are exquisite yet conservative.
Likewise artists continued to explore time-
honored genres such as self-portraiture; in
A Century of Drawing there are marvelous
examples by Kollwitz, Picasso, Matisse,
Campendonk, Schiele, Hartley, Kirchner,
Joseph Stella, and Dine. On the other hand
the medium was subject to significant
change. Artists radically questioned tradi-
tions and led the way to entirely new kinds
of drawings based on collage, photomon-
tage, and even conceptual designs.
Works of art come to the National
Gallery through the generous support of
private donors, a tradition that began with
Andrew Mellon, whose magnificent gift
founded the institution in 1937. Since then,
thousands of generous benefactors have
contributed to our national collection.

Detail, cat. 15

7
 Acknowledgments

A catalogue is a cooperative endeavor, espe- Many others at the National Gallery also
cially so in the case of A Century of Drawing. deserve special mention: Gordon Anson,
We are deeply indebted to the thirty-six Dean Beasom, Ricardo Blanc, Susanne
authors whose names are listed on page u. Cook, Elizabeth A. Croog, Lorene Emerson,
They have given generously not only of their Shelley Fletcher, Sally Freitag, Isabelle Jain,
knowledge but also of their counsel and Cyntia Karnes, Laura Neal, Nathan Peek,
good will. The diversity of their critical Ruth Philbrick, Ricardo Resende, Sara
approaches is reflected in this publication's Sanders-Buell, Stacey Sell, Melissa Stege-
varied points of view. Almost all the authors man, Jamie Stout, Yoonjoo Strumfels, and
have past or present ties to the National D. Dodge Thompson.
Gallery of Art: as curators, guest curators, Finally, our deepest gratitude goes to the
fellows of the Center for Advanced Study in generous private collectors and benefactors
the Visual Arts, and museum professionals who have either donated or promised twen-
throughout the institution. We are most tieth-century drawings to the collection. We
grateful to senior paper conservator Judith likewise thank those individuals who have
Walsh for her enlightening essay about supported the National Gallery of Art by
artists' papers. It is a privilege to have so helping us purchase twentieth-century draw-
many accomplished scholars participating. ings. The strength of the collection is in
We are furthermore indebted to director large measure due to them, and without
Earl A. Powell III and deputy director Alan their support and conviction this exhibition
Shestack for their support of the concept and its accompanying catalogue would not
and realization of this exhibition. In produc- have been possible.
ing the catalogue, we have been fortunate to J.B. AND A.R.

have the guidance of editor-in-chief Judy

Metro. Tarn Curry Bryfogle edited the text
with her usual intelligence and a receptive
ear to each author's voice. Concerning mat-
ters large and small, she always carried out
her charge with uncommon grace. Ulrike
Mills carefully edited Judith Walsh's essay
and shepherded the publication to its com-
pletion. Chris Vogel is responsible for the
catalogue's excellent design.
In the design and installation of an exhi-
bition, presenting works of art to their best
advantage is an art form in itself. Mark
Leithauser brought his skills to bear on
the handsome installation. Hugh Phibbs,
Virginia Ritchie, and Elaine Vamos ensured
that each work was suitably presented,
Detail, cat. 34 invariably with an eye for telling detail.

9
 Abbreviations

Washington 1991
Art for the Nation: Gifts in Honor of the
joth Anniversary of the National Gallery
of Art [exh. cat., National Gallery of Art]
(Washington, 1991).

Washington 1996
The Robert and jane Meyerhoff Collection
[exh. cat., National Gallery of Art]
(Washington, 1996).

Washington 2000
An for the Nation: Collecting for a New
Century [exh. cat., National Gallery of
Art] (Washington, 2000).

10
Contributors

Nancy K. Anderson Sally E. Mansfield

cats. 43, 82 cats. 61, 62
David Anfam Renee Maurer
cat. 91 cat. 122
Phoebe Avery Stephen E. Ostrow
cat. 31 cats. 85, 88
Matthew Biro Carlotta J. Owens
cats. 53, 106, 107, 112, 118, 119, 126 cat. 123
Charles Brock Peter Parshall
cats. 6, 11, 17,34, 50, 58 cat. 113
Judith Brodie Maria Prather
cats. 35, 54, 59, 70, 71, 77, 84, cats. 89, 97, 114, 125
86,124,127,135,136 Elizabeth Prelinger
Thorn Brown cats, i, 12, 65
cat. 92 Barbara Read-Staubs
Victor Carlson cats. 30, 42
cats. 38,39, 45, 67 Andrew Robison
Virginia Tuttle Clayton cats. 13, 14,18, 22, 25, 28,36, 41,
cat. 68 46, 49, 55, 56, 111
Isabelle Dervaux Kathryn M. Rudy
cats. 64, 74, 79 cats. 99, 108, 109
Molly Donovan Jessica Stewart
cats. 103, 120, 121, 131, 138, 139 cats. 76, 93, 94, 115,116,117, 133
Ruth E. Fine Elizabeth Pendleton Streicher
cats. 102,134, 137 cat. 23
Elizabeth Classman Julia Thompson
cat. 33 cats. 47, 60, 104, 105
Margaret Morgan Grasselli Kathryn A. Tuma
cats. 5, 9, 15, 16 cats. 75, So, 81, 83, 90, 98, no, 128, 130
Gregory Jecmen Jonathan F. Walz
cats. 19, 21, 24,32 cats. 57, 69, 101, 132
Franklin Kelly Karen Wilkin
cats. 3, 10, 51, 63, 72, 78, 87 cats. 95, 96,100
Sarah Kennel Christopher With
cat. 27 cats. 20, 26, 29,37, 40, 44, 48, 52, 66
Douglas Lewis
cat. 73
Sarah Linford Judith Walsh
cats. 2, 4, 7, 8 Artists' Paper
Jane Livingston pp. 303 -313
cat. 129

11
 A Century of Drawing

ANDREW ROBISON

For the twentieth century, drawing has been paper over the next decades included mod-
a fundamental art. Whether artists engaged ern drawings from Schiele to Matisse to
in traditional media like painting and sculp- Hayter. Through the 19605 major donors
ture or newer, even anti-traditional expres- of paintings to the National Gallery, such
sions like environmental art or conceptual as Ailsa Mellon Bruce, Chester Dale, and
art, they often made drawings to work out Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer, gave twentieth-
their ideas, to offer formal presentations of century drawings as well. The Gallery's first
their visual thoughts, or as artistic ends in purchase of a modern drawing occurred in
themselves. Numerous artists exercised 1971: Arshile Gorky's giant Plow and the
great facility in traditional draftsmanship, Song. Twentieth-century drawings have been
and many tested the limits of what could be regularly purchased since then.
called a drawing. We heard reports of the The turning point in the Gallery's col-
death of painting—premature it seems — lecting of post-World War II drawings came
but drawing flourished throughout. Review- with the 1976 donation from the Woodward
ing the twentieth-century from its endpoint, Foundation, including more than 160 im-
it is thus no surprise that its artists pro- portant prints and thirty outstanding draw-
duced some of the most visually compelling, ings, eight of which are in this exhibition.
intellectually fascinating, and aesthetically Superb drawings have been given by Mr.
beautiful drawings, works of extraordinary and Mrs. Paul Mellon since 1982, among
quality in an extraordinary variety of styles them some of the finest classic modern
and media. works. Throughout the igSos numerous
Much more surprising to many who friends contributed notable individual gifts,
know the drawings at the National Gallery culminating in widespread donations to
of Art primarily through works by old celebrate the Gallery's 5Oth anniversary in
masters is that, especially in the past few 1991, eight of which reappear in this exhi-
decades and through gifts from numerous bition. In the same period the Gallery
donors, the Gallery has also built a fine col- acquired several broad collections of draw-
lection of twentieth-century drawings. It is ings—from Armand Hammer, John
impossible here to give adequate credit to all Davis Hatch, Julius Held, and the Woodner
these donors, but a brief survey sketches the Family—which ranged from old masters to
main lines of development. In fact, the his- modern and which added excellent twenti-
tory of twentieth-century drawings at the eth-century works. From the Gallery's first
Gallery is older than that of any other draw- decade, noteworthy donations have been
ings. The first important drawings to come made by artists, beginning with Georgia
to the new National Gallery of Art were a O'Keeffe's 1949 gift of Marin watercolors.
group of eight Rodins, given in the spring Generous gifts of their own drawings have
of 1942 by Mrs. John W. Simpson. Lessing come from contemporary artists like
J. Rosenwald's magnificent 1943 gift of his Christo, Richard Diebenkorn, Jim Dine,
collection was noteworthy for its great old Helen Frankenthaler, Jasper Johns, and
master prints, but it also included later Wayne Thiebaud, while artists' families and
works and even twentieth-century drawings. close associates have contributed works by
Detail, cat. 59 His frequent donation of excellent works on Milton Avery, Richard Diebenkorn, Franz

13
 Kline, Louis Lozowick, John Marin, Georgia includes a rich variety of periods, artists,
O'Keeffe, Mark Rothko, and David Smith. and styles. As exceptional as the collection
In recent years the Gallery has actively is, however, it continues to grow and does
pursued important individual twentieth- not yet represent every significant artist or
century drawings as well as broader groups movement in the century. At the same time,
representing a single artist's work. Guided the collection is particularly strong in cer-
in this by curator of modern prints and tain areas. It emphasizes American art, in
drawings Ruth E. Fine, the Gallery has also part because this is the National Gallery of
especially built its holdings of artists' sketch- the United States of America. Any great
books. Many friends have helped over a world collection needs works by Homer,
wide range. For example, donations of a Pollock, and Rothko, but we also highly
single artist's work in various media have value drawings by Marsden Hartley, Charles
included drawings, such as the Dubuffet Demuth, and Joseph Stella, among others,
works on paper from the Stephen Hahn who have special significance in an Ameri-
family and the Calder drawings from Mr. can context. Likewise, the exhibition may
and Mrs. Klaus Perls. Outstanding groups seem unusually rich in drawings by particu-
of drawings by various artists have recently lar artists, such as Charles Sheeler, but this
been given from the collections of Herbert reflects a remarkable number of superb
A. Goldstone, Werner and Sarah-Ann works by these artists in the collection. A
Kramarsky, and Dorothy and Herbert Vogel. striking number of powerful self-portraits
Partial gifts and extraordinary promises of and other studies of heads punctuate the
classic modern works have been made by show. Further, the survey contains great
Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Kainen, Aaron Fleisch- examples of artists' works in their signature
man, the Judith Rothschild Foundation, and styles, but it is also peppered with surprises:
donors who wish to remain anonymous. works by artists who are not widely known,
Robert and Jane Meyerhoff's gifts and and extraordinarily fine drawings that are
promises of major contemporary drawings not in an artist's "standard" style.
are crucial, ensuring that the collection will To say these works are chosen from the
continue to grow with distinction. Gallery's finest is not to neglect contrary
This exhibition is intended to celebrate views, both by relativists who doubt one can
both the century and the National Gallery's make objective judgments of quality at all
collection by showing a comprehensive or by partisans of artists or works in the col-
selection from the Gallery's finest twentieth- lection but not in the exhibition. One may
century drawings. That stated goal needs certainly make mistakes in judgment, espe-
immediate qualification in several respects. cially about the newest works, without the
We count as drawings virtually all unique benefit of historical distance and critical
works on paper, including those made with consensus, but relativism as a principle
pencil or ink but also those made with undercutting all judgment of quality is not
watercolor, pastel, or collage, and even those convincing in either a theoretical or a practi-
created by experimental means. We define cal context. The judgment here is a joint
the twentieth century literally as extending one, made by the co-curators, with all our
from 1900 to 2000 and have not restricted efforts to be careful and sympathetic.
our choice of drawings by notions of mod- Not counting individual sketchbook
ern styles. Thus the exhibition begins with pages, the National Gallery has more
several artists normally considered nine- than four thousand twentieth-century draw-
teenth-century masters, such as Degas and ings—and many more excellent drawings
Homer, who created many great works after than we could possibly include in the exhibi-
1900 that are perforce twentieth-century tion. As co-curators, Judith Brodie and I set
drawings. ourselves the task of studying every draw-
Selected from works already owned by ing, often several times, going through every
or promised to the Gallery, the exhibition box and drawer together to consider each

14
1. Max Beckmann, Pandora's
Box, 1936 and 1947, ink and
gouache, National Gallery of
Art, Gift of Charles Parkhurst,
1981

work, both on its own and as a representa- small, or sketchy, even those of real quality.
tion of its artist, school, or type. Our initial (This is not the same as being spare, open,
selection was based not on a desire for com- or delicate—characteristics that are repre-
prehensiveness but on our judgment of the sented here.) To take a prominent example,
quality of each work. We solicited the views although the Gallery has stressed the acqui-
of other curators and greatly benefited from sition of artists' sketchbooks, and although
their recommendations but in the end made one of the glories of our twentieth-century
our own choices. Another knowledgeable collection is the comprehensive lifetime
and sympathetic judge, using quality as a series of forty-eight Beckmann sketchbooks
primary guide and reviewing the same (fig. 2), sketchbook pages are more effec-
works, might have made some different tively viewed in an intimate setting or one
selections but, we hope, would have agreed that develops a theme or compares sketches
on the great majority. to finished works. Finally, the exhibition
After this preliminary survey, we context encouraged the inclusion of a variety
arranged the drawings in the galleries, mak- of artists and styles. Thus, for example, we
ing further choices based on relationships chose only one of the Gallery's fourteen
among the works as well as on our desire to early O'Keeffe charcoals (cat. 33), whereas
provide a rich visual experience. Viewing the quality alone would easily justify more.
drawings side by side in the public spaces, The question of what constitutes a draw-
we wanted to allow for idiosyncratic styles, ing is delightfully complex in twentieth-
but sometimes a great drawing would have century art and has led to some of the most
required a different context to be seen to stimulating discussions with colleagues.
best effect. For example, Beckmanris Pan- To pose the issue one need not go to such
dora's Box (fig. i) is so dark and dense that lengths as asking whether Robert Smith-
we believed it would be difficult to decipher son's Spiral Jetty is not really a drawing with
and appreciate apart from similar works by unusual materials, similar to the prehistoric
Beckmann. The exhibition context also miti- "drawings" of animals created on the sides
gated against works that are casual, very of chalk hills in Berkshire and Dorset. More

15
2. Selection of Max Beckmann's
sketchbooks, National Gallery of
Art, Gift of Mrs. Max Beck-
mann, 1984

basically, are watercolors appropriately called paper is completely covered with oil paint
drawings or, as they are frequently desig- and the image highly finished, we most
nated in England, paintings? Are the three often call the work a painting (for example,
1969 acrylic on paper works by Rothko here Eastman Johnson's The Brown Family of
(cats. 115-117) more properly considered 1869). Oil sketches which cover the paper
drawings or paintings on paper? This kind are a special case: Baroccfs Saint John (fig.
of question has recently led to the increas- 3) is called a drawing, but most of the
ing use of the neologism "works on paper" Gallery's early nineteenth-century plein-air
as a substitute for "drawings," although that works are called paintings. Deciding how to
term is misleading when used alone, as categorize oil on paper is problematic for
prints and photographs are clearly also other institutions as well: the traveling exhi-
works on paper. In this discussion, one of bition Master Drawings from the National
the co-curators evoked Plato, the other Aris- Gallery of Scotland includes a completely cov-
totle. One believed that there are quintes- ered oil on paper by Cornelis Cornelisz. van
sential drawings—works that emphasize Harlem; and a single auction house at the
line and mark-making—and that other same time and place (Christie's, New York,
works of art count as drawings as they January 2001) included completely covered
approach these paradigms. The other saw oil on paper works of similar sizes both in
it more as a practical issue of taxonomy in its sale of "old master drawings" and in that
sorting between broad classical categories of of "important old master paintings." At the
paintings, drawings, sculpture, prints, and National Gallery in true borderline cases —
photographs. for example, Toulouse-Lautrec's or Picasso's
At the National Gallery a drawing is works on carton—we most frequently base
defined primarily by support (paper as our designation on the major portion of the
opposed to canvas or wood) combined with visible surface. If there is much paper show-
uniqueness (in contrast to the multiplicity of ing, it is a drawing; if very little, a painting.
virtually all prints or photographs). The There are good reasons for classifying
medium can be linear or liquid. But, as with monotypes either as drawings or as prints.
most definitions, there are exceptions. If the Because monotypes are almost all printed

16
 works (cats. 98,113,138). Sometimes, how-
ever, unusual considerations may influence
a determination of category. For example,
like other collages on paper, Matisse's
cutouts are typically included in books or
exhibitions on drawings. But when the
Gallery acquired its group of five great
cutouts in 1973, not only were two of them
too large to be easily stored in a print room,
but also the group of five was deemed too
important a component of the publicly
exhibited collection of modern art to be only
occasionally on view, as are most drawings.
They needed to be on permanent or semi-
permanent display, like paintings, even
though, ironically, the master's role was not
the painting of the gouache on paper but
the cutting and placement of pre-painted
sheets, as he put it "drawing with scissors"
or "drawing directly in color." Insofar as
they are considered drawings, Matisse's
cutouts provide another critical component
in the Gallery's panoply of collages and offer
striking individual comparisons, such as
that between the similarly sized and dated
Venus by Matisse (fig. 4) and End of Dover
Beach by Motherwell (cat. 91).
In converse exception, not every one of
the National Gallery's drawings is on paper.
Occasionally the supports are vellum, mylar,
and so forth. The question of category in
3- Federico Barocci, Head and frequently, in spite of their name, in that case is answered, again, by the degree
of Saint John the Evangelist,
c. 1580, oil on paper, National more than one impression, the Gallery calls of surface coverage. The Gallery considers
Gallery of Art, Ailsa Mellon them prints. Yet, consistent with our cri- Diirer's Cowslips on vellum a drawing, but
Bruce Fund, 1979
terion of considering the degree of visible his Portrait of a Clergyman on vellum a
surface in works on carton, when a mono- painting. Twentieth-century works vastly
type is substantially covered by hand re- expand these questions of category. They not
working—as is often the case with Degas — only continue traditional types of drawings
then it is considered a drawing. but also challenge earlier conceptions of
Collage as a serious artistic expression drawing to encompass new expressions:
is one of the most interesting new media collages and frottages on paper, cutting a
of the twentieth century. At the Gallery col- design in pre-printed paper (cat. 126), wall
lages composed entirely or largely of paper drawings (cat. 118), and even, perhaps,
are usually called drawings. One of the uncollectable "drawings" like environmental
strengths of the collection and of this exhi- works or laser projections on architectural
bition is the wide range of major collages, surfaces.
from cubism (cats. 24, 25, 32) and orphism Finally, we celebrate the power and vari-
(cat. 27) through constructivism (cat. 47), ety and independence of drawing as a fun-
surrealism (cat. 53), photomontage (cat. 60), damental artistic medium for the twentieth
art brut (cats. 93 and 94) and abstract century. One of the most persistent myths,
expressionism (cat. 91) to contemporary what we might call the "handmaiden myth,"

17
4. Henri Matisse, Venus, 1952,
cutout, National Gallery of Art,
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1973

holds that drawing is primarily a prepara- artists best known for works in other media.
tory medium. This notion seems to derive However, intimacy relates to size rather
from accounts of Italian Renaissance prac- than to preparatory intention; even granted
tice, in which artists were said to use draw- numerous exceptions, many drawings are
ing as a way of working out visual ideas smaller than paintings, hand-sized instead
in order to translate them into paintings, of wall-sized. That drawings are personal,
sculpture, prints, tapestries, and architec- directly expressing an artist's vision and
ture. Even today drawing lovers reinforce technique, is most frequently true. However,
this myth when they esteem the works the modern focus on their personal nature
largely for their intensely personal or inti- is uncomfortably close to modern overem-
mate nature, and base those characteristics phasis on the attribution of drawings as
on drawings being the first visual records by determining their value (if it is by Picasso,

18
it is wonderful; if it is by an anonymous fol- many drawings through history were
lower, or a copy after Picasso, it is uninter- made in preparation for works in another
esting). In any case, neither the intimacy medium, very many more, especially in the
nor the directness of drawings requires that last century, were made primarily as ends in
they be preparatory. From a broad historical themselves.
perspective, the preparatory function of For twentieth-century artists drawings
drawings, while significant in all schools have been fundamental not only in the
and periods, was hardly ever dominant out- sense of constant production, but also as
side the Italian Renaissance, for example, major artistic expressions. It was a great
not for many of the greatest Northern artists century of drawing!
from the Renaissance to the present. Even
in Italian art, it would be wrong to rate this
function as primary for drawings by seven-
teenth-century artists such as Guercino or
Castiglione, and quite false for Piazzetta, the
Tiepolos, Canaletto, Piranesi, Francesco
Guardi,s and other virtuoso Italian artists of
the eighteenth century.
Most great draftsmen in the twentieth
century have used drawing as an independ-
ent medium to seize a vision. This includes
not only the vast numbers of finished draw-
ings made as ends in themselves, like por-
traits or topographical records, but also less
"finished" unique works on paper. Drawing
is often a private medium, not initially
intended to be publicly displayed, and thus
very useful for visual experimentation. Such
exploration can frequently be characterized
as complex, self-referential, and serial or
progressive, as an artist attempts or refines
composition or color or texture. Yet in this
exploration drawing is most important for
capturing a visual idea, whether a scene
actually perceived by the artist or an idea
conceived without direct perception. Such
records may work their way eventually into
other media but frequently do not, either
because the artists engage in the exploration
for its own sake or because they achieve a
result they are happy to make public—
transfer to patrons or collectors—just as it
is. Indeed, even among the older as well as
newer masters many of the drawings now
called "preparatory" were not made with
another work in mind but are so labeled
because a later scholar recognized that the
artist had recycled an image on paper in
another work (for example, numerous Wat-
teau figure studies) and anachronistically
attributed that intention to the artist. While

*9
Catalogue
 Like Rembrandt and Picasso, Kathe Kollwitz demands of an image of the suffering work-
made self-portraits throughout her life. In ing class (such as cat. 12), which Kollwitz
these works, both drawn and printed, one believed should be as stark in style as the
can trace her maturation from young stu- subject matter, it was easier to explore color
dent in Berlin to world-famous artist and and form for their own sake in the context
advocate for the downtrodden. From an of a self-portrait, as she did here.
unusually rich selection of twenty-eight of That Kollwitz herself deeply valued this
her drawings in the National Gallery of Art work is suggested by its provenance; accord-
1 collection, this exhibition includes three ing to one scholar, the sheet came from the
KATHE KOLLWI T Z examples. Among these, the present sheet collection of Ernst Heinrich, prince of
German, 1867-1945 stands out for its beauty and impact. Saxony.2 Before his escape to Ireland via
Kollwitz usually worked in black and France, the prince provided the artist with
Self- Portrait as a
white, feeling that the absence of color rooms in a small house across the road
Young Woman,
suited the solemn content of her imagery, from his country palace in Moritzburg bei
c. 1900
which focused on such topics as war, un- Dresden when she fled Berlin in the wake of
pastel employment, starvation, and death. For this heavy Allied bombing in 1944. Perhaps she
470 x 365 mm portrait, however, made when the artist was made the sheet a gift to him in gratitude for
(181/2× 142/3) roughly thirty-three, she chose colored pas- his generosity.
Gift of Robert and tels, rubbing them across a heavily textured ELIZABETH PRELINGER
Chris Petteys, 1995 sheet to create a sense of warmth, move-
ment, transparency, and atmosphere. De-
lineated in strict profile with set features, Provenance 1989), 542; quoted and
Probably Ernst Heinrich, translated in Elizabeth
her face, touched with brick orange and prince of Saxony; C. G. Prelinger, Kathe Kollwitz
green, with a highlight of white at the nape Boerner, Diisseldorf; [exh. cat., National Gallery
Robert and Chris Petteys, of Art] (Washington,
of her neck, emerges from an indeterminate Sterling, CO, by 1982. 1992), 79.
background of subdued shades of brown,
2. Tom Fecht, ed., Kathe
blue, and yellow, which blend into a forest Notes
Kollwitz: Works in Color,
trans. A. S. Wensinger and
green. Kollwitz interwove the strokes of the i. Entry of 4 December
1922, in Kathe Kollwitz, R . H . Wood (New York,
pastel stick to evoke the subtle light filtering Die Tagebucher, ed. Jutta 1988; German edition,
across the planes of her magisterial head. In Bohnke-Kollwitz (Berlin, 1987), 106.

the end, the artist emphasized a tapestry-

like surface pattern as much as three-
dimensionality, resulting in a decorative,
even sensuous, chromatic mood.
This frank love for the medium, for the
making of art, and for the essentiality of the
aesthetic — all evident in this very rare work
in color—are matters that troubled Kollwitz
over the course of her life. In her diaries
and letters the artist struggled to reconcile
an inner conflict between a desire to make
beautiful images and the compelling sense
of duty to use pictures to deliver a message.
Her perception of this discrepancy seemed
particularly acute during the disruptive
period of the Weimar Republic, following
Germany's defeat in World War I. In a diary
entry of 1922 she affirmed that her art "has
purpose. I want to have an effect on this era, in
which human beings are so much at a loss
and so in need of help."1 Compared with the

22
£z
 In 1899, freed of the directives of the Span- eriness of fur or, when condensed, light-
ish academies where he trained throughout parched velvet. And beyond this mastery of
the iSgos, Picasso rallied to the Catalan charcoal's sensual versatility, Picasso con-
avant-garde group Els Quatre Gats and its structs shapes that merge and transform
modernista precepts.1 Through 1904 his around an arabesque's pinch and swell.
work was a sweeping exploration of the sub- One figure's dark cape, in tandem with the
jects and styles of the bohemes of Barcelona other's skirt, locks in the central white
and Paris. These two elegantes exemplify expanse, coquettishly insinuating a spiral.
2
the demimonde characters populating Witty variations on the flower motif, in the
PABLO P I C A S S O Picasso's sketches, drawings, and paintings elegantes' hats, hair, and dress—pavonine in
Spanish, 1881 -1973 of 1899-1901.2 the cape's trim, stellar in its sleeve—enable
Indebted to Miguel Utrillo and to the serpentine center to be the image's
Two Fashionable
Theophile-Alexandre Steinlen's black-and- organizing principle. For the image to hold,
Women, 1900 or 1901
white graphic works, Picasso's drawing also Picasso knew to erase some of the charcoal
charcoal recalls the gaslit scenes of divertissement by hatchings in the top left and right corner
413 x 244 mm Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Auguste of the sheet, as he has around the figures'
(16/4X95/8) Renoir. Yet unlike Lautrec's, Picasso's world hemlines, in a medium gray that doubles as
Intended Gift of the is rarely seedy. And unlike Renoir's, his the firm ground on which the women stand.
Woodner Collections vignettes of sociability are not convivial. Though Picasso soon abandoned the
More, when Picasso appropriates modern taut decorative hedonism that attains a rare
subjects and techniques, he combines diver- degree of formal prowess in this drawing,
gent tendencies and coerces them to his own such dark flattening contours and tonal sen-
ends. While in Two Fashionable Women his sitivities ushered in the earliest of the "blue
iconography might well be taken from works," as his interest in the demimonde
George Bottini's lesbian scenes,3 Picasso soon metamorphosed into a fascination with
empties the image of psychology. The faces figures of marginality. Picasso's line, how-
of the women read as a pair, differentiated by ever, throughout decades of incessant aes-
the swell of a jaw, the pointed or bulbous tip thetic revolutions, would remain, in the
of the nose. The formal treatment of these words of Guillaume Apollinaire, the trait
features resembles caricature, but, if at all, that "flees changes and penetrates."4
these elegantes are only caricatures of a larger SARAH LINFORD

social type. Ultimately, the manifest subject

matter of this charcoal drawing serves to
affirm Picasso's place in the avant-garde and Provenance sketches done there that
Private collection, Switzer- same year; see Josep Palau
exhibits the incontestable agility of his drafts- land; Galerie Nathan, i Fabre, Picasso (Barcelona,
manship, the sensuality of his textures, his Zurich; Ian Woodner, by 1981), nos. 551 and 552;
1986; Andrea and Dian and Christian Zervos,
virtuoso sense of composition—all by an
Woodner, 1990. Pablo Picasso, 3rd ed.
artist aged nineteen. (Paris, 1957), 21:193.
With Picasso's strong and steady pres- Notes
3. See John Richardson,
sure of charcoal to paper, the line is thick 1. On this topic, see Mari- A Life of Picasso (New York,
lyn McCully, Els Quatre 1991), 1:173; and Jeffrey
and containing, flattening the figures' form Gats (Princeton, 1978). Weiss in The Touch of the
(left and bottom), a cloisonne effect devised Artist: Master Drawings
2. This work has generally from the Woodner Collec-
by the French symbolists. But Picasso been dated to 1900 and tions [exh. cat., National
attributed to Picasso's resi- Gallery of Art] (Washing-
repeats and refines such a line in the right dence in Barcelona or his ton, 1996), 391.
figure's hat, until the arcs together suggest earliest stay in Paris. But
Jeffrey Weiss' proposal that 4. Guillaume Apollinaire
folds in its fabric and structure. An even in La Plume (15 May 1905);
the drawing might have
finer line suggests the precious stiffness of been executed during reprinted in Chroniques
Picasso's 1901 sojourn in d'art (1902-1918), ed.
a collar spoked by sketchy segments (left), L.-C. Breunig (Paris,
Madrid is supported by its
and the billow of another with a fluid set similarity to a series of 1960), 31.

of curves (right). His nebulous shading,

stumped or partly erased, conveys the feath-

24
52
 During the summer of 1873, while working work... as I ever did."4 Certainly they
in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Winslow reveal—especially in their fluid washes and
Homer began to paint in watercolors seri- large areas of reserved white paper—the
ously for the first time in his career. In these consummate mastery of the medium that
early works Homer's use of colored washes Homer had achieved by this point. Several
to describe form and capture effects of light Bermuda subjects were included in the
and atmosphere is remarkably confident. group of twenty-one watercolors he sent to
Over the next three decades he went on to the 1901 Pan-American Exposition in Buf-
3 create some of the most extraordinary water- falo, pricing them as a group at $4,000.
WINSLOW HOMER colors ever made. The watercolors received a gold medal but
American, 1836-1910 After settling permanently in Prout's did not sell, and Homer considered not
Neck, Maine, in 1883, Homer regularly offering them for sale again.5 Although he
The Coming Storm,
made trips to warmer climes during the did again show several at Knoedler in 1902,
1901
winter months. His destinations included he kept many of the best, along with some
watercolor over graphite the Bahamas and Florida, then in 1899 / of his finest Nassau watercolors, apparently
369 x 535 mm 1900 and 1901 the coral island of Bermuda. hoping the group might all be acquired by
(14/2 x 21/16) Like the Bahamas, Bermuda was easily a public institution.6
Gift of Ruth K. Henschel accessible by steamship from New York and F R A N K L I N KELLY

in Memory of Her offered a pleasant climate and respite from

Husband, Charles R. "the disturbances of modern life."1 The
Henschel, 1975 island was notable for its lovely scenery, Provenance 4. Letter to O'Brien and
George Easter Field; Son, Chicago, 1902;
combining vegetation characteristic of both
Brooklyn Museum by quoted in Washington
northern and southern latitudes, sparkling 1936; Charles R. Hen- 1986, 226.
schel; his wife, Ruth K.
beaches, and distinctive buildings con- 5. "I shall leave them
Henschel.
boxed as they are until
structed of white coral sandstone (figure).
such a time as I see fit to
Homer was apparently much taken with the Notes
put them out. The price
will be $400 each!! for
natural and man-made landscape of the 1. William Dean Howells,
choice if I ever put them
"Editor's Study," Harper's
island, for virtually all of his Bermuda out again." Letter to M.
New Monthly Magazine 89
watercolors concentrate on larger vistas; Knoedler & Company;
(June 1894), 15°'> quoted in
Helen Cooper, Winslow quoted in Washington
humans are rarely included, and when they 1986, 226.
Homer Watercolors [exh.
are, their presence is minimized.2 Most cat., National Gallery of 6. After the artist's death,
Art] (Washington, 1986), Homer's brother Charles
often he depicted the blue skies and white
218. arranged for the Metropol-
clouds typical of the island, but in The Com- itan Museum of Art, the
2. Washington 1986, 218,
ing Storm he chose more ominous weather 223-225. Worcester Museum of Art,
and the Brooklyn Museum
to create what one scholar called "almost 3. Philip C. Beam, Winslow to purchase the works.
the peak of his work in [the] medium."3 Homer at Prout's Neck
(Boston, 1966), 219.
Homer was proud of his Bermuda
watercolors, believing them to be "as good

Winslow Homer,
Salt Kettle, Bermuda, 1899,
watercolor over graphite,
National Gallery of Art,
Washington, Gift of Ruth
K. Henschel in Memory of
Her Husband, Charles R.
Henschel, 1975

26
27
 The features that come to be emblematic ized around the centrifugal force that is
of Pablo Picasso are all present in this Picasso's stare. Only the scarf's brilliant blue
Self-Portrait. "Small, dark, stocky, worried, compels the viewer to focus elsewhere for
worrying, with pitchy burrowing eyes, any length of time, yet still to feel the force
strange and almost immobile," as wrote of that gaze in peripheral vision. The blue
Picasso's then companion, the "belle Fer- itself complements the peach-colored wash
nande," adding that his "thick lock of hair, with which Picasso has modulated his skin,
black and brilliant, scarred the intelligent and the sliver of white collar above the scarf
4 and stubborn forehead."1 The unblinking inexorably returns attention to the white
PABLO P I C A S S O subject of this assertive self-portrait distin- around the pupils.
Spanish, 1881-1973 guishes itself from the brooding bohemian Picasso's willful gaze is not all confi-
depicted two years earlier. There is a protean dence, however. Embedded in mute im-
Self-Portrait,
quality to Picasso's physiognomy in his early balance, it betrays a disarming fragility
1901/1902
self-portraits.2 Compare this work with ones and acute self-awareness. The previous year
black chalk with done in 1900: the high cheekbones and fine Picasso had exhibited works in the Spanish
watercolor ossature are replaced by fleshier jowls; the pavilion of the Exposition Universelle;
verso: charcoal drawing smooth skin is now shaded by suggestion of and he held his first solo exhibitions in
of a Parisienne strolling facial hair; the nose is wider, less regular in Barcelona and Paris in 1901 and 1902. In
in a park, c. 1900 shape; the hair no longer the slicked and 1901 he made at least a half dozen dissimi-
304 x 238 mm side-parted mane of a "young premier."3 lar images of himself, as though searching
(12 x 93/s) Instead of a close-framed romantic creator, to establish a public persona.5 In this light it
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Picasso presents an established artist whose seems fitting that Picasso did not sign this
Collection, 1970 countenance conveys a gravitas beyond his self-portrait (the signature, top right, is not
twenty-one years of age—and, notably, one his) and that his sketchbooks of 1901-1902
perhaps more stereotypically "Spanish." reveal experiments with his own autograph.
Formally, Picasso divides his face into Despite inscribing self-portraits "Yo" or even
two contrasting halves: one light, one dark, "Yo, el rey" (I, the king) in this period, it is
as he did in self-portraits of igoo.4 Yet here, precisely in 1901-1902, around the time of
unlike earlier images, the bisection of his his most prestigious exhibit yet, at Vollard's,
face along a strong middle vertical—from that Picasso leaves "P. Ruiz Picasso" and
the center part of the hair, down the strong "P. R. Picasso" behind, definitively to
nose, through the mouth to the goatee— become "Pablo Picasso."
serves to heighten the progressive and SARAH LINFORD

potent dissymmetry of the whole. The sig-

nature forelock is painted in a brown wash
under a wave of hair that strangely prolongs Provenance 3. John Richardson, "The
Sir Hugh Walpole; Significance of Picasso's
the ear; on the other side the hair frames Leicester Galleries, Lon- Self-Portraits," in Christie's
the face in an even semicircle. One eye sags, don, 1945; Edward H. Review of the Year 19697
Molyneux, 1955; Ailsa 1970, ed. John Herbert
surmounted by an abrupted eyebrow; the Mellon Bruce. (London, 1970), 124.
other is a delicate almond shape, carefully 4. Varnedoe in New York
shadowed above and below. One shoulder Notes
1996,117.
trails to the image's left edge, while the 1. Fernande Olivier, 5. See, for instance, Chris-
"Le Bateau-Lavoir," in tian Zervos, Pablo Picasso,
other seems to drop to a slouch. Picasso et ses amis (Paris, 3rd ed. (Paris, 1957), 1:91
This dissymmetry results in a gradual c. 1933), 25. and 113 D.B. V, i; 21:192,
250 D.B. IV, 23, and 251
impression of imbalance, stabilized in turn 2. See Kirk Varnedoe,
D.B. V, 41.
"Picasso's Self-Portraits,"
by recognition that the figure is ever so in Picasso and Portraiture:
slightly rotated from a frontal perspective— Representation and Trans-
formation, ed. William
an impression augmented by the vertical Rubin [exh. cat., Museum
background hatchings and supported by the of Modern Art] (New York,
1996), 114-117.
diagonally striped scarf. But the result of
this torque is to make the face appear organ-

28
6z
 An unexpected yet delightful aspect of the of the surrounding page. As was his cus-
oeuvre of the great symbolist and visionary tom, Redon did not draw here exactly what
painter Odilon Redon is the colorful series he saw but filtered the forms through his
of floral still lifes he made during the last imagination and intensified the colors to an
twenty years of his career. He executed unnatural brilliance. Thus did real flowers
nearly three hundred paintings and pastels become in Redon's transformation "like the
of flowers, most of which were snapped up flowers one sees [in] dreams."3
by collectors almost as soon as they left his MARGARET MORGAN GRASSELLI
5 easel. During his lifetime these are the
ODILON REDON works that earned him his greatest commer-
French, 1840-1916 cial and popular success and ensured his Provenance reproduced in Art for the
Etienne Bignou Galleries, Nation: Collecting for a New
financial security.
Pansies, c. 1905 Paris; C. W. Kraushaar, Century [exh. cat., National
Redon now enjoys an almost mythical New York; Jerome Gallery of Art] (Washing-
Stonborough, New York; ton, 2000), 216-217.
pastel stature as one of the most fascinating and
Parke-Bernet Galleries,
2. Letter from Redon to
557 x 471 mm individualistic artists of the turn of the cen- New York, 17 October
Maurice Fabre, 21 July
1940, lot 67; Adele R.
(2I%Xl89/i6) tury, but his success came slowly and only 1902, in Marius-Ary
Levy, New York.
Leblond, ed., Lettres
Rosenwald Collection, after considerable personal and emotional
d'Odilon Redon, 1878-
Gift of Adele R. Levy struggle. For the first thirty years of his Notes
1916 (Paris and Brussels,
Fund, Inc., 1961 career, he worked almost exclusively in black i. An excellent example of 1923), 50.
a noir touched with pastel 3. A. Flament, Review of
and white—in charcoal and lithography—
in the National Gallery of the Salon d'Automne, La
giving shadowy life to intensely personal Art's collection is Saint Presse (18 October 1905).
George and the Dragon;
interpretations of the religious, mythologi-
cal, and literary subjects that captured his
imagination. In the early 18905, however,
Redon decided that without color his art
lacked an important expressive dimension.
He began to use it rather tentatively, adding
touches of pastel to drawings he had already
completed in charcoal (which he called
noirs, or "blacks").1 But within a few years
his confidence in using color and pastel had
grown, and by 1902 he was completely
immersed in color and could no longer
work in black and white.2
With the dominance of color in Redoris
later work came arrangements of flowers,
both real and imaginary, as a favorite sub-
ject. These ranged from striking combina-
tions of wildflowers and fantasy blossoms
invented by the artist to simple posies, like
these pansies, casually set into unusually
shaped vases. On the surface, this unassum-
ing still life appears to be nothing more
than a decorative rendering of a pretty bou-
quet, but neither botanical accuracy nor
simple decoration was Redon's goal. While
he readily declared that nature served as the
indispensable basis for works like this, he
consciously removed it from the natural
world by setting it adrift in the undefined,
limitless space suggested by the blankness

30
It
 Auguste Rodin's late pencil sketches and watercolors, could so effectively convey his
watercolors of the female nude were parts vision of the figure in space—a vision epito-
of a two-step process.1 Rodin began with a mized by Edward Steichen's iconic series
series of quick, spontaneous pencil draw- depicting Rodin's monumental figure of
ings of figures moving freely about his stu- Balzac outlined against the night sky.7
dio, done while his eyes essentially never The influence of Rodin's late manner
left the model; this ensured that nothing drawings cannot be overstated. By 1899 he
was "allowed to arrest the flow of my feel- was exhibiting them in large numbers
6 ings ... from my eye to my hand."2 He would throughout Europe, and in 1908 a collection
AUGUSTE RODIN then choose the most salient outlines from of fifty-eight works was shown at Alfred
French, 1840-1917 these sketches, trace them singly onto other Stieglitz's Little Galleries of the Photo-Seces-
sheets of paper, and fill them with transpar- sion in New York. Attacked for their infor-
Dancing Figure, 1905
ent watercolor washes. The result, exempli- mality, intimacy, sensuality, and often
graphite with watercolor fied by Dancing Figure, were refined images explicit eroticism, they represented a revolu-
326 x 250 mm that effectively synthesized the complex, tionary challenge to conventional notions of
(127/8X97/8) dynamic movements of his models. idealized female beauty that profoundly
Gift of Mrs. John W. The relationship of these works on paper affected artists as diverse as Charles
Simpson, 1942 to Rodin's late bronzes and marbles is com- Demuth, Gustav Klimt, Henri Matisse,
plex. Sometimes their motifs, as here, are and Egon Schiele.
directly related to finished sculptures.3 More Along with Steichen, Stieglitz, Fuller,
generally the quick sketches trained his and others, Kate Simpson, the daughter of a
hands when modeling in clay to feel "the Brooklyn banker and wife of a New York
lines of the human body... at the end of my lawyer, was one of Rodin's earliest support-
finger tips," while the watercolors illumi- ers in America. She began forming her col-
nated "the natural principles of sculpture lection sometime after Rodin modeled her
made to be seen in open air, that is, the portrait in 1902 and was soon successfully
search for contour... a very precise silhou- urging the Metropolitan Museum of Art and
ette, filled by a dark coloration, with indis- other museums to acquire his works. In
tinct details."4 Rodin, however, also believed 1942 Mrs. Simpson donated twenty-nine
that the drawings and watercolors should be sculptures and eleven drawings to the
understood as a distinct part of his oeuvre, National Gallery of Art, including Dancing
capable of inspiring in their own right: "As Figure. They were the first works by Rodin
my drawings are more free, they will give to enter the Gallery's collections.
more liberty to artists who study them... CHARLES BROCK

showing them the enormous space in which

they can develop."5
In addition to sculpture, the late draw- Provenance 3. The pose of Dancing
Mrs. John W. Simpson. Figure is found in the
ings were related to the contemporary arts bronze Mouvement de
Notes
of dance and photography in important 1. Kirk Varnedoe has bril- Danse A, c. 1911, Musee
Rodin (Inv. S. 505).
ways. Rodin was deeply impressed by the liantly analyzed Rodin's
drawings. See "Rodin as a 4. Quoted in Washington
great innovators of modern dance such as Draftsman—A Chrono- 1981,179.
Lo'ie Fuller, Isadora Duncan, and Vaslav logical Perspective," in
5. Quoted in Washington
Albert Elsen and J. Kirk T.
Nijinsky, whom he saw perform in Paris Varnedoe, The Drawings of
1981,181.
and drew from life.6 In Dancing Figure the Rodin [exh. cat., National 6. On Rodin and dance
Gallery of Art] (Washing- see Robert Descharnes,
simplicity and spontaneity with which the Auguste Rodin (Lausanne,
ton, 1971), 25-120; and
exceptional pose is rendered, with the move- "Rodin's Drawings," in 1967), 244-257.
ments of head, torso, arm, and legs all per- Rodin Rediscovered, ed. 7. See Kirk Varnedoe,
Albert Elsen [exh. cat., "Rodin and Photography,"
fectly isolated, poised, and counterbalanced, National Gallery of Art] in Washington 1981,
evince a palpable affinity with the dancers' (Washington, 1981), 153- 203-248.
190.
expressive styles. Moreover, Rodin was
2. Quoted in Washington
intrigued by the way photographs, like his 1981, 179.

32
ff\
r*\
<r
m
 After the Blue period works of misfortune the shirt in the same thickness and value of
and despair, Picasso's so-called Rose period white, subverting the function in one place
of mid-1904 to 1906 primarily figured that he so self-consciously observes in
saltimbanques, socially marginal circus another. The white hand on the boy's hip
acrobats who offered the artist an arena for is gauntly misshapen but compositionally
self-projection and experimentation.1 This extends the terracotta diagonal in the back-
gouache on cardboard adopts both figure ground; it binds the boy to the still life by
and jug from the oil on canvas Family of visual analogy. As for the figure's other
7 Saltimbanques (National Gallery of Art) hand, its very emptiness seems to hold hid-
PABLO P I C A S S O of the same year, yet Picasso's treatment den meaning. Perhaps most extraordinary is
Spanish, 1881-1973 of theatrical space, still life, and young the juggler's face: from an exquisite combi-
bateleur make the work both dissonant nation of orange, white, and gray, Picasso
Juggler with Still and premonitory. has modeled a face of classical beauty. Yet,
Life, 1905
The integration of folkloric figure with toying again with the rules of academic
gouache over graphite the genre of still life resists anecdotal and training, he refuses to make the juggler's
on cardboard visual coherence. The jug is too large to porcelain visage continue to the hairline and
1,000 x 699 mm serve the juggler and too tall for the surface turns the woolly hair into the cardboard's
(39 3 /sx 27/2) on which it stands. That surface eschews textural counterpoint.
Chester Dale Collection, visual stability; neither clearly table nor The spatial games Picasso plays in
1963 tablecloth, it is strangely trapezoidal, one this work foreshadow the revolution of his
corner beveled against the picture plane, Demoiselles d'Avignon of 1906 (The Museum
another flatly pushing up against it. The of Modern Art, New York). The classicizing
plate in turn is not round, nor is it parallel treatment of the boy's face harks back to
to the ground; the fruit it holds—almost Greek art, Ingres' drawing, and symbolist
but not wholly—citrus. In 1905, as today, painting but also looks forward to Picasso's
these signs speak directly to that master of work in Gogol the following summer. This
still life who was so central to Picasso's figure is hybridic and hieratic—as is the
experiments, Paul Cezanne. Picasso borrows work as a whole—and warrants Guillaume
selectively, however, and the strokes are his Apollinaire's injunction that the saltim-
own: alternately smooth or impastoed, con- banques' spectator must be "pious" to wit-
tinuous or broken, parallel or bent, abbrevi- ness their difficult, agile, and mute rituals.2
ated or long. Even the contradicted room Further, in the words of Francis Ponge,
corner to the left of the juggler and the large "blue of luck and unluck; rose, rather of
hatchings that color the chiasmic sweep of flesh, of the faded leotards of the saltimban-
studio curtain read as deliberate departures ques, these dandies of voluntary penitence
from Cezanne's lessons. and game"3 are the figures with which
As for the juggler himself, his drastically Picasso gambles the future of his painting.
foreshortened feet are thickly painted within SARAH LINFORD

the approximate boundaries of a dark flat

line. Ankles are implied by the use of flesh
tone, but the tights' coloring interferes with Provenance 30-43; and Jeffrey Weiss,
Purchased from the artist in Picasso: The Early Years
the illusion of skin. By varying hue, satura-
by Paul Guillaume, Paris, [exh. cat., National Gallery
tion, and application of blue on the juggler's 1910; Chester Dale, 1928. of Art] (Washington,
maillot, Picasso suggests legs' musculature, i997)> 197-210.

but the trespass of blue beyond charcoal-col- Notes

2. Guillaume Apollinaire
i. On the saltimbanques, in La Plume (15 May 1905);
ored outline is overshadowed by the trans- see E. A. Carmean, Picasso: reprinted in Chroniques
gressions of academic rhetoric above. There, The Saltimbanques [exh. d'art (1902-1918); ed.
cat., National Gallery of L-C. Breunig (Paris,
he not only uses a vertical stroke of white 1960), 31.
Art] (Washington, 1980);
gouache to buttress the inner thigh, thus Theodore Reff, "Harle- 3. Francis Ponge, Dessins
introducing a traditional means for repre- quins, Saltimbanques, de Pablo Picasso: Epoques
Clowns, and Fools," Art- bleue et rose (Lausanne,
senting light, he also traces the bottom of forum 10 (October 1971), 1960), xv.

35
 If Family of Saltimbanques (National Gallery this figure's return in his oeuvre—suggests
of Art) is the apogee of Picasso's Rose too that this drawing elegized an entire
period and Juggler with Still Life (cat. 7) is a period in Picasso's aesthetic.3 Related
hybridic image of things past and to come, sketches picture figures not shown here as
Death of Harlequin is Picasso's farewell to a well as a nightstand, vase of flowers, and
subject, a style, a universe of personal sym- dog; narrative elements have also been
bols.1 On the speckled expanse of tawny reduced.4 The dog is merely adumbrated in
cardboard, Picasso has laid down an emaci- the negative space below the bed; two stand-
8
ated Harlequin, eyes shut, hands clasped. ing figures alone remain, only to emphasize
PABLO PICASSO Two mourning circus artists look on in- the large unprimed expanse of cardboard.
Spanish, 1881-1973 tently. Their made-up faces, one smoothly As their whitish haze and Harlequin's laven-
pomaded white for sculptural effect and the der aura mediate the space that separates
The Death of
other permeated by the bed's tender blue the dead from the living, color or its absence
Harlequin,
iridescence, behold Harlequin's ashen and is invested with multiple types of affective
1905/1906
crumbling deathmask of thick and discon- meaning without yielding to the Fauve exu-
gouache over charcoal tinuous patches of paint. The two standing berance that had dominated the Salon
on cardboard figures breathe an animated haze of white d'Automne in 1905.
verso: Seated Woman that profiles their heads. Harlequin's face Ultimately, this image probes the mys-
in a Garden, c. 1901 exudes a faint lavender vapor, his head at tery of withdrawal and absence and identity
685 x 957 mm once raised and encased in a cloudy pillow. so fundamental to Picasso's fascination with
(26' 5 /i6X37 n /i6) The mourners crane their taut necks; Harle- the saltimbanques—for "who are they,
Collection of Mr. and quin's face and hands tend toward their these acrobats even a little / more fleeting
Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1996 curiosity with the petrification of rigor mor- than we ourselves?" The Death of Harlequin,
tis. The gymnast's pink maillot mirrors the in the words of Rainer Maria Rilke, sounds
largest lozenge on Harlequin's, but what is "this wearisome nowhere," in which "all of
left of the characteristic pattern has faded a sudden, the ineffable spot where the pure
from the rest of his suit, now an etiolated too-little / incomprehensibly changes,—
blue gray. Harlequin's skeletal body, of springs round / into that empty too-much."5
scarcely sketched narrow hips and bony SARAH LINFORD

legs, barely covers the cardboard's textured

brown surface.
The recent suicide of a neighbor at the Provenance 2. Picasso had already
The artist to Wilhelm depicted Casagemas, who
Bateau Lavoir may have prompted Picasso
Uhde, 1906; private committed suicide, in a
to pay one last tribute to his departed friend collection, Westphalia; number of 1901 deathbed
J. K. Thannhauser, portraits; see Picasso: The
Carles Casagemas, whose features are nearly
New York; W. Somerset Early Years, 1892-1906
perceptible in Harlequin's bumpy nose, Maugham, St.-Jean-Cap- [exh. cat., National Gallery
upper lip, and choppy hair.2 On another Ferrat; Sotheby's, London, of Art] (Washington,
10 April 1962, lot 26; 1997), nos. 67-70.
level, the precedent of Picasso's own identifi- purchased via Hector
3. Harlequin does re-
cation with Harlequin—and the rarity of Brame by Paul Mellon.
appear, briefly, in 1909,
c. 1915, and in the 19205.

Pablo Picasso, Notes 4. At least four sketches

Study for i. On the verso Picasso are directly linked to The
"The Death had already done an oil Death of Harlequin; the
of Harlequin," sketch in the style of his one closest is Study for
1905/1906, contemporaneous "cafe" "The Death of Harlequin"
pen and black paintings. In the left half, (see figure).
ink with water- a seated woman is amply
5. Rainer Maria Rilke,
color, National clothed in white and
"The Fifth Elegy," Duino
Gallery of Art, crowned by an elaborate
Elegies; trans. J. B. Leish-
Washington, hairstyle and hat, while
man and Stephen Spender
Collection of heavily impastoed foliage
(New York, 1939), 47, 53.
Mr. and Mrs. in forest green and ultra-
Rilke borrowed The Death
Paul Mellon marine blue dominate
of Harlequin from its first
the image's vigorously
purchaser, Uhde, in 1907.
painted right half.

36
37
 Among Degas' most glorious works are the drawing as the firm foundation on which
large pastels that dominate the last decades he built every composition from his earliest
of his career. Densely constructed of layer years onward. Pastel merely allowed him to
upon layer of brilliant, often jarring color, fuse color and drawing, the two essential
they are remarkably potent, indeed mesmer- threads of his art, in every stroke. Reveling
izing works, which treat in new and daring in the ability to stroke, scribble, jab, and
ways some of the subjects that had long even crush pure color so directly on his
been mainstays of Degas' repertoire. Ballet paper, Degas pushed the chromatic possibil-
9 Scene, which may be one of Degas' last ren- ities of pastel further and more aggressively
EDGAR DEGAS ditions of this favorite theme, is also one of than any artist before him.
French, 1834-1917 the most impressive, not only because of its MARGARET MORGAN GRASSELLI

scale but also because of the complex textur-

Ballet Scene, c. 1907
ing of the pastel strokes and the luminous
pastel and charcoal on and expressive juxtapositions of both har- Provenance oeuvre, 4 vols, [Paris,
Estate of the artist (first 1946-1949], no. 1461),
tracing paper monious and discordant colors. The range atelier sale, Paris, 7 May reproduced in Paris 1988,
768 x 1,112 mm of hues is astonishing, from the delicate 1918, lot 210); Jacques no. 363, and Browse 1949,
(30/4X4334) Seligmann; American Art plate 255; and another
lavenders and blues of the tutus to the glow-
Association, Hotel Plaza, charcoal drawing of just
Chester Dale Collection, ing pinks of the dancers' flesh to the star- New York, 27 January the two foremost dancers
1963 tling greens and oranges of the scenery 1921, lot 210; Scott and at right, reproduced in
Fowles, New York; Ameri- Browse 1949, plate 2333.
and stage. can Art Association, New
3. Lemoisne 1460, repro-
Degas himself declared, "no art was ever York, 19 November 1926,
duced in Paris 1988, no.
lot 41; Chester Dale, 1926.
less spontaneous than mine,"1 and that is 364, and Browse 1949,
plate 233; Richard Kendall,
especially true of the late pastels, which Degas beyond Impressionism
Notes
were often the culmination of a complicated 1. George Moore, "Memo- [exh. cat., National Gallery]
ries of Degas," Burlington (London, 1996), no. 74.
series of drawings, tracings, other pastels,
Magazine 32, no. 179 (Feb- 4. The dancer at right with
and even oils in which he experimented ruary 1918), 64. her elbows jutting sharply
with different compositional solutions based 2. Reproduced in Degas behind her closely resem-
[exh. cat., Galeries bles the sculptures Dancer
on related groupings and poses. This pastel, at rest, hands behind her
nationales du Grand
for example, may have had its roots in the Palais] (Paris, 1988), no. back, right leg forward; and
362. This may then have Dressed dancer at rest,
painting Group of Dancers (National Gallery hands behind her back, right
been followed by a char-
of Scotland, Edinburgh), whose composition coal drawing (location leg forward, c. 1895-1905;
unknown), reproduced London 1996, no. 76.
then passed through a series of transforma- There are also versions
in Lillian Browse, Degas
tions in other drawings and tracings.2 (Trac- Dancers (London, 1949), with left leg forward, as
plate 254; a charcoal and in the present pastel.
ing for Degas was a simple means by which
red chalk drawing, now
he could repeat again and again whole or in a New York private col-
partial compositions or individual figures, in lection (Paul-Andre
Lemoisne, Degas et son
the process adjusting a gesture, the tilt of a
head, or the position of a leg; adding or sub-
tracting figures; and then experimenting
with radically different color combinations.)
The present pastel, which is on tracing
paper, may have been traced directly but
with a few changes from another, sketchier
charcoal and pastel version of the same
composition, also on tracing paper, whose
overall dimensions are only slightly smaller
than this one.3
Throughout this process of transforma-
tion, during which Degas also seems to have
incorporated at least one pose he had devel-
oped in his sculptures,4 he never abandoned

38
39
 In the fall of 1904 George Bellows arrived Night (National Gallery of Art), until 1909,
in New York, having given up his studies his earliest treatment of the subject, a dra-
at Ohio State University after three years. matic drawing entitled The Knockout (private
Determined to become a painter, he collection), dates to July 1907. Street Fight,
enrolled in William Merritt Chase's New even though it is not a boxing scene and is
York School of Art; while there he fell under set outdoors, has a clear relationship to the
the influence of the realist Robert Henri. boxing theme. Two antagonists stand near
Encouraged by Henri to find his subjects in the center of the composition, closely sur-
10
the familiar reality of the world around him, rounded by observers whose faces wear a
GEORGE BELLOWS Bellows discovered inspiration virtually variety of nearly caricatured expressions
American, 1882-1925 everywhere he turned. As he observed: "I (Bellows' description of the figures being in
am always very much amused with people a "ring" makes the association with boxing
Street Fight, 1907
who talk about the lack of subject matter for even more obvious). The drawing bristles
conte crayon, pastel, painting. The great difficulty is that you can- with tense energy, both in the impending
graphite, and ink not stop to sort them out enough. Wherever conflict it depicts and in the slashing and
verso: Society Ball, you go, they are waiting for you. The men of darting lines Bellows used to create it.
c. 1907, charcoal the docks, the children at the river's edge, It is precisely these qualities of energy
and pastel polo crowds, prize fights, summer evenings and animation that bind together all of
546 x 619 mm and romance, village folk, young people, old Bellows' early works, no matter how diverse
( 2 I / 2 X 243/8) people, the beautiful, the ugly."1 During the their subjects, and give them their great
Eugene L. and Marie- first five or six years of his career Bellows power. One sees it in this drawing, just as in
Louise Garbaty Fund, created a remarkable body of work drawn famous masterpieces such as Forty-two Kids
1996 from his observations of the rich tapestry of 1907 (Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washing-
of New York life. Like his mentor Henri, ton) and Blue Morning and Both Members
Bellows discovered that "there is beauty in of this Club, both of 1909 (both National
everything if it looks beautiful in your eyes. Gallery of Art). Through the creative act of
You can find it anywhere."2 painting and drawing George Bellows' was
Street Fight is one of the earliest draw- able, as were very few other artists of his
ings listed in the artist's "Record Book," generation, to translate the vitality of mod-
where it is described as "Children in ern life into images that are themselves
park/two boys starting to fight in ring/of vibrant with power.
kids," and dated to summer 1907.3 Although F R A N K L I N KELLY

Bellows would not create the first of his

great oils depicting boxing matches, Club
Provenance 3. "Record Book A," 43,
Purchased from the artist no. 41; information cour-
George Bellows,
by Joseph B. Thomas Jr., tesy of Glen Peck, Glen
Society Ball
New York, 1911; Mr. and Peck Fine Arts. The verso,
(verso of
Mrs. Arthur Horowitz, Society Ball (figure), proba-
Street Fight)
Hopkins, MN, 1979- bly preceded Street Fight,
1987; Dr. Robert Nowin- for it seems unlikely that
ski, Seattle, 1987-1996; the artist would have
Hirschl £ Adler, New drawn on the verso of a
York, 1996. work as successful and
complete as the latter.
Though Bellows drew
Notes Society Ball with character-
1. Quoted in Margaret C. istic vigor and expressive-
S. Christman, Portraits by ness, he used more color
George Bellows [exh. cat., than usual. Perhaps he
National Portrait Gallery] was experimenting, or
(Washington, 1981), 13. elaborating or developing
2. Quoted in Charles H. a theme from one of his
Morgan, George Bellows: best-known early draw-
Painter of America (New ings, Dance in a Madhouse
York, 1965), 40. of 1907 (Art Institute of
Chicago).

40
41
 This sketch is one of a group of at least five Although Hartley's early proto-expres-
early self-portraits by Hartley done around sionist self-portraits proved to be seminal
1908. Two show the artist in the act of draw- to the entire history of expressionism in
ing.1 The other three focus solely on Hart- twentieth-century American art, he rarely
ley's distinctive face.2 In the latter three a depicted himself after 1908. The powerful,
few overlapping lines suggest the shape of turbulent mood of these drawings recurs
the head, while short curving and swirling instead in his landscape paintings of New
marks define the nose, mouth, and, most Mexico (1919-1924) and Dogtown, Massa-
11
dramatically, the eyes and hair. In the chusetts (1931, 1934, 1936), and in his hom-
MARSDEN HARTLEY National Gallery's Self-Portrait broad ribbons ages to artists and cultural icons such as
American, 1877-1943 of black made with the side of the crayon Hart Crane (1933), Albert Pinkham Ryder
demarcate the neck and jaw. (1938-1939), and Abraham Lincoln (1940).
Self-Portrait, 1908
Barbara Haskell has observed: "Perhaps CHARLES BROCK

black crayon the most remarkable aspect of Hartley's new

30.3 x 22.6 mm approach... is that it began in virtual isola-
(II'5/16X878) tion, with no direct exposure to develop- Provenance The Autobiography of Mars-
John Davis Hatch. den Hartley, ed. Susan Eliz-
John Davis Hatch ments which had taken place in Europe."3 abeth Ryan (Cambridge
Collection, Avalon Fund, Haskell refers primarily to Hartley's first and London, 1997), 31.

1983
Notes
mature Maine landscapes of 1908, done in 1. In the collections of 3. Barbara Haskell,
the Allen Memorial Art Marsden Hartley [exh. cat.,
a manner based in part on reproductions Museum, Oberlin College; Whitney Museum of
of neo-impressionist art he had seen in the and the Frederick R. Weis- American Art] (New York,
man Art Museum, Univer- 1980), 14.
German periodical Jugend. But her com- sity of Minnesota.
4. February 1913, quoted
ments apply as well to works such as Self- 2. Reproduced in Ann C. in New York 1980, 30. On
Portrait in which Hartley spontaneously Van Devanter and Alfred Hartley in Germany see
Frankenstein, American Patricia McDonnell, Ameri-
transformed his neo-impressionist vocabu- Self-Portraits, 1670-1973 can Modernism and the
lary of densely woven marks into something [exh. cat., National Portrait German Avant-Garde (New
Gallery] (Washington, York, 1998).
more personal and original. Closely resem-
1974), 119; and Marsden
bling the agitated, attenuated figures of con- Hartley, Somehow a Past:
temporary young Austrian artists such as
Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele, it dem-
onstrates how Hartley, with his brooding,
introspective nature, was predisposed to an
art that explored the subjective representa-
tion of inner emotional states rather than
the objective study of natural phenomena,
even before he gained firsthand knowledge
of expressionist movements abroad.
In 1912 Hartley visited Europe for the
first time with the help of Alfred Stieglitz.
After immersing himself in the art of Paris,
he moved on to Munich and Berlin, where
he met Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Miinter,
and Franz Marc. There Hartley discovered
his natural affinity for expressionism and
became a critical source for the Stieglitz
circle in New York regarding the latest
experiments of the German avant-garde. He
wrote to Stieglitz that the "new German ten-
dency is a force to be reckoned with — to
my own taste far more earnest and effective
than the French intellectual movements."4

42
43
 Much of Kollwitz's fame rests on her sym- the artist's career. At this time she aban-
pathetic yet searing depiction of the life of doned the routine of making studies from
the urban industrial proletariat in Germany. life, allowing her to "work well and easily
She was well positioned to observe it now."3 She concurrently embraced a style of
directly, having moved from her native greater simplicity and concentration of pic-
Konigsberg in East Prussia to a modest sec- torial means and design. The artist espe-
tion of Berlin, where she lived with her hus- cially welcomed the opportunity to apply her
band, a physician for the city's tailors and newly streamlined approach to images with
12
their families.1 She sought models from overt contemporary political references,
KATHE KOLLWITZ among his clientele, and these interactions such as Out of Work. Making socially
German, 1867-1945 led to the realism and immediacy of such engaged illustrations for Simplicissimus per-
images as Out of Work. mitted her, as she wrote, "to remain artistic,
Out of Work, 1909
Here an unemployed man, chin in and in particular... to express repeatedly to a
charcoal and white wash hands, slumps in dejection at the bedside of large public that which has always stimu-
over graphite his sick wife. The woman, gazing listlessly lated me and of which not enough has been
295 x 445 mm at the viewer, a tiny infant cradled on her said: the many silent and audible tragedies
(n 7/16x17/2) breast, rests her hands on another sleeping of life in the big city—which all together
Rosenwald Collection, child. The charcoal shading of the male fig- make this work extraordinarily dear to me."4
J
943 ure, so expressive of his despair, contributes When this drawing was published in the
to an overall sense of hopelessness. This magazine, the editors affixed a title, "The
mood contrasts with the oddly lyrical areas One Good Thing," with the bitter caption:
of painted white wash that gracefully delin- "If they didn't need soldiers, they would also
eate the nightdress and comforter as well as tax the children."5 Kollwitz then reworked
the puff of pillows that rise like angel wings this striking motif into a more elaborated
around the woman's face; one recalls Koll- etching (figure), to which she added another
witz's admission regarding proletarian life: sleeping child at the upper right corner and
"I simply found it beautiful."2 The style of darkened the shadows, intensifying the
the black-and-white drawing is simplified scene's pervasive misery.
because the work was intended for repro- ELIZABETH PRELINGER
duction in Simplicissimus, the political-satiri-
cal journal copiously illustrated by the finest
contemporary artists, and Kollwitz wanted Provenance 3. Entry of 18 September
Dr. Alfred Rose; Lessing }. 1909 in Kollwitz 1989, 52.
to deliver as direct a message as possible. Rosenwald, 1942.
4. Letter from Kollwitz to
The years 1908-1909, when Kollwitz her friend Beate Bonus-
made this drawing, mark a turning point in Notes
Jeep, c. 1907-1909;
1. See Alessandra Comini, quoted in Kathe Kollwitz,
Ich sah die Welt mit lieb-
"Kollwitz in Context: The
vollen Blicken: Kathe
Formative Years," in Eliza-
Kathe Kollwitz, Kollwitz, Ein Leben in Selbst-
beth Prelinger, Kathe Koll-
Out of Work, zeugnissen, ed. Hans Koll-
witz [exh. cat., National
1909, etching, witz (Wiesbaden, 1988),
Gallery of Art] (Washing-
National 275; quoted and translated
ton, 1992), 94.
Gallery of Art, in Washington 1992, 50.
Washington, 2. Kathe Kollwitz, "Ruck-
5. See Otto Nagel and
Rosenwald blick auf friihere Zeit," in
Werner Timm, Kathe Koll-
Collection, Die Tagebucher, ed. Jutta
Bohnke-Kollwitz (Berlin, witz. Die Handzeichnungen
1943 (Berlin, 1972; repr. 1980),
1989), 741; quoted and
translated in Washington no. 545.
1992,76-

44
S<7
 With its riveting, ecstatic stare and its exotic Yet there remains something about the
marbling of fluid colors, this is one of Nolde's interaction of colors here that is even more
finest early drawings. primitively natural than humanity. Around
In his autobiography Nolde locates the the stark blue and white eyes and the cherry
major crisis in his art in 1909: in his dissat- red lips the colors flow and constantly
isfaction with the strict imitation of nature, shift irregularly into each other—like the
and even with the optically based impres- reflected colors of an oil slick on water.
sionist imitation of nature. In contrast, Nolde has achieved a timeless moment of
13 Nolde attempted "to grasp something differ- fiery spiritual intensity caught in stunned
EMIL NOLDE ent and greater than formerly, that which evanescent beauty.
German, 1867-1956 lies most deeply... to revalue nature through ANDREW ROBISON

adding one's soul and spirit."1 After a deathly

An Apostle Filled
illness, he drew a number of heads of apos-
with the Holy Spirit,
tles and of Christ and began to work on four Provenance 1976, plates 55-56;
1909 Kornfeld und Klipstein, two more are reproduced
religious paintings, two of them especially Bern, 10 June 1976, lot in color in Emil Nolde:
watercolor over pen meaningful, The Last Supper and Pentecost. 729; Fischer Fine Art, Lon- Aquarelle und Zeichnungen
don; William H. Schab [exh. cat., Schloss Wolfs-
and ink on typewriting Through these "most secret, most deeply Gallery, New York. burg] (Wolfsburg, 1991),
paper inward events of the Christian religion" plates 15 and 16; two more
269 x 212 mm Nolde found his way "from optical external (one in color) in Emil
Notes Nolde [exh. cat., Museo
(10 5/8X85/i6) charm to felt inner worth." 1. The four volumes of d'Arte Moderna] (Lugano,
Nolde's autobiography are 1994), 163 and 246; two
William Nelson At least ten of these compelling water- easily available in the more in color in Emil
Cromwell Fund, 1977 colors survive.2 One or two appear to have paperback reprint, Emit Nolde: Akvarely a grafika
Nolde: Mein Leben [exh. cat., Egon Schiele
been directly used for specific figures in
(Cologne, 1976). All Centrum] (Prague, 1994),
Nolde's two paintings, but most are not so quotes here are from 29 and 33 (incorrectly
pages 156-157. dated c. 1912); and the
close; they are more like independent explo-
2. Three, including this tenth in Martin Urban,
rations in the artist's transition to a new, Emil Nolde: Catalogue
one, are reproduced in
keenly felt inner value. This apostle's craggy black and white in the Raisonne of the Oil Paint-
Kornfeld and Klipstein ings (London, 1987), 1:280.
cheeks, open mouth showing two upper
auction catalogue, Moderns
teeth, and beard limited to his lower face Kunst, Bern, 9-10 June
resemble the head of Christ in The Last
Supper as well as the second apostle on his
right. The cheeks and mouth and wide open
eyes are also close to the apostle at Peter's
left in Pentecost, however; and the sense of
a rapturous trance is more appropriate for
that event, as Nolde says, "the ecstatic, tran-
scendental reception of the Holy Spirit."
Of all these watercolors made while
Nolde was plumbing the depths of his art,
this Apostle achieves his most striking com-
bination of colors, both natural and unnatu-
ral. The rugged face, wide eyes, broad nose,
and slack mouth create a strong elemental
visage, perhaps evoking the north German
fishermen with whom Nolde was living; but
the bright emerald green and flowing colors
obviously have nothing to do with their skin,
not even under strange optical conditions.

46
s
48
 In 1935, recounting his early artistic devel- of the deliberately truncated mirrored reflec-
opment, Kirchner repeatedly referred to the tion of a reclining nude model, Kirchner
practice of different types of drawing as the quickly explored it in just five drawings and
means by which he progressed. He also saw one painting.2 It was only decades later that
the crucial breakthrough in his art in terms Matisse elaborated numerous variations on
of drawings, specifically his experience of the idea in a series of pen drawings in the
those by Rembrandt: "I was seized by Rem- mid-i93os.
brandt's drawings very deeply. Stimulated by ANDREW ROBISON
14 his sketches, I tried to draw freely after life
ERNST LUDWIG in the streets, in cafes, and so came to some-
KIRCHNER thing entirely new, the study of movement, Provenance Ludwig Kirchner (Cam-
Estate of the artist via bridge, MA, 1968). Thanks
German, 1880-1938 which has guided my entire work until Galeria Henze, Lugano. to Dr. Wolfgang Henze for
today and from which I recovered my own calling attention to the
Two Women Reclining language of forms."1 other four drawings, all
Notes 1909: Von der Heydt
before a Mirror, 1909 These two women on a daybed or sofa 1. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Museum, Wuppertal; Karl-
"Anfange und Ziel," in heinz Gabler Collection;
pen and ink exemplify Kirchner's desire to seize an Ernst Ludwig Kirchner aus Hauswedell and Nolte auc-
342 x 433 mm image as quickly and express it as directly as Privatbesitz [exh. cat., tion, Hamburg, 26 June
Kunsthalle] (Bielefeld, 1986, lot 575; and Galerie
(137/16X17) possible, to show the naturalness of subjects 1969), 3-4. Nierendorf, Berlin, Kunst-
Ailsa Mellon Bruce in relaxed poses with normal gestures. The 2. The painting is also bldtter der Galerie Nieren-
drawing also radiates his early spirit of life, from 1909; see no. 56 in dorf, no. 31, 1971, item 9.
Fund, 1989
the catalogue raisonne by
of play and humor, as well as his lifelong Donald E. Gordon, Ernst
delight in the beauty of the female nude. On
the right is his girlfriend in Dresden, nick-
named "Dodo." With pure broken outlines
Kirchner quickly captures her soft curves.
Only four strokes and two dots create her
gentle smile and her warm, inviting look.
The older woman on the left undoubtedly
springs from life but also invokes the
ancient tradition of artistic allegory contrast-
ing youth and age. Kirchner shows her flat
nose, sharp chin, fallen breasts, and big
foot not as ugly or grotesque—as in older
art—but with good humor. Even her arms
propped akimbo contrast with Dodo's soft
curves. Yet Kirchner cleverly and sympathet-
ically uses the older woman's mirrored
reflection to firm, fill out, and soften her
form—now spatially closer to Dodo—into
more of what she used to be.
Kirchner produced a flood of drawings
and visual ideas. Especially in his early years
he constantly changed types of line and
ways of capturing form as well as ways of
composing subjects. Thus, having seen the
compositional and iconographic possibilities

49
 For the painter and printmaker Edouard known—The Square comes as something of
Vuillard, drawing was a lifelong activity a revelation. The size alone is quite aston-
and an indispensable part of his creative ishing, and indeed this is one of the artist's
process, yet it remains to this day the least largest known drawings. The choice of an
known aspect of his oeuvre. He drew con- open-air subject may seem just as surpris-
stantly, not only in preparation for his paint- ing at first, but Vuillard frequently sketched
ings and prints, but also casually, as a and painted gardens, cityscapes, and land-
pleasurable pastime. Most of his drawings scapes.3 Shortly after this drawing was
15 were quick pencil sketches, but he was made, he painted a monumental view of a
EDOUARD VUILLARD equally adept at a number of other media, different Parisian park, Place Vintimille, in a
French, 1868-1940 including the fluid combination of brush five-part screen measuring more than seven
and ink found here in The Square. More feet high by almost ten feet wide, now also
The Square, 1910
than six thousand of Vuillard's drawings in the National Gallery of Art's collection.4
brush and ink have survived, mainly in the hands of his Together, these two works show that the
646 x 500 mm descendants, but relatively few of those have "intimist" label that is so often applied to
(25 7 /i6 X I9"/i6) yet been published.1 As a result, more than Vuillard's oeuvre describes only a part of it
Collection of Mr. and sixty years after his death, Vuillard's corpus and that he was as much a master of the
Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985 of drawings is still largely unknown and world outside his apartment as he was of
unexplored. the world within it.
That Vuillard was a gifted and highly MARGARET MORGAN GRASSELLI

original draftsman is amply demonstrated

by this inviting glimpse of an unidentified
Parisian park. The influence of Japanese cal- Provenance 2. Salomon 1953, 54-57.
Private collection, Paris; One can easily imagine
ligraphy and ink painting is immediately Huguette Beres, Paris, by that the National Gallery
apparent, though Vuillard wielded the brush 1975; Mr. and Mrs. Paul drawing was preceded by
Mellon, 1975. sketches like the ones of
in a manner that was entirely his own. Espe-
Place Vintimille and Place
cially appealing is the effect he achieved, Augustine reproduced in
Notes Salomon 1953, 31, 66, 102.
using only the light brown paper and the i. One small exhibition
3. See, for example, the
black ink, of the same kind of decorative has been devoted to Vuil-
lard's drawings: £ Vuillard outdoor scenes reproduced
play of color and pattern that was such an Drawings, 1885-1930, The in Guy Cogeval, Vuillard,
important part of works from his Nabi American Federation of le temps detourne (Paris,
Arts, New York, 1978. 1993), 72-79; and Jacques
period. Just as he delighted there in the con- Salomon, Vuillard (Paris,
Otherwise, broad selec-
trasting shapes and designs presented by tions of Vuillard's draw- 1961), 80-81, 109-111,
ings have been reproduced 130-131, and 135.
wallpapers, textiles, and household objects,
in Jacques Salomon, 4. The gift of Enid A.
here he enjoyed the wealth of patterns Aupres de Vuillard (Paris, Haupt in 1998, this screen
found outdoors in both natural and man- 1953); and Vuillard [exh. is reproduced in Art for the
cat., Musee des Beaux- Nation, Collecting for a New
made forms. With a remarkable economy Arts] (Lyon, 1990). Century [exh. cat., National
of means he not only suggested the shapes Gallery of Art] (Washing-
ton, 2000), 96-97.
and textures of the individual elements of
the composition but also filled the scene
with space, light, and atmosphere. As swift
and spontaneous as the drawing may at first
appear, it was probably made in the studio
only after extensive study and reflection and
with the help of sketches made from life, as
was Vuillard's usual practice.2
For an artist who was known primarily
as an "intimist"—referring both to the rela-
tively small scale of many of Vuillard's
works and to the scenes of ordinary house-
hold activities for which he is still best

50
51
 The defining principle of the work of the Brancusi's purpose in making this draw-
great Romanian sculptor, Brancusi, was its ing is not known. It does not appear to be
reduction to the simplest and most basic connected to any of his extant sculptures,
geometric forms. By thus clarifying the and nothing at all has been determined
essential structure of his subject, the artist about the model.2 That the study held a
believed he could best capture and express special place in his oeuvre is suggested
its inner meaning. To that end he developed by the fact that it was one of the few draw-
a highly limited vocabulary of forms with ings that Brancusi himself photographed as
i6 which he created a uniquely purified version part of the record he kept of his works. The
CONSTANTIN of reality, becoming in the process one of photograph remained in his studio until
BRANCUSI the most original and influential sculptors his death.
Romanian, 1876-1957 of the twentieth century. MARGARET MORGAN GRASSELLI

As is frequently the case with sculptors,

Woman's Head,
who generally prefer to think in three
c. 1910
dimensions, Brancusi did not often make Provenance 2. A similar study of a
World House Galleries; young woman, possibly
charcoal over graphite drawings, producing fewer than three hun- Mr. and Mrs. Lester the same model but this
417 x 275 mm dred over the course of his long career. He Francis Avnet. time drawn in graphite
instead of charcoal, was
(l6 7 i 6 X l O ' V i e ) was, nevertheless, a gifted draftsman, as this
exhibited in Brancusi +
Ailsa Mellon Bruce splendid portrait study of an unidentified Notes Mondrian, Sidney Janis
i. For these and other Gallery, New York, 1982,
Fund, 1971 woman bears witness. Made around the sculptures from around no. 18.
same time as such early abstract sculptures 1910, see Pontus Hulten,
Natalia Dumitresco, and
as Sleeping Muse I of 1909-1910 (The Art Alexandre Istati, Brancusi
Institute of Chicago) and Maiastra of 1910 (Paris, 1986), 77-85,
282-284.
(National Gallery of Art),1 it shows him—
in a way those sculptures do not—in the
very act of extracting the underlying geome-
try of his model's appearance. With boldly
repeated strokes of the charcoal he has
emphasized the near-perfect oval of the
head and the columnar cylinder of the neck.
At the same time, though, he has retained
the facial features, stylized though they may
be, and has even taken special interest in
the woman's hairstyle and the shape of her
nose. In just a few years he would eliminate
altogether such distinctive details from his
smoothly volumetric sculptures, but here he
is still compromising between individuality
and universality. In the same way, this
young woman is not as completely impas-
sive and transcendently calm as Brancusi's
later figures would be, for her gaze is
unusually direct and intense. In the end,
however, her expression is somewhat blank,
and she reveals nothing about her thoughts
or emotions.

52
53
 Woolworth Building, No. 31, is the fourth in teetotalers should go to see this show."
a series of five watercolors by Marin depict- Charles Caffin's comments in the New York
ing what would remain the world's tallest American were more typical: "these New
skyscraper, at sixty stories high, until the York pictures... reinforce one another as the
completion of the Chrysler Building in 1930. rhythms of movement leap from picture to
The watercolors were first exhibited in New picture, coursing through the series in a
York in early 1913 at Alfred Stieglitz's 291 resistless exultation." And J. N. Lauvrik of
gallery. Grouped together, they demon- the Boston Transcript proclaimed that "they
17 strated a progression from relatively convey a greater sense of architectural
JOHN MARIN straightforward realism to nearly total mass, of structure and of the general bulk
American, 1870-1953 abstraction (figure). and volume of New York than the work
Stieglitz presented Mariris watercolors of any other man who has yet assayed this
Woolworth Building,
just prior to the opening of the Armory Show, difficult task."2
No. 31,1912
the milestone exhibition of avant-garde art Given Marin's presence in Paris from
watercolor over graphite held in New York in February 1913. Antici- 1905 to 1910 and his exposure to exhibitions
470 x 398 mm pating that European artists would get the by Cezanne, Picasso, and Matisse at 291, his
(l8'/2Xl5"/i6) lion's share of attention there, he set out to claim that works like Woolworth Building,
Gift of Eugene and demonstrate that an American artist like No. 31, were essentially American and had
Agnes E. Meyer, 1967 Marin, who had so innovatively rendered little to do with the innovations of European
one of the great icons of contemporary modernist movements must be seen as a bit
American life, the New York skyscraper, had misleading.3 Nevertheless, Marin's open,
to be counted among the leading lights of exuberant, improvisational method, and
the international modernist movement. especially his mastery of the watercolor
The Woolworth Building images gener- medium, distinguish the Woolworth series
ated enormous publicity and firmly estab- from its cubist and futurist antecedents.
lished Marin's reputation in the United Landmark works in the history of American
States. Twelve articles appeared in news- modernism, they heralded the advent of
papers and art publications, including three Marin's distinctive signature style.
with elaborate layouts that featured repro- Four of the five Woolworth watercolors,
ductions of the works, sometimes in color.1 including this sheet, were featured at the
Some critics poked fun: "[the] buildings look Armory Show and later purchased by Eugene
as though some inebriated giant had gone and Agnes Meyer, important patrons of 2gi.4
swinging down Broadway putting buildings CHARLES BROCK

out of plumb.... No one but absolute

John Marin, Woolworth Building,

Provenance 2. Reviews reprinted
No. 32,1913, watercolor,
The artist to the 291 in Camera Work 42-43
National Gallery of Art,
gallery; Eugene and Agnes (April-July 1913), 24,
Washington, Gift of Eugene
E. Meyer. 41, 43-
and Agnes E. Meyer, 1967
3. See Ruth Fine, John
Notes
Marin [exh. cat., National
i. See Charles Brock, Gallery of Art] (Washing-
"A Diabolical Test," in ton, 1990), 75-79, 128.
Sarah Greenough et al., 4. Woolworth Building, No.
Modern Art and America: 30, was not exhibited and
Alfred Stieglitz and His is apparently no longer
New York Galleries [exh. extant.
cat., National Gallery of
Art] (Washington, 2001),
126-143.

54
ss
 To say that Kirchner was a prolific draftsman the figure. The softness of the woman's
hardly begins to express the fact. He started flesh in the curves of her neck and shoulder
to draw at age three and never stopped, and in the extruded flesh of her bent right
creating more than 20,000 drawings in all knee alleviates the abruptly rigid lines of her
media.1 This monumental production is left leg. Most striking is the twist of perspec-
that much more impressive in that he tive in the double curve of her buttocks,
almost never drew small vignettes or indi- placed so deftly that they are seen simulta-
vidual studies of single objects or forms. neously from above along the line of her
18 Instead, he envisioned and made full com- back, and also from the side leading in
ERNST LUDWIG positions—simple or complex, small or depth to her soft but rocklike hip.
KIRCHNER large, but completely seen and formed in ANDREW ROBISON

German, 1880-1938 the visual field.

In 1911, as Kirchner made his transition
Erna Lying on the
from Dresden to Berlin, and especially in Provenance 2. From Kirchner's diary
Beach among Rocks, Dr. Riidiger Graf von der for 4 August 1919, quoted
1912, his line became so swift and sharp,
1912 Goltz, Dusseldorf; Korn- in Roman Norbert Ketterer
and his hatching such a flurry of zigzags, feld und Klipstein, Bern, and Glaus Zoege von
20-21 June 1973, lot 362; Manteuffel, Ernst Ludwig
reed pen and ink that one senses his hand could hardly keep D. Thomas Bergen, Lon- Kirchner: Zeichnungen und
461 x 591 mm up with his visual ideas. In his drawings he don; Carus Gallery, New Pastelle (Stuttgart and
York. Zurich, 1979), 13.
(18/8X233/16) did not erase; he just kept going: "I have to
3. German Expressionist
Ailsa Mellon Bruce draw until a fury, just draw. Then after a
Notes
Drawings from the Collec-
Fund, 1984 certain time seek out the good."2 The swift- i. The current estimate tion ofD. Thomas Bergen
ness of his strokes evokes the movement, was kindly provided by [exh. cat., University of
Dr. Wolfgang Henze at Notre Dame Art Gallery]
the flux of life he was seeking, even in an the Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (South Bend, 1977), 21.
idyllic moment of calm such as that depicted Archiv, Wichtrach/Bern,
Switzerland, 28 January
in this scene. Judging from her distinctive
2001.
hairstyle, the figure in this drawing is un-
doubtedly Erna, Kirchner's new companion
in Berlin, who eventually became his wife.
She reclines on the shore of the Baltic island
of Fehmarn, where the artist liked to go in
summer to observe the uninhibited inter-
action between nudes and nature.
In Kirchner's notes sent to Wilhelm
Valentiner, who gave the artist his first one-
man show in America, Kirchner reveals that
one of his desires in his beach scenes was to
relate the figures to the rocks in such a way
that each appeared totally integrated with
the other.3 He has certainly achieved that
here. Even more extraordinary is how, with
the brilliant placement of the composition
on this large sheet and with his shorthand
for forms (what he called "hieroglyphs"),
Kirchner plays summary distortion against
complete rightness of feeling. There is not a
mark to indicate the foreground beach, yet
one clearly feels its flatness and support for

56
zs
 Heinrich Campendonk executed this stun- clouds and rays of sun. The figure is bare-
ning double-sided watercolor soon after foot and holds what looks like a ball, per-
being asked to join Der Blaue Reiter (The haps a beach ball, high above her head. In
Blue Rider) by the group's founders, Wassily addition, a flower seems to grow directly out
Kandinsky and Franz Marc. He was known of the ground at the lower left. The elegant,
to them through August Macke, whose modern chair seems out of place in this envi-
cousin Helmut shared his studio.1 Campen- ronment, as if Campendonk pictured Adda
donk had three works in the first public existing in various places simultaneously.
19 exhibition of Der Blaue Reiter, which opened Both the self-portrait and the represen-
HEINRICH in December 1911 at the Galerie Thann- tation of Adda reflect influences that were
CAMPENDONK hauser in Munich.2 By mid-May 1912 he had coming together in Campendonk's work at
German, 1889-1957 met Herwarth Walden, founder of the peri- the time. The use of abstract forms and
odical Der Sturm and the Sturm-Galerie in multiple viewpoints demonstrates his new
Self-Portrait, c. 1912
Berlin, who was a major promoter of leading interest in cubism. The use of pure, intense
German artists and writers before World color to express emotion suggests that
verso: Adda
War I and soon carried Campendonk's work, Campendonk was inspired by the paintings
Deichmann Reclining
including the present watercolor. of Van Gogh and by Kandinsky's theory on
in a Chair, c. 1912
This Self-Portrait relates to a painting of the purity of color. The remarkable luminos-
watercolor over graphite the same date in the Gemeentemuseum, ity of these watercolors calls to mind stained
on Japanese paper The Hague.3 While the watercolor portrays glass, a medium in which Campendonk
532 x 428 mm the artist in bust length, dressed in formal worked throughout his career. And the lyri-
(20'5/i6Xl6%) attire, with a high collar and polka-dotted cal rhythm of the self-portrait, with its ser-
Anonymous Promised bow tie, the oil painting shows only his pentine lines and sharp angles resembling
Gift head, with his body disappearing in a series musical notations, is reminiscent of Kandin-
of geometric forms. Both works depict the sky's explorations of the relationship between
figure holding a palette in one hand, though music and painting, an interest shared with
the other hand is also represented in the other members of Der Blaue Reiter?
canvas. The watercolor contains several GREGORY JECMEN

mysterious forms that recur in other works

by Campendonk from this time: two spheres
topped by cylinders to the right of his head; Provenance painting, see Krefeld
Sturm-Galerie, Berlin; 1960, no. 12; Firmenich
floating serpentine lines in the lower left cor- Hedwig and Wilhelm 1989, no. 142 O; and
ner and above his shoulder; and the ladder- Buller, Duisburg, 1917; Krefeld 1989, no. 15
Sotheby's, Berlin, 30 May (reproduced on p. 59).
like rendering at the bottom right. The oil 1991, lot 9; present owner.
4. Adda's distinctive fea-
painting also includes floating spheres tures, including dark,
around the artist's arm. Finally, the painting Notes
almond-shaped eyes,
pointed nose, and pulled-
shows a pear, absent in the watercolor, seem- 1. Heinrich Campendonk:
Ein Maler des Blauen Reiter back hair, are seen in other
ingly placed on a dish to the left of his head. [exh. cat., Kaiser Wilhelm drawings of the same time
In the course of removing an old card- Museum] (Krefeld, 1989). that identify her explicitly.
See especially the water-
board backing for the present exhibition, a 2. Krefeld 1989, 20. color Lovers (Adda and
beautifully preserved, fully finished water- 3. For the drawing see Heinrich) in Firmenich
Paul Wember, Heinrich 1989, no. I58AD. The
color was found on the sheet's verso. This Campendonk: Krefeld couple was married in
exciting discovery shows a woman reclining 1889-1957 Amsterdam the summer of 1913.
[exh. cat., Museum Haus 5. Paul Vogt, "The Blaue
in a Wiener Werkstatte-style chair with a Lange] (Krefeld, 1960), Reiter," in Expressionism:
tassled seat cushion or blanket. A dog sits at no. 13; and Andrea Fir- A German Intuition, 1905-
menich, Heinrich Campen- 1920 [exh. cat., Solomon R.
her feet. The woman is probably Campen- donk, 1880-1957. Leben Guggenheim Museum]
donk's lover, Adda Deichmann.4 The setting und Expressionistisches (New York, 1980), 196.
Werk (Recklinghausen,
is ambiguous, though certain details suggest
1989), no. I47A. For the
it might be outdoors, possibly near a beach.
These include the wavelike forms in the
background together with what may be

58
59
6o
 On 13 April 1912 Egon Schiele was arrested ous of crimes.2 This imperious attitude and
and imprisoned in the small Austrian town unbridled egotism placed Schiele in various
of Neulengbach on charges of immorality difficulties, and it was the chief reason for
and seduction. He was tried and sentenced, his imprisonment in 1912. The creation of
then released on 7 May, having spent art became the means for conveying ideas
twenty-four days in jail.1 The experience and morals. Line and color had to be applied
so devastated him that he refused to talk in a manner calculated to elicit the appropri-
about it. ate responses. Art was at the service of
20
Self-Portrait was created in the months morality and was a force for social change.
EGON SCHIELE following his release. It is a tour de force of The collision between this attitude and
Austrian, 1890-1918 expressive draftsmanship. With an economy the reality of small-town mores in Neuleng-
of line and color, Schiele has conjured up a bach fostered new insights and a greater
Self-Portrait, 1912
virtuoso representation of the pain, anger, self-realization. This experience was the
watercolor over graphite confusion, and defiance that his incarcera- impetus behind the present Self-Portrait.
verso: graphite sketch tion produced. Only his eyes look straight On the last of various watercolors com-
of a face and fixedly out of the composition. Every pleted while in jail, Schiele wrote: "for my
349 x 254 mm other element is awry: his tousled hair, fur- art and for my loved ones, I will endure to
(13^/4X10) rowed brow, contorted mouth, even the the end."3
Gift (Partial and collar of his shirt. CHRISTOPHER WITH

Promised) of Hildegard All of this has been orchestrated with

Bachert in memory of a few sure strokes. The swirling, dynamic
Otto Kallir, 1997 lines are applied with vehemence, yet with a Provenance 2. On one of the water-
Leopold Hauer, Vienna; colors painted while he
mastery that conveys a striking portrayal of Otto Kallir; Hildegard was in jail, Schiele wrote:
penetrating honesty. This depiction is inten- Bachert, New York, 1950. "Hindering the artist is a
crime, it is murdering life
sified by the dramatic application of the
in the bud!" Quoted in
watercolor medium, which mimics and over- Notes Jane Kallir, Egon Schiele:
i. For a discussion of The Complete Works (New
lays the linear contours. The bold colors and Schiele's imprisonment, York, 1990), 138.
sweeping lines also lift the figure from the see Alessandra Comini,
"Egon Schiele in Prison," 3. Kallir 1990, 138.
surrounding space and forcefully direct in Albertina Studien 2,
attention to the technical skill of the artist no. 4 (1964), 135.
as well as to his psychological state.
This dual intent derives from Schiele's
perception of art as the vehicle to explore
life to its fullest and to report his findings
unabashedly. Driven by a compulsion to
plumb all aspects of life, Schiele investi-
gated subjects that ranged from eros and
sexuality to death and decay, replicating his
"discoveries" in watercolor, drawing, and oil
with brutal directness. He applied the same
honesty to delineations of his own emo-
tions, as is mercilessly evident in this as
well as his other self-portraits.
Throughout his early career Schiele was
convinced that artists stood above the rest of
humanity. They were free to do and say what
they wished because they were society's
oracles, whose insights would—if heeded—
result in the improvement of life. He con-
sidered any attempt to thwart artists from
expressing themselves to be the most hein-

6l
 This powerful image of a woman lying in in the life of a close companion. In this
bed brilliantly demonstrates Erich Heckel's drawing a striking juxtaposition exists
view that line, as a conveyor of emotion, between the personal, tender subject
was the most essential aspect of drawing. matter and the severe reduction of the
Although his technique had been criticized figure's form.
by his early teachers as lacking discipline, The verso of this sheet, dated a year
Heckel, like his colleagues in the Dresden later, shows a hilly landscape drawn briskly
artists group Die Brucke (The Bridge), deeply in black chalk (figure). In the summer of
21
believed that it was the artist's obligation 1913 Heckel spent time outside Hamburg
ERICH HECKEL to depict an honest, spontaneous expression at Osterholz and at the home of his friend
German, 1883-1970 of feeling. Gustav Schiefler.4 This work might have
The woman in this drawing is shown been executed at one of these two places.
Siddi in Bed, 1912
with one arm raised over her head, which is GREGORY JECMEN

crayon propped up on pillows, and her features

verso: Landscape, 1913, defined in bold outline. Such sharp con-
black chalk trasts of black and white can also be found Provenance 1999), 44. Heckel titled
Serge Sabarsky Gallery, many of these works mude
x
497 39 2 mm in Heckel's prints and show the influence New York. (tired), kranke (sick), and
(19/2X153/8) of woodcuts by Felix Vallotton.1 The ex- liegende (reclining), but the
inscription on the National
Ailsa Mellon Bruce treme angularity of form, so prominent in Notes Gallery drawing, ruhende
Fund, 1980 Heckel's works from this period, might have 1. Heckel produced more (resting), is in a later hand.
than one thousand etch- For paintings of this
been inspired by African sculpture then on ings, woodcuts, and litho- theme, see particularly
public display at the Museum of Ethnology graphs. See Annemarie Paul Vogt, Erich Heckel
and Wolf-Dieter Dube,
in Dresden.2 Erich Heckel: Das Gra-
(Recklinghausen, 1965),
nos. 1911/2,1912/10, I9I2/
The subject is probably Heckel's long- phische Werk, 3 vols. 17, 1913/3, and 1913/5. For
(Berlin, 1964).
time companion, Siddi Riha. Born Hilda several other drawings
2. Herbert Barry, German on the theme, see Erich
Frieda Georgi, she took the stage name Expressionism: "Die Brucke" Heckel: Handzeichnungen
"Siddi" when she became a dancer. Heckel and "Der Blaue Reiter" (New York and Berlin,
(London, 1983), 56. 1973), nos. 19, 20, 22,
and Siddi met in 1910 and were married in 23,42.
3. Magdalena M. Moeller,
June 1915. In the years following their move Erich Heckel. Meisterwerke 4. Erich Heckel, 1883-1970.
from Dresden to Berlin in 1911, Heckel des Expressionismus: Aqua- Gemalde, Aquarelle, Zeich-
relle und Zeichnungen aus nungen, und Graphik
created a series of works depicting tired, [exh. cat., Museum Folk-
der Sammlung des Brucke-
sleeping, and sick women, several of which Museums Berlin [exh. cat., wang, Essen] (Munich,
1983), 212.
can be identified as images of Siddi.3 Heckel Kunsthalle, Kiel] (Munich,

follows a long art historical tradition in

which the artist reveals an intimate moment

Landscape (verso of Siddi

in Bed)

62
 o\
u>
 The subject of a woman at her bath dates amounts, so that when he drew with his pen
back to antiquity, as one of the most wide- the ink ran and feathered outward in natural
spread artistic excuses for portraying the watery patterns that merge outline and color,
beauty and endless compositional possibili- bather and bath and background, into a
ties of the female nude. Nonetheless, Kirch- kaleidoscopic rainbow. Knowing Kirchner's
ner makes the subject distinctively his own habit of creative experiment with whatever
in this phantasmagoric image. He was was at hand, one can imagine that he could
among the century's most adventurous in have dipped his hand or rag or brush right
22
exploring graphic techniques, and some- into Erna's bathwater to create this fusion!5
ERNST LUDWIG times one can only guess at the likely com- ANDREW ROBISON

KIRCHNER bination of intention and accident—and

German, 1880-1938 artistic capitalization on accident—that led
to the results. Provenance pen lines) is closest to
Erna Bathing in a Estate of the artist via three color crayon and pas-
Traditional color drawings start with
Tub, 1912-1913 Roman Norbert Ketterer, tel Nudes, two in Stuttgart,
a more or less complete linear outline of Lugano; Mr. and Mrs. one in Wuppertal, all dat-
Jacob Kainen. able 1912-1914; see Ernst
pen and ink over water forms to which areas of color are then added.
Ludwig Kirchner: 1880-
washes over crayons Kirchner certainly made such drawings, 193$ [exh. cat., National-
Notes galerie] (Berlin, 1979), nos.
524 x 362 mm though his colors are usually not fillers of 1. For example, see Roman 155-156; and Ketterer and
(20 5/8 x 14 r4) form but electrifying layers of pure color Norbert Ketterer and Glaus von Manteuffel 1979,
Zoege von Manteuffel, no. 48. Likewise, the pat-
Promised Gift of Mr. along the original outlines, within which he Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: terns of pen lines (absent
and Mrs. Jacob Kainen adds nervous strokes or zigzags that balance Zeichnungen und Pastelle the bleeding) are charac-
(Stuttgart and Zurich, teristic of drawings from
light and shadow with bold harlequin effects
1979), no. 7. the period 1911-1913
on the surfaces of his forms.1 Sometimes 2. For example, see Ket- (for a condensed survey,
after finishing such a drawing, he might terer and von Manteuffel see Berlin 1979, nos.
1979, nos. 9 and n. 131-170).
return to it and use an emphatic application
3. See Ketterer and von 5. Although by now Kirch-
of black wash or charcoal to solidify certain Manteuffel 1979, no. 20. ner's line had become
edges or objects.2 In his constant search for 4. This drawing was for
furiously swift, he did
not neglect individual
speed in grasping and portraying a subject, many years thought to characteristics. Here the
date from 1923, because
Kirchner sometimes forgot any preliminary it was so listed by Roman
woman's hairstyle and
wide hips clearly identify
outline and simply applied blocks and Norbert Ketterer, but it her as Erna; compare cat.
must in fact date from a
strokes of color to create forms, as if paint- 18 in the present exhibi-
decade earlier. The applica- tion and Berlin 1979,
ing alia prima.3 tion of color (before the no. 136.
In an extraordinary experiment this draw-
ing reverses the customary procedure—and
with a unique variation—casting this peace-
ful domestic scene into wildly fused and
flowing colors and lines.4 The drawing was
originally made with no preliminary outline
but with pure color. The edges of the bather
changed hue from part to part, and her
surfaces were indicated by stumped and
hatched colors brightly contrasting with
those of the edges. After finishing the image,
Kirchner came back to add black pen lines,
putting the outline on top of the color, as if
making a chiaroscuro woodcut and printing
the key block last. Yet instead of using the
lines only to clarify the edges of forms,
Kirchner gave them a more complex func-
tion. Before using the pen, he brushed water
onto the surface of the drawing in varying

64
\0
 Egon Schiele is best known for his portraits Provenance with Otto Benesch, a
Hans Ankwicz-Kleehoven; champion of Schiele's art,
and figure compositions, although he also Rudolf Leopold; Serge who may have gotten it
executed landscapes and cityscapes. When Sabarsky Gallery; Sotheby from Schiele himself
Parke-Bernet, New York, (Leopold 1972, 298).
he died from influenza during an epidemic
16 May 1979, lot 72; Mr.
2. For Schiele's relation-
in 1918, he was only twenty-eight years old, and Mrs. Mark J. Millard.
ship with Wally, and his
but he had already produced approximately biography during these
years, see Kallir 1990,
three hundred oil paintings and several Notes
An earlier version of this 108-192; Alessandra
thousand watercolors and drawings.1 text was published in Comini, Egon Schiele's
23 Portraits (Berkeley, 1974),
Dancer is one of Schiele's most elegant, Washington 1991.
89-90, 92, 99-101, 105-
EGON SCHIELE serene, and discreet likenesses. It depicts i. See Jane Kallir et al., 107,136-140,144-145.
Egon Schiele: The Com- See also Otto Kallir, Egon
Austrian, 1890-1918 the artist's model and mistress Valerie plete Works, Including a Schiele: Oeuvre-Katalog
Neuzil, who was called "Wally." She is read- Biography and Catalogue der Gemalde (Vienna,
Dancer, 1913 Raisonne (New York, 1966), 19-35; Alessandra
ily identifiable by her red hair, bangs, high
1990), 495, no. 01264; Comini, Egon Schiele (New
watercolor and gouache cheekbones, and long nose.2 Wally had also Rudolf Leopold, Egon York, 1976), 7-27; and
over graphite posed for Klimt, who in 1911 introduced her Schiele: Paintings, Water- Christian M. Nebehay,
colors, Drawings (New Egon Schiele 1890-1918:
470 x 304 mm to Schiele, with whom she lived until his York, 1972), 298, plate Leben, Briefe, Gedichte
(18/2X12) marriage to Edith Harms in 1915. The ener- 133; Serge Sabarsky, Egon (Vienna, 1979), 147-190,
Schiele: Erotische Zeichnun- also 191-236, 437-496.
Gift (Partial and gized, jagged angularity of the drawing and gen, ed. Muni de Smecchia
Promised) of Liselotte the delicate passages of color—in the sub- (Cologne, 1981), plate 19.
According to Leopold, the
Millard, in Honor of the ject's reddish brown hair and orange head- title "Dancer" originated
50th Anniversary of the band and the purplish blue shading along
National Gallery of Art, the edges and folds of her garment—are
1990 closely related to Schiele's other watercolors
of the period.
Many of the artist's portraits and self-
portraits are nudes, frequently in agitated,
provocative, or even overtly erotic poses.
Wally was the model for numerous draw-
ings of this type; indeed the position she
adopts here, seated with her knees drawn
up against her chest, often provided Schiele
an opportunity to focus on the female geni-
talia. In this portrait, however, Wally is
decorously dressed in a simple shift that
envelops her from shoulders to feet. Her
monumental pyramidal form fills almost
the entire sheet. The blank background con-
centrates attention on her introspective
expression and on her indolent gesture of
raising—or lowering—her shoulder strap.
ELIZABETH PENDLETON STREICHER

66
67
00
\0
 By the summer of 1912 Pablo Picasso and At the end of his life Braque remarked
Georges Braque reached a juncture in their on the importance of the papier colle in the
collaborative exploration of cubist form, vol- evolution of cubism: "With that [the papier
ume, and shape.1 In the process of analyz- colle] we arrived at dissociating cleanly color
ing and reducing objects into flat planes from form and at seeing its independence
with multiple viewpoints, both artists gradu- in relation to form, because that was the
ally came to see a picture as being a tableau- main concern. Color acts simultaneously
objet, or "picture object," with emphasis with form, but has nothing to do with it."7
24 placed on surface realism and on the tactile GREGORY JECMEN

GEORGES BRAQUE
qualities of painting.
In May 1912 Picasso made the first
French, 1882-1963
cubist collage, introducing a length of rope Provenance The First Papier Colle," in
Aria de Bach, 1913 and a piece of cloth printed with a chair- Marie Cuttoli, Paris, until Braque: The Papiers Colles
1970; Galerie Beyeler, [exh. cat., National Gallery
papier colle with charcoal caning pattern. In September of that year, Basel, 1970; Mr. and Mrs. of Art] (Washington,
Paul Mellon, 1971. 1982), 18.
and white chalk when both artists were living in Sorgues,
4. See Washington 1982,
621 x 469 mm near Avignon, Braque bought a roll of wall- no. 24.
Notes
(24 '/ a x 18/2) paper made to resemble oak paneling and 1. See Douglas Cooper 5. Braque's use of the faux
Collection of Mr. and soon began to cut strips from the roll and and Gary Tinterow, The wood-grain paper is ironic,
Essential Cubism: Braque, since he had learned how
Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1982 arrange them on paper to form the basis of Picasso, and Their Friends, to imitate in paint various
a composition. By drawing over these affixed 3907-1920 [exh. cat, Tate building materials, includ-
Gallery, London] (London, ing wood, during his early
shapes and fashioning the details of a still 1983); and William Rubin, experience as a house
life, Braque created the first cubist papier Picasso and Braque: Pio- decorator (Washington
colle (literally "pasted paper").2 According to neering Cubism [exh. cat., 1982, 53).
Museum of Modern Art]
6. London 1983, 84. In
some scholars, this invention differed from (New York, 1989).
addition to the wood-grain
collage in that there was a more arbitrary 2. Picasso nicknamed paper and colored paper,
relationship between the cutout pieces of Braque "Wilbur," in refer- Braque used newspaper,
ence to Wilbur Wright, patterned wallpaper, corru-
paper and the object represented. For whose inventions were gated cardboard, and ciga-
instance, the wood-grain paper could allude being celebrated in the rette packets.
press of the day (New York
to the surface of a musical instrument with- 7. Quoted in Washington
1989, 33).
1982, 35.
out being cut in the shape of the object.3 3. Douglas Cooper,
Braque made fifty-seven papiers colles "Braque as Innovator:

between 1912 and 1918, and Aria de Bach of

1913 is one of the finest of this group.4 The
glued pieces of paper, two being black and
the third being the now-famous simulated
wood-grain paper,5 suggest the materials of
a musical instrument but do not literally
depict it. In turn they are punctuated and
joined by the delicate chalk and charcoal
outlines of a guitar and of the cover of a
musical score by one of Braque's favorite
composers, Johann Sebastian Bach. Braque
called his pasted pieces of paper "certain-
ties," specific elements taken directly out of
the real world.6

69
 One of the most visually intriguing aspects instead of the parts of objects being dis-
of cubism, and most pregnant for later sected to vibrate in a shallow space, they
developments in twentieth-century art, was now become flat geometric forms, just as
the evolution of collage as a serious medium the drawn flat facets of earlier cubism are
for artistic expression.1 Cubist collages made transformed into cut flat layers of paper.
with cut papers are frequently called by the And a striking continuity is Picasso's visual
French term papiers colles, even though wit. The hilarious realistic elements swim-
many early ones—like this—were origi- ming in analytic hatchings, such as Kahn-
25 nally held together not with paste but with weiler's dapper mustache, are transformed
PABLO P I C A S S O straight pins, which often rusted and were into other visual puns, such as the combina-
Spanish, 1881-1975 removed. The Cup of Coffee still shows its tion of positive and negative definitions of
original pinholes and the raised edges of the same form. Here the left edge of the
The Cup of Coffee,
its collaged parts. The bent or lifted edges guitar is negatively formed by the back-
1913
enhance the individual character of the ground yellow showing through a rectilinear
collage with charcoal pieces so that they appear to float on the cutout of the blue, while the right edge is
and white chalk image rather than being glued or pressed positively drawn with curves of charcoal.
630 x 369 mm into a flat plane. And Picasso cuts the black paper so the
(24'3/16X14/2) The Cup of Coffee was dated spring 1912 coffee refuses to stay in the white cup but
Collection of Mr. and in its first publication by Christian Zervos — overflows, only to be restrained by white
Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985 probably based on dating by Picasso him- chalk hatching that recreates a top edge
self, since the artist still owned the work— and a rounded front for the cup.
and in frequent reproductions since then.2 ANDREW ROBISON

Yet William Rubin's magisterial Picasso and

Braque: Pioneering Cubism has enormously
facilitated the careful dating of specific Provenance Similarly, Picasso had pre-
Pierre Gaut, Paris, after dated the first cubist col-
works. Its extensive selection of materials 1942; Heinz Berggruen, lage, Still Life with Chair
makes clear that the blue and brown wall- Paris, by 1959; Sotheby's, Caning, to 1911; see Alfred
London, 23 April 1968, lot H. Barr Jr., Picasso: Fifty
paper used here first appeared in a collage
24; purchased via Hector Years of His Art (New York,
datable—from its newspaper fragment— Brame by Mr. and Mrs. 1946), 79. Apparently only
Paul Mellon. Douglas Cooper redated
after 15 March 1913; and that date is con-
The Cup of Coffee to 1913,
firmed by the particular hatching used here but with no evidence
Notes given; see Picasso [exh.
for the tablecloth folds, which first appeared 1. As opposed to innumer- cat., Musee Cantini] (Mar-
in a collage dated spring 1913.3 able "precedents," such as seille, 1959), no. 22.
assembled and pasted pic-
This image of a guitar and cup of coffee 3. William Rubin, Picasso
tures by folk artists, greet-
on a cafe table is an especially fine example ing-card makers, and so and Braque: Pioneering
on; see Herta Wescher, Cubism [exh. cat., Museum
of Picasso's extraordinary visual intelligence, of Modern Art] (New York,
Collage (New York, 1972;
elegance, and wit. Such collages were pivotal 1989), 276, 286.
German ed. 1968), chap. i.
in the transformation of analytic into syn- 2. See Christian Zervos,
Pablo Picasso, vol. 2:
thetic cubism but also demonstrate the sym-
Oeuvres de 2906 a 1912
metrical continuities of these styles. While (Paris, 1942), no. 344.
synthetic cubism is often called an enrich-
ment or even an "adulteration" of earlier
cubism, collages like this show a major sim-
plification: the radical reduction of hand-
work. The meshes of extensively drawn
small hatchings characteristic of analytic
cubism have given way to flat expanses of
monochrome and preexisting decorative pat-
terns, with the hand-drawing much more
limited and open. The multiple points of
view of analytic cubism continue here; but

70
7'
 Seated erect in a chair and looking at the Hermann Struck in Uniform demonstrates
viewer over his left shoulder is Hermann a high degree of artistic inventiveness,
Struck, a painter, printmaker, and writer. revealing Corinth's lifelong effort to reinvig-
Struck met Corinth sometime around 1908, orate his art through newer means of visual
and a close friendship developed between expression (see also cat. 48). In his own
the two. Corinth depicted Struck four other words, "art has no boundaries, except, that
times from 1911 to 1915, twice in oil, and is, for those that one can transgress. Every-
twice in etching. Hermann Struck in Uniform one is allowed to be happy according to his
26
is the only portrayal in gouache. own fashion."2
LOVIS C O R I N T H A significant aspect of their friendship Corinth's work in gouache and water-
German, 1858-1925 was Struck's influence on Corinth's develop- color grew yearly, allowing him to note his
ment as a printmaker.1 Corinth, known pri- ideas and observations with a degree of free-
Hermann Struck in
marily as a painter, had begun making dom and speed unattainable in oil. In addi-
Uniform, 1914
prints in 1891, but his involvement was only tion, it compelled him to focus less on detail
gouache lukewarm. He rarely produced more than and direct his gaze toward a more general-
368 x 275 mm one or two prints a year between 1891 and ized representation of form. Hermann Struck
(14/2 X IO I3 /i6) 1910. Struck awakened Corinth's interest in Uniform sums up Corinth's mature real-
Ailsa Mellon Bruce through personal encouragement and assis- ization that "drawing means leaving things
Fund, 1999 tance as well as through his gift of an expen- out."3 In 1922 Struck emigrated to Palestine,
sive diamond stylus for creating drypoints. but Corinth carried on a voluminous and
After this, one of Corinth's favorite media lifelong correspondence with his friend.
was drypoint. CHRISTOPHER WITH

In this gouache Struck wears the uni-

form of a Prussian grenadier. As a soldier
on the Eastern Front during World War I, he Provenance 2. Karl Schwartz, "Lovis
Private collection, Corinth—Berlin," in
quickly rose through the ranks to become
Innsbruck; Kunsthandel Deutsche Kunst und Deko-
lieutenant in 1917. He survived the conflict Wolfgang Werner, ration 21, no. i (October
unharmed, but Corinth seems to have been KG, Bremen. 1917), 31.

anxious for his friend at the outset of hostili- 3. Quoted in Thomas

Notes
Corinth, Lovis Corinth,
ties. Although the red on the hat accurately i. Struck was the author Eine Dokumentation
replicates one part of the uniform, it can of an influential book on (Tubingen, 1979), 157.
intaglio printmaking, Die
also be interpreted as a bloody bandage. The
Kunst des Radierens (The
red blotches on Struck's shoulder, not part Art of Etching).
of any uniform, give a more powerful
impression of wounds. These elements,
along with the mottled red spots at the eye
and nose and the frozen immobility of the
expression, suggest an almost ghostlike
apparition of a bleeding, suffering, and per-
haps dying—or dead—friend.
The overall impact is enhanced by the
artist's bravura control of color using a wet-
ter or drier brush. The browns, yellows, and
reds spread across the page and seep into
one another, yet their flow has been care-
fully directed. There are few contour lines,
yet the clothes, face and hands, and chair
are all identifiable and in proper proportion.
The delicate and rich areas of pooled color,
along with Corinth's concern for his friend,
produce a truly affecting portrait.

72
R
74
 Born in the Ukraine, raised in St. Peters- whole hovers on the edge of radical abstrac-
burg, and educated in Karlsruhe, Sonia tion. In this vein Solar Prism differs from
Delaunay-Terk moved to Paris in 1905 and cubist explorations of collage. Whereas in
quickly established a reputation as a tal- The Cup of Coffee (cat. 25) Picasso juxtaposes
ented and unconventional painter. In 1908 collage elements with painted and drawn
she held her first solo exhibition, and in representations as a means of investigating
1910 she married fellow artist Robert Delau- the nature of pictorial illusionism, Delau-
nay, with whom she maintained a lifelong nay-Terk manipulates collage alone as a
27 creative partnership. Between 1910 and 1912 method of composition, which indicates
SONIA the Delaunays developed a form of painting form and depth and creates pictorial
DELAUNAY-TERK they called "simultaneism." Based on the dynamism solely through the contrast of
French, born Ukrainian, theory that juxtapositions of colors could colors. This additive, highly physical method
1885-1979 express the spatial and temporal flux of of composition thus maintains a dialogue
modern perceptual experience without with the abstract designs for bookbindings
Solar Prism, 1914
resorting to literal description, simultane- and textiles that Delaunay-Terk produced in
collage with watercolor, ism was central to the development of the years 1912-1914.
crayon, and ink abstraction in the prewar period. Although Solar Prism eschews definitive
495 x 33° mm While Robert explored simultaneity pri- figuration, the presence of a C in bold black
(19/2X13) marily in painting, Sonia's artistic produc- on the left side of the collage followed by an
Promised Gift of the tion encompassed a vast range of media, H indicated in pencil suggests that the col-
Judith Rothschild including collage, book illustration, book- lage evolved on top of a study for a series of
Foundation binding, theater design, posters, furniture, posters advertising "Chocolat."1 This trans-
textiles, and a line of "simultaneous" cloth- formation from a study for a commercial
ing. Across this diversity of media, Delau- poster to a nearly abstract collage suggests
nay-Terk's works are consistent in their that Delaunay-Terk, who claimed that her
manipulation of vibrant and rhythmic color decorative work served as an expansion
contrasts as both a technique of abstraction upon and extension of her painterly prac-
and an expression of the dynamism of tice, moved between the categories of fine
modern experience. and applied art as easily as she did among
Solar Prism forms part of a series of different media.
drawings, paintings, and collages in which SARAH KENNEL

Delaunay-Terk explored the prismatic effects

of light. In this work—which combines
collage with crayon, ink, and watercolor— Provenance Note
Rose Fried Gallery, New i. Sherry Buckberrough,
jaggedly cut and torn pieces of stridently
York; Herbert and Nanette Sonia Delaunay: A Retro-
colored paper collide and intersect to evoke Rothschild, 1956; Judith spective [exh. cat., Albright
Rothschild; The Judith Knox Art Gallery] (Buffalo,
the blazing brilliance of midday sun. The
Rothschild Foundation. 1980), 40.
shattered forms that proliferate across
the collage are striking not only in their
visual boldness but also in their tactile
immediacy. The torn and serrated edges of
colored paper, the visible glue stains, and
the subtle passages of crayon and ink mark-
ings enhance the work's textural density,
while the various paper materials employed,
including thick and glossy industrial paper
and a metallic copper strip, create reflective
patterns across the work's surface.
Although the bands of brightly colored
arcs in the upper right of the image suggest
concentric rays of the sun, the collage as a

75
 The explosion of artistic ideas and debates in form behind the vertical composition, a
Paris in the second decade of this century standing but relaxed figure that echoes the
included, in the popular nomenclature of elegant reversing curves or contrapposto
"isms," synchromism, created by the Ameri- of Italian sculpture. Among Macdonald-
can emigres Morgan Russell and Stanton Wright's favorite works of art in his early
Macdonald-Wright. Synchromism burst on life were Michelangelo's Bound Slaves in
the European scene in 1913 with a quick the Louvre.4
succession of exhibitions in Munich, Paris, In spite of the artist's inscribing this
28
Milan, London, and Warsaw, followed by work, "Tinted sketch for Synchromie in Red,"
STANTON New York in 1914. Though visually related no painting by that name has been found;
MACDONALD-WRIGHT to the Delaunays and orphism as well as to this watercolor was, however, clearly used
American, 1890-1973 futurism, the synchromists distinguished for the painting Conception Synchromy.5 The
themselves sharply in origin and effect.1 change of title from watercolor to painting
Generation, 1914
In 1912 Macdonald-Wright continued to is intriguing, because Generation was the first
watercolor and ink paint recognizable forms but developed the work in a planned series on the cycle of life.
over graphite structures of his art into broadly brushed Only two works in this cycle have been
493 x 3J6 mm passages organized primarily in circular pat- found: this one, which the artist called "Gen-
(!9 3 /8Xl2 7 /i6) terns, and he moved beyond local color to eration" Life-Cycle Serie No. I, and a similar-
Eugene L. and Marie- employ colors in purely visual and theoreti- sized watercolor titled "Conception" Life-Cycle
Louise Garbaty Fund, cal relationships. By 1914 his circular pat- Serie No. II, both signed by Macdonald-
1998 terns became abstract, dynamic compositions Wright using his mother's maiden name,
of color relationships, frequently described Van Vranken.6 Macdonald-Wright must have
as being like tones and melodies in musical abandoned the projected series and trans-
compositions, with similar harmonies and ferred the title for his second image to his
producing similar aesthetic effects.2 first. He apparently used his second image
Generation is a superb example of Mac- to create the painting Abstraction on Spectrum
donald-Wright's finest work. The general (Organization No. jj/thus moving away
composition is a delicate yet dynamic bal- from any traditional content, even in denomi-
ance of intersecting arcs from at least eight nation, and embracing pure abstraction.
different circular patterns resembling color ANDREW ROBISON

wheels, their rounded shape emphasized

by the broad arcs of ink at both sides. The Provenance 3. Compare Macdonald-
Private collection, Bayside, Wright's remarks of 1916
range of color hues is unusually broad, as is NY (estate sale, 1988); (excerpted in Washington
their range of intensity; and both scales are private collection, U.S.; 1967, 12) and New York
Sotheby's, New York, 1978, 20 and note 19, as
enhanced by variations in texture through
23 September 1993, lot well as Morgan Russell's
superimposed ink hatching. The composi- 272; Robert Nowinski, introduction to his 1913
Seattle, until 1998; Hirschl Paris exhibition with
tion of reversing curves reinforces the clever
£ Adler, New York. Macdonald-Wright (New
location of colors so that repeated pools of York 1978,130).
bright yellows and reds, with associated Notes
4. See New York 1978,
figs. 19 and 24; and com-
oranges, insistently pull the eye back and 1. The complex relation-
pare his brother's remarks
ship to Robert and Sonia
forth, zigzagging through the drawing across on Morgan Russell's first
Delaunay receives good
the cooler blues and greens, purples and abstract painting (New
treatment in Gail Levin,
York 1978, 23).
Synchromism and American
blacks. This work beautifully realizes a pri-
Color Abstraction, 1910-1925 5. New York 1978, fig. n.
mary synchromist aim: to create images that [exh. cat., Whitney
6. The latter reproduced in
Museum of American
inherently cause the eye and mind to move color in Victoria Thorson,
Art] (New York, 1978),
ed., Great Drawings
energetically, giving the sense that they are 18-20, 27.
of All Time: The Twentieth
developing through time, as does music.3 2. See Macdonald-Wright's Century (New York, 1979),
Generation is also provocative in terms 1924 "A Treatise on Color," no. 201.
reprinted in The Art of
7. New York 1978, plate
of the development from representation to Stanton Macdonald-Wright
10, now in the Des Moines
pure abstraction. In spite of its evident [exh. cat., National Collec-
Art Center.
tion of Fine Arts] (Wash-
abstraction, one can intuit a hint of human ington, DC, 1967).

76
77
 Critics consistently rank Meidner's portraits of his incisive lines — rendered not with a
among his best works, and some consider T-square but by hand and varying from
him "one of the major portraitists of the darker to lighter tones. These marks come
twentieth-century."1 For others he was alive on the page and energize Freimark
"among the best draughtsmen of his genera- with an internal vigor unrelated to his actual
tion."2 Meidner's portraits — rarely commis- physical appearance.
sioned— depict some of the leading artists, Meidner's fascination with Freimark's
writers, intellectuals, actors, and directors physiognomy can literally be seen in the
29 in Germany between 1912 and about 1925. way the pencil digs into the paper and in the
LUDWIG MEIDNER The majority of them are heads or busts. rapidity and fervor of the execution. This is
German, 1884-1966 Because the portraits were done informally, entirely in keeping with Meidner's concept
they do not have a self-conscious, affected, of portraiture: "Do not be afraid of the face
Hans Freimark, 1915
or staged quality. Many were drawn at cafes of a human being It is the reflection of
graphite that Meidner frequented seeking fellowship divine glory although it is more often like a
530 x 400 mm and the human relationships that were his slaughterhouse, bloody rags and all. Press
(20% x i53/4) only "protection from despair."3 together wrinkled brow, root of nose and
Epstein Family Fund, Like many progressive artists of his eyes. Dig like a mole down into the mysteri-
1983 generation, Meidner did not depict sitters ous deep of the pupils and into the white of
objectively but sought to convey their inner the eye and don't let your pen stop until the
psychic and psychological makeup as medi- soul of that one opposite you is wedded to
ated through his own perception. He wrote yours in a convent of pathos."6
in 1918 "we will no longer follow deadly rea- CHRISTOPHER WITH

son, the old church dogmas, a political goal

or current fad—rather we shall create a
spiritual, transcendental realm on our can- Provenance 3. Jane Glaubinger,
D. Thomas Bergen, Lon- "A Double-Sided Drawing
vases out of primeval depths of feeling; out don; Christie's, London, by Ludwig Meidner," The
of elemental, immediate visions; yes, right 2 December 1980, lot 245; Bulletin oj the Cleveland
William H. Schab Gallery, Museum of Art 69
out of our own spiritual being."4 New York. (1982), 301.
Hans Freimark was an obscure historian 4. Ludwig Meidner,
and writer. In addition to pursuing interests Notes
'Aschaffenburg Journal"
(1918); quoted in Ann
in ancient and modern mysticism, magic, 1. Quoted in Victor H.
Arbor 1978, 32.
Miesel, Ludwig Meidner:
religion, and theosophy, he was the author An Expressionist Master 5. Ann Arbor 1978, 16.
of at least twelve publications. These range [exh. cat., University of
6. Glaubinger 1982,
Michigan Museum of Art]
from novels about Marie Antoinette and a (Ann Arbor, 1978), 65.
305-306.

historical/psychological study of Robes- 2. Frank Whitford, "The

pierre to a treatise on sexuality in Africa Work of Ludwig Meidner,"
Studio International 183
and the psychic arts. In Meidner's portrayal (February 1972), 54.
Freimark looks intently down and to the side,
as if he was not aware of being depicted.
The intensity of his gaze, his furrowed brow,
the strong contours of his face, and his
pursed lips all convey the impression of an
individual deep in thought or attentively lis-
tening to someone's comments. They also
suggest a person of active intelligence and
a commanding presence. People like this
attracted Meidner's interest, as he "required
powerful stimulus in order to act."5
Freimark's intensity is underscored by
graphite lines that are applied with palpable
force. Meidner was well aware of the impact

78
3
 Fela and Odilon is a splendid gouache from Chagall's paintings, and the artist inscribed
early in Chagall's career. More naturalistic Cendrars' name as one of four names sur-
than most of his work from this period, rounding a heart in his 1911-1912 painting
there are no flying people and no dreamy Homage to Apollinaire (Stedelijk van Abbe-
visions. Also unusual, Chagall has employed Museum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands).
the exceptional technique of imprinting the Unfortunately, the friendship was a stormy
design of a piece of lace around the shoul- one. Chagall returned to Paris with Bella
ders of the mother to create the lacy shawl after the war and discovered that paintings
30 that is an important part of this especially he had stored with the dealer Ambroise Vol-
MARC CHAGALL free and playful composition. lard had been sold.9 He may have believed
Russian, 1887-1985 This drawing is the same size and basi- that Cendrars was partly to blame for this
cally the same image as the 1914 painting unwanted sale, since Cendrars had authen-
Fela and Odilon, 1915
Maternity (private collection)l but a much ticated the paintings for Vollard. Chagall
gouache and watercolor livelier and more colorful work. Several sug- rarely spoke with his friend after this,
over black chalk gestions have been offered as to the subject until reconciling when Cendrars was dying
426 x 337 mm of these two works. One was that they por- in 1961.10
(1634x13X4) tray Bella Rosenfeld, Chagall's future wife; BARBARA READ-STAUBS

Gift of Evelyn Stefans- but their first child, Ida, was not born until
son Nef in Memory of the spring of 1916.2 Another was that the
John U. Nef and in subject is Chagall's sister Lisa, who had Provenance 5. Susan Compton, Chagall
Phillip Loeb; John U. Nef, [exh. cat., Royal Academy
Honor of the 5oth recently married; but she had not had a 19205. of Arts] (London, 1985),
Anniversary of the child at that point either.3 The third and 24-25.
National Gallery of Art, most likely possibility is that the painting Notes
6. Miriam Cendrars, Blaise
Cendrars (Paris, 1984); see
1989 and gouache are portraits of Fela Poznanska An earlier version of this
the section of photographs.
text was published in
Cendrars, the first wife of the poet and Washington 1991. 7. Cendrars 1984, 275.
novelist Blaise Cendrars.4 Supporting this 1. Franz Meyer, Marc 8. Cendrars 1984, 264-
proposal, Fela was the model for the Chagall: Life and Work 265; and Alexander 1978,
(New York, 1964). pt. 3. Chagall first lived
1913 painting Pregnant Woman (Stedelijk in Paris in 1910-1914,
2. Sidney Alexander, Marc
Museum, Amsterdam), and she became Chagall: A Biography (New
returning to Russia via
Germany in June 1914.
a mother the following year.5 Fela's son York, 1978), 362.
9. Alexander 1978, 261.
Odilon, named after Odilon Redon, was 3. Aleksandr Kamensky,
Cendrars had written to
Chagall: The Russian Years
born in April 1914, and Chagall dated the 3907-2922 (New York, Chagall to tell him that
Vollard wanted him to
painting 1914 and this gouache 1915. More- 1989), 81.
return for a commission.
over, there is a strong resemblance between 4. Jay Bochner, Blaise
10. Bochner 1978, 52.
Cendrars: Discovery and
known images of Fela and the mother in Recreation (Toronto, 1978),
both the painting and the gouache. The 52-55-
woman has straight hair that falls forward
on her low forehead toward her round face,
not only in paintings and drawings but also
in photographs.6 By contrast, Bella's fore-
head was high, and her hair, which looks
wavy in photographs and paintings, grew
away from her narrow face.7
Chagall knew the Cendrars well when
he lived in Paris, and when asked about the
most important events in his life, Chagall
answered, "my meeting with Blaise Cen-
drars and the Russian Revolution."8 Cen-
drars also provided the titles for some of

80
00
 Lipchitz was among the first to transform "detachables," works that could be concep-
the pictorial developments of cubism pio- tually taken apart and fit back together. He
neered by Picasso and Braque into three made the drawing soon after completing the
dimensions.1 Arriving in Paris from Lithua- sculpture Detachable Figure: Pierrot in 1915
nia in 1909, he joined a burgeoning com- (figure): "In the drawing... the planes are
munity of avant-garde artists. Introduced to tilted at angles to the surface to create a lim-
Picasso in 1913, he immediately recognized ited sense of depth.... In the free-standing
an affinity between the structural nature of sculpture it was necessary to emphasize the
31 Picasso's cubist paintings and the architec- three-dimensional quality; and for this rea-
JACQUES LIPCHITZ tural qualities of his own work. Lipchitz son I organized the planes at right angles."4
French, 1891-1973 went on to invent a groundbreaking form of Rather than aiming for the illusion of
cubist sculpture. Pierrot was created as the three-dimensionality, the drawing is con-
Pierrot, 1916
artist was entering his mature cubist phase. structed of geometric shapes that stress the
brush and ink with Lipchitz made very few paintings, but two-dimensionality of the picture plane. Lip-
colored chalk drawings were integral to his working chitz accentuates the lack of depth by plac-
558 x 373 mm process as a sculptor. Some were prepara- ing the circular base at an almost vertical
(2I I 5/i6X!4 I I /i6) tory to clay maquettes; others—such as angle. He also avoids the use of shadows.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Pierrot—were executed after the finished The artist playfully repeats and reverses
Burton Tremaine, 1973 sculpture. Lipchitz maintained that he never forms throughout, including the pie-slice
made drawings as independent works.2 shapes of the belt and collar that echo the
Rather, they were a means to formulate circle below. Although he never applied
ideas for projected sculptures or to continue paint to his sculptures, Lipchitz uses color
his investigation of a form. Yet the finished to great effect in this drawing—and in a
quality of Pierrot and the thoughtful manner manner similar to collage. The opaque black
in which Lipchitz employed colors and of the head, torso, and limbs stands in vivid
media suggest that this drawing was more contrast to the chalky, matte shades of gray
than an exercise—and closer to the experi- and burnt sienna used for overlapping
ments with collage by Braque and Picasso. forms. Each shape is carefully outlined with
Pierrot relates to a group of sculptures black or white chalk or edged with a line of
the artist referred to as "demountables" or reserved white paper; a small bit of white
chalk punctuates the uppermost rectangle
Jacques Lipchitz, Detachable
and whimsically indicates an eye.
Figure: Pierrot, 1915, bronze, Pierrot and his friend Harlequin, famil-
Mrs. Andrea Bollt, New York
iar figures from the commedia deH'arte,
were popular subjects among cubists, espe-
cially Picasso. Lipchitz, no doubt influenced
by the older master, represented Pierrot in
several of his later sculptures.
PHOEBE AVERY

Provenance Essential Cubism: Braque,

Buchholz Gallery, New Picasso and Their Friends
York; Mr. and Mrs. Burton 1907-1920 [exh. cat., Tate
G. Tremaine Sr. Gallery] (London, 1973), n.
2. Jacques Lipchitz with
H. H. Arnason, My Life
Notes
in Sculpture (New York,
i. See Deborah Stott,
1972), 31.
Jacques Lipchitz and
Cubism (New York, 1978), 3. Lipchitz 1972, 29.
ii; and Douglas Cooper
and Gary Tinterow, The

82
83
 The art of Henri Laurens took a new direc- of ways to represent dissociated space, these
tion when he began a lifelong friendship works on paper had an important impact
with Georges Braque in 1911. Laurens, who on the development of the artist's later
started his training as an ornamental sculp- sculpture.6
tor, soon encountered the cubism of Braque GREGORY JECMEN

and Picasso.1 His early sculptures from this

time explore the revolutionary principles of
analytical cubism, with figures constructed Provenance 3. Margit Roswell, The
32 of spheres, cones, and cylinders.
Galerie Louise Leiris, Planar Dimension: Europe,
Paris; J.P.L. Fine Arts, 1912-1932 [exh. cat., Solo-
HENRI LAURENS Though better known for his pioneering London, 1979; Galerie mon R. Guggenheim
Beyeler, 1980. Museum] (New York,
French, 1885-1954 sculptures, Laurens did create an important
1979), 12.
body of works on paper. From 1915 to 1918
[.'Instrument de Notes
4. Daniel-Henry Kahn-
he made ninety-eight papiers colles, treating 1. Laurens met Picasso weiler, "Recollections of
Musique, 1916 Henri Laurens," in Werner
the themes of figures, heads, bottles, and in 1915. Three important
Hofmann, The Sculpture of
catalogues were published
papier colle with charcoal musical instruments, including L'Instrument on Laurens in conjunc-
Henri Laurens (New York,
1970), 49.
and white chalk on de Musique of 1916.2 Though Laurens' papiers tion with exhibitions cele-
brating the centennial of 5. Kahnweiler 1970, 50.
paperboard colles were inspired by Braque's invention of the artist's birth: Sandor
6. Laurens also executed
365 x 560 mm the technique (see cat. 24), his approach Kuthy, et al., Henri Laurens,
around two hundred
1885-1954 [exh. cat.,
(i43/s x 22 %6) reflects the sensibilities of a sculptor.3 He prints, including etchings,
Kunstmuseum Bern]
lithographs, and linocuts,
Ailsa Mellon Bruce chose his materials for their tactile qualities, (Bern, 1985); Henri
between 1917 and his
Laurens (1885-1954):
Fund, 1981 always precisely layering and arranging death in 1953. See Jiirgen
Skulpturen, Collagen, Zeich-
Schultze, "Zur Druck-
them around a central, diagonal axis. The nungen, Aquarelle, Druck-
graphik des Bildhauers,"
primary support for the present work is part graphik [exh. cat., Sprengel
in Hannover 1985, 192-
Museum] (Hannover,
of a rough-textured cardboard box from the 199, with a catalogue
1985); and Henri Laurens:
raisonne following,
Parisian department store Galeries Lafayette Le cubisme constructions et
201-321.
papiers colles, 1915-1919
(complete with the establishment's label still [exh. cat., Centre Georges
on the verso). The subtle chalk marks give Pompidou] (Paris, 1985).

the impression of modeling or three-dimen- 2. A full catalogue

raisonne of Laurens'
sionality and contribute to the cohesion of papiers colles appears in
the composition. That is to say, drawing Paris 1985. L Instrument de
Musique is no. 44.
plays a descriptive role while also increasing
the sense of relief. Like Braque and Picasso,
Laurens often inserted words and phrases
into his pictures and used musical imagery,
particularly references to the violin and
guitar. As recalled by his dealer, Daniel-
Henry Kahnweiler, Laurens had a passion
for music, frequently attending the opera
and concerts with his wife.4
Though Kahnweiler called Laurens' lyri-
cal and charming papiers colles "the flower-
ing of cubism,"5 the artist abandoned the
medium in 1918 and focused on carving in
wood and stone. Yet in their exploration

84
85
 Georgia O'Keeffe arrived in South Carolina I—Special could be its corollary: a requiem
in the fall of 1915, having accepted a teach- for her mother. The smooth stone, an object
ing position at Columbia College. Filled she later paints with the title "My Heart," is
with the exuberance of her unfolding per- presented here as an offering at an altar.2
sonal discoveries, the twenty-seven-year-old Although there is no doubt that the spe-
artist created a body of commanding char- cific imagery of I—Special is highly inven-
coal drawings between 1915 and 1916, tive, it also reveals O'Keeffe's debt to Dow,
including I—Special, which have an author- for example, in the use of a limited range of
33 ity that marks a departure from everything tones (the Japanese system of notan) and an
GEORGIA O'KEEFFE she had made before. overall flat picture plane. Even more promi-
American, 1887-1986 Although O'Keeffe claimed that she had nent are the elements of art nouveau, seen
put aside all she had been taught in order to in the configuration of lines, the use of phal-
I — Special, 1916
free herself creatively, in truth she arrived in lic and uterine shapes, and the references to
charcoal South Carolina steeped in the artistic theo- organic forms, reflecting the doctrine of
629 x 476 mm ries of her day. She had spent the previous vitalism, a concept popular in the late nine-
(24 3/4 x 18 %) year studying with the influential Arthur teenth century concerning growth and
Alfred Stieglitz Wesley Dow in New York and was reading regeneration.3 That O'Keeffe would seize
Collection, Gift of the extensively, including the magazine Camera upon art nouveau's interest in the symbol-
Georgia O'Keeffe Work, Arthur Jerome Eddy's Cubism and ism of interior states is certainly apt, but
Foundation, 1992 Post-Impressionism, and Wassily Kandinsky's she invests the image with her own particu-
On the Spiritual in Art.1 Armed with consid- lar energy.
erable artistic training and exposure to the O'Keeffe said that the images she pro-
aesthetic avant-garde, O'Keeffe took all she duced in 1915 and 1916 represented per-
had absorbed, digested it, and embarked on sonal expressions, but she was consistently
a process to make it her own. vague as to their precise interpretation.
Her method was as straightforward as Nevertheless, we see in these drawings an
the works themselves. Purposefully limiting emerging codification of O'Keeffe's aesthetic
herself to the most fundamental of materi- vocabulary. This period of intense creativity
als, O'Keeffe used only charcoal and eraser remained an enduring touchstone for the
on paper for the 1915-1916 series. In artist. Perhaps because these works were the
I—Special she rendered the image in a lim- first mature expression of her artistic vision,
ited range of tones. Working against an or because the large charcoals were what
overall middle gray, the artist lightened cer- garnered the attention of Alfred Stieglitz,
tain areas with an eraser and deepened the O'Keeffe guarded and indeed retained them
cavernous center with a layer of dense black. throughout her life.
A cluster of arching shapes, like budding ELIZABETH CLASSMAN

fronds, curls toward the central oval, and

a tall reedlike pedestal rises from the open-
ing. The thin quivering line, a fragile stalk, Provenance 2. The black stone
Estate of the artist, 1986; appeared in O'Keeffe's
hardly seems able to support the dark stone The Georgia O'Keeffe work throughout her
balanced on top. Foundation, Abiquiu, New career. See Sharyn Rohlf-
Mexico, 1991. sen Udall, Can, O'Keeffe,
O'Keeffe referred to the exploration of
Kahlo: Places of Their Own
her inner states as her "music." In contrast (New Haven, 2000).
Notes
to the fervent expressions of the previous i. See Ruth E. Fine, Eliza- 3. Sarah Whitaker Peters
year, as exemplified by No. 2—Special (also beth Classman, and Juan devotes a lengthy discus-
Hamilton, with Sarah L. sion to O'Keeffe's art nou-
in the collection of the National Gallery of Burt, The Book Room: veau sources in Becoming
Art), /—Special appears dark and brooding. Georgia O'Keeffe's Library O'Keeffe: The Early Years
in Abiquiu [exh. cat., (New York, 1991), 29-61.
O'Keeffe had left South Carolina for New
Grolier Club] (Abiquiu
York in March 1916, and in May of that year and New York, 1997).
her mother died. If No. 2—Special can be
said to represent the joyful vitality of 1915,

86
00
 Machine tournez vite (Machine Turn Quickly) friends and colleagues in which his subjects
was designed by Picabia to mimic the look are depicted literally—for instance, as a cam-
of a mechanical drawing. The numbered era (Alfred Stieglitz) or a spark plug (Agnes
legend and parts, the use of sans serif letter- Meyer).3 These images, two-dimensional ana-
ing and metallic paint, the dark background, logues for Duchamp's famous found objects
and the ruled lines and arcs superimposed or ready-mades, were superseded by more
on the gears recall the graphic conventions inventive designs for sex machines that were
of blueprints. The drawing describes the "engineered" by Picabia himself like Machine
34 meshing of a number 2 "homme" or male tournez vite.
FRANCIS PICABIA gear with a smaller number i "femme" or In its time the international dada move-
French, 1879-1953 female gear. Its title instructs that these ment represented an iconoclastic, irrational,
interlocking parts are designed to operate and blasphemous attack on traditional notions
Machine tournez vite,
quickly with their male and female teeth of aesthetics and art. But as Duchamp and
1916/1918
moving rapidly in and out of each other in Picabia foresaw, their revolutionary machine
brush and ink with ways that are analogous to a human sexual imagery inevitably evolved into an accepted,
watercolor and shell encounter. recognizable style. While Duchamp and
gold In his 1903 text Physique de I'amour: Essai Picabia went on to subvert standards of art
496 x 327 mm sur I'instinct sexuel the French writer Remy de in many new ways over the course of their
(19/2 x 12%) Gourmont had described the mechanical long careers, their early investigations into
Patrons' Permanent metaphor for sexual activity found in Machine machine forms continued to inspire contem-
Fund, 1989 tournez vite: "[The sexual organs] are rigor- porary American movements from precision-
ously made the one for the other, and the ism to pop art. Today Machine tournez vite,
accord in this case must be not only har- like any great masterwork, can be appreci-
monic, but mechanical and mathematical. ated for its invention, richly layered mean-
They are gears that must fit one in the other ings, and finely calibrated formal beauty.
with exactitude."1 Gourmonf s ideas CHARLES BROCK

informed Marcel Duchamp's revolutionary

proto-dada experiments in mechanomorphic
imagery—such as The Bride of 1912, Choco- Provenance cis Naumann, Making Mis-
Galleria Schwarz, Milan; chief: Dada Invades New
late Grinder of 1913, as well as his initial 1913 Mr. and Mrs. Fred Shore, York [exh. cat., Whitney
notes for The Large Glass of 1915-1923 — New York; Frank Kolodny, Museum of American Art]
New Jersey; Steven Mazoh (New York, 1996), 232.
which in turn greatly influenced Picabia's
£ Co., Inc., New York.
2. "French Artists Spur on
paintings from this time, like Star Dancer on
an American Art," New
a Transatlantic Liner and Physical Culture, Notes
York Tribune, 24 October
both of 1913, and I See Again in Memory My i. Remy de Gourmont, 1915.
Physique de I'amour: Essai 3. These images were pub-
Dear Udnie of 1914. sur I'instinct sexuel (Paris, lished in 291 5-6 (July-
In 1915, during his second stay in the 1924), 13; quoted in Fran- August 1915).
United States, Picabia had an epiphany con-
cerning the machine's relation to modern
art: "Almost immediately upon coming to
America it flashed on me... .The machine
has become more than a mere adjunct of
human life. It is really a part of human
life—perhaps the very soul."2 Picabia had
previously believed that a new visual syn-
thesis needed to be forged from antithetical
human and machine forms, but he now
realized that machine imagery explicitly
expressed human needs and desires. The
obscure hybrid imagery of 1913 and 1914
gave way to a series of portraits in 1915 of

88
68
 Paul Klee was a discerning reader, and liter- weapons, ceramics, textiles, and finally—
ary references permeate his art. Persische the most arresting and closest to us today—
Nachtigallen (Persian Nightingales) most Persian miniatures."3
likely alludes to the sensuous verses of the This radiant watercolor reflects in minia-
fourteenth-century poet Hafiz. ture a wondrous and microcosmic universe,
one that even grants status to lowly conso-
Mortal never won to view thee,
nants. Indeed the letters R and N are fully
Yet a thousand lovers woo thee;
integrated within the composition: scaled to
35 Not a nightingale but knows
the size of the nightingales and juxtaposed
In the rose-bud sleeps the rose.1
PAUL K L E E in the same indeterminate space. As is often
Swiss, 1879-1940 Goethe introduced the Persian writer to Ger- the case in Persian art and particularly in
man-speaking audiences in his West-ostlicher Hafiz's poetry, the earthly and the divine are
Persische
Divan, and it was probably here that Klee poised in a delicate and ambiguous balance.
Nachtigallen, 1917
first learned of Hafiz's work.2 In poetic Individual shapes shift one against the
gouache and watercolor images that shine like jewels, the Persian other; each within the confines of Klee's
with pen and ink over master celebrates the joys of love, wine, and wiry line and each flooded with thin washes
graphite, bordered at top the natural world. Two of his recurring of color. Although perfectly balanced for the
with colored paper motifs are the nightingale and the rose: the moment, one senses that a tiny slip of a line
228 x 181 mm former symbolizing earthly yearning, and in one direction or another might set the
(9x7/8) the latter divine beauty and glory. whole creation tumbling.
Gift (Partial and A pink rose appears in the lower left JUDITH BRODIE

Promised) from an quadrant of Klee's watercolor, cradled by two

Anonymous Donor, sharply pointed leaves whose forms mirror
1990 the nightingales' heads. Above and to the Provenance 3. See Kenneth C. Lindsay
Hughes(?); Heinz and Peter Vergo, eds.,
left of the flower is the letter R (for Rose). Berggruen, Paris; Walter Kandinsky: Complete Writ-
Three nightingales occupy center stage: one Feilchenfeldt, Zurich; pres- ings on Art (New York,
ent owner, by 1973. 1994), 73. For an excellent
inverted and drunk with desire, its beak
Notes
study of the influence of
pointing toward the letter N (for Nachti- 1. Hafiz, translated by Persian art on Kandinsky
gallen). Celestial bodies float across the R. A. Nicholson in Peter and an overview of where
Washington, ed., Persian one could see Persian art
sheet, enlivening it with circles, half-moons, in Germany in the early
Poets (New York and
and stars, while on the N's right stem Klee Toronto, 2000), 178. years of the twentieth cen-
tury, see Fereshteh Daftari,
capriciously hoists a bright red pennant. 2. Goethe's West-ostlicher The Influence of Persian Art
Divan (West-Eastern divan) on Gauguin, Matisse, and
Klee further alludes to Persian miniature
(Stuttgart, 1819) is a collec- Kandinsky (New York and
painting in the drawing's gemlike delicacy, tion of poetry inspired by London, 1991), 253-327.
the work of Hafiz.
ornamentation, and lustrous color—as well
as its disregard for scale and perspective.
Even the structure of the composition,
which one seems to enter through an
arched niche or parted curtains, recalls the
format of many Persian miniatures. While
Klee was living in Germany from 1898 to
1933, he would have had ample opportunity
to see Persian art in public collections, such
as the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum in Berlin
and the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum and
Hof und Staatsbibliothek in Munich. He no
doubt also saw an important 1910 exhibition
of Islamic art in Munich that featured more
than 3,500 objects, including, as Klee's
friend and colleague Kandinsky wrote in
a published review, "carpets, majolica,

90
i6
 Even while serving in the army at the front Dix's title inscribed on the verso of
in the First World War, Dix drew incessantly. this drawing—"zum Zyklus: Homunkulus
From 1915 to 1918 he created more than six [sic]"—raises the question whether he had
hundred drawings,1 of which this is one of planned a cycle of works. Was Homunkulus
his most intense. A powerful whirlwind of to be one image in a series on the war? Or
jagged shapes recalls prismatic forms of was the entire cycle to be on the theme of
cubism and expressionism, while repeated Homunculus? A search of published works
curved black strokes of pen and brush evoke on Dix reveals dozens of drawings very sim-
36 the dynamic patterns of futurism. ilar in paper, size, media, and style, and
OTTO DIX Here a central mandorla surrounds an even many inscribed with titles on the
German, 1891-1969 infant child with furrowed brow. From the verso. But apparently none, not even those
shattered forms around him, phantasms with closest visual relationships,7 has a title
Homunkulus, 1918
surge into view then submerge into a flurry that contains the word "Zyklus" or "Homun-
pen and brush and ink of strokes. On the left are clearly houses and kulus." The question remains temptingly
399 x 394 mm a church with a cross, but what are the spiky open.
(15 H /i6X 159/16) pyramids thrusting toward a giant helmeted ANDREW ROBISON

Gift of Richard A. face? The roofline of one house becomes the

Simms and Ailsa Mellon base of another, transformed into the fore- Provenance bright white light but is
Acquired from the artist only halfway in the world,
Bruce Fund, 1995 head of an enormous serpent with pointed by Philip Sills, New York; complete in spirit but
teeth that reaches from the lower corner Sotheby's, New York; without any embodiment,
23 February 1993, lot 62; so he cannot live outside
toward the child. At the top the patterns of Carol Selle, New York. the scientist's glass vial.
curves almost coalesce into the wings and 5. The same form is
body of a black bird. A boat tossed by the Notes
explicit in another 1918
drawing, Geburt, formerly
violent waves at lower right bears Dix's 1. Otto Conzelmann, Otto
Dix: Handzeichnungen in the Marvin and Janet
name. Beyond its bow leaps a giant fish (Hannover, 1968), 17. Fishman Collection; repro-
with open mouth. Between the two rears the duced in their auction cat-
2. Nietzsche was more alogue, Sotheby's, 18 Octo-
hook-beaked head of a bird of prey. Above fundamental to Dix's ber 2000, lot 14.
views. See Sarah O'Brien
them, splintered houses? One struggles to Twohig, "Dix and Nietz- 6. Iain Boyd Whyte, "Otto
see but cannot make out clear objects. sche," in Otto Dix [exh. Dix's Germany: From Wil-
cat., Tate Gallery] (London, helmine Reich to East/
This turbulent sea is, of course, the tem- West Divide," in London
1992), 40-48.
pest of the Great War. While the forces of 1992, esp. 27.
3. Frank Whitford, "The
violence are brute and gigantic and mysteri- Revolutionary Reac- 7. In addition to the Fish-
tionary," in London 1992, man drawing (see note 5
ous, Dix saw them as natural and even wel- above), the other primary
esp. 16-18.
comed them. He volunteered for hazardous one is Das gottliche Dreieck
4. In Faust, part 2, the sci- in Stuttgart; reproduced in
duty and carried two books, the Bible and entist Wagner artificially Otto Dix: Bestandskatalog,
creates Homunculus, a
Nietzsche.2 He relished the intensity of war, little man with penetrat-
Galerie der Stadt (Stutt-
gart, 1989), no. 77.
the overwhelming forces in constant turmoil ing intellect who radiates
that revealed the essence of man and showed
life stripped of all nicety and pretense.3 At
the center of this maelstrom is the man-child;
and from the title Dix gave the drawing, a
reference to Goethe's Faust,4 the viewer knows
the infant may be threatened but is also
being created or born in the chaos. The man-
dorla is a reference not only to Homuncu-
lus' glass vial but also to the placenta and to
the end of the birth canal.5 This Nietzschean
conjunction of violence and death and erotic
love corresponds to the excitement of many
that the war would lead to new life, a new
society, and even a new humanity.6

92
93
 A great deal had changed for Schiele, both What remained constant throughout was
professionally and personally, between the Schiele's mastery as a draftsman. He defined
period when he did his Self-Portrait of 1912 Dr. Roller's upper torso with a minimum
(cat. 20) and the time he drew this portrait. of lines, filling the page and deftly using
One difference was the growing recognition the blank areas of paper to suggest the vol-
of his talents within Austria and a corre- ume of the figure. Even the dangling, un-
sponding rise in the number of exhibitions attached hand—which clasps the edge of
and sales of his work. Another was his the book in the finished portrait—seems so
37 importance within the Viennese art world. precisely placed that the viewer "sees" the
EGON SCHIELE This is reflected most significantly in his missing connection between the shoulder
Austrian, 1890-1918 agreement to organize the forty-ninth exhi- and wrist. Dr. Koller is a striking example
bition of the Vienna Secession, which of Schiele's ability to suggest more than is
Dr. Koller, c. 1918
opened in March 1918. A third change was explicitly shown.
charcoal Schiele's marriage to Edith Harms—the CHRISTOPHER WITH

472 x 298 mm daughter of a machinist with the Austrian

(18 5/8 x n 3/4) railway—in 1915.
Rosenwald Collection, These developments gradually softened Provenance
Hugo Koller; Dorotheum,
1964 Schiele's earlier headstrong impetuosity and
18 March 1961, lot 299;
promoted a greater maturity and diplomacy. Christian M. Nebehay;
Lessing }. Rosenwald,
Instead of struggling to sell his art, he now
after 1961.
accepted abundant commissions and had
to hire an assistant to keep track of the
inevitable paperwork. Among his last paint-
ings, a significant number were portraits,
recalling the time around 1910 when this
genre occupied a similarly prominent place
in his oeuvre. The majority of his sitters
were men. Some he knew, while others
were drawn to Schiele by his reputation.
One of the latter was the industrialist
Hugo Koller. Schiele completed a full-length
oil portrait of Koller in 1918. Emphasizing
his scholarly interests, it shows him seated
in his library surrounded by books, a vol-
ume open on his lap. This charcoal image of
Dr. Koller is one of nine known preparatory
studies. Unlike Schiele's Self-Portrait, this
drawing is characterized by precise and
fluid contour lines. Absent are the agitated,
jagged lines and bold, slashing color daubs
that conveyed the emotional intensity of the
earlier work. This is not surprising in a
preparatory drawing, but it does reflect the
artist's newfound maturity. Schiele no
longer regarded people through the lens of
his own psychological makeup. He observed
them with sympathetic understanding,
intent upon capturing their individuality.

94
in
ON
96
 One of Matisse's favorite models during his year, 1920, he met Renoir again and visited
early years at Nice was a young woman Bonnard at Antibes. One can interpret
known as Antoinette, who frequently sat for Matisse's visits to Renoir as a gesture of
the artist around 1918-1920. She is most respect toward the older artist, but also as
familiar from the paintings and drawings of an attempt to judge his own position within
her wearing an extravagantly decorated hat the history of French painting.
(see cat. 39). But here she has put the hat With the conclusion of World War I,
aside, and her thick, luxuriant hair falls for- many artists who had been closely identi-
38 ward over her shoulders. fied with the avant-garde stepped back and
HENRI MATISSE The drawings of Antoinette mark an adopted a more conservative manner of
French, 1869-1954 unexpected stylistic change in the artist's working. Matisse's early Nice period paint-
draftsmanship. Never before had Matisse so ings and drawings appear to reflect his desire
Antoinette with Long
openly delighted in his fluent command of to locate a place for himself within the clas-
Hair, c. 1919
his materials, nor had he previously taken sic heritage of French art. Respect for tradi-
graphite such pleasure in the youthful freshness of tion was widespread at this moment, with
541 x 370 mm his models. Here Antoinette's features are names such as Ingres, Corot, and Courbet
(21'/ 4 x 149/16) delineated with utmost care, as light brings frequently used by critics to invoke past
Rosenwald Collection, into relief her full, slightly pouting lips and achievement.2 Drawings like Antoinette with
1948 sculpts the left side of her face. In this draw- Long Hair were among Matisse's most
ing, and many other Nice period sheets, successful responses to the weight of
Matisse works with the most refined nuances this patrimony.
of pencil lines. He attached great importance VICTOR CARLSON

to these drawings, choosing fifty of them,

including Antoinette with Long Hair, to be
reproduced in a book he published at his Provenance Classic Ground: Picasso,
Pierre Matisse Gallery, Leger, de Chirico, and the
own expense in I92O. 1 New York; Lessing J. New Classicism 1910-1920
Matisse had left Paris for Nice in the Rosenwald. [exh. cat., Tate Gallery]
(London, 1990) (for
winter of 1917, to escape the cold, dreary
Matisse, see pp. 178-179).
weather and the oppressive atmosphere Notes Matisse owned a figure
1. Cinquante dessins par painting by Courbet, seen
of the capital during the final months of Henri-Matisse, edited hanging in his Nice studio
World War I. The artist was soon captivated under the artist's supervi- in a photograph taken
sion (Paris, 1920), 28. around 1926; reproduced
by the silvery winter light of the Cote d'Azur
2. For an extensive survey in John Elderfield, Draw-
and decided to divide his time between of the resurgence of inter- ings of Henri Matisse [exh.
Paris and Nice, working in the south from est in the classical tradi- cat., Hayward Gallery]
tion at this time, see On (London, 1984), 32.
October until May, a pattern that continued
until 1939.
The paintings and drawings Matisse
created during his first season in Nice broke
sharply with his reputation as one of the
leading avant-garde artists in France. His
compositions of young models and exotic
odalisques languidly at rest or occupied by
innocent amusements, often posed against
richly patterned fabrics, were executed with
keen attention to realistic detail and local
color. It was as if he were rejecting the
daring experiments of his Fauve period and
the struggle—not successfully resolved—
to apply the cubists' analysis of form to his
own art. During Matisse's first sojourn in
Nice he visited Renoir at Cagnes; the next

97
 During the early months of 1919 Matisse Matisse's interest in the details of
executed a number of drawings of his model Antoinette's plumed hat and embroidered
Antoinette wearing a hat that the artist dress is not surprising, since he was
devised from a straw foundation, an ostrich attracted by printed or embroidered textiles,
plume, and loops of ribbon, arranged in which he collected and used as props in his
such a way that it could be worn front to works. As a child he grew up in the textile
back or back to front.1 The drawings them- manufacturing town of Bohain in northern
selves vary from elaborately detailed sheets France, where the major product was luxury
39 such as the present work to pen studies fabrics for the Parisian fashion market, a
HENRI MATISSE where the model and her costume are repre- trade in which Matisse's father, Hippolyte
French, 1869-1954 sented by a few lines rapidly set to paper.2 Henri, was employed.5 Textiles were a part
This drawing and another in Baltimore of Matisse's upbringing, and his use of
The Plumed Hat, 1919
show Antoinette dressed in a loose-fitting them in his art transcends their origins;
graphite gown, richly embroidered at the neck.3 In they become, as here, indispensable ele-
489 x 370 mm both works Matisse lingered over the com- ments of the artist's creative imagination.
(19/ 4 x 149/16) plex pattern of the embroidery, and in the VICTOR CARLSON

Collection of Mr. and present sheet lavished attention on the curl-

Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995 ing feathers of the ostrich plume, with the
result that the model's face, its expression Provenance Henri Matisse. Dessins et
Pierre Matisse Gallery, Sculpture [exh. cat., Musee
rather bland and perhaps impatient, is sur- New York; T. Edward National d'Art Moderne]
rounded by a meticulous description of her Hanley, Bradford, PA, (Paris, 1975), 63.
1944; E. V. Thaw & Co.,
finery. Such emphasis on detail is not a New York; Mr. and Mrs.
3. John Elderfield, Draw-
ings of Henri Matisse [exh.
quality that one expects to find in Matisse's Paul Mellon, by 1975.
cat., Hayward Gallery]
mature drawings, but in a 1920 conversa- (London, 1984), 85, 171.
tion with a Swedish visitor, Ragnar Hoppe, Notes 4. Hoppe's account of the
1. John Elderfield with meeting is translated in
the artist opened a portfolio of about fifty William S. Lieberman and Elderfield 1978, 121-122.
drawings and observed: Riva Castleman, Matisse
5. For an excellent account
in the Collection of The
of the Matisse family's
You see here a whole series of drawings Museum of Modern Art
involvement in the textile
(New York, 1978), 121.
I did after a single detail: the lace collar industry, see Hilary Sper-
2. Elderfield 1978, 120, ling, The Unknown Matisse
around the young woman's neck. The 214; and Antoinette au (London, 1998), 25-27.
first ones are meticulously rendered, Chapeau a Plumes (private
collection), reproduced in
each network, almost each thread, then
I simplified more and more; in this last
one, where I, so to speak, know the lace
by heart, I use only a few rapid strokes
to make it look like an ornament, an
arabesque, without losing its character
of being lace and this particular lace.
And at the same time it is still a Matisse,
isn't it? I did just the same with the face,
the hands, and all the other details, and
I have naturally also made a number
of sketches for the movements and the
composition.4

As Matisse's statement notes, in a general

way he proceeded from a study of specific
details to a simplified representation of his
motif, but there is no evidence to indicate
more precisely the sequence in which these
masterful drawings were made.

98
99
 Nudes in landscapes are the most prevalent here. In addition, the Egyptian influence in
subjects among Otto Miiller's limited but Two Bathers is most noticeable in the fig-
inventive range of images. In this drawing ures' hairstyles, elongated eyes, and stylized
two slender female nudes stand amid lush poses, as well as in the sheet's mattelike
vegetation on a sandy promontory. Behind finish. The combination of watercolor and
them is a body of water. Their brown and color crayons gives the appearance of a
yellow skin tones meld with the landscape fresco. The mixed media also attest to
and with the overall coloration of the com- Miiller's mastery as a draftsman. Because
40
position. They are very much a part of the these media do not allow for any penti-
OTTO M U L L E R scene, and their unselfconscious poses menti, the artist had to have a fully realized
German, 1874-1930 reinforce this impression. conception of the image before he set to
Like other German artists of the time, work.
Two Bathers, c. 1920
Muller tried to use his art to convey moral Despite the pervasive mood of tranquil-
crayon with watercolor or didactic messages. In his case, it was a lity in Two Bathers, one might detect a hint
687 x 528 mm wish for a simple way of life in which man of discord. Although the composition inte-
(27/16 X 20 I3 /i6) and nature were in perfect harmony.1 This grates the nude figures with the natural
Rosenwald Collection, desire was not his alone. Industrialization, forms around them, the women have almost
1950 urbanization, and capitalism had trans- no faces and thus could be seen as com-
formed society and, in the opinion of many, pletely self-absorbed.
estranged humanity from the natural world, CHRISTOPHER WITH

posing a major threat to individual auton-

omy and personal freedom.
Within the German artistic community Provenance 3. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Claude Schaefer, Monte- (1880-1938), one of the
Die Brucke (The Bridge) was founded in video, Uruguay; Lessing founding members of Die
1905 to combat uniformity and the rational- J. Rosenwald, 1950. Brucke, once said "Muller
ism of human existence through a radical went his own way, main-
taining the sensual har-
approach to art that stressed personal Notes mony of his life and his
1. See Peter Selz, German art." See Wolf-Dieter
expression over tradition. Stylistically, this Expressionist Painting, Dube, Expressionism, trans.
meant vivid, frequently discordant, colors; 3rd ed. (Berkeley and Los Mary Whittall (New York
Angeles, 1974), 247. and Toronto, 1972), 93.
imperfect execution; and jagged, angular
2. Each summer group 4. In Miiller's words, "my
shapes. In subject matter the group favored members traveled to the model in purely technical
the nude—male and female—in nature.2 Moritzburg lakes to sketch matters also was and still
and paint models—and is the art of the ancient
Muller joined Die Brucke in 1910 and each other—cavorting in Egyptians." See Selz
remained a member until it disbanded on the wilderness. 1974, 247.
the eve of World War I. He adopted from
his colleagues a certain angularity of forms
and adherence to a resolute flatness of
design. In addition, his delineation of sub-
jects became more fluid and spontaneous.
But he never embraced their stridency. His
colors were muted and stayed within the
outlines of forms. His nudes conveyed a
gentle lyricism that was not present in the
works of other Die Brucke members.3
Of even greater importance for Miiller's
artistic development was his lifelong fasci-
nation with the art of ancient Egypt.4 This
interest helped him visualize art as a two-
dimensional creation and aided in his sim-
plification of forms and their decorative
arrangement across a surface, as evident

100
rH
o
T-l
 After meeting Serge Diaghilev in 1916 and The Museum of Modern Art, New York),
becoming involved with his Ballets Russes, and it is closely linked to them in subject
Picasso's interests in the theater became and style. Theodore Reff persuasively inter-
more practical, focused on creating designs prets those paintings as allegorical portraits
for use in actual sets and costumes. His of Picasso (Harlequin), Guillaume Apolli-
1918 marriage to the ballerina Olga Koklova naire (Pierrot), and Max Jacob (the monk).2
cemented his relationship with the Russian In fact, as early as 1905 Picasso began his
ballet. During the winter and spring of frequent self-identification with Harlequin
41 1919/1920 Picasso collaborated with Diaghi- as well as a repeated association of Apolli-
PABLO P I C A S S O lev on Pulcinella, based on rediscovered naire with the mature circus/theater figure
Spanish, 1881-1973 baroque texts for the commedia dell'arte.1 dressed in plain costume and floppy collar
At Diaghilev's urging, Picasso's final designs who is sometimes a jester and sometimes
Pierrot and
for both set and costumes were rather realis- Pierrot.3 The specific overlapped pairing
Harlequin, 1920
tic, but other drawings show that he clearly of Picasso as Harlequin and Apollinaire as
pen and ink with preferred to develop them in his late cubist jester/Pierrot begins already in the National
gouache vocabulary: large geometric surfaces of flat Gallery of Art's painting Family ofSaltim-
verso: graphite sketches color, which were not modeled into the illu- banques.4 A similar interpretation of this
of reclining figure and sion of three dimensions but decorated work makes its intimate artistic conjunction
two profile heads internally by small repeated geometric between Pierrot and Harlequin even more
274 x 214 mm forms of equally flat color. poignant. One of Picasso's closest friends
(ioy 4 x8 7 /i6) Perhaps even more than oil on canvas, for over a decade, Apollinaire died of Span-
Gift of Mrs. Gilbert gouache on paper lends itself to broad areas ish influenza on 9 November 1918. Pierrot
W. Chapman, 1981 of matte color. This may be a primary and Harlequin gives beautiful expression—
reason Picasso chose this medium for so in Picasso's own artistic language—to his
many of his Pulcinella designs and, in the feelings of tenderness and an almost
summer of 1920, for a further series on organic connection with his lost friend.
characters from the commedia dell'arte. ANDREW ROBISON

Of the latter, Pierrot and Harlequin is one

of the most brilliant.
The conjunction of these two figures Provenance Pierrot stand for Apolli-
Mrs. Charles B. Good- naire (for instance, a 1918
through flat, overlapping planes is enhanced
speed, Chicago (later Mrs. Pierrot has the features of
by subtle echoes of form and color across Gilbert W. Chapman, New Leonide Massine, two 1923
York), by 1934. Harlequins are Jacinto
the two costumes. The figures also share a
Salvado in costume, and
common and witty alternation of flat and two 1924 paintings show
Notes Picasso's son Pablo
abstract left arms with more naturalistic 1. Douglas Cooper, Picasso dressed as both); see
right ones (Harlequin's right hand shows all Theatre (New York, 1968), Reff 1980, 132.
43-49.
the creases of his knuckles, and the back of 4. E. A. Carmean, Picasso:
2. Theodore Reff, The Saltimbanques [exh.
Pierrot's right hand even has delicate hairs). "Picasso's Three Musi- cat., National Gallery of
This compositional conjunction culminates cians: Maskers, Artists, Art] (Washington, 1980),
and Friends," Art in 5off.
naturalistically in the casual and friendly America (December 1980),
gesture of Harlequin draping his right arm 124-142.
around Pierrot's shoulder. More intense 3. Obviously, not every
Picasso image of Harle-
is the abstract conjunction of both heads
quin has to stand for
sharing a single blue plane, further tied Picasso, nor does every
together by the organic brown curve that
flows like a carotid artery inside and be-
tween their necks and brains.
Pierrot and Harlequin is obviously an
important stage on the way to Picasso's
famous 1921 paintings of The Three Musi-
cians (Philadelphia Museum of Art and

102
103
*70l
 Young Woman Seated in an Armchair has Provenance 2. New York 1996, 14.
Paul Rosenberg Gallery, According to Rubin,
generally been believed to be either a styl- New York, c. 1928; John Picasso chose to be dis-
ized neoclassical figure or an idealized por- U. Nef. creet concerning who .
some of his models were
trait of Olga Koklova, Picasso's first wife. but eventually told Pierre
Comparing this drawing to other works Notes Daix their names after
An earlier version of this refusing to divulge them
known to be of Sara Murphy, however, it text was published in for the Christian Zervos
now appears certain that this portrait is of Washington 1991. catalogue raisonne, Pablo
Picasso, 33 vols. (Paris,
the same woman.1 The Murphys were expa- i. William Rubin, ed.,
42 triate Americans, and Sara's husband, Ger-
Picasso and Portraiture: 1932-1978).
Representation and Trans- 3. New York 1996, 21-22.
PABLO P I C A S S O ald, was an artist. The Picassos met the formation [exh. cat.,
Museum of Modern Art]
Spanish, 1881-1973 Murphys in the fall of 1921 or early 1922, (New York, 1996), 46
and the two couples became very close. (portrait of Sara Murphy)
Young Woman Seated and 53 (photographs). See
Picasso seldom used the term "portrait" also Pierre Daix, Picasso:
in an Armchair,
to describe his work and did not generally Life and Art, trans. Olivia
1921/1922 Emmet (New York, 1993;
identify his sitters by name, but it seems French edition, 1987), 183:
brush and ink with that some of the subjects once assumed to "It seems impossible not
to recognize Sara in most
white heightening on be idealized neoclassical figures were real of the female heads done
prepared paper people.2 It was common for Picasso to com- that summer."
271 x 237 mm bine the characteristics of various women in
(io 5 /sx 93/8) his work. As William Rubin has observed,
Promised Gift of Evelyn "it little mattered if an image of one person
Stefansson Nef, in began looking like someone else, or both, or
Honor of the 5Oth several people.... The fluctuant identities
Anniversary of the were not usually conceived in advance, but
National Gallery of Art emerged by association, as it were, in the
process of painting the figure could meta-
morphose into someone else or be conflated
with other identities."3 But that was not the
case with the present drawing.
When comparing photographs and por-
traits known to be of Olga with those of
Sara, one notes the differences in their
facial characteristics and hairstyles. Olga's
mouth appears to have been wider and her
lips thinner, for instance, whereas Sara Mur-
phy had the rosebud mouth evident in this
likeness. Olga's straight hair was generally
pulled back into a bun, while Sara's long,
wavy hair was pulled away from her face
and hung down her back, just as it appears
in this drawing.
Although this is undoubtedly a portrait
of Sara Murphy, it is also clear that Picasso
conceived it in the style of neoclassicism.
As he transformed the features of others
in his work from this period, he has also
changed Sara's turned-up nose into a
straight, classical one.
BARBARA READ-STAUBS

105
 Although Abstract Composition is signed Davis' early engagement with the elements
and dated 1927, the work was probably com- of cubism and foreshadows the spatially
pleted during a period of rigorous experi- sophisticated compositions of his maturity.
mentation that Davis undertook following The subdued colors and sharp linear quality
the Armory Show in February 1913.1 The of the picture reflect Davis' concern with
International Exhibition of Modern Art, held planar and spatial relationships.
in the Armory of the Sixty-ninth Infantry in In an essay on the artist's early paint-
New York City, was, according to Davis, the ings, William Agee noted that between 1920
43 pivotal event of his early career: "I was enor- and 1922, the period during which Abstract
STUART DAVIS mously excited by the show... and I resolved Composition was completed, Davis "posed
American, 1892-1964 that I would quite definitely have to become for himself the most fundamental questions
a 'modern' artist."2 about the art of painting, as if he was start-
Abstract
In coming to terms with what he had ing from the very beginning."3 In 1920, for
Composition, c. 1921
seen of European modernism at the Armory example, he proposed using only circles and
watercolor over graphite Show and subsequently in New York gal- squares to produce works whose simplicity
608 x 458 mm leries and avant-garde journals, Davis spent would allow him to explore the purely for-
(23I5/i6Xl8I/i6) more than a decade exploring the vocabulary mal character of art. The compositions that
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. of modernism and working through the resulted from these experiments have been
Frederick R. Mayer, in styles of such European masters as Gauguin, described as "in some ways radical works,
Honor of the 5oth Van Gogh, Matisse, Leger, Braque, and unprecedented in American art."4 Pictorially
Anniversary of the Picasso. By the early 19205 Davis had rooted in the 1913-1914 collages of Picasso
National Gallery of Art, focused his attention on the pictorial issues and Braque, at least two works from the
1991 raised by cubism. In such works as Abstract series seemed to echo "the suprematist and
Composition he began to forge the personal constructivist geometries of Malevich,
style that would mark him as one of the El Lissitzsky, and Moholy-Nagy."5
most innovative abstract artists working in The deceptively spare Abstract Composi-
America during the early decades of the tion reflects Davis' thorough investigation
twentieth century. of the language of modernism. Though
Stuart Davis was born in Philadelphia in nonrepresentational in character, it already
1892, the son of Edward W. Davis, art editor displays the same surface energy that
of the Philadelphia Press, and Helen Stuart quickly became the hallmark of the artist's
Foulke, a sculptor. In an autobiographical mature style.
essay published in 1945, Davis acknowl- NANCY K. ANDERSON

edged his familial good fortune by noting

that, unlike many other artists, he had
encountered no parental resistance when he Provenance Gallery, perhaps under the
Estate of the artist; Roselle title "Coving" (no. n) in
declared that he wished to study art. On the Springer Davis, until 1979; Stuart Davis Exhibition:
contrary, Edward Davis, who employed John private collection, New Recent Paintings, Water-
York, until 1986; Hirschl colors, Drawings, Tempera,
Sloan, George Luks, William Glackens, and £ Adler, New York; pur- 26 Nov.-9 Dec. 1927.
Everett Shinn as illustrators, allowed his son chased by the National Hunter cited other works
Gallery of Art with desig- (in private collections)
to leave high school to enroll in Robert
nated funds. similar in style and materi-
Henri's art school. Although Davis later als that are signed and
abandoned the urban realism championed dated 1921.
Notes
An earlier version of this 2. Stuart Davis, Stuart
by Henri, he repeatedly credited his teacher
text was published in Davis (New York, 1945),
with providing the guidance and encourage- Washington 1991. n.p.
ment that later allowed him to create paint- i. Robert Hunter, coauthor 3. William C. Agee, Stuart
with William C. Agee of Davis: The Breakthrough
ings that were not factual reports on the
the Stuart Davis catalogue Years, 1922-1924 (New
natural world but independent objects. raisonne, believes this York, 1987), n.p.
Abstract Composition, a rare and impor- work was actually com-
4. Agee 1987.
pleted in 1921 and later
tant work from what has been described as exhibited at the Downtown 5. Agee 1987.
the artist's breakthrough period, documents

106
107
 Sportsmann was produced during a unique keeping with Grosz's political ideals. In 1918
period both in the career of George Grosz he had joined the German Communist
and in the historical development of Ger- Party and regularly provided illustrations for
many. Faceless automatons occupied left-wing satirical journals and broadsheets.
Grosz's creative interest for only a brief time He also served as chairman of the German
between 1920 and 1922. In these same Communist Artists Association in 1924.
years Germany was compelled to confront Grosz's advocacy of a classless society
several dramatic reversals in its fortunes. extended beyond the faceless automaton
44 The loss of World War I led to the abdica- and the punching bags, medicine balls,
GEORGE GROSZ tion of the German kaiser, Wilhelm II; and other sporting paraphernalia visible in
German, 1893-1959 establishment of the Weimar Republic; loss Sportsmann to the very manner of its execu-
of territories; payment of reparations; and tion: washes of pale color applied with such
Sportsmann, 1922
demobilization of most of the German evenness that no brush marks are visible;
pen and ink with army. In addition, Germany was plagued by precise contour lines drawn with pen, ruler,
watercolor crippling inflation, which lasted till 1925. and protractor; and a commercially manu-
403 x 282 mm In this era of flux German art and soci- factured rubber stamp instead of a signa-
(15% x ii/s) ety underwent massive changes. The widely ture. This dispassionate treatment was
Ailsa Mellon Bruce held belief in the moral component of art intentional. It lends the work the appear-
Fund, 1974 politicized the entire discipline and trans- ance of universal truth, and it reflects the
formed a painter's choice of style into a ideal of how art would be created in the new
political statement. A pronounced commit- society, eliminating subjectivity from the
ment to art's didactic function and its ability creative process.
to reinvigorate society underlies all of The philosophy promulgated by the
Grosz's German creations through early Sportsmann was impossible for Grosz to
1933, when he emigrated to the United support for long. He hated conformity and
States. one-dimensional thinking. He was fiercely
Sportsmann and other works like it extoll individualistic, and his dedication to radical
the virtues of a classless, collectivism Utopian politics and hatred of the military set him in
society. In a 1921 essay entitled "Zu Meinen opposition to many elements within bour-
Neuen Bildern" (On My New Works of Art) geois German society. The tension between
Grosz stated that man "is no longer shown the message of Sportsmann and Grosz's
as an individual with psychological sub- complex psychological makeup explains the
tleties, but as a collectivistic, almost mecha- short duration of this chapter in his overall
nistic concept. The fate of the individual no artistic production. Aware of his own
longer counts."1 The virtues of such a soci- quixotic nature, Grosz had printed on the
ety were already encapsulated in sports, back of his calling cards the phrase: "Wie
which involved universally acknowledged denke ich morgen?" (What will I think
rules, rigorous training, and single-minded tomorrow?).
dedication to success. Again, according to CHRISTOPHER WITH

Grosz's 1921 essay: "I would also like to

show quiet, simple sporting symbols—as
in ancient Greece—which everyone might Provenance Notes
Estate of the artist 1. Quoted in Frank Whit-
understand and enjoy without added expla- (no. 1-48-2); Harry Lunn ford, The Berlin of George
nation."2 Gallery, Washington, DC. Grosz: Drawings, Water-
colors and Prints 1912-
The belief in a universalist society and a 1930 [exh. cat., Royal Aca-
new humanity was widespread during the demy of Arts] (London,
1997), 36.
Weimar Republic. Developments in technol-
2. London 1997, 36.
ogy helped fuel this belief, and theories of
factory organization provided numerous
models for the reorganization of human
society. This structured outlook was also in

108
£
rl
 When Matisse returned to Nice in the In the National Gallery of Art's drawing
autumn of 1921, he executed several pains- the most striking aspect of Matisse's drafts-
takingly realized pen-and-ink drawings of manship is his realization of the volume
his new model, Henriette Darricarrere, in and weight of the figure. Parallel hatchings
the guise of an odalisque. In this drawing in pen follow the rounded forms of the
the woman's frank nudity and Matisse's model's body and create a shimmering play
delight in her ripe, nubile form overwhelm of light that brings its solidity into relief.
the decorative flourishes of the setting, with Matisse's paintings and drawings from his
45 its richly embroidered cushions and a boldly early years at Nice are often concerned
HENRI MATISSE patterned backdrop. foremost with the disposition of decorative
French, 1869-1954 Henriette's pose is one the artist fre- pattern across a surface, thus the sculp-
quently used for his studies of reclining turesque realization of form in a drawing
Henriette as an
nudes: the model stretched out with one leg like this is unexpected.
Odalisque, 1922
tucked under the other, her left hip tipped VICTOR CARLSON

pen and ink forward, and her arms clasped behind her
285 x 386 mm head. This position creates an arabesque
(lI 3 /i6 X I5 3 /i6) that runs through the figure, as her legs jut Provenance 2. One of Matisse's draw-
The Leicester Galleries, ings after Michelangelo
Gift (Partial and forward while her upper torso is supported London, 1936; Mr. and is reproduced in Pierre
Promised) of Lili- by a cushion placed parallel to the picture Mrs. W. Rees Jeffreys, Schneider, Matisse (New
Wilvelsfield Hall, Sussex; York, 1984), 524.
Charlotte Sarnoff in plane. Matisse often mentioned his fascina- Marlborough Fine Arts,
3. Private collection, Los
Memory of Robert tion with the arabesque,1 and its appearance London, 1955; Robert von
Angeles; reproduced in
Hirsch; Lili-Charlotte
and Martha von Hirsch, in his Nice work at this moment is surely Waldemar George, Dessins
Sarnoff.
de Henri Matisse (Paris,
1981 connected with the studies he made after
1925), 4°-
the figure of Night from Michelangelo's Notes 4. Paris, Musee National
Medici tomb, which he knew from a plaster i. For Matisse's comments d'Art Moderne, gift of the
on the arabesque, see artist; reproduced in John
cast in the Musee des Arts Decoratifs at Henri Matisse. Ecrits et Elderfield, Drawings of
Nice.2 The muscular tensions that run propos sur I'art, ed. Henri Matisse [exh. cat.,
Dominique Fourcade Hayward Gallery] (London,
through Michelangelo's semirecumbent
(Paris, 1972), 336. 1984), 28.
figure clearly captivated Matisse and were
a guide when he worked with models such
as Henriette.
Another full-length pen-and-ink study
of Henriette nude is known, with only slight
variations in the pose of her outstretched
figure, placed against exactly the same back-
ground as that used in the present study.3
The two drawings are identical in style and
must have been done within a few days
of one another. A third pen-and-ink study
of Henriette shows her dressed as an oda-
lisque, wearing loose-fitting culottes and a
filmy embroidered jacket left open to reveal
her right breast.4 The third sheet is more
obviously related to the concerns of
Matisse's painting at the time, as the pen
flourishes that define the bold, decorative
details of the costume and background also
create an active pattern across the surface of
the paper.

110
111
 Ruth Dangler is one of the largest and most decided to have her portrait painted. She
beautiful of Picasso's portrait drawings in was, however, an impatient woman and was
his classic linear style, works he began as not at all pleased when she heard how long
early as igi^..1 Several of the earliest show a painting would take. So she decided to
a clear interest in the forms or lighting or have a portrait drawing done instead but
frontality of Cezanne's portraits.2 Yet most, wanted it to be of monumental size.
especially the three-quarter views of seated ANDREW ROBISON

figures, drawn primarily in outline, invoke

46 as well as challenge the acknowledged
PABLO PICASSO master of formal graphite portraits, Jean- Provenance 3. Gary Tinterow and
Ruth Davis Dangler; her Philip Conisbee, Portraits
Spanish, 1881-1973 Auguste-Dominique Ingres. children, Marie La Farge by Ingres: Image of an
While Ingres frequently left his sitters' and Menso Boissevain; Epoch [exh. cat., Metropoli-
Ruth Dangler, 1922 purchased via Paul Weis tan Museum of Art] (New
costumes and chairs in outline, he always by Paul Mellon as a prom- York, 1999-2000).
graphite used some internal shading at least to ised gift for the National
4. Such as Diaghilev's
Gallery of Art.
642 x 493 mm model their faces.3 By contrast, Picasso, with enormous head and heavy
jowls, or Stravinsky's
(25/4X193/8) modernist bravura, creates the entire image
Notes
unequal and overlarge
Collection of Mr. and with spare and broken outlines, alternating 1. Alfred H. Barr Jr., eyeglass lens (Barr 1946,
Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985 in sophisticated variation between complete Picasso: Fifty Years of His 96, in).
Art (New York, 1946),
and incomplete edges, positive and negative
94-96, in, 261.
spaces. He has filled in with multiple lines 2. Gary Tinterow, Master
only Dangler's strong eyebrows and thick, Drawings by Picasso [exh.
cat., Fogg Art Museum]
wavy hair; yet even with the sparest of out- (Cambridge, MA, 1981),
lines Picasso has sensitively caught his sit- 18-20 (nos. 52, 56, 60)
and 241-242.
ter's fresh, open, youthful face, as well as
her direct and unflinching gaze. His amus-
ing shorthand for Dangler's necklace culmi-
nates in leaving half of the heavy pendant—
right at the center of the composition—
to be completed in imagination, like the
undrawn edges of her bracelet. Although
Picasso was obviously smitten by Dangler's
beauty and spared her face the witty carica-
ture so frequent in his other graphite por-
traits,4 he did not resist a comment on her
too-typical fox stole by including the poor
creature's face, with lively eyes and whiskers,
discreetly at the bottom of the composition.
The maiden name of the sitter was Ruth
Davis. She came from a prominent Chicago
medical family. Her grandfather, Dr. Nathan
S. Davis, was the founder of Northwestern
Medical School and one of the founders of
the American Medical Association and the
Chicago Academy of Sciences. Ruth Davis
married a Chicago architect named Howard
Dangler. She liked to travel, and it was on
a trip to the Riviera in 1922 that she met
Picasso. According to family tradition, she

112
113
 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy had a boyhood interest But others such as the floating red disk
in literature and poetry but turned to draw- appear flat. The minimal palette of red and
ing while serving in the army. After his dis- yellow, intensified by the deep, enveloping
charge in late 1919 Moholy left his native black field, becomes almost auditory. The
Hungary and lived briefly in Vienna before combined effect of the rhythmic shapes with
settling in Berlin. In April 1920 he wrote the notes of rich color signifies a harmonic
to a friend, "At the latest exhibition of Der or poetic sensation.
Sturm, a man called Kurt Schwitters is Moholy continued to find expression
47 exhibiting pictures made from newspaper in collage as well as painting, photography,
LASZLO articles, luggage labels, hair and hoops. film, sculpture, graphic design, writing, and
MOHOLY-NAGY What's the point?"1 Within months, how- teaching, first at the Bauhaus and later at
American, born ever, Schwitters' work would become a the New Bauhaus and the School of Design
Hungary, 1895-1946 major influence on Moholy, who was led to in Chicago. It was his steadfast belief that
explore new media and techniques, includ- art should be liberated from its role of
Q, 1922/1923
ing collage, and constructed compositions recording the natural world in order to
collage with watercolor from machine parts, letters, and numerals. create abstract effects.
and pen and ink over "They were not projections of reality ren- JULIA THOMPSON

graphite on carbon dered with photographic eyes, but rather

paper new structures, built up as my own version
589 x 463 mm of machine technology, reassembled from Provenance 2. Laszlo Moholy-Nagy,
Tommy Noonan, The New Vision and
(2337,6X18/4) the dismantled parts."2 He assigned these Kensington, MD. Abstract of an Artist
Ailsa Mellon Bruce pictures neither objective nor symbolic titles, (New York, 1949), 72.
Fund, 1982 but rather simple letters and numerals. Notes
3. Moholy-Nagy 1949,
71-72.
By 1922 the components in Moholy's i. From Moholy-Nagy to
Ivan Hevesy, 5 April 1920;
works became more simplified, the letters reprinted in Krisztina
and numerals disappeared, and the forms Passuth, Moholy-Nagy
(Budapest, 1982), 388.
seemed to be freed from gravity. He
explained: "I discovered that composition
is directed by an unconscious sense of
order in regard to the relations of color,
shape, position, and often by a geometrical
correspondence of elements.... I eliminated
the perspective employed in my former
paintings. I simplified everything to geomet-
rical shapes, flat unbroken colors: lemon
yellow, vermilion, black, white—polar con-
trasts. ... Color, which so far I had consid-
ered mainly for its illustrative possibilities,
was transformed into a force loaded with
potential space articulation, and full of
emotional qualities."3
Made during this transitional period,
this collage illustrates the way Moholy
describes space through overlapping forms
and communicates emotion through color.
Some of the elements retain a three-dimen-
sional quality: a thick vertical line looks like
a tube because of the circles drawn at either
end; and a vertical line on which more lines
are drawn forms what could be construed as
a fluted column or a stringed instrument.

114
"5
 Two days after Corinth settled in Berlin, art was a meditation on aging, dying, and
on 3 October 1901, a notice appeared in the how life shaped a person's appearance and
newspapers that he would open a private art outlook. As he grew older, these themes
school in his studio on 15 October. This was assumed ever greater importance. His late
the old studio that his close friend Walter writings are full of expressions of fear of
Leistikow had vacated when moving into senility and death,3 a preoccupation after he
a newer, more spacious atelier. One of suffered a stroke on 19 December 1911. For
Corinth's first students was Charlotte Berend, the rest of his life his left hand was partly
48 who was twenty-one and thus half his age; paralyzed and his right hand was subject to
LOVIS CORINTH they were married on 26 March 1903. intermittent tremors. Undaunted, Corinth
German, 1858-1925 Hedwig Berend was Charlotte's mother explored these themes and expressed his
and only five years Corinth's senior. Hedwig observations in numerous intimate depic-
Mrs. Hedwig Berend,
and Corinth were extremely fond of each tions of his family and friends. Among these,
1923
other. He called her "Belle-Mere" and she this drawing of Hedwig Berend is one of the
black chalk called him "Meister." She regularly came most touching.
316 x 254 mm on Sundays to Corinth's home, often talking CHRISTOPHER WITH

(l2 7 /i6 X 10) with him in great detail after a meal about
Ailsa Mellon Bruce art and politics. As Charlotte Berend-
Fund, 1974 Corinth later recalled, "Corinth and my Provenance 2. Entry for 31 March 1925
Ms. Mine Corinth Klopter. in Lovis Corinth, Selbst-
mother used to sit in the evenings and
biographie (Leipzig, 1926),
chatter for hours."1 216.
Notes
Corinth portrayed Hedwig Berend i. Charlotte Berend- 3. Corinth 1926, 185.
numerous times in paintings, prints, and Corinth, Lovis (Munich,
1958), 146.
drawings. This especially fine black chalk
drawing was completed two years before his
death. She looks directly at the viewer, her
face and posture suggesting both advanced
age and perhaps some self-consciousness
or awareness that she is being sketched.
Corinth's rapid, masterful delineation of
Mrs. Berend, using dramatic swirls and
loops of chalk, amply attest to his love of
drawing, his self-assurance as a draftsman,
and the verve typical of many of his works
on paper. Subtly graded black and gray tones
dance across her face, hair, body, and arms,
as well as the back of the chair at the upper
right. The shading defines the sitter's vol-
ume and spatial placement, but it also cre-
ates an aesthetically determined pattern of
marks on the paper unrelated to observable
reality. Light, shadow, and form have been
manipulated to produce an artistically con-
trolled interplay of lines.
Corinth's intent was to reach a level of
comprehension beyond the tangible. As he
wrote in 1925, "I have discovered something
new.. .true art means seeking to capture
unreality. This is the highest goal.... Art is
bad if it allows one to see at once absolutely
everything that it has to tell one."2 Corinth's

116
&
r-l
 After turning to a new realism about 1920, and thus give it new meaning, a change
Dix usually heightened any physical faults confirmed not only by his signature on the
of the women in his paintings and finished recto but also by the placement of his
watercolors of prostitutes, producing images inscription of the title on the verso.
of ugliness—perhaps, as the artist claimed, One of Dix's primary themes in the
"to depict the whole ghastly dehumanizing 19205 was painting contemporary scenes so
effect of prostitution."1 Yet his black-and- that the persons echoed figures or composi-
white drawings of individual prostitutes tions in famous old master works.4 Beside
49 often show a softer portrayal of and real his love for the old masters and their variety
OTTO D I X sympathy for his subjects.2 Such is the case of sophisticated techniques for drawing
German, 1891-1969 with these two women. and painting, Dix saw this conjunction of
The young woman on the left is Euro- images as adding universal humanistic
Zwei Weiber, 1923
pean, with a classical profile, elaborately meaning to contemporary subjects. This
brush and ink permed hair, and a braided bun. The theme came together with his portrayals of
476 x 598 mm woman on the right is older and appears to prostitutes, apparently for the first time in
(18 3/4x239/6) be Asian in both the shape of her eyes and paintings in 1925.5 Given the dates, it may
Eugene L. and Marie- her hairstyle. Dix, who was always sophisti- well be that the deliberate alteration of com-
Louise Garbaty Fund, cated in manipulating techniques, enhances position and meaning in this drawing was
2001 the differences between the two by changing the beginning of that major conjunction.
his brushwork from the tight curves on the ANDREW ROBISON

left to a looser, straighter, and drier—more

Asian—brush stroke on the right. The older
woman's darkened eyes, sunken cheeks, and Provenance 4. Many thanks to Matt
Dr. Hans Hellmut Klihm Biro for recalling this
flaccid lips may indicate disease as well as (Dix's friend and dealer in theme in relation to the
age, which justifies the tender way the his later years); Ketterer present drawing. See also
Kunst, Munich, 6 May London 1992, 116-117.
young woman supports her. The younger 2000, lot 710; Jorg Maas
5. The Ungleiches Liebes-
woman appears to be helping her compan- Kunsthandel, Berlin.
paar, 1925 (Galerie der
ion down from some height, where the Stadt, Stuttgart), where not
only the subject but also
older woman's left hand is still attached. Notes
1. Quoted in Otto Dix [exh. the woman's face and hair
The position of the limbs and the relation cat., Tate Gallery] (London, are a clear reference to
of the faces are strikingly close to images 1992), no. Hans Baldung Grien, espe-
cially his 1523 Weather
of Jesus' Deposition from the Cross by 2. Otto Conzelmann, Otto Witches in Frankfurt. Com-
Dix: Handzeichnungen pare Dix's Drei Weiber,
Rubens and Rembrandt, which gives intense (Hannover, 1968), nos. 1926 (also Stuttgart),
poignancy to the social meaning of the life 60-65. which quotes both Diirer
of the older woman.3 3. Compare especially the and Cranach; see Rita
Rubens Depositions in the Tauber, "Drei Weiber—
Amazingly enough, this image was actu- Antwerp Cathedral and in Vom Gotterhimmel in
ally drawn with the paper rotated 90 degrees Lille, which Dix could eas- die Gosse," Dix [exh.
ily have known; repro- cat., Galerie der Stadt]
clockwise. As soon as the sheet is turned, duced in the standard (Stuttgart, 1991), 209-213.
the young woman's forearm, the fall of both book on Rubens by Rudolf
Oldenbourg in the Klas-
women's breasts, and the crook of the older
siker der Kunst series,
woman's elbow around the young woman's published two years earlier
neck make complete sense in terms of grav- in 1921, 52 and 89.

ity and form. The women were portrayed

lying on a bed engaged in an amorous
embrace. This version of the subject is
much more traditional in art, including
famous examples by Courbet and Toulouse-
Lautrec. It was a stroke of genius for Dix to
see the possibility of the image, rotate it,

118
119
 In Charles Demuth's first important floral Demuth spent a great deal of his early
watercolors of 1915, such as Zinnias (Memo- career in Paris, but by the early 19205 he
rial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, had been diagnosed with diabetes and no
New York) and Yellow and Blue (The Metro- longer entertained ideas of living abroad.
politan Museum of Art, New York), the Following his last visit to France in 1921,
entire working surface was saturated with Demuth wrote to Alfred Stieglitz: "What
color.1 Hues and tints seeped into the paper work I do will be done here; terrible as it
support and bled together, blurring distinc- is to work in this 'our land of the free.'...
50
tions between the flowers and their back- Together we will add to the American
CHARLES DEMUTH grounds. Demuth evoked an amorphous, scene."3 For the remainder of his life
American, 1883-1935 subaqueous world that recalled the dream- Demuth resided in his hometown of Lan-
like flower pastels of the French symbolist caster, Pennsylvania. There he created
Zinnias and a Blue
artist Odilon Redon, whom he greatly a series of brilliant watercolors and paint-
Dish with Lemons,
admired. ings, such as Zinnias and a Blue Dish with
1924
In early 1917 Demuth began to experi- Lemons, inspired by subjects near at hand.
watercolor over graphite ment with cubism when he visited Bermuda These final works, primarily still lifes and
303x458 mm with Marsden Hartley and soon invented a cityscapes, secured his reputation as one of
(n's/rfXiS'/rf) distinctive type of organic, undulating cubist America's leading early modernists.
Gift of Herbert A. structure for his watercolors. By the time of CHARLES BROCK

Goldstone, 1996 Zinnias and a Blue Dish with Lemons, this

structure was very well articulated, and his
methods more studied and economical. This Provenance 2. Quoted in New York
Senator George Freling- 1987* 5i-
is evident in the way the white of the paper huysen; Mrs. Fredrica
3. Demuth to Stieglitz,
itself is skillfully integrated into the overall Frelinghuysen Emert,
28 August 1921, quoted in
Wickersham, New York;
design, defining the interstices around the Herbert A. Goldstone,
Letters of Charles Demuth:
American Artist, 2883-2935,
petals as well as the background forms. The New York.
ed. Bruce Kellner (Phila-
use of white also suffuses the work with delphia, 2000), 38.
bright light and heightens the effect of its Notes
i. Reproduced in Barbara
subtly modulated reds, oranges, greens, yel- Haskell, Charles Demuth
lows, and blues. In addition, Demuth's [exh. cat., Whitney Mu-
seum of American Art]
draftsmanship is more rigorous, with light (New York, 1987), 68, 73.
graphite lines deftly used to describe accu-
rately the zinnias, lemons, dish, and glass.
The cumulative effect of these changes
was an engaging, dynamic, and accom-
plished style. Like nature itself, Demuth
uses water and light to bring the flowers to
life, and by leaving the zinnias on the left
unfinished, he places the viewer in the
midst of the artist's creative act; the image
unfolds before one's eyes. This work also
demonstrates a masterful degree of control
and an economy of means that call to mind
Demuth's comparison of himself with John
Marin, who drew his "inspiration... in
buckets and spilled much along the way....
I dipped mine out with a teaspoon and I
never spilled a drop."2

120
IZl
 Between the years 1912 and 1928 Edward almost purely white areas of paper give the
Hopper made five visits to the fishing vil- image remarkable vitality and spontaneity,
lage and resort of Gloucester, Massachu- endowing this house with its own individual
setts, on Cape Ann. The third of these trips personality. Hopper was likely inspired by
was during his 1924 honeymoon with his the watercolors of his contemporary Charles
new wife, Josephine Nivison Hopper. While Burchfield, whom he very much admired.
in Gloucester the previous summer, Hopper Although the darker tones and more somber
had made important advances in painting moods (and greater sense of anthropomor-
51 from nature in watercolor, and he built on phism) of Burchfield's houses (as in The
EDWARD HOPPER those lessons in 1924, creating the first Bleak Houses, 1917, collection of Mr. and
American, 1882-1967 great examples of what would become his Mrs. Barney A. Ebsworth) are quite different
signature style in the medium. Of those, from Hopper's imagery, the use of a low
Haskell's House, 1924
Haskell's House is one of the most beautiful; vantage point to give the structures a loom-
watercolor over graphite frequently mentioned and illustrated in ing character is similar.
343 x 495mm discussions of Hopper ever since it was Haskell's House was purchased in 1924
(13/ 2 x 19/2) painted, it can fairly be ranked among the by Hopper's contemporary and friend
Gift of Herbert A. most successful of all his watercolors. George Bellows (see cat. 10) as a present for
Goldstone, 1996 In his record book Hopper noted of his wife, Emma. It had only one other owner
this work: "Haskell's House. Front View, before coming to the National Gallery, and
terraces, lamp post. The Wedding Cake has remained in an especially fine state,
House." The view he chose is from the with little fading or other damage.
street below, looking up at the house as F R A N K L I N KELLY

framed between two telephone poles. The

watercolor is at once precise in its rendering
of specific architectural details (which are Provenance 2. See, for example, Alfred
Frank K. Rehn Gallery, H. Barr Jr. in Edward Hop-
often neatly outlined in graphite) and broad New York; Emma S. (Mrs. per Retrospective Exhibition
in its use of fluid washes of color to capture George) Bellows, New [exh. cat., Museum of
York, by 1924; H. V. Alli- Modern Art] (New York,
the appearance of brightly lit and deeply
son Gallery, New York; 1933), 14: "Hopper's use
shadowed areas. Much of the lower third of Herbert A. Goldstone, of grotesque Victorian
the sheet, depicting terraces and fences, is New York. houses has been overem-
phasized, yet it is an
more freely and quickly brushed, making important contribution
Notes to the subject matter of
these forms seem less substantial in con- i. Perhaps the best-known American painting.... per-
trast to the great bulk of the house. "Wedding Cake House" haps mansard roofs and
today is the one in Kenne- cast zinc cornices are sub-
Hopper's use of the term "Wedding
bunk, Maine, where elabo- consciously related to his
Cake House" could have been inspired by rate Gothic revival wood- boyhood in Nyack [New
work was added around
his own recent marriage, but it also might York], but whatever his
1850 to the exterior of a motive, formal or roman-
reflect a typical attitude of the time toward rather plain early Federal tic, he has succeeded in
the complex massing and rich ornamenta- structure. See photograph revealing not so much the
in Wayne Craven, Ameri- ugliness as the dignity and
tion of Victorian buildings.1 Although from can Art, History, and Cul- valor of such buildings as
the perspective of the early twenty-first cen- ture (Madison, WI, 1994), those in House by the Rail-
tury such buildings tend to elicit admira-
i85. road, Haskell's House, and
Lonely House."
tion, many in Hopper's era considered them
grotesquely ugly, especially in comparison
with the more clean-cut forms of contempo-
rary modernist architecture.2 Yet Hopper's
opinion of this particular example of Second
Empire style, at least in the terms he chose
to portray it visually, seems anything but
negative or condescending. The play of
advancing and receding planes and the con-
trasts of richly colored dark areas to the

122
123
 It is astonishing to what extent George His haughty expression, well-tailored
Grosz's depictions of Weimar society have clothes, posture, and gestures identify him
shaped contemporary opinion of that tumul- as a member of the upper classes, whose
tuous period in German history. The quick lives were far removed from the travails
strokes of the pen, incisive characteriza- then facing Germany. Behind him a small,
tions, and graffiti-like style in Tanz Kaffee rotund man in dark-rimmed glasses slumps
(Tea Dance) contrast markedly with the han- in his chair. He is the midlevel bureaucrat
dling in his Sportsmann (cat. 44) of a few or small business owner who struggles to
52 years earlier. But these images both spring make a living and can only dream about
GEORGE GROSZ from Grosz's belief that the purpose of art entering the "elegant" world of the tea
German, 1893-1959 was to instruct (Sportsmann) or to uncover dance. The last recognizable person, a
society's foibles and inequalities (Tanz woman, sits with a man who places a bottle
Tanz Kaffee, c. 1925
Kaffee). of wine or champagne into a cooler. With
pen and ink The compact jumble of figures, the her hat, piggish face, and squat body, she is
650 x 510 mm incline of the floor (suggested by a single either a prostitute or a dance hall employee
(255/8 X 20l/i6) line), the angular contours of figures whose job was to entice men to spend
Rosenwald Collection, defined without shading, and the lockstep money.
1951 wall of dancers at the back of the room all Grosz's sober, precise, and immediately
suggest Grosz's awareness, and integration, recognizable vignette is offered as simple
of the lessons of cubism. But his calculat- truth. The characterizations are understated,
ingly "unemotional" assessment of contem- and less vitriolic than one usually finds in
porary life allied him with the artistic his oeuvre. But this seemingly dispassionate
movement known as "Neue Sachlichkeit" exterior hides Grosz's perennially critical
(New Objectivity), which arose around attitude and remorselessly judgmental opin-
1925—the date of Tanz Kaffee—and corre- ion. Despite his attempts to influence
sponded to the years of German economic society through his art, he harbored no illu-
stabilization and political normalcy, which sions. Writing in about 1927, he mused:
lasted until the depression of 1929. "I always used to think there were infernal
Entering the scene from the lower left, tyrants up there on top, who enslaved us
the viewer is led toward the upper right then poor mortals—well, shit, this mindless
horizontally back across the page, traversing crowd doesn't want it any other way."1
the tearoom. Along the way one encounters CHRISTOPHER WITH

a variety of standing or seated figures —

not realistically observed individuals but
readily identifiable character types. Grouped Provenance Note
Claude Schaefer, Monte- i. Quoted in Matthais
together here, they make a statement about video, Uruguay; Lessing J. Eberle, World War I and
the moral decline, even depravity, of Ger- Rosenwald, 1950. the Weimar Artists: Dix,
Grosz, Beckmann, Schlem-
man society as reflected in the daily lives mer, trans. John Gabriel
of its citizens. (New Haven, 1985), 72.
At the lower right corner of the compo-
sition Grosz employed a clever device: the
side of a woman's head and shoulder that
insistently involves the viewer in the scene.
But her steely gaze, sharp features, and
clenched teeth give her a hardened, preda-
tory appearance. Directly across from her is
the proverbial "dirty old man," dressed in a
coat and hat, holding a cane, and scratching
his back. His face mirrors hers but in a
nastier way. At the same table a younger
man smokes a cigarette with nonchalance.

124
125
 For the French surrealists the purpose of art grainy ink washes on the other—much of
was to advance social and psychic revolu- the mystery of Magritte's drawing is created
tion. Accordingly, they emphasized contra- through the strategy of formal doubling.
diction and the conjunction of incongruous Why, the viewer is prompted to ask, are
opposites in order to shock their audiences there four birds with exactly the same out-
and to inspire them to recognize powerful line? Doppelgangers as well as mechanical
and unknown forces hidden beneath the constructs are thereby evoked. The folkloric
mundane surfaces of the everyday world. interpretation of birds as intermediaries
53 For Rene Magritte, who moved toward a between the living and the dead adds
RENE MAGRITTE surrealist style between 1924 and 1927, such another disquieting undertone to the image.
Belgian, 1898-1967 shock was best produced through paradoxi- Are the birds about to be murdered, the
cal word and text combinations or through image seems to ask, or do they bring ill
The Murderous Sky,
carefully rendered visual contradictions. tidings to someone else?
1927
Clearly delineated, even academic in style, Finally, the strange play between image
pen and brush and ink Magritte's works did not provoke questions and text adds another disturbing associa-
over graphite with collage as to what objects were portrayed. But the tion. Although the form of a bird in no way
503 x 652 mm contradictions these easily recognizable resembles a musical text, Magritte's con-
(!9I3/i6X25II/i6) images represented and the questions junction recalls the relationship between
Collection of Mr. and they evoked could not be resolved; thus birds and song. In this way Magritte makes
Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995 Magritte's works tend to promote disturbing a not-entirely-flattering connection between
chains of association as to both how and music, one of the highest achievements of
why such conjunctions could come to be. human culture, and the activity of animals.
One of nearly thirty works made Against a murderous sky, one perhaps wit-
between 1925 and 1927 in which Magritte nesses the end of human achievement.
adapted the technique of papier colle devel- MATTHEW BIRO

oped by Picasso and Braque to surrealist

ends, The Murderous Sky comes from a
moment in the artist's career when he was Provenance clearly grasped and under-
Galerie L'Epoque, Brussels; stood by those whose taste
still developing his surrealist style. Related E.L.T. Messens, London; had not been adulterated
to an oil painting of the same title and year, Sotheby's, London, by all the literature written
12 April 1972, lot no; Bas- around painting. This
this ink and collage study suggests that
kett and Day, London; Mr. detached way of represent-
Magritte used papier colle to test different and Mrs. Paul Mellon. ing objects seems to me
juxtapositions and, because of its reliance related to a universal style,
in which the idiosyncrasies
on mass-produced imagery, to develop a Note and minor predilections of
i. Describing his conver- an individual no longer
more impersonal and less aesthetic style.1 sion to surrealism, Ma- count." Magritte, La Ligne
Here, four identical birds, all cut from gritte notes his develop- de vie, cited in David
ment of a less subjective Sylvester, Magritte: The
the same score of the English musical com- and painterly manner: "I Silence of the World (New
edy, The Girls ofGottenbergby George Gros- had in fact replaced the York, 1992), 90.
formal qualities which the
smith Jr. and L. E. Berman, fly toward the
critics had not failed to
right against an ominous sky composed of note with an objective
gesturally painted gray and black ink representation of objects,

washes. Partly occluding the cutout birds,

dark and jagged ink lines traverse the threat-
ening firmament, forms that suggest both
an unnatural type of lightning and the out-
lines of some strange map.
In addition to its ambiguous play
between flatness and depth—established by
the contrast between the two-dimensional
ink outlines and printed sheet music on the
one hand, and the alternately flowing and

126
Lzi
82*
 Klee's deceptively simple compositions are the theoretical subject of line, writing hun-
often more tangled than they look. Gemischt dreds of pages on the subject while at the
provokes two questions: what nature of Bauhaus from 1921 to 1930.
beast or beasts has the artist fashioned? In the year this work was made, Klee
And why has he chosen the title Gemischt adopted use of the reed pen. A favorite tool
(Mixed)? of Rembrandt's, the reed is capable of mod-
Klee's creatures are temptingly self-evi- eling lines of varying width, depending on
dent, so much so that one cannot resist how it is held and the amount of pressure
54 assigning them identities. The squat and exerted on the nib. Reeds tend to shed their
PAUL KLEE muscular animals seem like canines, while reserve of ink quickly and are apt to produce
Swiss, 1879-1940 those with long slender bodies appear more short, broken lines rather than meandering
like felines.1 The strutting creature at the swirls. Rembrandt took advantage of this
Gemischt, 1927
lower right has the pointed muzzle and long fact by using them to fashion broad, forceful
reed pen and ink over bushy tail of a fox but also suggests a do- strokes. Klee adapted the pen for other pur-
graphite mesticated cat. Like a Rorschach test, the poses, notably in Gemischt. Although he uti-
295 x 418 mm drawing elicits multiple interpretations that lized its ability to produce lines that swell
(ii"/i6Xi6y2) play on the viewer's imagination. and taper, he generally held the instrument
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fun What gives rise to the ambiguity is lightly so the nib responded to the slightest
1988 Klee's purposeful homogenization and even texture of the paper. Thus instead of a taut
outright disregard for fundamental distinc- and muscular line, Klee's is somewhat tenta-
tions. Forelegs and hindquarters are treated tive, pursuing the twists and turns of a
the same, and none, with the possible questioning mind.
exception of the animal at the upper right, JUDITH BRODIE

sports a coat—shaggy, short, or otherwise.

In conflating species, mischievously cross-
breeding felines with canines, the artist Provenance (She Howls, We Play);
Paul Proute, Paris. see Jiirgen Glaesemer,
speaks not only of their individuality but
Paul Klee: Diefarbigen
also their commonality. In general terms he Werke im Kunstmuseum
Notes Bern (Bern, 1976),
has "mixed" cats and dogs. He also gives no i. In an informal survey 248-249.
explicit indication of gender, essentially neu- assumptions ranged from
cats and dogs to lions and 2. Paul Klee, "Contribu-
tering the pack. Genetic intervention has jackals—even a squirrel. tions to a Theory of Picto-
rial Form," in The Thinking
gone terribly awry in this fusion of male and The only agreement was
that the animal in the top Eye: Paul Klee Notebooks
female in which one sex seems to have can- center is a dog. The crea- Volume i: The Thinking
Eye (London, 1956),
celed out the other. This was not the first ture below, lying on its
116-117.
back, appears in two
time Klee had tampered with the natural
related works with the
order of things. Throughout his career he title Sie brullt, wir spielen
contrived hybrid life forms, and his peda-
gogical writings include sections on the
"Analysis and synthesis of differences" and
"The Genesis of composite forms."2
The title of the work itself is a double
entendre. It implies a mixing of species but
is also a geometrical term that describes a
form composed of a "mixture" of lines:
straight, bent, elliptical, etc. And what could
be more fundamental to Klee's invention
than its animating mix of lines? Spirals
unwind into attenuated curves that back-
track into hairpin bends that gather speed to
form loops. Perhaps more than any other
artist, Klee devoted exhaustive attention to

129
 Kandinsky created watercolors throughout ics in the 19205). The form in the lower
his life, and they were a crucial medium for right is constructed and colored with extra-
his art.1 Within two years of joining the ordinary care, using multiple stencils in a
Bauhaus in 1922, personal lists of his pro- negative fashion to cover and preserve areas
duction indicate that he no longer con- during the spraying process.5 The resulting
nected his watercolors with paintings but color forms "flip" back and forth from two
gave them titles and treated them as inde- to three dimensions. Three dark elongated
pendent, finished works in their own right.2 curved triangles (shapes Kandinsky had
55 By the end of 1927 Kandinsky had devel- used as single elements since the early
WASSILY KANDINSKY oped a major new style in watercolor when 19205) are attached to the blue triangle/cone
Russian, 1866-1944 he began to simplify his dense, layered com- so that they seem to project from it like
positions by separating geometric forms so appendages and thus evoke surrealist forms,
Geteilt, 1928
that they overlap less and tend to stand especially Miro's stylized limbs and hairs.
watercolor and ink, on alone in different parts of the image.3 Simul- The rectilinear structure or "ladder" at the
the artist's original black taneously, he gave his watercolors a new tex- lower left may also be a witty reference if
paper mount tural richness through subtle transitions of one sees it as a subtle geometric refinement,
484 x 322 mm sprayed color over stencils, a technique bor- commenting on but cleaning up the spindly
(19'/i6 X I2 J 7i6) rowed from Paul Klee, his Bauhaus friend scaffolding so frequent in works by his
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. and neighbor.4 friend Klee. Like the suffused and glowing
Stephen M. Kellen, Geteilt is one of Kandinsky's boldest and light of the color fields, these associations
1999 most striking works in this new style, with give Geteilt richness, warmth, and even
its radically strong band, which has indeed humor.
"divided" (Geteilt) the composition into two ANDREW ROBISON

fields. Instead of dividing one's attention,

however, this broad band of darkest blue
focuses one's eye and pulls the two fields Provenance 4. Klee was using the tech-
Hilde Haller, Zurich; nique as early as 1925;
back toward the center. Galerie Roller, Zurich, see, for example, Carolyn
Kandinsky may also have borrowed from November 1975; private Lanchner, Paul Klee [exh.
collection, Zurich; cat, Museum of Modern
Klee the idea of mounting some watercolors
Christie's, London, 4 De- Art] (New York, 1987), 212.
on a backboard. Here he has transformed cember 1979; Galerie Jan
5. For just a few examples
Krugier, Geneva; private
Klee's standard practice of using white board of how extraordinarily
collection; Sotheby's, New
detailed Kandinsky's care
by giving a colored board a positive role in York, 14 May 1992, lot 135;
in this watercolor is, and
the total work. The matte black not only con- Leonard Hutton Galleries,
how he enhances the
New York; purchased by
trasts with and enhances the colors of the extremely subtle sense
the National Gallery of Art
of variation: the concave
central image; it also helps to contain the with designated funds.
purple arc is on a reserved
image and keep the "divided" fields together. or white field and bor-
Notes
dered by superimposed
Each of the four elements in the fields black outlines, whereas
1. See Vivian Endicott Bar-
of Geteilt prompts intriguing associations. nett, Kandinsky Watercol- the dark (actually midnight
ors: Catalogue Raisonne, 2 blue) areas of the curved
Kandinsky explores the effect of form, color, triangles have a different
vols. (Ithaca, NY, 1992 and
and texture on perception. The polygon in 1994), 1:29-37. texture because they are
over a red spattered field
the upper right is shaded with tonal varia- 2. Barnett 1992, 1:35. and have purplish appear-
tion so that it may be read as flat, or as 3. While this new style ing but actually red
appeared as early as outlines that are not super-
modeled. As a solid, it would be a dodeca- imposed but showing
December 1924, it became
hedron, whose representation is one of the more prevalent after Sep- around the edges from
tember 1927, when the below. Again, the single
characteristic examples of perspective in line on the left edge of the
earliest clear examples of
Renaissance and baroque treatises. This play the variably sprayed color blue cone is drawn at the
appeared (see Barnett top as red, farther down
on artistic creation of depth and flatness becomes midnight blue,
1992, nos. 736-737, 784,
continues with the circles in the upper left, 780, and 785). and finishes at the point
of the cone as black!
which may be overlapping (like coins) or
may be simply intersecting (as in set theory,
a subject of much discussion in mathemat-

130
131
 About 1927 Kirchner began to develop a encounters were a central theme of his great
new, "abstract" style. This Self-Portrait is one Berlin street scenes from 1913-1915. Kirch-
of the earliest mature examples of the style, ner revisited Zurich, Frankfurt, Dresden,
which he also called working from imagina- and Berlin in 1925-1926 and produced new
tion rather than from nature.1 Kirchner views of city monuments as well as streets.4
was not interested in pure abstraction, so Thus it is not surprising that the inner con-
"abstract" here is relative to his earlier work. tent of his earlier works should have perco-
His line became more simply geometric, lated in his thoughts again. In this drawing
56 especially in large curved shapes. The Kirchner has combined that subject with the
ERNST LUDWIG outlines of forms overlapped each other theme of self-portraiture and completely
KIRCHNER regardless of natural boundaries, and this integrated both into his new, more calm and
German, 1880-1938 interpenetration of forms was enhanced by balanced abstract style. It is almost as if he
overlapping textured but solid color fields.2 were saying: the presentation is different,
Self-Portrait, 1928
The principal figure here is a self-por- but the artist and his human interests
brush and ink with trait. Even with the abstraction, one recog- remain the same.
watercolor over black nizes a long slender face, large nose, fleshy ANDREW ROBISON

crayon lips, pointed chin, high forehead, long

468 x 375 mm strong eyebrows, and fine dark hair combed
(187/16x1434) straight and flat, exactly the features of Provenance 2. Kirchner's "abstract"
Dr. Frederic Bauer, Davos; style is probably in
Promised Gift of Mr. Kirchner in contemporary photographs and Stuttgarter Kunstkabinett, response to what Alfred
and Mrs. Jacob Kainen as he shows himself in the 1926-1927 26 November 1953, lot Barr called Picasso's
1948; Kleeman Galleries, "curvilinear cubism" of the
painting Eine Kunstlergruppe (Ludwig Col-
New York; Karl und Faber, 19208; see Picasso: Fifty
lection, Cologne). Munich, 28 May 1971, lot Years of His Art (New York,
Here the corner of Kirchner's mouth is 742; Galerie Wolfgang 1946), 132. See also Klee's
Ketterer, Munich, 26-28 contemporary sweeping
turned up, and his eyes are wide open but November 1979, lot 902; curved linear patterns of
unfocused, probably an expression of pleas- Kunsthaus Lempertz, overlapping "outlines"
Cologne, 7 December (cat. 54).
ant musing or daydreaming.3 The setting 1984, lot 611; Mr. and
3. Annemarie Dube-
is clearly urban, with background street- Mrs. Jacob Kainen.
Heynig interprets this Self-
lights and multistoried buildings. The sub- Portrait as melancholic
Notes
by relating its composition
sidiary figures—in Kirchner's thoughts, as to a 1929 woodcut self-
i. See Donald E. Gordon,
it were—include, on the left, a woman in Ernst Ludwig Kirchner portrait Kirchner titled
(Cambridge, MA, 1968); Melancholie der Berge; see
a blue dress and cap, apparently walking Kunst des XX. Jahrhunderts,
Lucius Grisebach, "Ernst
down a street. A close look, however, reveals Ludwig Kirchner als 'stil- Kunsthaus Lempertz auc-
bewusster' Kiinstler," in tion, Cologne, 7 December
a disembodied right hand reaching up to 1984, lot 611. But the com-
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
touch her right breast. On the right stands [exh. cat., Nationalgalerie] positional relation between
(Berlin, 1979), 31-37- For the two images is neither
a dark-haired woman who is mainly flesh exact nor distinctive, and
other early examples of the
colored and thus may be nude; but she abstract style see Berlin a straightforward reading
1979, nos. 373 and 379; of Kirchner's face here
wears high heels, so she too may be walking reveals no pain or melan-
and Lucius Grisebach and
on the street. A ruddy man advances toward Wolfgang Henze, Ernst choly like, for instance, the
downrurned mouth in the
the woman. Originally his left hand had Ludwig Kirchner [exh. cat.,
1929 woodcut.
Kunsthalle] (Nuremberg,
long fingers that seemed to reach across the 1991), no. 97. 4. See Berlin 1979, nos.
woman's pink left thigh, but Kirchner made 368-373, 378-381-
the image more subtle by covering most of
his fingers and her thigh with an arch-
topped black shape. The man's torso is blue,
and the blue form in front of the woman's
chest may well be the man's right arm
reaching around her back.
Thus the subject of this Self-Portrait is
Kirchner's remembering or thinking about
sexual encounters on the city streets. Such

132
133
 Joseph Stella, who made many self-portraits These evocations of the past, however,
during his career, here provides not only a are held in formal tension with a more
physiognomic likeness of himself but psy- modern expressiveness. Stella emphasizes
chological insight into his character as well. the flatness of the image by the suppression
Stella was an adept portraitist and favored of his proper left ear, by the unmodeled
the profile format. By deliberately alluding chiaroscuro of the hat, and by the self-con-
to Italian Renaissance profile portraits, such scious mark-making overall. In contrast to
as this sixteenth-century Profile of a Man the cool, classical pose of the sitter, the sur-
57 (figure), Stella underscored ties to his artis- rounding atmosphere, evinced by a colorful
JOSEPH STELLA tic—and ethnic—heritage. In both draw- and agitated watercolor over wax resist,
American, 1877-1946 ings the headgear exaggerates the domi- hints at the restlessness of the artist's
nating physical presence of the sitter. imagination.1
Self-Portrait, c. 1929
Stella was proud of his talents and was J O N A T H A N F. W A L Z

colored pencil, water- known to be something of a braggadocio

color over wax resist, and showoff. In fact, he often visually
metalpoint, and graphite "boasted" of his technical prowess by pur- Provenance Note
Sergio Stella; Rabin and i. This sheet, with the
on prepared paper posefully making forbidding compositional
Krueger, Newark, NJ; sitter in profile facing left
556 X400 mm choices or by using difficult materials, such Herbert A. Goldstone, and gazing at suspended
(2i%xi53/ 4 ) as metalpoint. This unforgiving medium, New York; ACA Gallery, flowers, bears a resem-
New York. blance to the 1908 paint-
New Century Fund, which enjoyed a revival in the United States ing by Piet Mondrian
1997 during the late nineteenth and early twen- entitled Devotion, now
in the Haags Gemeente-
tieth centuries, allows no erasures once a museum.
mark is made. By employing metalpoint as
an underdrawing in the present image,
Stella again harks back to the Renaissance,
an unusual strategy for an artist of the
early twentieth century, when historical
references in art were frowned upon as
unprogressive.

Lombard School, Profile of

a Man, 1500/1520, black
chalk with stumping and
touches of red chalk
heightened with white,
National Gallery of Art,
Woodner Collection, 1998

134
sa
 Taos is located on a high desert mesa at the is noted simply by horizontal bands of
foot of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in yellow, gray, green, and brown.
New Mexico. Beginning around 1920 the It is not surprising that Marin would be
town and its environs attracted and inspired interested in the subject of the storm while
many of the artists in the Stieglitz circle, in New Mexico. Throughout his long career,
including Marsden Hartley, Paul Strand, whether in his landscapes, seascapes, or
Georgia O'Keeffe, and John Marin.1 On their cityscapes, he sought to express "the great
initial visits all were guests at Los Gallos, forces at work," the never ceasing "push-
58 the estate of the writer Mabel Dodge, who, ing, pulling, sidewards, downwards, and
JOHN MARIN having fled New York, romantically envi- upwards" tumult of the world.5 The fluidity,
American, 1870-1953 sioned the area, home of the Tewa tribe of spontaneity, and speed of the medium of
Pueblo Indians, as "the beating heart of the watercolor were perfectly suited to this
Storm overTaos, 1930
world" where "great souls will be drawn."2 ambitious task, and taken together his
watercolor over graphite Marin grasped the essential visual ele- watercolors of New Mexico, Maine, and
382 x 532 mm ments of the vast, daunting spaces of the New York City constitute an encyclopedia
(15/16 X 20I5/i6) Southwest soon after his arrival in Taos in of dynamic, evanescent forms.
Alfred Stieglitz the summer of 1929. In his epigrammatic CHARLES BROCK

Collection, 1949 style he wrote to Stieglitz: "The One who

made this country, this big level seeming
desert table land cut out slices. They are the Provenance 3. Marin to Stieglitz,
The artist to Alfred Stieglitz; 21 July 1929, quoted in
canyons. Then here and there he put moun- Georgia O'Keeffe. Dorothy Norman, ed.,
tains atop. Astanding here you can see six or The Selected Writings of
John Marin (New York,
seven thunder storms going on at the same Notes 1949), 129.
time. A Sun set seems to embrace the earth. 1. Hartley first visited
4. Strand to Herbert
in 1919, Strand in 1926,
Big sun heat. Big storm. Big everything. A and O'Keeffe and Marin
Seligmann, 29 July 1931,
leaving out that thing called Man."3 The in 1929. quoted in Sarah Green-
ough, Paul Strand: An
thunderstorms were a particularly dramatic 2. This is how the occultist American Vision [exh. cat.,
Lotus Dudley described National Gallery of Art]
feature of the summer season. Strand, who New Mexico when Mabel (Washington, 1990), 76.
worked alongside Marin in 1930, recalled Dodge consulted her about
5. This is how Marin
settling there in April 1919;
how "Mrs. Marin used to keep both eyes quoted in Lois Palken Rud-
described his watercolors
of New York City in the
peeled" for "those violent storms here, that nick, Mabel Dodge Luhan:
famous catalogue essay
New Woman, New Worlds
make you keep one eye on the horizon, that accompanied his exhi-
(Albuquerque, 1984), 165.
wherever you get off on dobe roads, that bition at the 291 gallery
Her comments confirmed
in January 1913; reprinted
become a slough in two minutes."4 Dodge's own feelings and
in Camera Work 42-43
reassured her that it was
In Storm over Taos Marin captured the her destiny to live in Taos. (April-July) 1913,18.

majestic breadth and scale of the landscape

by depicting the adobe structures of Taos as
dwarfed by the mountains and sky above
and by the open desert plain below. A mas-
ter of the watercolor medium, he conveys
an enormous wealth of detail using the
most economical of means. The town itself
is described by a few squared-off brush
strokes within a small swath of light earth
tones at the center of the picture. Delicate
serpentine lines delineate mountains, while
gray and blue washes and a strong diagonal
that cuts the sky in half combine to describe
a range of atmospheric effects from light
mist to driving rain. The desert foreground

136
137
 Dampfer und Segelbote (Steamship and Sail- subtle shifts in depth. Over the zones he
boats) descends from two paintings that mapped out a contour line that bends and
Klee made in 1927, one now in Switzerland interlaces to form a single entwined form,
(figure) and the other in the collection of the encompassing everything from the inter-
Nationalgalerie, Berlin.1 Although both are locking triangles that frame the boats' sails3
nocturnal scenes and include elements to the circular curves that shape their hulls.
absent from the watercolor—for example, Lastly, he systematically overlaid thousands
the large full moon and the prominent arrow of opaque dabs—like short staccato notes.
59 pointing to the right—they nonetheless Each dab's brushy edge points to the left,
PAUL K L E E share the same central motif as the National a suggestion of a breeze coming from the
Swiss, 1879-1940 Gallery's watercolor, only in reverse. right. Sea and sky are merged, and the
Klee presumably revived his design in ships—united by a shared contour—appear
Dampfer und
1931 by tracing its contours either from a to float and sway on a vast field of sunlit
Segelbote, 1931
drawing or from one of the paintings, albeit atmosphere.
watercolor reversing the direction in the process. Aside JUDITH BRODIE

435 x 640 mm from the present watercolor, two more ver-

(17/8 x 25/8) sions from the same year are recorded.2
Collection of Mr. and Although they follow the general contours Provenance 2. Will Grohmann repro-
Galerie Beyeler, Basel; G. duces one of the versions
Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1983 of the 1927 paintings, they are conceived in David Thompson; Parke- —all of which are water-
a thoroughly distinct style that Klee called Bernet Galleries, Inc., New colors—in Paul Klee (New
York, 23-24 March 1966, York, n.d.), 401, no. 135.
"divisionism." The artist tried the mosaic-
lot 50; Lock Galleries; Mr. He also notes that each
like style in modified form as early as 1925, and Mrs. Paul Mellon. version represents a differ-
but it was not until 1931 that he fully ent time of day: early
morning, noon, and
explored its possibilities. Although often Notes evening. Other than the
i. Reproduced in Robert fact that the National
compared to Seurat's pointillism, Klee's Rosenblum, Modern Gallery of Art's watercolor
objective was antithetical. Seurat intended Painting and the Northern is surely not an evening
Romantic Tradition: scene, there is no indica-
his colored dots to mix optically, whereas
Friedrich to Rothko (New tion of its hour.
Klee's larger markings are meant to remain York, 1975), 157. Also
from 1927, there is a 3. The steamship on the
separate in the viewer's eye, to be read as left has sails as well as a
loosely related version of
individual dabs of light-filled color. the motif in watercolor; smokestack, which was
see Jiirgen Glaesemer, not uncommon in early
Klee began the watercolor by dividing steamers of the 18705.
Paul Klee: Diefarbigen
the sheet into irregularly shaped zones that Werke im Kunstmuseum
were washed in blue or yellow. These lend Bern (Bern, 1976), 246,
no. 121.
structure to the composition and provide

Paul Klee, The Departure of

the Boats, 1927, oil on can-
vas, private collection, per-
manent loan to the
Kunstmuseum Basel

138
139
 Alexander Zhitomirsky came to Moscow as seen and had a considerable influence
an eighteen-year-old to study art, and within on the Russian people. The power of his
a few years he was known for his work as an photomontages, predicted in this early
illustrator, cartoonist, and designer for peri- collage, lies in his witty, lively juxtaposition
odicals and newspapers. In the early 19305, of images and his striking ability to make
influenced by the works of John Heartfield the absurd appear true and the true
that appeared in leftist German publications appear absurd.
widely sold on newsstands in Moscow, Zhi-
6o tomirsky began to use playful typography
JULIA THOMPSON

ALEXANDER and his own photographs as well as maga-

ZHITOMIRSKY zine reproductions to experiment with Provenance Gallery of Art, is a self-
Estate of the artist; the portrait as well. Several
Russian, 1907-1993 collage. He assembled the resulting con- artist's son; Gary Edwards pages from an album cele-
structions in personal albums that revolved Gallery, Washington, DC, brating Zhitomirsky's
Self-Portrait with by 1997; purchased by the honeymoon are also in
around various themes.1
Camera, 1932 National Gallery of Art the Gallery's collection.
Self-Portrait with Camera is an homage with designated funds.
2. To create the elongated
ink and gouache with not only to his love of photography but also self-portrait, Zhitomirsky
gelatin silver print to his newfound ability to make his pictures Notes
tilted the easel on which
i. Self-Portrait with Camera the photographic paper
and photomechanical speak. Zhitomirsky juxtaposed the real— is taken from an album rested under the enlarger
reproduction on album a photograph of himself and a picture of a titled To the Little Bully; a during printing. This
second collage from the accounts for the figure's
page Leica camera lens—with the fantastic to rather fuzzy appearance.
album, also in the collec-
185 x 263 mm create this clever self-portrait. The lens is tion of the National
(7 5 /i6X I0 3 /8) the central eye of the composition and is
Gift of Henry Buhl, flanked by the distorted self-portrait of the
1998 artist2 on one side and the elongated, car-
toonish arm that snakes around the camera
on the other. A delicate hand, gracefully
poised to press the shutter release on his
camera, extends from the protruding arm,
as, in the words that seem to spring from
his mouth, Zhitomirsky playfully exclaims,
"hold still!" The combination of the mis-
shapen surrounding elements with the
crystal-clear camera lens creates an almost
fish-eye view, as though the spectacle
is seen in a convex mirror or, perhaps,
through a lens and suggests not only that
Zhitomirsky is taking a photograph but that
he is in turn being photographed.
Although virtually unknown outside
his own country, Zhitomirsky was consid-
ered the foremost artist of Russian political
photomontage from the 19405 to the 19705.
During World War II his anti-Nazi pro-
paganda leaflets were published by the
millions and reached untold numbers
of German soldiers; later, throughout the
Cold War, Zhitomirsky's work was widely

140
141
142
 Repeatedly—in artist's statements, inter- infinite space, turning elegantly, given vol-
views, and in his Autobiography with ume by the varying density of the watercolor
Pictures—Alexander Calder credits a visit and fine spiraling lines of black ink. The
to the studio of Piet Mondrian in 1930 with evocation is deliberate: "When I have used
his own decision to work in the abstract: it spheres and discs, I have intended that they
was "a shock that started things." Calder should represent more than what they just
explained: "It was a very exciting room. are. More or less as the earth is a sphere,
Light came from the left and from the right, but also has some miles of gas about it, vol-
6i and on the solid wall between the windows canoes upon it, and the moon making cir-
ALEXANDER CALDER there were experimental stunts with colored cles about it, and the sun is a sphere—but
American, 1898-1976 rectangles of cardboard tacked on.... I sug- also a source of intense heat, the effect of
gested to Mondrian that perhaps it would which is felt at great distances. A ball of
Untitled (Study for
be fun to make these rectangles oscillate."1 wood or a disc of metal is rather a dull
Mobile), 1932
Calder recounted an earlier "shock" object without the sense of something
watercolor and ink of seeing from a ship off the coast of emanating from it."5 Throughout his career
578 x 781 mm Guatemala "the beginning of a fiery red Calder would create abstract works in every
(22 % X3o 3 / 4 ) sunrise on one side and the moon looking medium, but the forces and forms of the
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. like a silver coin on the other."2 This gave universe would remain his inspiration. He
Klaus G. Perls, 1996 him a sense of the universe that was crucial continuously strove to make "something
for his art: "I think that at that time [1930] that has a life of its own."6
and practically ever since, the underlying SALLY E. M A N S F I E L D

sense of form in my work has been the

system of the Universe... the idea of
detached bodies floating in space, of differ- Provenance 4. Interview with Yvon
Klaus and Dolly Perls, Taillander, "Calder: 'Per-
ent sizes and densities, perhaps of different New York. sonne ne pense a moi
colors and temperatures, and surrounded quand on a cheval a faire,'"
XXs siecle, ser. 2 (March
and interlarded with wisps of gaseous con- Notes 1959), trans. Bettina Wadia
dition. .. seems to me the ideal source 1. Alexander Calder with and quoted in Gualtieri di
Jean Davidson, Calder: An
of form."3 Autobiography with Pictures
San Lazzaro, ed., Homage
to Alexander Calder, special
With these two shocks of inspiration, (New York, 1966), 113. issue of XXe siecle Review
Calder created a new body of abstract work, 2. Calder 1966, 113. (New York, 1972), 98.

first in painting and then in sculpture. His 3. Alexander Calder, "What 5. Calder 1951, 8.
Abstract Art Means to 6. Calder 1959, 98.
fascination and experimentation with the Me," The Museum of Mod-
introduction of actual motion into art ulti- ern Art Bulletin 18, no. 3
(spring 1951), 8.
mately led to his invention of a new art
form, the mobile. In 1959 he would tell an
interviewer: "In 1932, a wooden ball made
me want to make a universe, something like
the solar system. That was the beginning of
everything."4
The year of the present drawing and The
Circus (cat. 62) was an important one for
Calder. He was working in a variety of styles
and media and exhibited his first kinetic
work at the Galerie Vignon in Paris. Untitled
is a simple abstract design. Calder draws
two continuous ink lines intersected by a
circle, with two small circles off to the right,
modeled with red watercolor. With this star-
tling spareness Calder evokes a sense of the
universe—with objects floating freely in an

143
 Alexander Calder's fascination with the sional line drawing"5 (see figure). This open-
circus was lifelong. In one of his first jobs work sculpture achieves its form through
as an artist, for the tabloid National Police the exploitation of its transparency, an ele-
Gazette, he spent two weeks in the spring ment Calder uncharacteristically assigns
of 1925 drawing illustrations of the Ringling historical import: "There is one thing, in
Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus. particular that connects them with history.
That same year he began fashioning ani- One of the canons of the futuristic painters
mals out of wire.1 These inventions, and a ... was that objects behind other objects
62
brief venture into the fabrication of mecha- should not be lost to view, but should be
ALEXANDER CALDER nized toys, fostered the creation in 1926 of shown through the others by making the lat-
American, 1898-1976 the Cirque Calder.2 Comprising miniature ter transparent. The wire sculpture accom-
performers made of wire, cloth, wood, cork, plishes this in a most decided manner."6
The Circus, 1932
string, and other ephemeral material, the Although Calder partly accounts for
pen and ink circus eventually extended to about twenty these linear feats in terms of advanced mod-
514 x 743 mm acts, with ringmaster, music, sound effects, ernist ideas, it is their invention and cun-
(20'4 x 29 Y4) and even peanuts.3 ning wit that remain most striking. In The
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. When asked in 1964 what had started Circus the artist pictures the scene perhaps
Klaus G. Perls, 1996 his drawing the circus, Calder responded, from the high wire, nearly level with the
"I was very fond of the spatial relations. I daring trapeze artist, who practices a hand-
love the space of the circus. I made some stand. Below is a buzz of activity: two men
drawings of nothing but the tent... I love show their prowess on stilts, one in a full,
the mechanics of the thing—and the vast frilly dress and pantaloons; the bareback
space."4 The Circus is composed entirely of rider trots with her horse, while the dis-
lines. There is no shading or other means tracted ringmaster seems about to be butted
of indicating three-dimensionality. Yet the by a mule. In the side ring: drama. The ele-
sense of space is palpable. Studying at the phant is crushing a performer. The trainer
Art Student's League in New York in 1924, rushes to assist, casting aside his crop,
Calder had learned from Boardman Robin- while two layabouts loll on the bleachers,
son to draw with a single line, not lifting the taking it all in. The lines are few, but they
pen from the paper. Calder here exploits manage to describe every detail, to the point
that technique, achieving a sense of volume that one can distinguish the elephant as
in his figures akin to that of his wire sculp- African, rather than Asian, and differentiate
ture, which he described as "three-dimen- the distinctive motions of the various char-
acters. Calder's deceptively simple technique
Alexander Calder, Rearing belies his studied skill as a draftsman and
Stallion, c. 1928, wire and his careful observation of the world.
painted wood, National Gallery
SALLY E. M A N S F I E L D
of Art, Washington, Gift of Mr.
and Mrs. Klaus G. Perls, 1996

Provenance 3. See www.calder.org.

Mrs. Bliss Parkinson;
4. Cleve Gray," Calder's
Sibyl Moholy-Nagy; Klaus
Circus," Art in America 52,
and Dolly Perls, New
no. 5 (Oct. 1964), 23-25.
York, 1963.
5. Maria Prather et al.,
Alexander Calder, 1898-
Notes 1976 [exh. cat., National
1. Alexander Calder with Gallery of Art] (Washing-
Jean Davidson, Calder: An ton, 1998), 21.
Autobiography with Pictures
6. Washington 1998, 24.
(New York, 1966), 71-72.
2. Permanently installed at
the Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York,
with a film of Calder per-
forming his circus.

144
145
 Around 1910 Charles Sheeler and his friend Stieglitz by saying: "I decided that because
and fellow artist Morton Schamberg began of something personal I was trying to work
renting a small stone farmhouse in Doyles- out in them, that they were more akin to
town, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, drawings."3 So the equation was there for
for use mainly as a quiet weekend and sum- Sheeler from the first, and the fact that in
mer retreat where they could concentrate 1932 he made two photographic portraits of
on painting. In 1917 Sheeler executed a himself actually drawing this drawing con-
series of photographs of the house, some firms its elliptical nature. But why the long
63 of the exterior, but most depicting interior lapse of time? It is possible that his wife
CHARLES SHEELER spaces—doorways, stairwells, windows, and Katherine's diagnosis with cancer around
American, 1883-1965 other architectural elements. The series was 1931 (she died in 1933) inspired Sheeler
shown at New York's Modern Gallery in to look back nostalgically at their years
Interior with Stove,
December 1917; it was Sheeler's first one- together in Doylestown in this simple
1932
man exhibition as a photographer, and it room, warmed by an old-fashioned stove.4
conte crayon helped establish his reputation as a master The sequence that began with a 1917
818 x 584 mm of the medium.1 photograph, and continued with this draw-
(3237,6X23) Two of the Doylestown photographs por- ing and the two photographic self-portraits
Gift (Partial and tray a room with a large cast-iron stove lit featuring it in 1932, reached its conclusion
Promised) of Aaron I. from behind and darkly silhouetted against in 1943 in a painting by Sheeler entitled
Fleischman, 2000 the white walls. One in a horizontal format The Artist Looks at Nature (Art Institute of
concentrates on the stove itself, while the Chicago). There, in a surreal landscape of
other is vertical and shows more of the fields dotted with indecipherable bits of
room. Sheeler recreated the former photo- architecture, the artist sits at an easel work-
graph as a conte crayon drawing in 1931; ing on this drawing, just as he was in the
he used the same process with the second 1932 photographs. The artist, Sheeler seems
photograph the following year to create to say, may look at nature, but what he ulti-
this extraordinary work. Although derived mately sees and creates is something else
directly from the photograph, and remark- altogether, a "separate reality," as his friend
ably successful in capturing its nuances of William Carlos Williams once said of
light and dark, the drawing is utterly differ- another of his works. That Sheeler chose to
ent in appearance and effect. It is signifi- portray that "separate reality" through the
cantly larger (the photograph is less than a image of himself in the act of creating this
third its size), and the distinctive stippling great drawing, gives it a significance and
of the conte crayon on the textured paper meaning in his art that is all but unrivaled.
makes it softer and more matte than the F R A N K L I N KELLY

glossy photograph.
By the time he made this drawing,
Sheeler was a recognized master of paint- Provenance Photographs [exh. cat.,
Edward Steichen, New Museum of Fine Arts]
ing, drawing, and photography, and the York; Joanna (Mrs. (Boston, 1987), 8.
relationships among his works in these Edward) Steichen, New
2. Boston 1987, 10.
York; Aaron I. Fleischman,
media are complex and at times enigmatic. 1999. 3. Boston 1987, 9.
Why, some fifteen years later, would he be 4. See Karen Lucic, Charles
inspired to recreate a photograph as a draw- Notes
Sheeler in Doylestown
[exh. cat., Allentown Art
ing? Part of the answer may be that for i. Theodore E. Stebbins Jr.
Museum] (Allentown, PA,
and Norman Keyes Jr.,
Sheeler a painting was no more significant Charles Sheeler: The
I
997)-
than a drawing, nor was a drawing more
important than a photograph.2 Each was
simply a means to an end, and aspects of
each could inform and influence the others.
When he made the Doylestown photo-
graphs, he explained them to Alfred

146
147
 During a period of intense drawing activity curvilinear, kidney shapes of this drawing
in the early 1930$, Gorky created more than derive from the biomorphic forms typical
fifty variations on the theme of Nighttime, in the art of the surrealists Joan Miro and
Enigma, and Nostalgia. The overall composi- Andre Masson in the 19205. The connota-
tion of interlocked organic shapes varies tions of mystery and sadness carried by the
only slightly throughout the series, but dif- title are related to the enigmatic pictures of
ferences in tonal value, treatment, and tex- Giorgio de Chirico, who was an important
ture give each drawing a distinctive mood. source of inspiration for Gorky. Many ver-
64 This version is one of the most dramatic sions of Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia
ARSHILE GORKY in its contrast of light and dark and in the present a trapezoidal format directly in-
American, born in density of its blacks, built up through an spired by a composition by de Chirico.2 This
Armenia, 1904-1948 extraordinary variety of hatchings and cross- is notably the case in the other version of
hatchings. The addition of brown ink and the series in the National Gallery of Art
Nighttime, Enigma,
the extensive use of scratching—revealing collection (figure). In the smaller drawing
and Nostalgia,
the thick paper's fiber—contribute to the the emphasis on linear patterns and the
c. 1932/1934
richness and complexity of the work. The geometric division of the background create
pen and ink over lighter areas stand out vividly against the a more abstract composition. Its light and
graphite velvety web of black lines, recalling Georges playful mood contrasts with the somber and
559 x 720 mm Seurat's conte crayon drawings, which mysterious atmosphere of the larger one.
(22 X 285/i6) Gorky admired. When a group of Nighttime, Gorky's first significant group of works,
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund Enigma, and Nostalgia drawings was exhib- Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia signals
and Andrew W. Mellon ited in New York in 1935, one critic noted the importance of drawing in the artist's
Fund, 1979 the unusual range of tones: "On this practi- development. Gorky was to draw exten-
cally black surface float weird, fantastic sively throughout his life, a passion that is
forms that, having no apparent or obvious reflected in the linear quality of many of his
meaning, are nevertheless so carefully set in paintings. The National Gallery of Art is for-
their appointed place they carry the eye deep tunate to have eight drawings by Gorky, rep-
into composition, achieve an exquisite bal- resentative of every phase of his career.
ance of shape and tone (amazing how much ISABELLE DERVAUX

color the artist has introduced into these

black-and-white) and set the whole arrange-
ment in vibrating, arresting, movement."1 Provenance 2. The Fatal Temple, 1913,
Ethel Schwabacher, New which Gorky would have
The Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia York; Artemis, Inc., Lon- seen in the Gallatin Collec-
series marked Gorky's first involvement don; Xavier Fourcade, Inc., tion. See Arshile Gorky
New York. and the Genesis of Abstrac-
with surrealism, a movement that became
tion: Drawings from the
popular in the United States in the early Early 19305 [exh. cat.,
Notes Art Museum, Princeton
19305. Through his friendship with the i. Emily Genauer, quoted University] (New York,
painter John Graham, who traveled regu- in Melvin P. Lader, 1994)' 46-
"Arshile Gorky: A Modern
larly to Europe, Gorky was well aware of the Artist in the Academic Tra-
development of the French avant-garde. The dition," in Arshile Gorky,
Works on Paper [exh. cat.,
Peggy Guggenheim Collec-
Arshile Gorky, tion] (Venice, 1992), 23.
Nighttime,
Enigma, and
Nostalgia, 1932,
pen and ink,
National
Gallery of Art,
Washington,
Gift of Mr. and
Mrs. Herbert
A. Goldstone,
1992

148
149
 Self-Portrait, Drawing, is one of Kollwitz's charcoal, it could easily be the very sheet
greatest works. In this large-scale, grand that Kollwitz is creating as she portrays
image, devoid of any setting, the sixty-six- herself here.
year-old artist represented herself, arm Indeed, the artist would cleave to her
outstretched, ready to lay charcoal to the work in this year of 1933, as Hitler came to
invisible sheet before her. Facing left, hair power in Germany. She announced the
combed up into her characteristic bun, she event in her diary with the terse, horrified
gazes intently at her easel, represented with comment, "The Third Reich begins."1 The
65 amazing economy by a single slanted line. years that followed would see Kollwitz dis-
KATHE KOLLWITZ Kollwitz used the side of the charcoal to rub missed from her position as professor of art
German, 1867-1945 the portrait onto this sheet of textured paper, at the Prussian Academy of Arts, her work
lending a certain flatness to the head. By declared "degenerate" by the Nazi regime,
Self-Portrait,
contrast, her right hand, with the fingers her beloved grandson slain in combat, and
Drawing, 1933
firmly curved around the fragile stick, seems her retreat into "inner exile" in her own
charcoal to emerge from the page into the viewer's country. She never ceased her life's work,
479 x 635 mm space. The few but powerful marks on the however, concentrating on making prints
(18 34x25) paper are counterpointed by the eloquent and sculpture that continued to address the
Rosenwald Collection, blankness of the rest of the sheet. Most sur- central themes of her art—mothers, chil-
1943 prising is the smudged zigzag that connects dren, death, and opposition to war—until
the equally balanced hand and head across her home in Berlin was bombed. In 1944
the center expanse. This electric stroke, Kollwitz sought sanctuary in the countryside
pure movement, suggests the dynamic link near Dresden (see cat. i), and died there
between the idea of Kollwitz's artistic intelli- quietly on 22 April 1945.
gence and the concrete act of making. ELIZABETH PRELINGER

Within the large corpus of self-portraits,

there are very few in which Kollwitz has
depicted herself working. Rather, many Provenance Note
Dr. Alfred Rose; Lessing J. i. Entry of January 1933,
show her contemplatively regarding the
Rosenwald, 1942. in Kathe Kollwitz, Die
viewer (figure). By contrast, this work seems Tagebucher, ed. Jutta
Bohnke-Kollwitz (Berlin,
more a portrait of the process of "making"
1989), 673.
than of merely the person herself. And the
picture is self-referential: itself drawn in

Kathe Kollwitz, Self-Por-

trait, 1924, crayon with
pen and ink on transfer
paper, National Gallery of
Art, Washington, Rosen-
wald Collection, 1954

150
151
zSi
 In 1933 Karl Schmidt-Rottluff was expelled The individual colors are made more in-
from the Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 1937 tense by the whiteness of the underlying
six hundred works of his were confiscated paper, which gives them an inner luminos-
and sixty-one of them included in the in- ity that is accentuated by their placement
famous "degenerate" art show held that year next to other, equally lustrous, colors.
in Munich. Officially ordered to stop paint- The result is an array of bold forms and
ing, Schmidt-Rottluff was placed under bright colors arranged across the surface
police surveillance in 1941. All of these of the sheet. This emphasis on pattern
66 events happened shortly before or after the allowed Schmidt-Rottluff to meld a depic-
KARL creation of Yellow Iris. Yet the image betrays tion of flowering irises into an overall
SCHMIDT-ROTTLUFF no disturbance. It is a superb example of the abstract structure. The vibrant colors and
German, 1884-1976 artist's lifelong fascination with nature and forceful contours remove the subject from
a marvelous summation of aesthetic con- the everyday and transform it into a scene of
Yellow Iris, c. 1935
cerns developed over many years as a mystery and enchantment. It is this compo-
watercolor over graphite painter. sitional dynamic that leads the viewer to a
688 x 487 mm The vantage point is low, level with the deeper contemplation of the interdepend-
(27/16 X I93/i6) flowering iris. The subject is both reassur- ence between man and nature that is at the
Rosenwald Collection, ing and awe-inspiring. It is pleasing simply basis of Yellow Iris.
J
945 to gaze at the spectacular blooms of this CHRISTOPHER WITH

majestic plant. And it is wondrous to con-

template the primal, enigmatic forces of
nature evident in its form. The depiction Provenance
Karl Buchholz; Office
ultimately derives from the romantic move- of the Alien Property
ment of the early nineteenth century and its Custodian, 8 December
emphasis on the exotic and mysterious. This 1944, lot 75; Lessing J.
Rosenwald.
attitude was revived in the early twentieth
century by members of Die Brucke (The
Bridge), a group of German expressionists
who filtered nature through the lens of their
personal ideas and beliefs.
Schmidt-Rottluff was the youngest of the
founding members and the one who sup-
posedly suggested the name Die Brucke.
Like his colleagues, he too regarded nature
as a triumphant force whose rhythms and
majesty had become alienated from man
through capitalism and urbanization.
Nature was chosen as subject matter not
only for its beauty but also for its didactic
message. The intent was to reawaken
humanity to the transcendent wonder of
nature and to reintegrate mankind into the
seamless continuum of its cyclical rhythms.
Over the years Schmidt-Rottluff devel-
oped a distinctive style. Forms, although rec-
ognizable, are reduced to their essentials,
delineated with emphatic outlines, and cov-
ered with broad strokes of bright, fluid col-
ors. The tones in Yellow Iris—yellow, green,
red, and blue—are few in number and care-
fully placed to harmonize with one another.

153
 to life, and as to the reserve with which
In 1937 while at Nice, Matisse drew three he faces it and which keeps him from
self-portraits that vary from a large bust- an uncontrolled surrender to it. It is
length view of himself,1 to the close-up indeed the same man, one who always
study of his face seen here, to an even more remains an attentive spectator of life
compressed view where the edges of the and of himself.3
paper crop three sides of Matisse's image—
the bottom of his beard, his ear, and the Matisse's 1947 essay went on to explain that
top of his forehead.2 Although the sequence in his portraiture he always strove to find
67 of the execution of these drawings is "the inherent truth of the personality" he
HENRI MATISSE unknown, it would appear that as the artist was studying. The act of drawing was for
French, 1869-1954 continued to observe his features he concen- him the essential way to arrive at a more
trated his attention on his mouth, his eyes profound understanding of his model. In
Self- Portrait, 1937
behind a pair of wire-rimmed glasses, and the National Gallery's portrait Matisse
charcoal the bold ridge of his nose. Each self-portrait presents himself as a serious, somewhat
340 x 285 mm conveys the sense of a rather stern person, remote figure. He is very much a master
(l3 3 /8 X II 3 /i6) his brow furrowed in concentration. in command of his art, an interpretation
Collection of Mr. and The serious, rather forbidding expression underscored by the assurance with which
Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1985 shared by these self-portraits is enforced by he drew this image.
Matisse's brisk, authoritative draftsmanship. VICTOR CARLSON
Each of the portraits began with a layer of
charcoal spread over the area of the head.
An eraser was then used to remove parts of Provenance 2. Reproduced in John
Pierre Matisse Gallery, Elderfield, Drawings of
this ground, creating highlights that model New York, by 1948; Dr. Henri Matisse [exh. cat.,
the proper left side of Matisse's face and and Mrs. T. Edward Han- Hayward Gallery] (London,
ley, Bradford, PA; E. V. 1984), 87.
beard, the nose, and the furrowed brow. The
Thaw & Co., New York,
3. Quoted in Jack D. Flam,
artist then added details in heavy charcoal 1970; Mr. and Mrs. Paul
Matisse on Art (New York,
such as the eyes, glasses, and the specific Mellon.
1973), 119.
shape of his nose and ear.
Notes
In his 1947 essay "Exactitude Is Not i. Reproduced in Victor
Truth," Matisse wrote about another group Carlson, Matisse as a
Draughtsman [exh. cat.,
of self-portrait drawings:
Baltimore Museum of Art]
(Baltimore, 1971), 59.
Nevertheless the different elements
which go to make up these four draw-
ings give in the same measure the
organic makeup of the subject. These
elements, if they are not always indi-
cated in the same way, are still always
wedded in each drawing with the same
feeling—the way in which the nose is
rooted in the face—the ear screwed
into the skull—the lower jaw hung—
the way in which the glasses are placed
on the nose and ears—the tension of
the gaze and its uniform density in all
the drawings — even though the shade
of expression varies in each one.
It is quite clear that this sum total
of elements describes the same man, as
to his character and his personality, his
way of looking at things and his reaction

154
155
 This splendid watercolor of anemones is, Provenance 2. Werner Haftmann, Emil
Mrs. John Alexander Pope, Nolde (New York, 1959),
remarkably, the third work of its kind to Washington, DC. 36; Martin Urban, "Die
enter the National Gallery of Art collection Notes
Stiftung Seebull Ada und
Emil Nolde," in Walter
recently—all of them burningly intense, i. The two other floral
watercolors by Nolde are Jens, Emil Nolde [exh.
close-up, compressed displays of flowers Red and Yellow Poppies and cat., Wiirttembergischer
from Emil Nolde's 19305 garden in Seebiill a Blue Delphinium, Gift of Kunstverein] (Stuttgart,
Alexander M. and Judith 1988), 236-237; Peter
on the Frisian coast of northwest Germany.1 Selz, Emil Nolde [exh. cat.,
W. Laughlin; and Sun-
It was on this site that the artist made his Museum of Modern Art]
68 most ambitious garden, with its floral
flowers, Pink and White
Dahlias, and a Blue Del- (New York, 1963), 49.
phinium, Gift of Margaret 3. Haftmann 1959, 22-23.
EMIL NOLDE inhabitants becoming the frequent subject Mellon Hitchcock.
4. Haftmann 1959, 34~35-
German, 1867-1956 of his work, and it was in this beloved earth,
he declared, that he and his wife should
Anemones, c. 1937
someday be buried.2
watercolor over graphite Three decades earlier Nolde had briefly
on Japanese paper associated with the younger artists of the
235 x 469 mm early expressionist group Die Brucke, and he
(9/4Xl87/i6) had had a decided impact on their work.3
Gift of Mrs. John The deep spirituality he sensed in the forces
Alexander Pope, 1995 of nature and the union he craved with
those mystical energies were evident from
these earlier times and collegial affiliations.
It was also during these years, as he matured
from an early impressionist style into a more
fully expressionist idiom, that he made his
first, dazzling floral images.
By the 19305 the very materials he used
became part of his ongoing effort to draw
out and make visible the aesthetic workings
of his subconscious mind. His water-soaked
papers would free the pigments to flow
from his brush, seemingly in occult cooper-
ation with his subliminal directions. He
reveled as he watched paper, pigments, and
his innermost spirit apparently merging in
wonderfully mysterious creative action.4
Sometimes, as with this drawing, he even
applied some watercolor to the verso, enjoy-
ing the effect of the color seeping through
the paper.
V I R G I N I A TUTTLE CLAYTON

156
ZSi
 This striking drawing is a paragon of the stylized and personal symbolist style. Any
way in which artists draw attention to seem- single "meaning" of Eggplant might con-
ingly mundane objects and cause the viewer tinue to elude viewers into the twenty-first
to see them in a new way. Here a hefty violet century, but one may well wonder at this
aubergine with green striations huddles in drawing's immediacy and beauty.
an indeterminate space—is it a tabletop, the J O N A T H A N F. W A L Z

normal place one would expect to see a still

life? or is it an upside-down landscape, as
69 the topsy-turvy green upper half and blue Provenance
One of the artist's broth-
JOSEPH STELLA lower register seem to suggest? An affinity
ers; private collection,
American, 1877-1946 with the landscapes-cum-still lifes of the Westchester County, New
York; Richard York Gallery,
surrealists, such as those by Rene Magritte,
Eggplant, c. 1939 New York; purchased by
manifests itself through the presence of the the National Gallery of Art
colored pencil and cloudlike shapes in the background and with designated funds.

crayon the ambiguous sense of scale overall. The

514 x 406 mm decontextualization of the eggplant not only
(20% x 16) heightens one's awareness of the drawing's
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. subject but also focuses attention on the
James T. Dyke, 1996 manner in which the image has been made.
Layer on layer of colored hatching articulates
the sensuous curves of the vegetable; scratch-
ing out excavates contours and highlights.
The self-referential techniques described
above confirm Joseph Stella as a practitioner
of high modernist aesthetic strategies. The
intense concentration on a single mysteri-
ous and symbolic object allies Stella's draw-
ing with the output of the literary imagists
(for example, the famous poem "The Red
Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams).
The voluptuous fullness of the fruit and the
accentuated phallic forms in this drawing
recall Georgia O'Keeffe's still-life paintings
of the early 19205. In addition, this work's
disorienting close-up focus and shallow,
compressed space correspond with features
found in the early still-life photographs of
Paul Strand. Stella, who frequented the
avant-garde circles of Manhattan in the early
twentieth century, would have been well
acquainted with such artists and poets and
their ideas and oeuvres.
This sheet dates from late in Stella's
career, after he had abandoned a peculiarly
New York version of futurism for a highly

158
159
o\
 Although no single drawing or painting can to be his most profound influence on suc-
account for Jackson Pollock's inventiveness, ceeding generations.3 It is hard to imagine
this work from early in his career is notably Cy Twombly's vaulting scrawls or Brice
revealing. Here Pollock explored the expres- Marden's allover wanderings (cats. 128 and
sive potential of a brush loaded with black 135) without the example of Pollock.
ink. Using the sheet from edge to edge, the This was one of twenty-nine drawings
artist laid down an array of marks: nervous that traveled in the first Pollock retrospective
dashes, pointillist dots, repetitive taps, and in I958.4 O'Connor and Thaw's catalogue
70 densely saturated lines that swell and taper. raisonne places it with 155 drawings
JACKSON POLLOCK Considering that within a decade Pollock assigned to the years 1939/1942, when the
American, 1912-1956 would turn his attention to the potential for artist was undergoing Jungian analysis.5
"dripped" paint, this drawing seems remark- Pollock shared more than half of these
Untitled,
ably prescient. drawings, mostly modest and sketchy, with
c. 1939/1942
The sources of Pollock's inspiration are his analyst, and they have been the subject
brush and ink well documented and include tribal art, of much scholarly interpretation.6 Although
450 x 352 mm Picasso's works, automatic drawing, and this sheet has chronological and stylistic ties
(17 5/8 x 13%) psychoanalytic theory—all present here to to the group, it stands emphatically apart,
Leonard R. Stachura some degree. Pictographic forms in various both in its ambition and extraordinary
Fund, 1985 stages of resolution appear at the upper left, degree of ingenuity and resolution. It is not
and a contorted Picasso-like motif domi- a "therapy" sheet. It is a work of art in the
nates the top center of the composition, larger sense—inspired, free-flowing, and
the latter probably related to the studies for masterfully orchestrated.
Guernica that Pollock saw in New York City JUDITH BRODIE

in 1939 and 1940.x The drawing's extempo-

raneous nature suggests a visual stream of
consciousness, demonstrating Pollock's Provenance Andrew Kagan, "Improvi-
The artist to Lee Krasner; sations: Notes on Jackson
reliance on automatic drawing as a means Krasner Pollock estate. Pollock and the Black Con-
of gaining access to his unconscious. And tribution to American
High Culture," Arts Maga-
psychosymbolic references to Jungian Notes zine 53 (March 1979),
theory are likely evident in the forms based 1. Guernica and related 96-99.
studies were exhibited at
on axial designs occupying the lower half of the Valentine Gallery, 3. See Jeremy Lewison,
Interpreting Pollock (Lon-
the sheet. 5-29 May 1939. Between
November 1939 and Janu- don, 1999), 9.
A source that has received less attention ary 1940, the Museum of 4. The exhibition, which
but is suggested in this case and others is Modern Art held a major circulated to seven cities in
Picasso retrospective, Europe, was curated by
jazz, which Pollock loved and listened to Picasso: Forty Years of His Frank O'Hara and organ-
incessantly. His wife recalled that for days Art, which featured 344 ized by the International
works, including Guernica Council of the Museum of
running "he would get into grooves of lis-
and its related studies. For Modern Art.
tening to his jazz records" and that he con- reproductions of the stud-
5. Francis V. O'Connor and
sidered this music form the only other ies, see Ellen C. Oppler,
Eugene V. Thaw, eds., Jack-
ed., Picasso's "Guernica"
son Pollock: A Catalogue
"really creative thing happening."2 Pollock's (New York, 1988), figs, i-
Raisonne of Paintings,
highly improvisational composition shares 75. See especially studies
Drawings, and Other Works,
for the wounded horse.
many of the features of jazz, not least the 4 vols. (New Haven, 1978),
2. See Francine du Plessix 3:487-642. The present
"riff" of short repetitive markings that ani- and Cleve Gray's interview drawing is no. 641.
mate the sheet and serve as texture for its with Lee Krasner in "Who
6. The National Gallery of
Was Jackson Pollock?" Art
more commanding rhythms. Art's drawing is not one
in America 55 (May-June
of those. For the catalogue
Although certain forms can be identified 1967), 48-51, republished
that accompanied the exhi-
in Pepe Karmel, ed., Jack-
and related to particular sources, the draw- bition, see C. L. Wysuph,
son Pollock: Interviews,
Jackson Pollock: Psycho-
ing defies specific interpretation. Indeed its Articles, and Reviews (New
analytic Drawings (New
York, 1999), 34. For Pol-
meaning resides almost entirely within its York, 1970).
lock's ties to jazz, see
making, a precept that would fully overtake
Pollock's work after 1947 and would prove

i6i
 Beginning around 1937 Klee's style and years later (cat. 95). Beyond the striking for-
imagery underwent a dramatic change. Set- mal correspondence, even their respective
ting aside his delicate line for one that is materials were remarkably alike. For late
notably blunt, Klee abandoned intricacy for works such as this, Klee concocted a thick
simplicity. Color was largely dismissed, and paint made from pigment and paste that
the pace of his output accelerated. Klee had had a viscous quality when applied to paper.
much to impart and little time left to him. Smith also prepared his own medium: a
The artist had been diagnosed in 1935 mixture of ink and egg yolk with similar
71 with scleroderma, a disease affecting the properties.
PAUL KLEE body's connective tissue that can lead to The titles Klee assigned to his works are
Swiss, 1879-1940 fatal complications. Symptoms include often a key to their interpretation. His ear-
tightening of the skin and muscular weak- lier titles tend toward specificity, whereas
Rechts unfreundlich,
ness, which has prompted some to attribute later ones frequently lack a grammatical
1940
the change in Klee's style to impaired dex- subject or external referent, emphasizing
brush and dry pigment terity. In truth, his handwriting by 1940 was actions and emotions. Here Klee subtly dis-
mixed with paste looser, but the penned inscription on the torts the expression "downright unfriendly"
204 x 353 mm mount of this drawing confirms that it was [Recht unfreundlich] by using the plural
(8 716x13 7/8) still unusually fine and precise. "Rechts" and thus skewing it to mean
Promised Gift of the What primarily seemed to fuel the pro- "unfriendly on the right." Thus the viewer's
Judith Rothschild found transformation in Klee's work was a attention is directed to the right-hand form
Foundation sense of urgency. Confronted with his mor- poised to swallow, in "downright unfriendly"
tality, Klee sought a more direct and effi- fashion, the head of the figure on the left.
cient means of expression. In 1939, the year Klee may additionally be referring to Nazi
before he died, Klee's output increased five- Germany's political right. In either case, the
fold. Even in the four working months he title underscores the ominous sense of an
had in 1940, he managed to make more advancing threat.
than 350 pieces.1 His wife described a con- JUDITH BRODIE

tinuous flow in which "sheet after sheet

fell to the floor," and Klee himself lamented
that he could "no longer quite keep up with Provenance 490, and in 1939 it stood
Lily Klee, Bern (1940- at 1,253. See Marcel Fran-
[his] children," an affectionate reference to
1946); Klee-Gesellschaft, ciscono, Paul Klee: His
his artworks.2 Bern (1946-1951); Galerie Thought and Work
Rosengart, Lucerne (Chicago, 1991), 287.
Dominating Rechts unfreundlich (Down-
(1949-1951); A. Didier
2. Lily Klee to Will
right Unfriendly) are two forms defined Graeffe, Gainesville, 1951;
Grohmann, 8 July 1937;
with an economy of strokes. The larger one, The Judith Rothschild
quoted in Jiirgen Glaese-
Foundation.
hovering between abstraction and figura- mer, Paul Klee: Handzeich-
nungen III: 1937-1940
tion, extends nearly the length of the sheet. (Bern, 1979), 27. And Paul
Notes
To its left approaches a smaller and more i. Klee kept a meticulous Klee, letter of 29 Decem-
inventory of his works. ber 1939, in Briefe an die
humanoid figure, its limbs splayed and head Familie 1893-1940, ed.
On average he completed
forward. In the event of a confrontation— about 265 per year. In Felix Klee, 2 vols.
1938 the figure rose to (Cologne, 1979), 2:1295.
and one may be looming—the figure on
the right with its sicklelike appendage
clearly has the upper hand.
Klee's work generally defies categoriza-
tion within the "isms" of twentieth-century
art. But he was not oblivious to artistic
developments in Europe and America, nor
did his achievements go unnoticed by his
peers and younger generations. Indeed it is
a revelation to compare this drawing with
one by David Smith made nearly twenty

162
631rH
 Sheeler's interest in still life was long- of surrealist paintings by Giorgio di Chirico,
standing, and he explored it in a wide range Salvador Dali, and others, whose works
of media: oil, watercolor, gouache, tempera, Sheeler knew as well.
pencil, conte crayon, charcoal, chalk, crayon, Interior is one of the most beautiful of
and photography. In the early 19205 he cre- Sheeler's later still lifes. Despite its small
ated a number of works depicting objects size, it seems more monumental than inti-
arranged on tabletops, one of the enduring mate, its forms and shapes powerfully
standards of still-life painting.1 In the mid- defined and rigorously locked into space.
72 19205 he produced a splendid series of This drawing, along with Interior with Stove
CHARLES SHEELER floral still lifes, and from 1926 to 1934, a (cat. 63), two other drawings (including cat.
American, 1883-1965 group of paintings of interiors with objects 82), four photographs, and the great 1931 oil
from his collection of early American furni- Classic Landscape, helps give the National
Interior, 1940
ture and decorative arts. Although his Gallery of Art a fittingly strong representa-
tempera over graphite fondness for still life seems to have waned tion of Sheeler's masterful achievements as
on gessoed composition after the mid-i93os, he did take up the photographer, painter, and draftsman.
board theme again from time to time, often with F R A N K L I N KELLY

248 x 302 mm especially beautiful results.

(93/4X1178) Interior is set in Sheeler's home in Ridge-
Gift of Herbert A. field, Connecticut, where he had moved in Provenance Note
Downtown Gallery, New i. Carol Troyen and Erica
Goldstone, 1996 1932. It depicts a Shaker table with a cleated York; Mr. Huntington D. E. Hirschler, Charles
end, a black Etruscan pitcher, and a simple Sheldon; Downtown Sheeler: Paintings and
Gallery, New York; Mrs. Drawings [exh. cat.,
bowl. At the right are a window and a lamp
Rand, New York; Robert Museum of Fine Arts]
shade, both cropped by the edge of the com- Carlen, Philadelphia; (Boston, 1987), 160.
position. The left side is bracketed by a Herbert A. Goldstone,
New York.
wooden form that may be an architectural
element or part of a large piece of furni-
ture. At first the image may seem straight-
forward, uncomplicated, and even austere in
its simplicity, but it is remarkably complex.
As in some of his earlier still lifes (see
Cactus, 1931, Philadelphia Museum of Art),
Sheeler lit the scene very brightly and from
different angles, probably using some of his
photographic lights. As a result, the three-
dimensional objects are counterbalanced by
intense, sharply drawn shadows and reflec-
tions that seem equally weighty, even though
they are insubstantial. The inconsistencies
of the direction of the light (from the left to
illuminate the pitcher, but from above to
light the lamp shade), the absence of shad-
ows where one might logically expect to
see them (behind the bowl on the wall, for
example), and the odd, inexplicable relation-
ship between the table legs and what seems
to be the floor all work against the illusion
of reality. Instead, the emphasis on abstract
qualities of shape and form recalls cubism,
the principles of which Sheeler had mas-
tered much earlier. On the other hand, the
mood of airless silence is akin to the effect

164
S9T
 On ii September 1940 Henry Moore and nary sketch for this composition, "Two or
his wife were detained by air-raid wardens three people under one blanket, uncomfort-
in the London Underground.1 This was the able positions, distorted twistings."9 These
first occasion on which Moore saw refugees formal and psychological tensions, however,
taking shelter in subway stations, far below are compassionately resolved by Moore's
ground.2 The experience was both cathartic affecting rediscovery of humanity united
and catalytic. Moore explained, "I found and transfigured by suffering. "I was very
myself strangely excited... by the unbeliev- conscious in the shelter drawings," he said,
73 able scenes... of the Underground Shelters. "that I was related to the people in the
HENRY MOORE ... I went back again and again I began Underground There was no discarding
British, 1898-1986 filling a notebook with drawings, ideas of [my] other interests in archaic [and] prim-
based on London's shelter life."3 itive ... art, but rather a clearer tension
Figures in an
The immediate products of this pivotal between this approach and the humanist
Underground Shelter,
episode in Moore's career are 162 pages in emphasis... perhaps a temporary resolution
1941
two sketchbooks, which he drew from mem- of that conflict."10 Such a resolution is
crayon, watercolor, ink, ory after his Underground visits.4 Over the achieved here by Moore's opposing
and colored chalk next year Moore developed from these proto- strengths of naturalistic accuracy and
340 x 562 mm types some seventy large finished drawings.5 originality of vision. The gravely somber
(13 3/s x 22 Xs) Exhibitions of these probing yet sympathetic rhythms of his figure groupings suggest
Gift of Dr. Ruth B. renditions of such a contemporary subject timeless images of endurance, monumen-
Benedict, in Honor of won Moore an enthusiastic public audience. tality, and grandeur. His idiomatic invention
the 5oth Anniversary The private sale of many of them enabled of a generic new race populates these draw-
of the National Gallery him to give up part-time teaching and devote ings with haunting echoes of Everyman.
of Art, 1987 himself full time to his sculpture, on which DOUGLAS LEWIS

especially the group compositions and drap-

ery studies of the shelter drawings had an
immediate and profound influence. Provenance section. See Donald Hall,
Acquired from the artist by Henry Moore (New York,
This superb sheet is a faithful enlarge- Sir Kenneth Clark, 1941; 1966), 106-107.
ment of a drawing in the second shelter Maryborough Gallery, Lon-
5. Toronto 1977, 32 (esti-
don, 1966-1967; William
sketchbook.6 The prototype also prefigures mating sixty-five finished
S. and Ruth B. Benedict,
drawings); Julian Andrews,
its unusual technique. Moore had discov- late 19605.
Henry Moore: Shelter and
ered that by laying down preliminary lines Coal Mining Drawings
[exh. cat., Nationalgalerie,
in white wax crayon and then washing over Notes
An earlier version of this Berlin] (London, 1984), 10
them with watercolor the tone would "take" text was published in (estimating seventy-five).
only outside the crayon strokes; if the lines Washington 1991. 6. Stuttgart 1967, no. 21;
John Russell, Henry Moore
were then scraped free of wax and colored 1. Alan G. Wilkinson, The
(New York, 1968^83 (fig.
Drawings of Henry Moore
over again, more delicate tones could be (New York, 1984), 300.
85 top); Berlin 1984, 54
made to adhere to their still-visible forms.7 2. Alan G. Wilkinson, The
(fig. 34 top).
7. Herbert Read, Henry
In the present drawing this technique is Drawings of Henry Moore
Moore (New York and
[exh. cat., Art Gallery of
most apparent in the vertical texturing of Ontario] (Toronto, 1977), 29.
Washington, 1966), 149;
Philip James, Henry Moore
the background, in the foreground high- 3. Letter of ii January on Sculpture (London,
lights, and in the ghostly structures of the 1943, in James Johnson 1966), 218; Hall 1966,
Sweeney, Henry Moore 103.
figures themselves. (New York, 1946), 67-68.
8. James 1966, 103, 218.
The nature and meaning of the images 4. Sweeney 1946, 91, no.
9. Stuttgart 1967, nos. 6,
in the shelter drawings have received much 78; Kenneth Clark, Henry
Moore Drawings (London, 21, 25; Russell 1968, 83
attention, beginning with Moore's own 1974), 320, no. 139; (fig. 85), 85 (fig. 86);
statement that he strove in them for "the Robert Melville, Henry
Toronto 1977, 29-32, 152,
n. 5; E. Petermann, Die Moore: Sculpture and Draw-
creation of a unified human mood. The per- ings 1921-1969 (London,
Shelterzeichnungen des
vading theme of the shelter drawings was Henry Moore [exh. cat., !97°)> 133' %• 274-
Staatsgalerie] (Stuttgart, 10. James 1966, 216-218;
the group sense of communion in appre-
1967), preface to catalogue Toronto 1977, 29.
hension."8 Moore wrote above the prelimi-

166
s-
 "Gorky is, of all the surrealist artists, the The year 1944 marked a high point in
only one who maintains direct contact with Gorky's career. His contacts with the sur-
nature—sits down to paint before her" the realists in exile in New York during World
surrealist poet Andre Breton wrote in 1945.l War II encouraged him to develop a much
Three years earlier Gorky had rediscovered freer and more fluid style, which found
the pleasure of drawing outdoors during a superb expression in drawings such as Vir-
stay in Connecticut with his artist friend ginia Landscape. Lyrical and suggestive but
Saul Schary. From then on, almost every never specific in its references, Gorky's
74 year until his death in 1948, he would spend imagery appealed to the surrealists, espe-
ARSHILE GORKY the summer drawing in the open air. Vir- cially to their leader Andre Breton, whose
American, born in ginia Landscape was inspired by the country- own poetry rested on a similar concept of
Armenia, 1904-1948 side near Hamilton, Virginia, where his in- multiple associations. After seeing Gorky's
laws owned property and where he lived with drawings from Virginia, Breton convinced
Virginia Landscape,
his family from May to November 1944. the dealer Julian Levy to give Gorky his first
1944
The drawing presents the basic structure major one-man show in New York in March
graphite and crayon of a landscape: a horizontal format and a 1945, thereby promoting Gorky's reputation
558 x 762 mm division in two parts, with the lower section in the avant-garde circles.
(22 x 30) suggesting the earth, and the upper one, the ISABELLE DERVAUX
Gift (Partial and expanse of sky. Yet the clusters of organic
Promised) of Mrs. Walter forms and the fluttering lines that cover the
Salant, in Honor of paper hardly call to mind a traditional Vir- Provenance Notes
World House Gallery, 1. "The Eye-Spring: Arshile
the 50th Anniversary ginia landscape. Gorky looked at nature at New York; Mr. and Mrs. Gorky," Arshile Gorky [exh.
of the National Gallery close range—"into the grass," as he once Walter Salant. cat., Julien Levy Gallery]
of Art, 1991 said 2 —finding inspiration in details of flow- (New York, 1945).
2. Quoted in James
ers, plants, roots, insects, and other animals. Johnson Sweeney, "Five
From these details he elaborated a repertory American Painters,"
Harper's Bazaar 78
of forms and motifs that he explored like
(April 1944), 122.
variations on a theme. In Virginia Landscape
the socklike motif in the center reappears in
six variations throughout the drawing—
smaller, reversed, or twisted, and with or
without hatching to suggest its volume.
Such echoes of forms animate the surface,
which seems to pulse with the movement of
living organisms. The vertical "plumes" of
color, which scan the image at quasi-regular
intervals, like the beat of a poem or a song,
give the image its rhythm. Independent
from the free-flowing organic shapes, short
horizontal, vertical, and oblique lines struc-
ture Gorky's composition and suggest spa-
tial depth. They may have been inspired by
Paolo Uccello's battle scenes, in which the
disorder of the battle is kept in check by
the rigorous grid formed on the ground
by the pieces of broken spears. Gorky, who
admired Uccello, had a poster-size repro-
duction of his Battle of San Romano on his
studio wall.

168
l-k
s
 A masterwork of early American abstrac- the streaming movements of crowds, two of
tion, Mark Tobey's New York also marks the Tobey's favored city spectacles.
apogee of the artist's most renowned stylis- A generation senior to the abstract expres-
tic innovation, "white writing." With its sur- sionists, many of whom were propelled by
feit of densely interlaced linear strokes of his precursorial example, Mark Tobey figured
tempera paint built up over the soft gray prominently in the seminal "Fourteen Ameri-
surface of paperboard, this work evidences a cans" exhibition at the Museum of Modern
consummate achievement among the picto- Art in 1946. In 1958 he also became the sec-
75 rial possibilities Tobey's pioneering tech- ond American in history to win the grand
MARK TOBEY nique offered. While New York is relatively prize at the Venice Biennale. "In the forties I
American, 1890-1976 large for an artist who characteristically pre- created a sensation of mass by the interlacing
ferred working in formats of smaller scale, of myriad independent lines. In their dynam-
New York, 1944
its tight mesh of marks deftly counterposes ics and in the timing I gave to the accents
tempera on paperboard the illusion of a compressed, shallow space within the lines, I attempted to create a world
837 x 532 mm and sidereal bursts of line that ephemerally of finer substance."4 Tobey sought to weave
(33 x 2I ) coalesce as flickering apprehensions of geo- that finer substance out of painted matter by
GiftoftheAvalon metric shapes in perceptually unresolvable wresting luminosity and movement out of
Foundation, 1976 dimensionalities. the opacity of colored line. For Tobey, New
Tobey spoke of the "white dynamic York tokened a signal instance of success in
flashes of line married to a geometry of his artistic goal.
space"1 he sought to materialize in works K A T H R Y N A. TUMA

such as this one. This governing idea of a

"geometry of space" signals the artist's self-
identification as a decisively postcubist Provenance only changed the last word
Dan Johnson and Marion of the quip but also im-
painter. As was true for many young Ameri- Willard, New York, 1945; plicitly transformed the
can artists of his generation, for Tobey the purchased by the National remark into an affirmative
Gallery of Art with desig- assessment of the work's
effect of seeing the Armory Show in 1913 nated funds. power. For more on the
was powerful and transformative. Visiting reception of Duchamp's
the exhibition at its Chicago venue, he art at the Armory Show,
Notes see Milton W. Brown,
encountered there some of the most chal- 1. Quoted in Katharine The Story of the Armory
Kuh, The Artist's Voice: Show (New York, 1988),
lenging statements of European avant-garde Talks with Seventeen Artists 136-137.
art, including Marcel Duchamp's Nude (New York and Evanston,
1962), 244. 3. Quoted in Kuh 1962,
Descending a Staircase, a painting he experi- 236, 240; and Eliza E.
2. Quoted in John Russell,
enced like "an explosion in a shingle mill."2 Tobey (Basel, 1971), 12. In
Rathbone, Mark Tobey:
City Paintings [exh. cat.,
His subsequent desire to "smash form," 1913 the popular press dis- National Gallery of Art]
paraged Duchamp's Nude (Washington, 1984), 49.
"penetrate perspective and bring the far Descending a Staircase with
near," and explore the "dimensionless 4. Quoted in Kuh 1962,

dimension" of abstract surfaces resulted in

the comment that it looked
like "an explosion in a 236.
shingle factory." Tobey not
a unique pictorial vision of the twentieth-
century cityscape.3
Compelled by the exigencies of abstrac-
tion, Tobey nevertheless distinguished him-
self among other abstract artists of his era
by his reluctance to abandon subject matter
altogether. Hence, even in a work as nonfig-
urative as New York the artist encourages
the viewer, through the provision of the title,
to refer its electric and vibratory surface to
urban energies and rhythms: here specifi-
cally to the pulsing lights of Broadway and

170
1/1
 Mark Rothko's early drawings and water- conveyed in the present drawing by forms
colors informed his painted oeuvre in that seem to pulse or rotate in space. The
compelling ways. His aggressively incised blue "butterfly" at the far right, the implied
drawing method was simulated in canvases bird's head, and particularly the rayed orb at
through the early 19503 with a palette knife center betray the influence of Joan Miro. The
or the end of a brush handle. It was in water- 1941-1942 retrospective of the Spanish sur-
color that Rothko developed the syntax of realist's art at the Museum of Modern Art
fluid, sinuous motifs that became a trade- had a profound impact on Rothko, whose
76 mark of his multiform paintings of the later work was transformed by exposure to the
MARK ROTHKO 19405. Parallels are often correctly drawn surrealist movement. While he strove for the
American, born in between the liquid medium of watercolor immediacy of automatic drawing, his plan-
Russia, 1903-1970 and Rothko's primordial surrealist imagery.1 ning is evident in the graphite notations on
With its vaguely floral landscape, this draw- the surface of this drawing.
Untitled, 1944/1945
ing also evokes terra firma and flight. Com- Rothko's surrealist watercolors were well
watercolor, tempera, posed primarily of biomorphic forms, it received, especially at the Mortimer Brandt
graphite, and ink reveals vestiges of earlier mythological works, Gallery exhibition in spring 1946. Yet that
533 x 668 mm most notably references to birds.2 show would prove a coda both to the artist's
(21 X 26 5 /i6) In his attempt to invest his art with surrealist imagery and to his extensive pro-
Gift of The Mark Rothko tragic and timeless import, Rothko favored duction of watercolors. While his classic
Foundation, Inc., 1986 Aeschylus, whose Oresteia featured the paintings, with their thin washes of lumi-
"omen of the eagle" wherein eagles devour nous color, would always bear the traces of
a pregnant hare.3 He gave one painting of his work in this medium, it would be two
1942 this title and designated another The decades before Rothko devoted himself with
Eagle and the Hare; many more sketches, such intensity to works on paper.
watercolors, and canvases incorporate styl- JESSICA STEWART

ized raptors and hares, or visual metonymy

such as beaks, talons, and feathers.4 An
untitled 1942 painting (figure) incorporates Provenance: from his art (Barnett New-
Estate of the artist, 1970; man Papers, Archives of
two hares in a "tomb" and several schematic The Mark Rothko Founda- American Art, Smithson-
birds. The feathers at the far left of the paint- tion, New York, 1979. ian Institution, Washing-
ton, DC).
ing and the bird's head at the upper center
3. This omen augured the
(with its beak pointing down) correspond to Notes
Trojan War.
1. As Dore Ashton noted,
the feathered cruciform "flower" at the left in "The traces of water 4. The prevalence of such
this watercolor and the prominent beaked itself—water, the medium imagery just after the
from which all life
form evoking a bird's head at the top center.5 emerged—seemed to
United States entered
World War II is not sur-
The suggestion of movement was central excite his imagination and prising; see Anna Chave,
often during those years Mark Rothko: Subjects
to Rothko's imagery of this period, and it is
he played with floating in Abstraction (New Haven,
effects." See Mark Rothko: 1989). Images
Mark Rothko, Works on Paper [exh. cat., of the American eagle
Untitled, American Federation of were also omnipresent
1942/1943, Arts and the Mark Rothko on war posters.
oil on canvas, Foundation] (New York,
5. The presumed date of
National 1984), 10.
this drawing is within the
Gallery of Art, 2. Though his direct range of the liberation of
Gift of The emphasis on bird imagery concentration camps and
Mark Rothko is most evident in his the victory in Europe.
Foundation, paintings of 1942, Rothko Thus the reappearance of
1986 referred to himself as an this "eagle" conjoined with
"ornithologist" in a letter a feathered semblance of
to Barnett Newman in an Iron Cross, the German
June 1947, after such military decoration, is
motifs had been eradicated likely intentional.

1/2
£2.1
 Trained as a scientist, S. W. Hayter was well ferred his printmaking operation to New
versed in theories of space, motion, and per- York, where his shop became a locus for the
ception, and his professional articles and exchange of American and European ideas
commentaries are packed with references to about modernism. Exiles who congregated
"interplanetary distance" and "parallax phe- there in the 19408 included Masson, Miro,
nomena." But above all Hayter was an artist Tanguy, Marc Chagall, and Jacques Lipchitz.
and disposed to approach matters intui- There they offered Americans such as
tively. "To trace with a point on a surface," Gottlieb, Robert Motherwell, Jackson
77 he wrote in 1944, "is about as elementary a Pollock, and David Smith firsthand expo-
STANLEY WILLIAM human process as anything associated with sure to European surrealism.
HAYTER expression,"1 a conviction that goes to the Experimentation was the governing prin-
British, 1901-1988 very core of this dynamically penned draw- ciple at Atelier 17, and as Hayter observed,
ing made one year later. "all kinds of things resulted that were applied
Sheet of Sketches,
The artist's trace—his line—is this in painting and sculpture."2 Hayter, for
1945 work's most essential component. In the example, used a bitumen-filled drip can
pen and ink with hieroglyphic-like design at the lower left, suspended from a compound pendulum to
watercolor and chalk sturdy lines in black and white are laid down produce random cyclical patterns on etch-
564 x 758 mm with deliberation, conveying a sense of ing plates, a procedure often cited as a
(22 !/sx 29%) weight and groundedness. By contrast, in the stimulus for Pollock's "drip" paintings.3
Rosenwald Collection, sprawling horizontal and vertical motifs at Indeed one of the earliest mentions of
1946 the center and right, Hayter's pen skimmed Pollock in the press cites the resemblance
across the paper's surface, suggesting the of his work to "Hayter in general whirling
elastic curves of burin engraving. The allu- figures."4 Given Hayter's emphasis on
sion to printmaking is implicit not only in process, chance, gesture, and motion—all
the sweeping curves but also in the em- elements integral to this drawing—the con-
bossed effect of the inked white lines, par- nection to action painting is quite clear. The
ticularly in the elongated unit at the center, skeins of intertwined lines that score the
which calls to mind the deeply engraved, surface of this sheet, accelerating and decel-
inkless lines of Hayter's prints. In addition, erating in their courses, possess a magnetic
the overall arrangement of discrete motifs force that would have attracted an inquiring
corresponds to burin sketches the artist young artist such as Pollock.
made throughout his career. Here, as in JUDITH BRODIE

the prints, each element is independent

yet rhythmically engaged with the others. A
number also bear comparison to contempo- Provenance The Renaissance ofGravure:
Acquired from the artist The Art of S. W. Hayter,
raneous artists and movements—the picto- by Lessing J. Rosenwald, ed. P.M.S. Hacker (Oxford,
graphs of Adolph Gottlieb and the totemic 1945. 1988), 25; Jacob Kainen,
"Stanley William Hayter:
forms of Matta (lower left), the biomor-
An Introduction," in Peter
phism of Yves Tanguy (vertical right), even Notes Black and Desiree Moor-
1. Stanley William Hayter, head, The Prints of Stanley
the sculptural configurations of Hayter's "Line and Space of the William Hayter (Mount
fellow Englishman Henry Moore (upper Imagination," View 4 Kisco, NY, 1992), 13;
(December 1944), 127. and Sawin 1995, 155,
left and lower right).
2. Martica Sawin, 207-208.
From 1926 through the 19305 Hayter Surrealism in Exile and 4. James Lane, "Passing
was associated with the surrealists in Paris, the Beginning of the New Shows," ArtNews 40
York School (Cambridge, (15-31 January 1942),
especially Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, MA, 1995), 155. 29; as noted in Cohen
Andre Masson, and Joan Miro, all of whom 3. See David Cohen, "S. W. 1988, 20.
made prints at Hayter's workshop, Atelier Hayter and Atelier 17 in
America: 1940-1955," in
17. He favored the surrealists' use of organic
form and their reliance on automatism,
"unconscious or automatic drawing." A year
after World War II broke out, Hayter trans-

174
175
 Drawing was of central importance to Jack- Picasso, Miro, surrealist automatic drawing,
son Pollock, and he practiced it over the and so on—may lie behind a work like this,
course of his career with so much energy but the assertive reminder of artistic cre-
and vigor as to approach the level of obses- ation it presents points toward no one but
sion.1 Although he rarely dated his draw- Pollock himself.
ings, scholars have constructed a convincing F R A N K L I N KELLY

chronology of them through styles, influ-

ences, and relationships to his work in other
78 media.2 No dated drawings are known from Provenance 2. See Francis V. O'Connor
The artist to Lee Krasner and Eugene V. Thaw, eds.,
JACKSON POLLOCK 1945, but some thirty have been assigned to Pollock; Krasner Pollock Jackson Pollock: A Cata-
American, 1912-1956 that year, including this one.3 Pollock was estate. logue Raisonne of Paintings,
not at this point pouring and dripping his Drawings, and Other Works,
Untitled, c. 1945 4 vols. (New Haven, 1978),
materials, so drawings such as this were Notes
3:vii-viii.
i. Pollock's obsession with
pen and ink on paper made in the traditional method of applying drawing has often been 3. O'Connor and Thaw
prepared with gouache an instrument directly to the paper. That is noted; see, for example, 1978, 3:229-248, nos.
Bernice Rose, Jackson 726-755; the present
228 x 187 mm not to say, however, that Pollock's handling Pollock: Works on Paper drawing is no. 744.
(9x73/8) of line is in any way conventional, for the [exh. cat., Museum of
Modern Art] (New York,
Leonard R. Stachura frenetic, swirling strokes present here are
1969), 10.
Fund, 1985 the hallmarks of a deeply personal and
unique approach.
During the mid-i94os Pollock explored
making works of art that simultaneously
made references to figures (or parts of fig-
ures) and approached a nearly complete
state of abstraction. In this drawing some of
the swirling lines that flow across the paper
describe nothing but themselves, while oth-
ers trace the outline of a human face. Whose
face is not known, although the distinctive
cleft chin reminds one of the artist himself,
raising the question of whether this may be
a self-portrait. Yet the energy in all of these
lines seems equally weighted, with no sense
that Pollock slowed his technique when
drawing the face or sped it up when tracing
the abstract forms. The tension inherent
between these two seemingly conflicting
approaches, the one figurative and the other
abstract, is part of what gives drawings like
this their particular power.
Even more important are the drawing's
exceptional sense of immediacy and how
that immediacy serves to remind one of its
creation. Looking at this drawing, it is not
difficult to visualize Pollock actually making
it, rushing his pen across the paper, some-
times with long, flowing strokes, other
times with quick jabs. Many influences —

176
177
 In the 19405, when Gorky was creating the and drawing (he compared the artist's labor
paintings and drawings that would be his to that of a farmer, both participating in an
most original contribution to modern art, act of creation).
his working method remained highly tradi- This work also has an affinity with
tional. He made numerous drawings, often Armenian poetry, which often lauded the
directly from nature, and used them as the fertility of the native soil. Among the most
basis for paintings executed in the studio. renowned Armenian poems from the begin-
In some cases — such as this—he created ning of the century was "The Song of
79 intermediary drawings, enlarging a study to Bread" by Daniel Varoujan, a hymn to the
ARSHILE GORKY the size of the final canvas and refining his abundance of the earth, celebrated through
American, born in composition before transferring it to canvas. a rich, sensual imagery.3 Varoujan's quasi-
Armenia, 1904-1948 Close examination of this drawing sexual description of the earth offering her-
reveals the marks of a study, notably in the self to the plow is matched here by Gorky's
The Plow and the
presence of repeated contour lines to define voluptuous lines. Like the poem, the draw-
Song, 1946
a shape. Yet the sophistication and complex- ing abounds in images that suggest fertility:
graphite, charcoal, ity of the drawing and of its mixed-media seeds, cells, and reproductive organs. From
crayon, pastel, and oil technique invite one to see it as a complete an ovarylike shape in the upper center a
122 x 150 mm work of art, on a par with painted versions cluster of organic forms seems to sprout,
(477/8X593/8) (see figure). Gorky probably began working ending with the motif of a flower. Ethel
Gift of the Avalon on the theme in 1944^ but several early ver- Schwabacher described this section as "the
Foundation, 1971 sions were lost in the fire that destroyed his winding birth passage and spacious exit
studio in January 1946. Today three draw- chambers out of which the seed passes
ings and three paintings on the subject are into space."4
known, making this one of the most exten- Gorky made few changes in transferring
sive series in Gorky's oeuvre. the linear design onto canvas. Although
"What I miss are the songs in the colors, values, and brushwork give the paint-
fields," Gorky said in 1948. "No one sings ing a different look, the drawing shows a
them anymore And there are no more painterly quality in the use of pastel and oil
plows. I love a plow more than anything else to add flickering accents of color. The shim-
on a farm."2 The theme of The Plow and the mering surface of the drawing relates it to
Song is related to Gorky's fond memories of several grisaille paintings Gorky produced
growing up in rural Armenia. Later, while the same year, suggesting how tenuous the
living in the United States, he carved several distinction between painting and drawing
miniature Armenian plows out of wood. could be in his art.
Some of these soft, round shapes found ISABELLE DERVAUX

their way into his drawings. The title may

refer to popular Armenian harvest songs,
which Gorky enjoyed singing while painting Provenance 2. Quoted in Talcott B.
Estate of the artist; Sidney Clapp, "A Painter in a
Janis Gallery, New York; Glass House," Sunday
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Scott Republican Magazine
Arshile Gorky, The Plow and the
Rankine, Washington, DC; [Waterbury, CT], 9 Febru-
Song II, 1946, oil on canvas,
Stephen Mazoh £ Co., ary 1948.
The Art Institute of Chicago,
Inc., New York; purchased
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis L. Coburn 3. The poem was left un-
by the National Gallery
Fund finished when Varoujan
of Art with designated
(1884-1915) was arrested
funds.
and killed by the Turkish
government on the eve of
the Armenian genocide.
Notes
Gorky knew well and loved
i. A dated drawing in
Armenian poetry.
the Allen Memorial Art
Museum, Oberlin College, 4. Ethel Schwabacher,
appears to be the first in Arshile Gorky (New York,
the series. 1957), 128.

178
179
 Harold Rosenberg, who did much to estab- making. The drawing features a circular
lish the early reputation of Barnett New- motif, slightly off-center, hovering in an
man's art, enlisted the following lines by indeterminate space attained by the lightest
Wallace Stevens to encapsulate those issues grazing of ink brushed over the paper's sur-
he saw as central to the painter's project as face. Around this form a dark outline reiter-
an artist: "How clean the sun when seen ates its circumference, as if to reassert the
in its idea, / Washed in the remotest cleanli- inviolability of the shape. Strokes of ink
ness of a heaven / That has expelled us and applied with a broader brush—the darker
8o
our images "l The expulsion of the imag- of the two inks laid on top of the other—
BARNETT NEWMAN istic became fundamental to Newman's con- emanate from the border of the circle like
American, 1905-1970 ception of modern art, as was true for many solar halations. With almost fussy embel-
American postwar painters. Rosenberg's lishment, Newman placed smaller accents
Untitled, 1946
poetic selection, more than indicating the of dark black around the outer edges of this
brush and ink artist's formal orientation, also emphasizes "corona"; some subtly suggestive of corners,
457 x 610 mm (18 x 24) the way metaphysical concerns informed these accents help to stabilize the multi-
The Nancy Lee and Newman's particular version of abstraction directional movements of the encircling
Perry R. Bass Fund, and his convictions about its meaning. New- ciliary strokes and maintain the picture's
1998 man saw his art as striving to communicate formal balance between spatial evocations
abstract ideas, and for him the abstraction of gyration and fixity.
of form necessarily followed: "In handling By its shape and coronal emanations,
philosophic concepts which per se are of an the central motif alludes to the figure of a
abstract nature, it was inevitable that the sun. At the same time, the strokes' outward
painters' form should be abstract."2 movement suggests a force internal to the
As much as Newman's art sought "to shape that drives all color from its domain—
wrest truth from the void,"3 his proclivity as if Newman sought to take one of human
for ideistic subject matter never eclipsed culture's most overdetermined symbols and
the primacy of what he called "the aesthetic void it of determinate reference. The motif
act." From his exacting use of two different also relates to a painting of the same year,
tones of black ink to his choice of thick, Pagan Void (figure).4 Newman purged the
highly textured paper capable of lightly drawing of the appurtenances of Pagan
picking up dry brush strokes and of deeply Void's quasi-surrealistic forms yet retained
absorbing into its surface those wetter, this its primary metaphorical allusion to a cen-
work brings into relief the meticulous atten- tral void—one from which, as Newman
tion Newman paid to the materials of art- proposed, the "pure idea" might emerge.
K A T H R Y N A. TUMA

Barnett
Newman,
Pagan Void,
Provenance 2. Barnett Newman, "The
1946, oil
Estate of the artist; Plasmic Image," in Barnett
on canvas,
Annalee Newman, New Newman: Selected Writings
National
York; Susan Lorence, and Interviews, ed. John P.
Gallery of Art,
New York. O'Neill (New York,
Washington,
1990), 155.
Gift of Annalee
Newman, in Notes
3. Newman 1990,140.
Honor of the i. Harold Rosenberg, "The 4. For further discussion
5oth Anniver- Art World: Icon Maker," of "the void" in Barnett
sary of the The New Yorker (19 April Newman's work, see
National 1969), 136; quoting Thomas Hess, Barnett
Gallery of Art, Wallace Stevens, "Notes Newman (New York, 1971),
1988 Toward a Supreme Fic- 47-48. See also Brenda
tion," from The Collected Richardson, Barnett New-
Poems of Wallace Stevens man: The Complete Draw-
(New York, 1990), 381. ings, 1944-1969 [exh. cat,
Baltimore Museum of Art]
(Baltimore, 1979), 114.

ISO
i8i
00
 This drawing distinguishes itself in two cru- paper's texture in these areas discloses
cial respects among Barnett Newman's works evidence of slight abrasion, promoting the
on paper. Although the year 1946 was one of status of this work to one of the earliest
the artist's most prolific in the medium, this examples of the artist's innovative use of
is one of few drawings that relate closely to tape to protect reserved portions of his
the composition of a painting. It also marks a paper from ink. Applying the tape early in
turning point in Newman's experimentation the artistic process, Newman later removed
with artistic technique. it and often reworked the resulting forms.
8i With The Beginning (figure), also exe- Here the removal of the tape tore the
BARNETT NEWMAN cuted in 1946, this work shares three formal paper's surface at the bottom of the left
American, 1905-1970 elements the artist was exploring at the band, and the artist incorporated this
time, and in this rare instance Newman "accident" into the greater compositional
Untitled, 1946
maintained the compositional placement of schema, creating a strange, almost bio-
brush and ink those forms almost precisely in the drawing morphic shape there. Newman's technique
610 x 457 mm (24 x 18) and the painting. Both include a narrow ver- of using tape in this manner came to be
Promised Gift of Robert tical band at the left that comes to a halt at known as his signature "zip," yet the break-
and Jane Meyerhoff the base in a brushy amorphic cloud, while through work that inaugurated his use of
another straight-edged form, tapering in the "zip" in painting, Onement I of 1948,
width toward the bottom, cuts through postdates the present drawing by two years.
space at the right. These two structuring fea- The dusting of dry-brushed ink over the
tures flank a softly brushed elliptical form. textured surface of the paper generates a dif-
Notably, the left-most pictorial elements in fuse atmosphere (see also cat. 80) that con-
The Beginning are absent in the drawing, trasts with the straight edges of the two
staving off any definitive parallelism. Yet unpainted elements, both of which are
careful inspection of the paper reveals that it emphasized by darker inking at either side.
has been cut along its left side,1 leaving one The shape between the two bands has been
to wonder whether that missing portion called a "falling form,"2 yet it also hovers
might have fleshed out the formal conso- aloft, as if buoyed by the density of the
nance between the two works. atmospheric space surrounding it. If the
Intrinsic to the spatial composition of form also appears to be pulled down by an
this drawing is Newman's choice to leave enigmatic force, this effect is in part accom-
the two vertical elements unpainted. The plished by the sweeping turn of the brush at
its top that accentuates the form's downward
Barnett Newman, orientation. Narrowly verging on a subtle
The Beginning, 1946, oil on
canvas, Estate of the artist illusionism, this drawing holds in play ten-
sions between flatness and depth, move-
ment and stillness—formal preoccupations
characteristic of Newman's work on paper at
this time, yet presented here in one of his
most complex compositional achievements.
KATHRYN A. TUMA

Provenance Notes
Estate of the artist; Stephen 1. Brenda Richardson,
Mazoh £ Co., Inc., New Barnett Newman: The Com-
York; Robert and Jane plete Drawings, 1944-1969
Meyerhoff, 1985. [exh. cat., Baltimore Mu-
seum of Art] (Baltimore,
1979), 106.
2. Baltimore 1979, 106.

183
 Described as Sheeler's "last great conte Three years later Sheeler completed
crayon drawing," Counterpoint was com- Counterpoint, a large-scale drawing that dis-
pleted in 1949 during a period of artistic plays all the tonal richness of the earlier
rejuvenation sparked by an invitation three drawings, but also a new compositional
years earlier to spend several weeks as artist- complexity derived from his more recent
in-residence at Phillips Academy in Andover, work in oil. As others have noted, this work
Massachusetts.1 As was his practice, Sheeler is "at once entirely legible and intriguingly
spent much of his time in Andover gather- abstract."6 The image was initially conceived
82
ing the photographic "notes" he would later as a composite of superimposed photo-
CHARLES SHEELER use to produce paintings and drawings.2 graphs. Though it is not clear exactly how
American, 1883-1965 Although he took photographs of several many negatives were used, at least one
campus buildings, the architectural struc- shows the mill in reverse. The result is a
Counterpoint, 1949
ture that truly captured his imagination was multifaceted composition that reprises in
conte crayon not an academic building, but rather an a far more sophisticated manner Sheeler's
508 x 712 mm (20 x 28) abandoned mill at Ballardvale, near Andover. earlier investigation of cubist space.
Gift of Daniel J. Terra, The dilapidated mill, much transformed, is In 1946 Sheeler wrote that he undertook
in Honor of the 5oth the subject of Counterpoint.3 conte crayon drawing "to see how much
Anniversary of the Sheeler began working with conte exactitude I could attain."7 Counterpoint, per-
National Gallery of Art, crayon early in his career. About 1917, in a haps the finest of the artist's late drawings,
1991 series of remarkable photographs and draw- demonstrates that he was capable of extraor-
ings of several barns and a country house dinary conceptual and technical "exactitude."
near Doylestown, in Bucks County, Pennsyl- NANCY K. A N D E R S O N

vania, Sheeler achieved artistic maturity.4

Working his way through the vocabulary of
modernism, he produced a number of draw- Provenance 3. A photograph of Ballard-
Downtown Gallery, New vale mill by Sheeler is
ings based on the barn images that allowed York; Bernard Heineman, reproduced in Troyen and
him to explore one of the central issues of Jr., New York; Berry-Hill Hirshler 1987, 192.
Galleries, Inc., New York;
cubism: spatial ambiguity. Although based Daniel J. Terra, 1985.
4. Theodore E. Stebbins Jr.
and Norman Keyes Jr.,
on identifiable subjects, the drawings Charles Sheeler: The Photo-
are often so spare that they verge on Notes
graphs (New York, 1987),
8-14.
abstraction. An earlier version of this
text was published in 5. Troyen and Hirshler
Between 1930 and 1937 Sheeler pro- Washington 1991. 1987, 35.
duced at least sixteen such drawings before 1. Carol Troyen and Erica 6. Troyen and Hirshler
he abandoned conte crayon for more than a E. Hirshler, Charles Sheeler: 1987, 192.
Paintings and Drawings
decade. It was, in fact, the invitation from (New York, 1987), 192.
7. "Sheeler," ArtNews 45
(March 1946), 30.
the director of the Addison Gallery of Amer- 2. Troyen and Hirshler
ican Art at Phillips Academy, Bartlett Hayes, 1987, 35.

that initiated Sheeler's return to the difficult

medium. Hayes wished to inaugurate a new
acquisition program whereby contemporary
artists would be invited to spend a period of
time on campus and the gallery would then
purchase the "creative results of this term of
residence."5 Sheeler, the first artist invited
to participate in the program, spent about
six weeks in Andover in the fall of 1946.
Intrigued by the old mill he discovered
in Ballardvale, Sheeler took many photo-
graphs and subsequently produced an oil
titled Ballardvale that was acquired by the
Addison Gallery.

184
i85
 The composition of The Name breaks down Renowned for his large canvases of satu-
into three basic formal elements coextensive rated color fields that engulf the viewer's
with the size of the paper. From the left, gaze, Newman insisted that "drawing is cen-
roughly a quarter-width band of black is fol- tral to my whole concept I am always
lowed by a quarter-width band of unpainted referred to in relation to my color. Yet I know
paper. These are followed by approximately that if I have made a contribution, it is pri-
a half-width of black. Yet the nominal sim- marily in my drawing Instead of using
plicity of this drawing's composition outlines, instead of making shapes or set-
83 achieves remarkable relational complexity ting off spaces, my drawing declares the
BARNETT NEWMAN among its parts. The two dark bands flank space."1 Here Newman describes something
American, 1905-1970 and define the central band of untreated other than contributions made "in" his
paper, conferring on it the appearance of drawings; rather, he offers a more elusive
The Name, 1949
positive presence; at the same time, the first proposition about how his paintings are to
brush and ink dark band is twinned by virtue of its width be understood as "drawn." Although unre-
611 x 380 mm with the central unpainted area, while those lated in compositional format to the paint-
(24/16X15) two, in turn, pair off together against the ing The Name I, also executed in 1949^ this
Gift of the Woodward right half of the drawing. More, The Name drawing introduces some of the abstract for-
Foundation, does not support the abstract stability of for- mal motifs and spatial-temporal rhythms
Washington, DC, 1976 mal quantification or the perceptual con- brought to their highest level of complexity
stancy of negative versus positive space for in Newman's late masterwork, The Stations
long. Rather, these are ideational coalitions of the Cross (National Gallery of Art).
secured after the fact of looking, in the time KATHRYN A. TUMA

of cognitive reflection and memory. The

neater distinctions of positive and negative,
or measures of quarter to half to whole, are Provenance 2. The present drawing
The artist to the Founda- was called Untitled until
subtly compromised by the specific material
tion for Contemporary the inscription of its cur-
qualities of the drawing in the actual experi- Performance Arts, Inc., rent title was discovered
ence of looking. The straight-edged delimi- New York, 1965; Wood- on the verso; see Brenda
ward Foundation, 1966. Richardson, Barnett New-
tation of dark from light, for instance, is man: The Complete Draw-
gently eroded by the highly absorptive paper ings, 1944-1969 [exh. cat.,
Notes Baltimore Museum of Art]
that draws the ink into the central band in i. Interview with Dorothy (Baltimore, 1979), 148.
Gees Seckler, "Frontiers of
accordance with the textured quality of the
Space," Art in America 50
paper. Thus the saturation of ink seeps (summer 1962); reprinted
slightly into the unpainted band, and the in Barnett Newman:
Selected Writings and Inter-
lines demarcating one area from another are views, ed. John P. O'Neill
not perfectly trued, obstructing imaginative (New York, 1990), 251.

projection of ideal forms into the picture.

As is the case in many of Newman's
works on paper from this period, the artist
has used at least two tones of black, one
lighter—almost a dark brown—and
another more saturated, thus analogously
deidealizing the abstract forms constituting
the work. Although Newman has carefully
kept in evidence striations left by his brush,
the underpainting of lighter ink has been
opaquely overpainted (in contrast to cat. 80),
leaving few discernible traces of the ini-
tial application of tone, whose presence
emerges only with the slow and searching
looking The Name calls for.

186
187
 "What I believe," Giacometti said, "is that point, propelled by a hand that seems never
whether it be a question of sculpture or to lose touch with the sheet. The linear con-
of painting, it is in fact only drawing that tinuum is interrupted only where the line
counts. One must cling solely, exclusively purposefully breaks or where the artist
to drawing. If one could master drawing, erased passages to admit light and air. For
all the rest would be possible."1 Giacometti Giacometti there was no such thing as
came as close to achieving that goal as any empty space. It was part of his encompass-
artist of his generation, especially in his ing vision, as tangible to him as the flowers
84 mature work after 1945. He moved seam- that fill the pitcher or the bottle that rests on
ALBERTO lessly from one medium to another, his the sill.
GIACOMETTI sculpture fortifying his drawings, and James Lord's essays on Giacometti
Swiss, 1901-1966 his drawings informing his paintings. are among the most insightful. In writing
Giacometti concentrated his eye on family about the artist's passion for drawing, Lord
The Table before the
and friends, the landscape of his native observed that "even when his fingers were
Dormer Window, 1950
Switzerland, and the familiar objects that not engaged, his eye was. And often when
graphite filled his home and studio. Yet it was not the he was seated somewhere without a pen or
512 x 357 mm appearance of these subjects that interested pencil in hand, his fingers would move
(20/8 x 14) him but the physical act of seeing itself. round and round with the insistent gesture
Gift of John D. Herring Vision after all is not a static faculty; it shifts of drawing—on the table of a cafe, or on his
and Mr. and Mrs. Paul continuously, and Giacometti was able to knee as he rode along in a taxi—as if the
L. Herring, in Memory capture that quality in drawings such as mere motion of drawing might induce some
of Mr. and Mrs. H. this one, with its swiftly coursing lines sug- new fragment of reality."2 For Giacometti,
Lawrence Herring and gesting a reality that is momentary rather drawing was an essential means of clarify-
in Honor of the 5oth than constant. ing his vision and committing to line the
Anniversary of the As a child Giacometti was an enthusias- transient nature of his surroundings.
National Gallery of Art, tic draftsman, habitually sketching people JUDITH BRODIE

1991 and objects as well as reproductions he

found in art books. He would turn again
and again to the same subject, continuously Provenance Notes
Mr. and Mrs. H. Lawrence An earlier version of this
renewing its possibilities. Although he
Herring; by inheritance to text was published in
began his art studies in Geneva, he con- John D. Herring and Mr. Washington 1991.
cluded them in Paris, where he settled in and Mrs. Paul L. Herring.
1. Quoted in James Lord,
Alberto Giacometti Draw-
a Montparnasse studio in 1927. During the
ings (Greenwich, CT,
late 19205 and early 19305 he explored the 1971), 26.
avant-garde styles in vogue at the time: 2. Lord 1971, 26.
primitivism, cubism, and surrealism. But
by the end of World War II Giacometti had
sifted through these alternatives and arrived
at the signature style that marks this work.
Giacometti made annual visits to his
family home in Stampa, a Swiss village in
the Italian-speaking Bregaglia Valley. There
he devoted his energies to painting and
especially to drawing. This sheet depicts the
kitchen table at Stampa, graced with a bas-
ket and a pitcher of flowers. Just above and
to its right a wine bottle is poised on the sill
of a dormer window. In attempting to cap-
ture the transitory experience of seeing,
Giacometti relies solely on his line, a thinly
defined mark that speeds from point to

188
189
 Willem de Kooning's extraordinary facility panache. Concurrently, there is an unre-
as a draftsman, which included the special- solved tension between the black lines
ized techniques of the commercial artist and the white forms they define, each of
(such as the use of a liner's brush in this which vie for dominance of the composi-
drawing),1 had been honed by his early train- tion. As such, the drawing illuminates an
ing in Rotterdam and by his work for hire essential attribute of de Kooning's art,
after arriving in the United States in 1926. "the syllogism without syntheses, in which
It was not until his experience with the Fed- thesis and antithesis are both pushed to
85 eral Arts Project in 1935 that he relegated their fullest statement and then allowed
WILLEM DE KOONING this commercial involvement to the status of to exist together."8
American, 1904-1997 a necessary aside and began his career as a S T E P H E N E. OSTROW

full-time artist. By the later 19405 he had

Untitled, 1950/1951
produced a series of important and influen-
liner's brush and palette tial abstract paintings, and after his first solo Notes 4. Maria Prather, David
1. See Thomas B. Hess, Sylvester, and Richard
knife with Sapolin exhibition in 1948 he was recognized as a
Willem de Kooning: Draw- Schiff, Willem de Kooning:
enamel on the unlined major figure in American painting. Along ings, New York Graphic Paintings [exh. cat.,
with such artists as Jackson Pollock, Hans Society, Ltd. (Greenwich, National Gallery of Art]
reverse side of graph
CT, 1972), 17-18, for a dis- (Washington, 1994), nos.
paper Hoffman, and Robert Motherwell, and the cussion of de Kooning's 9-15, 18, 19. In the paint-
use of the liner's brush. ings, the paper was then
559 x 762 mm (22 x 30) critic Clement Greenberg, he is credited
2. See the Chronology in mounted on wood or com-
Gift of the Woodward with establishing a new American art of position board.
Willem de Kooning: Draw-
Foundation, international importance, which was labeled ings, Paintings, Sculpture 5. Hess 1972, 13-14.
Washington, DC, 1976 "abstract expressionism."2 [exh. cat., Whitney Mu-
6. "By the time artists,
seum of American Art]
In 1950 the artist began a series of pre- critics, and a gradually
(New York, 1983), 267-
growing audience had
dominantly abstract black-and-white draw- 272; and Clement Green-
found a stylistic label for
berg, "American Type
ings using Sapolin enamel on graph paper, this development—
Painting," first published
Abstract Expressionism—
and this drawing clearly is part of that in Partisan Review (1955),
de Kooning had protested
reprinted in the anthology
series.3 It looks back to, and continues, the Abstract Expressionism:
against this co-option of
his work by producing
formal explorations of his abstract paintings Creators and Critics (New
imagery that was dialecti-
York, 1990), 235-251.
from the late 19405, some of which also cally opposed to the new
3. Hess 1972, 33-36, and mainstream" (Jorn Merk-
verge toward black-and-white palettes and/ plates 29-36. Neither the ert, "Stylelessness as Prin-
or employ enamel on paper.4 Given this cor- use of Sapolin enamel nor ciple: The Paintings of
graph paper have previ- Willem de Kooning," in
relation, it is difficult to differentiate paint- ously been cited in refer- New York 1983, 115).
ings and drawings as two distinct entities, in ence to the National
7. Hess 1972, 33.
Gallery drawing; see New
terms of either medium or purpose, in the York 1983, no. 22. 8. Hess 1972, 17.
context of de Kooning's art.5 It is equally dif-
ficult to characterize him with any consis-
tency in terms of abstract expressionism
alone, since he readily moved between
abstract and figurative explorations.6 At
the same time that he was creating these
abstract drawings in the early 19505, he
was intensely occupied with the develop-
ment of Woman I (cat. 88).
De Kooning's black enamel series of
drawings has been deemed to be "among
the most fluent, lyrical, and inventive in
his work," and this sheet confirms that
assessment.7 The lines are laid down with
absolute assurance and breathtaking

190
191
 M
VO
ro
 Around 1947 Jackson Pollock put aside tra- draftsmanship: "that amazing ability to
ditional approaches to making art. Instead quicken a line by thinning it, to slow it by
of brushing paint onto canvas or applying flooding, to elaborate that simplest of ele-
pencil or crayon on paper, he poured or ments, the line—to change, to reinvigorate,
flung paint onto surfaces. Instead of illus- to extend, to build up an embarrassment of
trating feelings, he attempted to express riches in the mass of drawing alone."3
them. And despite an apparent lack of inhi- JUDITH BRODIE

bition, these works are essentially highly

86 controlled. The sheer effusion and velocity
JACKSON POLLOCK of lines in this strikingly bold drawing belie Provenance 2. For the present drawing
The artist to Lee Krasner; and its associated sheets,
American, 1912-1956 its ingeniously ordered invention. Krasner Pollock estate, see Francis V. O'Connor
Pollock's work was basically linear, with 1986; Robert P. and and Eugene V. Thaw, eds.,
Untitled, c. 1951 Arlene R. Kogod. Jackson Pollock: A Cata-
little distinction made between drawing and
logue Raisonne of Paintings,
ink on Japanese paper painting. As one commentator remarked, Drawings, and Other Works,
Notes 4 vols. (New Haven and
635 x 984 mm Pollock had the "impulse to draw with An earlier version of this London, 1978), 3:821-822;
(25x383/4) paint."1 The present drawing is from a text was published in and 4:165.
Washington 1991.
Promised Gift of series of works done in ink and sometimes 3. Frank O'Hara, Jackson
i. Bernice Rose, Jackson Pollock (New York,
Robert P. and Arlene R. watercolor on Japanese papers. The artist Pollock: Drawing into Paint- 1959), 26.
Kogod began by making an ink drawing on the ing [exh. cat., Museum of
Modern Art] (New York,
top sheet of a stack of Japanese papers. 1980), 16.
Because oriental paper is very absorbent,
the primary image would bleed through to
the sheets beneath. These were later sepa-
rated and often expanded upon with either
ink or watercolor. This powerful image
was the primary work in its sequence; the
sheet immediately underneath is in a private
collection; and the next two were acquired
by the National Gallery of Art in 1985^
It is rare to have three directly associated
works from a Pollock series. Rarer still is
a primary work of such exceptional impact
and brilliance.
Whereas many of Pollock's so-called
poured works are centrifugally structured,
the present drawing is essentially episodic.
Two wildly energetic vortices mirror each
other on alternate sides of the sheet. The
one on the left is underlaid with a burst
of gridlike lines, the one on the right by a
more compact grid. Four dynamic spatters
of ink toward the center punctuate the
whole and slow the frenzied motion. A line
spills onto the page from the top and deci-
sively parts and isolates the activity. Barely
compressed into the lower right corner is a
diminutive vortex, acting like a coda. This
masterly orchestration calls to mind the poet
Frank O'Hara's statement about Pollock's

193
 This drawing is on the type of highly absor- Provenance Elkon Gallery. Although
Robert Elkon Gallery; N. O'Connor and Thaw did
bent Japanese paper that Pollock began Richard Miller, Philadel- not note the relationship
using in 1951 (see also cat. 86). Pouring phia; Weintraub Gallery, between no. 812 and the
New York; Mr. and Mrs. Kainen drawing, it was
or dripping the inks onto the paper, he cre-
Jacob Kainen. pointed out by Bernice
atively exploited the soaking and staining Rose in Jackson Pollock:
that occurred. In a number of instances he Drawing into Painting [exh.
Notes cat., Museum of Modern
allowed the inks to penetrate several sheets i. The first in this series Art] (New York, 1980), 21.
is listed in Francis V.
of paper stacked together, then separated the 2. O'Connor and Thaw
87 individual sheets and reworked them. The
O'Connor and Eugene V.
Thaw, eds., Jackson Pollock: 1978, 3:299, no. 820.
A Catalogue Raisonne of 3. O'Connor and Thaw
JACKSON POLLOCK origins of this drawing lay in the black inks
Paintings, Drawings, and 1978, 3:298.
American, 1912-1956 that soaked through when Pollock worked Other Works, 4 vols. (New
4. O'Connor and Thaw
Haven, 1978), 3:291, no.
on another sheet of paper above it in the 1978, 3:283.
Untitled, c. 1951 812, as owned by Robert
stack.1 He then turned the paper over and
ink on Japanese paper reworked it with black and brown inks to
632 x 990 mm create the present drawing. Interestingly,
(247/8X39) traces of the P, the second I, and the k from
Promised Gift of Mr. Pollock's large washed signature on the first
and Mrs. Jacob Kainen sheet survive (in reverse) a few inches above
his signature here. Yet another sheet is
known that was underneath this one (Kras-
ner Pollock Foundation), bringing the total
number in this series to three.2 When
Pollock reworked that drawing, he did so
by turning it upside down and backward
and retouching it, so that the result was
an altered and inverted mirror image of
the present work.3
During 1951 Pollock executed more
than forty large works on paper, making that
year his most important and productive
as a draftsman.4 Moreover, the style and
methods he used in creating them were
so closely paralleled in his canvases of the
same year as to blur any meaningful distinc-
tion between the activities of drawing and
painting. Drawing with paint was, of course,
fundamental to Pollock's breakthrough
achievement in his classic poured paintings.
In this Untitled work of 1951 the artist's han-
dling of a medium and support traditionally
associated with drawing approached the
purely painterly, with the soaking, staining,
and overlapping of colors producing effects
that are virtually the same as those in
his canvases.
F R A N K L I N KELLY

194
195
0\
 Woman I, for which this is a study, is an of the painting's chronological development.
emotionally charged, disturbing, and fierce Nevertheless, it is possible to place the pres-
painting (figure), which shocked both an ent drawing in the context of others related
avant-garde art world devoted to abstraction to the painting. This study for the head and
and "a larger, collective unconscious, which upper torso was cut from a larger sheet,
had considered the subject of Woman to be which most likely included the lower torso
safe, sane, and above all, pretty."1 It is the as well. Therefore, it can be positioned with
last of many versions that de Kooning suc- a group of drawings for Woman I that share
88
cessively painted from 1950 to 1952, only to the methodology implied by its fragmentary
WILLEM DE KOONING scrape each away, in whole or in part, before nature (some of the drawings in this group
American, 1904-1997 painting anew on the same canvas. He exe- are assembled from joined fragments),
cuted (and then obliterated) these in rapid medium (in most cases pastel and graphite),
Woman 1,1952
succession, often on a daily basis.2 While and above all, purpose (exploration of "how
pastel and crayon over this departs from the customary practice shapes connect," especially the head to the
graphite of using drawings as the primary vehicle torso).4 It is most closely related to one
227 x 285 mm for the sequential development of visual drawing in this group, datable to about
(8% x u!4), unevenly imagery, drawings remained very much a 1952, in terms of details of physiognomy,
cut along the right edge part of the artist's creative explorations. He the placement of dark shapes to delineate
Andrew W. Mellon affixed them to the canvas to serve as a start- facial boundaries, and the elegant curvi-
Fund, 1978 ing point for new departures, for example, linear contour defined by the cut of the right
painting over them as he moved on; or he edge of the National Gallery sheet and by
made drawings or tracings of portions of the drawn lines in the other.5
painting for future reference, before the S T E P H E N E. OSTROW

canvas was scraped once more. Even when

he used drawings in a more traditional way,
rapidly pursuing successive ideas, he would Provenance 3. For discussions of the
Xavier Fourcade, Inc., development of the paint-
often fabricate new drawings by joining seg- New York. ing and de Kooning's
ments of extant sheets together.3 use of drawings, see, for
Since both painted and drawn images example, Thomas B. Hess,
Notes "de Kooning Paints a
were destroyed by this process, and photo- 1. Thomas B. Hess, Willem Picture," ArtNews 52, no. i
de Kooning: Drawings, New
graphic documentation was intermittent, York Graphic Society, Ltd.
(March 1953), 30-33 and
64-67 (written shortly
scholars are left with an incomplete record (Greenwich, CT, 1972), 40. before the painting was
2. For a color illustration of first exhibited); Hess 1972,
Woman I and photographs 40-45; Jorn Merkert,
Willem de Kooning, Woman I, that document six stages "Stylelessness as Principle:
1950-1952, oil on canvas, The of the canvas, see Willem The Painting of Willem de
Museum of Modern Art, New de Kooning: Drawings, Kooning," in New York
York, Purchase, 1953 Paintings, Sculpture [exh. 1983,124-126.
cat., Whitney Museum of 4. Hess 1972, 44-45, and
American Art] (New York, plates 59-64.
1983), plates 190 and
184-189. 5. Hess 1972, 44, and plate
60. In 1972 this drawing
was in the collection of the
artist.

197
 Between June 1950, when de Kooning began de Kooning's Woman drawings, some of
work on Woman I (see cat. 88), and March which predate the present example.6 For the
1953, when an exhibition at the Sidney Janis torso of the woman at the right, the artist con-
Gallery presented six of his major Woman verted the same formation to an abstracted
paintings and related works on paper, the mouth, an obvious variation on the surrealist
artist produced a large number of drawings vagina dentata.7
on the theme. These drawings, including MARLA PRATHER

the present work, were experimental and

89 exploratory in nature; Thomas Hess called
WILLEM DE KOONING them "exercises in spontaneity—a casting Provenance 4. See "Robert Rauschen-
Ileana Sonnabend, Paris; berg Talks to Maxime de la
American, 1904-1997 around for images."1 De Kooning made Allan Stone Gallery, New Falaise McKendry," Inter-
Two Women in the summer of 1952 while York; Robert and Jane view 6 (May 1976), 36.
Two Women, 1952 Meyerhoff, 1963.
staying in East Hampton, Long Island, at the 5. Sundell 1980, 14-15.
charcoal home of Leo Castelli and Ileana Sonnabend 6. See, for example, Hess
Notes 1972, nos. 54 and 56, or
572 x 724 mm (he inscribed the recto: to Ileana / with love An earlier version of this Harold Rosenberg, Willem
(22/2X28/2) from / Bill / Summer 1952). Setting up a stu- text was published in de Kooning (New York,
Washington 1996. 1974), nos. 83, 94, and
Promised Gift of Robert dio on an enclosed porch of their house, he
1. Thomas Hess, Willem de 109, as well as Maria
and Jane Meyerhoff worked on drawings, a number of pastels, Kooning Drawings, New Prather, David Sylvester,
and the large painting Woman II of 1952 York Graphic Society, Ltd. and Richard Shiff, Willem
(Greenwich, CT, 1972), 41. de Kooning: Paintings [exh.
(The Museum of Modern Art, New York).2 cat., National Gallery of
2. Nina Sundell, The Art] (Washington, 1994),
De Kooning had painted women in twos Robert and Jane Meyerhoff 99, and 104 n. 46.
since the late 19408; indeed Woman I had Collection: 1958-1979 (Bal-
timore, 1980), 14. Sundell 7. Sundell 1980, 15, says
begun as a pair of figures. The velvety textures is the daughter of Castelli that this form was based
and wonderfully animated surface here and Sonnabend. on the grille of a car.

are the result of de Kooning's gestural applica- 3. Hess 1972, 16.

tion of charcoal lines as much as his adept
removal of them with an eraser. Hess
observed de Kooning at work on a pencil
drawing in 1951, using an eraser "not to rub
out the lines, but to move them, push them
across the paper, turn them into planes."3 The
artist deployed the eraser (or his fingers) as
the graphic equivalent of a palette knife, to
blur and soften his marks, thereby heighten-
ing the ambiguity of his forms. (It was this
notion of the eraser as a "drawing tool" that
prompted Rauschenberg's famous erasure
of one of de Kooning's Woman drawings in
I953.4) According to Nina Sundell, who was
present in East Hampton when this drawing
was made, the vertical lines between the
heads of the two figures refer to a curved
driveway and fence that de Kooning could
have seen from his studio.5 Nevertheless, such
forms appear in similar locations in others of

198
199
 The dash and drag of the brush—loaded artist born in 1910 in the coal-mining
with black paint and set with vigorous force regions of eastern Pennsylvania, Kline
against the surface of paper—is, in a palpa- was educated in the early 19305 at the Art
bly physical sense, the very subject matter Students League in Boston. His formative
of this iconic Franz Kline. New York poet commitments remained throughout his
Frank O'Hara considered Kline "the Action career to art historical tradition, despite the
Painter par excellence"1 and here the dynamic manifest abstraction of his art.5 Later set-
brushwork of this small yet powerful work tling in New York, this painter associated
90 viscerally exacts the concerns of that moment with the abstract expressionists distin-
FRANZ KLINE in the history of American abstract painting. guished himself by his palette predomi-
American, 1910-1962 The "concentration of energy" Kline admired nantly composed of black and white, his
in the art of his contemporary Jackson Pol- signature calligraphic strokes, and his
Untitled, 1950$
lock is fully present in this work,2 as the inimitable bravado of brushwork.
oil emotive content of the act of mark-making K A T H R Y N A. TUMA

198 x 251 mm cleaves to its surface: Kline's brush is con-

(7 I3 /i6X978) frontational and declarative, the paper tarred
Gift of Elisabeth R. as much as painted. With assertive disre- Provenance 4. David Sylvester, "Franz
Estate of the artist; Kline 1910-1962: An
Zogbaum, 1993 gard for the paper's edge, Kline's exuberant Elizabeth R. Zogbaum. Interview with David
brush runs out of bounds, yet the small Sylvester," living Arts i
size of the thin and fragile sheet in no way (spring 1963), 10.
Notes
5. For discussion of this
detracts from the picture's explosive visual 1. Frank O'Hara, "Franz
aspect of Kline's work,
Kline," Art Chronicles
impact. Rather, the size plays in tension 1954-1966 (New York, see David Anfam, "Kline's
with the grandness of artistic gesture. In 1975), 40. Colliding Syntax: 'Black,
White, and Things,'" in
delicate counterpoise between deliberation 2. Selden Rodman, Conver- Franz Kline: Black £ White,
sations with Artists (New 1950-1961 (Houston,
of conception and speed of delivery, the York, 1957), 108. I994)> 9-31-
velocity of Kline's execution hangs in tight 3. Clement Greenberg,
balance with the way the paint meticulously "Feeling Is All," Partisan
Review 19 (January-Feb-
structures space, offering an exemplary ruary 1952); reprinted in
image of what Clement Greenberg saw Clement Greenberg: The
Collected Essays and Criti-
specifically in Kline's black and white work cism, vol. 3, Affirmations
as a compositional "tautness quintessential."3 and Refusals, 1950-1956,
ed. John O'Brian (Chicago
In this work striations of black deposited by
and London, 1993), 104.
a drier brush activate portions of the picture
plane less charged with paint. Kline leaves
no part of the paper inert. Unlike related
black and white paintings, where tonal gra-
dations are more decisively eschewed for
starker contrasts, here Kline tempers his
black: the terse application of gray paint in
the lower left corner, for example, or his
brush-handled scraping of the more satu-
rated central strokes, modulates the tonal
contrast between dark and light.
This painted drawing comes from a
series Kline executed in the late 19405 and
19505, when his work charged into abstrac-
tion with uncompromising energy. Kline
viewed painting as "a form of drawing,"4
and his works on paper are key to under-
standing the formal and expressive exigen-
cies driving his art during this period. An

200
N>
O
M
 No matter how one defines the diverse phe- skies, green on ocean blue, sunbaked yellow
nomenon variously known as "abstract ochre island... ."3 On a more symbolic plane
expressionism" or "the New York School," they speak for emotional polarities. The
Robert Motherwell's position within it ochers evoke a Mediterranean world: earthi-
remains unusual. He was an articulate ness, organic presence, passion. By contrast,
spokesman for the movement who pro- blue for Motherwell signifies less tangible
duced a larger, wider-ranging body of state- realms, something nearer to air, water, or
ments and writings than any of his colleagues absence itself that harks back, ultimately, to
91 (with the possible exception of Barnett New- an empyrean otherworldliness that Mal-
ROBERT man). In addition, Motherwell distinguished larme (whom Motherwell much admired)
MOTHERWELL himself from the others by a certain intellec- had termed "1'azur." In turn, the memory of
American, 1915-1991 tual approach and a desire to uphold—as a landscape that symbolizes human emo-
much as to challenge—the European tradi- tions is amplified by Motherwell's title.
End of Dover Beach,
tions of "high" and modernist culture. His Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" is a
1953-1957 longstanding involvement with collage poem that at once expresses highly romantic
collage with tempera, reflected this attitude, particularly since Victorian passions and a feeling of isolation
crayon, and graphite the origins of the medium are linked with amid a chaotic universe that anticipates
1,016 x 762 mm a key moment in European modernism, the twentieth-century existentialism. Often
(40 x 30) cubism of Picasso and Braque around 1912. anthologized, it has inspired works of art by
Promised Gift of Robert The use of torn paper is crucial in End of at least two other Americans.4 Surveying a
and Jane Meyerhoff Dover Beach. Motherwell titled another work nocturnal vista of sky, white cliff, and "tur-
he completed in the same year The Tearing- bid" ocean, Arnold's thought modulates to
ness of Collage, adding that the title not only ponder the human condition. Despite the
refers "to an angry tearing of a collage... but maplike look of End of Dover Beach, it
also it emphasizes that part of my contribu- remains of course altogether abstract. Yet
tion to the art of collage, the torn rather through his reference to Arnold's poem,
than the sharp or cut-out edge."1 The ragged Motherwell adds another layer of metaphy-
contours are interwoven with areas of tem- sical resonance. And as if to complete the
pera paint and golden glue streaks to create counterpoint, the artist's presence is
a flux that has a spontaneity originating in inscribed on the whitest of paper scraps
surrealist automatism, a method that uses near the center of the collage—an incisive
rapid gestures to suggest the artist's volatile sign in a shifting tide of fragments.
unconscious impulses. The composition's DAVID ANFAM

shattered planes imply a wrenching process

of deconstruction and recreation. Here it is
appropriate to note Motherwell's further Provenance 2. Unpublished interview
Sidney Janis Gallery, New with Bryan Robertson,
remark that "tearing the paper is like killing York; Robert and Jane quoted in Robert Salton-
someone."2 Meyerhoff, 1959. stall Mattison, Robert
Motherwell: The Formative
Just as its sense of energy signals vio-
Years (Ann Arbor, MI,
lence, the choice of colors and title for End Notes 1987), 81.
An earlier version of this
of Dover Beach is meant to prompt a train of text was published in 3. Mattison 1987, 166.
associations—as if the whole image were a Washington 1996. 4. Namely, the composer
Samuel Barber's epony-
metaphor for the artist's state of mind. The i. Quoted in H. H. Arna-
mous song (1931, Op. 3)
son, Robert Motherwell
ochers and blue, mingling tempera tones (New York, 1977), 117. and George Tooker's paint-
ing Sleepers 7 of 1951.
and the color of the wrapping paper ele-
ments, appeared early in Motherwell's
career and would become major elements in
his later collages. In part they relate to the
California landscape of his childhood: "Yes,
certain childhood impressions last a life-
time. What a burden! Sunlit, arid, high blue

202
S1
 The painter Balthus once commented that cinct yet lyrical marks as his hand and eye
Alberto Giacometti "could look at his teacup moved together over the surface of the
and see it forever as if for the first time."1 By paper in one long, seamless activity of obser-
viewing the commonplace as constantly new vation and drawing. Roger Fry described the
and unexpected, Giacometti was able to find work of Paul Cezanne, whom Giacometti
inexhaustible subjects in the people, places, greatly admired, as an expression of objects
and things of his everyday world. It was a and space "in an incessantly varying and
practice that sustained countless attempts to shifting texture."3 The process of working
92 render the sensation of his experiences. from life and its various unending textures
ALBERTO Annette Sewing depicts Giacometti's wife was for Giacometti not one of producing
GIACOMETTI absorbed in an ordinary task. While her pictures of traditional illusions, but rather
Swiss, 1901-1966 downward gaze imbues the picture with a an open-ended inquiry into the nature of the
sense of casualness, the artist firmly estab- visual world.
Annette Sewing, 1954
lishes a compositional formality by placing THOM BROWN

graphite the figure in the center of the drawing.

511 x 340 mm Encircled by a variety of objects—the table,
(20/8 X I33/8) hanging lamp, bowl, doorway, and pictures Provenance 2. Lord 1983, 307.
Private collection;
Collection of Mr. and on the wall—Annette's static, symmetrical Sotheby's, New York,
3. Roger Fry, Cezanne: A
Study of His Development
Mrs. Paul Mellon, 1995 frontality contrasts with their flowing, asym- 29 November 1967, lot
(New York and London,
108; Mr. and Mrs. Paul
metrical placement. The duality of stillness Mellon.
1927), 59; quoted in Jakob
Rosenberg, On Quality in
and movement is further developed through
Art: Criteria of Excellence,
the use of vertical and horizontal lines near Notes
Past and Present (Prince-
ton, 1967), 108.
her shoulders, which serve to constrain i. James Lord, Giacometti:
A Biography (New York,
her form. This sense of compression is 1983), 172.
reinforced by the quality of line used to
describe the figure itself: short, repeated,
halting marks made more dense by
smudges and partial erasures. These lines
effectively lock the figure into its central
position and create a visual anchor for the
looser, calligraphic surrounding marks.
The background forms are drawn with such
fluid, gestural energy—in contrast to the
weightiness of the figure—that they race
across Annette's contours in several loca-
tions, as if the artist, after carefully con-
structing the form of the sitter, disregarded
its labored edges with a series of uncon-
sciously scribbled lines.
Giacometti achieved a virtuoso perform-
ance in contrasting the immobility of the
central figure with the movement of the sur-
rounding environment, creating a work that
is at once motionless and motion-filled. He
was aware of this duality, stating, "the motor
that makes one work is surely to give a cer-
tain permanence to what is fleeting."2 With
simple, seemingly unconcerned lines, he
accurately drew complex subjects, using suc-

204
205
3
CM
 In the summer of 1953 Jean Dubuffet trav- Positions" at the Art Institute of Chicago),
eled to the French Alps with fellow artist it is not surprising that he subverted the
Pierre Bettencourt, who inspired him to romantic image of the butterfly by including
catch butterflies and create images with moths in this image. Black-and-white Tiger
their wings.1 Captivated by the "liveliness Moths of two varieties are joined with simi-
of the chase itself, the exhilarating effect larly colored Scarce Swallowtails to dramatic
of the hot sunshine... and the charm of the effect in an oval configuration along the
mountain solitudes,"2 Dubuffet composed lower edge and again in the bottom right
93 twenty works using wings and watercolor. corner. Moth wings are integrated through-
JEAN DUBUFFET Jardin de Bibi Trompette (Bibi Trompette's out the work, forming effective designs if
French, 1901-1985 Garden) dates from the summer of 1955, unusual flowers.
when the artist embarked on a series of These assemblages of organic material
Jardin de Bibi
similar assemblages in Vence, where he were of great significance to Dubuffet,
Trompette, 1955
and his wife had recently moved. He was who developed his important Tableaux
butterfly wings and particularly taken with the overgrown gar- d'Assemblages series in striving for a
watercolor dens of villas in this region of southern painted equivalent.7
221 x 321 mm France, which were soon featured in his JESSICA STEWART

(8"/i6XI25/8) art. Although there may have been

The Stephen Hahn a garden owned by a "Bibi Trompette,"
Family Collection Dubuffet more likely fabricated this title Provenance 4. Dubuffet studied art at
Samuel Kootz Gallery, the Academic Julien as a
(Partial and Promised for its sonority.3 New York; Norton Simon; young man; and he appar-
Gift), 1995 In his search for an authentic and vital Montgomery Art Center, ently intended to write a
Pomona College, Clare- treatise on artistic motifs.
means of expression, Dubuffet repudiated
mont, CA, 1957; Norton See Jean Dubuffet: A Retro-
Western art and culture, yet he certainly Simon, 1973; Stephen spective [exh. cat., Solomon
knew the tradition of still-life painting in Hahn, 1974. R. Guggenheim Museum]
(New York, 1973), 17 n. 3.
which butterflies flutter above flowers as In his mature career
Notes Dubuffet abandoned such
symbols of fleeting beauty and the cycles 1. Gregory Jecmen and principles; his work was
of life.4 He significantly extended this Judith Walsh of the profoundly influenced by
National Gallery of Art his interest in the art brut,
metaphor of transformation here, fashion-
have pointed out a six- or "raw art," which he
ing illusory blossoms from dismembered teenth-century precedent began collecting in 1945.
butterflies. The profusion of wings, in all of for this technique in the
Gallery collection: Joris 5. Jean Dubuffet in New
its intricacy and delicacy, is at once magnifi- Hoefnagel's Animalia York 1962, 120.

cent and macabre. Rationalia et Insecta 6. Dubuffet included front

(Ignis), vol. i, in which the and hind wings of Scarce
Though enamored of the "iridescent wings of insects are fixed Swallowtails; Old World
diaphanous haze" produced by the wings, atop minutely rendered Swallowtails; Red Admi-
bodies—for more scien- rals; Orange, White, and
Dubuffet took great liberties with their natu- tific purposes. Yellow Sulphurs; Blues;
ral decoration.5 He created hybrid creatures 2. Jean Dubuffet, quoted Jersey Tiger Moths; and
in Peter Selz, The Work of Scarlet Tiger Moths. Gary
by uniting wings from disparate species, Hevel of the department of
Jean Dubuffet [exh. cat.,
affixing the elements of certain butterflies Museum of Modern Art] entomology, National
(New York, 1962), 109. Museum of Natural His-
on top of others, and surrounding them tory, Smithsonian Institu-
Dubuffet was ordering
with invented wings of watercolor. The preserved butterflies by tion, kindly identified
mail in 1955; see Dubuffet these species.
wings of Orange Sulphurs, for example,
[exh. cat., Fondation Pierre 7. Dubuffet called the but-
arranged as a three-petaled pansy just left of Gianadda] (Martigny, terfly works a "determin-
the lower center, appear again in a similar Switzerland, 1993), 86. ing factor" in later works;
3. Dubuffet's inventive see New York 1962, 112.
configuration higher in the composition, He soon began to incorpo-
titles, which frequently
just right of center, but this time flipped to employed street slang, are rate other organic materi-
als in his Botanical
show their yellow undersides and sur- often untranslatable.
Elements series.
"Bibi" is a term of endear-
mounted with the wings of Blues.6 ment; "Trompette" means
Given Dubuffet's notorious stance trumpet but could refer to
a person with a voice or
against conventional standards of beauty nose like a trumpet.
(professed in his 1951 lecture "Anticultural

207
 L'Heureux de peu (Happy with Little) is cultural canons. The art brut, or "raw art"
hardly exceptional in its subject matter—a (made by the mentally ill and amateurs with
figure in a landscape—yet it defies conven- no academic training), that he collected and
tion on many levels. The ungainly figure vir- championed was integrally tied to his break
tually engulfs the sterile landscape through with the tradition of art he had studied as
which it lurches, like a reanimated corpse a young man.5 Though Dubuffet never
composed of ill-fitting limbs. But it is the copied the images he collected, his attempts
creature's mysterious habitat that is most to invest his art with similar unrestrained
94 arresting. Scarcely delineated in terms of creative power resulted in a unique and
JEAN DUBUFFET topography (beyond a sloping horizon line), influential approach to technique, material,
French, 1901-1985 this alien landscape is mottled and macu- and subject matter that is manifest in this
lated in curious ways. assemblage.
L'Heureux de peu,
Though L'Heureux de peu seems vastly JESSICA STEWART
1957 different from the lyrical Jardin de Bibi
oil and collage Trompette (cat. 93) that predates it by two
612 x 669 mm years, there are significant parallels between Provenance 4. "Soon I began working
5
(24/8 X 26 /i6) the works. Following his endeavors with Arthur Tooth & Sons, Ltd., with a view to obtaining
London, 1958; Chester imprints rather than to
The Stephen Hahn butterfly wings, Dubuffet strove to attain a Beatty, 1958; Sotheby's preserving the painting
Family Collection comparable play of subtle color and delicate London, 27 June 1991, lot itself The ones on paper,
5); Stephen Hahn. however, came nearer to
(Partial and Promised luster in painted works,1 and his turbid what I had in mind than
Gift), 1995 medium here provided such an effect. An those on canvas" (quoted in
Notes New York 1962,129).
opalescent sheen and bluish cast are most 1. Dubuffet in Peter Selz,
The Work of Jean Dubuffet 5. His interest in art brut
prominent in the dusky sky of this assem- was sparked by Bildnerei
[exh. cat., Museum of
blage, but they are readily apparent through- Modern Art] (New York, der Geisteskranken, Dr.
1962), 113 and 120-121. Hans Prinzhorn's book on
out the barren ground, as are flickering the art of the mentally ill,
touches of gold. 2. National Gallery of Art which Dubuffet received
paper conservator Judith as a gift in 1923. He began
Prizing the unexpected, Dubuffet relent- Walsh provided expert acquiring such material in
lessly explored new approaches and materi- analysis of this work. 1945, ultimately amassing
3. The resultant flamelike a collection of nearly
als, and L'Heureux de peu, like much of his 5,000 examples.
surface pattern is most
art, reflects both spontaneity and intention. apparent in the nebulous
Its malformed colossus appears to have earth and sky.

been assembled in a remarkably haphazard

fashion, and it is incongruously presented
from both a frontal and profile view. Yet the
forms were carefully set in place prior to
being fixed, as tiny pinholes demonstrate.2
Dubuffet's method of "painting" the assem-
blage—by pressing the paper elements
against a painted surface and rapidly
removing them—was derived from can-
vases he "imprinted" with crumpled news-
paper or other material.3 He soon began to
employ, indeed to prefer in their own right,
these papers, which by their use had
become simultaneously offset with paint,
and he constructed images such as this one
culled from cut elements of those papers.4
Dubuffet's art represents a clear rup-
ture with Western standards of beauty and

208
209
210
 David Smith is acclaimed as one of Amer- aware. "Drawing is the most direct, closest
ica's greatest sculptors, and his reputation to the true self, the most natural liberation
rests, deservedly, on his astonishing con- of man," he wrote in 1955. "Drawings
structions in steel. But during more than remain the life force of the artist."2
three decades of working life, he explored a Drawing played a special role in the
remarkable range of media and disciplines: evolution of Smith's sculpture. It was at
welded iron and steel, cast bronze, carved once a way of previewing projected works,
stone, painting, drawing, photography, a method of exploring the permutations of
95 printmaking, and more. A painter before works under construction, and a means of
DAVID SMITH he was a sculptor, Smith continued to work releasing unexpected imagery. Smith's works
American, 1906-1965 extensively in two dimensions, even after he on paper encompass the entire spectrum of
committed his principal energies to working sculptors' drawings, from depictions of the
Untitled, 1957
in three. His art was nourished not only by potentially buildable to apparently self-suffi-
brush and ink mixed his continuing dialogue with stimuli rang- cient accumulations of marks. For Smith,
with egg yolk ing from ancient artifacts to discarded the character of the mark floating in
680 x 1,016 mm machine parts, and from the art of the past ambiguous space seems eventually to take
(26 5/4X40) to that of his contemporaries, but also by a precedence over what it might once have
Promised Gift of Mr. lively conversation among his sculptures referred to; the drawings of his last decade
and Mrs. Jacob Kainen and his reliefs, drawings, prints, photo- range from the assured calligraphic "web" of
graphs, and paintings. It is impossible evenly weighted touches seen in this draw-
to isolate any one aspect of this inventive ing to the loose association of expressively
artist's work if his full achievement is to inflected brush strokes of Untitled (Septem-
be understood. ber 13, 1958] (figure). Smith elegantly
Smith himself disliked distinctions. As alluded to this variety of possibilities in
he wrote in 1952: "The works you see are 1952, when he described his drawings as
segments of my work life. If you prefer one "studies for sculpture, sometimes what
work over another, it is your privilege, but sculpture is, sometimes what sculpture
it does not interest me. The work is a state- can never be."3
ment of identity, it comes from a stream, KAREN WILKIN

it is related to my past works, the three or

four works in process, and the work yet
to come."1 Yet within his complex oeuvre, Provenance (no date). Reprinted in
Estate of the artist; Mr. and Cleve Gray, ed., David
Smith's drawings remain distinct. After his Mrs. Jacob Kainen. Smith by David Smith
sculptures, they constitute his most com- (New York, 1972), 17.
pelling and powerful body of work, and per- Notes
2. Garnett McCoy, ed.,
David Smith (New York,
haps his most intimate and revealing— i. David Smith Papers,
1973), 120, 137.
Archives of American Art,
something of which he himself was well Roll ND Smith, frame 360 3. Gray 1972, 104.

David Smith, Untitled

(September 13, 1958], 1958,
brush and ink mixed with
egg yolk, National Gallery
of Art, Washington, Gift
of Candida and Rebecca
Smith, in Honor of the
5oth Anniversary of the
National Gallery of Art,
1991

211
 In the 19305 and 19405 an eager young this heightened physicality, even a seemingly
Smith filled notebooks with records of autonomous work like Untitled (11-22-58)
things that he found provocative—among demands multiple readings. Smith's substan-
them, Egyptian tomb furnishings, medieval tial brush strokes convince the viewer that
artifacts, dancers, pool players, and the his self-sufficient evocations of the forms
stages of a developing embryo—along with and spaces of landscape and the body are, at
energetic renderings of ideas for sculptures, the same time, references to possible sculp-
only some of which he realized. By the early tures and explorations of the implications
96 19508 Smith's drawings had become less of existing constructions.
DAVID SMITH notations of stimuli or depictions of the pos- Smith's drawings of the 19508 also invite
American, 1906-1965 sible than improvisations in a language of comparison with Chinese and Japanese cal-
loaded brush strokes. While still related to ligraphy, an interest confirmed by his writ-
Untitled (11-22-58),
his sculptures, these mature drawings are in ings and by the books in his library. Yet he
1958
the realm of what he called "what sculpture wrote in 1952, "It is not Japanese painting
brush and ink mixed can never be": not visualizations of objects but some of the principles involved that
with egg yolk intended to exist in some other medium or have meaning to me... such as the begin-
446 x 661 mm space, but disembodied autonomous images. ning of a stroke outside the paper continu-
(179/16x26/16) Unlike the works on paper of Smith's ing through the drawing space to project
Gift of Candida and formative years, a drawing such as Untitled beyond, so that the included part possesses
Rebecca Smith, in (11-22-58) does not prompt speculation both the power of origin and projection."1
Honor of the 5Oth about how it might be translated into steel but Smith's underlying assumption that a dis-
Anniversary of the instead triggers contemplation of subtle tran- embodied brush stroke possesses a physical
National Gallery of Art, sitions from thick stroke to thin or from opac- reality as both trajectory and object helps to
1991 ity to transparency. It suggests that drawing explain the "sculptural" sense of materiality
had now become an end in itself for Smith. and thrust that animates his drawings of the
And in fact, by the early 19505 the artist was 19505. It comes as no surprise to learn that
developing his sculptures mainly through while he was "building" these gestural
direct engagement with his materials. images in his special egg-ink, he was also at
Smith routinely kept to what he called work on related (and sometimes unrelated)
"a double shift" at his home at Bolton Land- free-standing sculptures and reliefs. As at
ing, New York, in the Adirondacks, working every other time in his career, changing
by day with steel in his factory/studio and media and disciplines was a way of not only
drawing in his "clean studio" in the evening. recharging himself but also expanding and
That drawing revitalized him after the labor exploring possibilities. Each fed the other.
of working in heavy, resistant metal remains KAREN WILKIN

evident in the fluidity of Smith's gestures.

Plainly, he enjoyed the liquid nature and
weightlessness of ink, the ease of moving his Provenance Note
Estate of the artist. i. Garnett McCoy, ed.,
hand across the surface of the paper. Yet the David Smith (New York,
physicality of these gatherings of detached, 1973)' 83-
supple marks is striking. Smith frequently
employed a home-brewed ink of his own
invention, combining black ink with egg
yolk as a binder and applying this mixture
with a variety of brushes that spanned
extremes of softness and responsiveness,
dryness and resistance. Smith's special ink
makes every stroke sit up on the paper; it
gives each touch of the brush a surprising
materiality and a distinct character as the
embodiment of a gesture. Partly because of

212
£iz
 In 1958 Rauschenberg began to make inde- Provenance titled Tour in September
Leo Castelli Gallery, New 1986. It was previously
pendent drawings, though not through con- York; Gomprecht-Benesch, known by Castelli registry
ventional means. Tour embodies one of the Baltimore; Robert and number 031.
Jane Meyerhoff, 1959.
many methods he has devised to appropri- 2. The pinkish beige areas
of paint in Tour were once
ate imagery from a virtually infinite range of
Notes
white and probably more
sources.1 To compose this work, Rauschen- An earlier version of this transparent, but the chem-
berg selected reproductions clipped from text was published in ical makeup of the paint
Washington 1996. has caused it to change
newspapers or magazines, wet the illustra- over time.
97 tion with an organic solvent (lighter fluid), i. Rauschenberg, who has
frequently titled works
ROBERT and placed them face down on his paper. He well after their creation,
RAUSCHENBERG then rubbed the backs of the images with
American, born 1925 such implements as an empty ballpoint pen
or a pencil (the latter depositing medium in
Tour, 1959
the process) to transfer the ink of the repro-
solvent transfer, crayon, ductions to the new surface. This frottage
graphite, acrylic, and technique bathes the images in a kind of
watercolor linear sfumato and sets them within a
581 x 733 mm dynamic graphic flux. Rauschenberg
(22?/8X28 7 /8) reinforces the faint, transferred color
Promised Gift of Robert with delicate touches of crayon and paint,
and Jane Meyerhoff using color to bind his pictorial elements
to one another.2
The content of Tour shifts from the
banal to the sublime: crocuses, three rub-
bings or imprints of quarters, a settee,
superimposed Popeye cartoons on the one
hand; the head of Botticelli's Venus on the
other. And although the images do not
coalesce into a single narrative, they are not
randomly selected: old master reproductions
appear frequently in Rauschenberg's work,
and Botticelli was very much on his mind in
1959, when he was also at work on his illus-
trations for Dante's Inferno (see also cat.
107) and had seen the Italian painter's inter-
pretations of the subject. Other recurrent
images in Tour include a baseball player, a
rooster, and a cube drawn in perspective.
The neoclassical portico is the Palais Bour-
bon in Paris (which had just been cleaned),
here dramatically illuminated at night.
Beneath this, faintly traced at the bottom of
the sheet, are two Gothic windows. In his
"tour" Rauschenberg intersperses such sub-
jects from abroad, including oval stickers
from an international driver's license, with
prototypically American ones.
MARLA PRATHER

214
STS
 Jasper Johns' enigmatic Night Driver deeply inviting the eyes to inspect what lies under
rewards lingering and searching engage- it. This subtle dimensionality reminds the
ment. As the eyes gradually adapt to the viewer that this work is not abstract flatness
dark surface of the drawing, overall obscu- but rather speaks to what Johns has called
rity slowly resolves to subtle differentiation the "object quality" of his art.
of detail and pictorial incident. Certain Of all the dense and hermetic drawings
aspects of this work's construction are more Jasper Johns has produced, Night Driver
readily perceptible: that it is, for example, remains one of his most elusive works of
98 composed of four sheets of paper, including art. Asked briefly to discuss its imagery, the
JASPER JOHNS a large supporting sheet, another attached to artist responded, "There's almost no imagery
American, born 1930 it that covers almost seven-eighths of the in it." Pressed further to explain the mean-
image, and two smaller, rectangular sheets ing of its title, he remarked: "I'm afraid it's
Night Driver, 1960
below. Yet other qualities only emerge in inexplicably associated in my mind with get-
charcoal, pastel, and delayed discovery over the course of time. ting a license in North Carolina in 1960 and
collage As vision attunes to Night Driver's beginning to drive."1 Metaphorical associa-
1,143 x 940 mm somber opacity, an increasingly discriminat- tions among this work, its title, and the
(45 x 37) ing perceptual awareness hones in on how anecdotal origins of the piece have been
Promised Gift of Robert Johns draws across edges of the sheets as if explored with limited illumination. In the
and Jane Meyerhoff to bind them, or cuts certain edges of the end, it is the object itself that continues to
smaller sheets yet tears others to reveal their confront the viewer. Its irreducible "object
fibrous inner texture. One begins to wonder, quality," as the artist concedes, is what
too, at how thin horizontal marks mysteri- "keeps it where it is, but simultaneously it
ously extrude from the surface of the largest draws you into somewhere else."2 In this
applied sheet, as if some pressure exerted by way, Night Driver becomes an objective
mark-making on the verso had left traces of metaphor of metaphor itself.
subtle indentation. Finally, immersed in the KATHRYN A. TUMA

depths of Night Driver's domain, one comes

to discern how the darkest of Johns' marks
become those to which one turns to orient Provenance Notes
Leo Castelli Gallery, New 1. Ruth E. Fine and Nan
one's looking—how in the overall dimness York; Everett Ellin Gallery, Rosenthal, "Interview with
it is counterintuitively on the blackest of his Los Angeles; Leo Castelli Jasper Johns," in The
Gallery, New York; Mr. Drawings of Jasper Johns
marks one ultimately focuses attention. [exh. cat., National Gallery
and Mrs. Robert Rowan,
Consisting primarily of variant shades Pasadena; Arman, New of Art] (Washington,
York; Ben Heller Inc., New 1990), 82.
of black worked up in layers of soft charcoal
York; Robert and Jane
2. Quoted in Robert
and the greater density of pastel, Night Dri- Meyerhoff, 1978.
Saltonstall Mattison,
ver's, palette also discloses highlights of green, Masterworks in the Robert
and Jane Meyerhoff Collec-
blue, and yellow as well as rubbings of white,
tion (New York, 1995), 22.
which mix with the black to lighten it in
places to shades of gray. And although
underlying hues on the smaller sheets of
paper are also covered with dark marks,
those sheets radiate a warmer tonality that
confers a candescence on the work as a
whole, lightening its dusky sobriety. The
largest of the applied sheets, at some point
stapled to the supporting sheet of paper, has
been irregularly cut along its edges, both
surfaces then reworked after layering. Now
unstapled, the top sheet curls slightly at its
edges to reveal glimpses of the supporting
paper. This curvature creates a narrow lip,

216
217
 Motherwell is considered an "action lick the astronomer's eye into an expansive
painter," a subcategory of abstract expres- awareness of decisive occurrence.... It is not
sionism. His images are born of a reaction picayune water-pistol that spurts Mother-
to his materials, here including the texture well's automatism, but a proud Big Bertha
of the paper, paint, and brush. The surface that rears its muzzle into the blank sky and
of this work documents the process of his asks no quarter from critics of controlled
drawing. In the 19405 Robert Motherwell combustions."1
had experimented with tapping into the col- K A T H R Y N M. R U D Y
99 lective unconscious through the doodling
ROBERT process. This spontaneous automatism,
MOTHERWELL which had also intrigued the surrealists, Provenance Notes
Estate of the artist; i. ArtNews (May 1961), 10.
American, 1915-1991 motivated Motherwell's forms in various Dedalus Foundation.
graphic media for the next several decades.
Black Shapes, 1961
In Black Shapes a combination of paint
acrylic that Motherwell applied with volition and
737 x 584 mm (29 x 23) paint dripped by chance animates the field
The Nancy Lee and of the drawing. A roughly horizontal band,
Perry Bass Fund, 1999 with loops and spatters that break its con-
tour, strikes out across the page above two
upright forms that almost mirror one
another. The soft brush, its reserve of paint
diminishing near the end of each stroke,
reveals the trail of each bristle. The overall
motif is reminiscent of a Chinese character
and suggests the artist's urge to commu-
nicate, however cryptically. Later in the
decade, in 1968, Motherwell would experi-
ment with a series, beginning with Imagi-
nary Letter #i, in which calligraphic strokes
surge across the page.
The artist succeeds in bold mark-making
in the present work, using both additive
and subtractive techniques. A noose of
encrusted paint lies elevated on a bed of
black. A white line is scraped out of the
opaque black surface in the large horizontal
shape at the top of the drawing. The paper
records Mother-well's gestures—fast, bold,
and angry—not to be contained by the
boundaries of the sheet. This work monu-
mentalizes the experience of emotion.
In a review of MotherwelPs paintings at
the Sidney Janis Gallery in 1961—which
relates as well to this drawing—critic Jack
Kroll described the work as "an incendiary
meeting of emotion and gesture," and went
on to explain: "the central blazoning event
has thrown off a galvanic spoor of spatters
and drips that acts like the sun's corona to

218
219
T*
 Smith's method of starting his large- scale base and the painting became a sculpture."3
sculptures by arranging elements against a The spray drawings, which had their genesis
white painted rectangle on the floor of his in arrangements almost identical to the
studio is well documented, both in photo- beginnings of Smith's steel sculptures, can
graphs and in written descriptions.1 The be read as memories of fugitive reliefs,
configurations he initiated in this way were weightless records of constructions that
then tack-welded together and hauled up to existed only briefly. In the present spray
be developed as free-standing structures. drawing Smith made this connection more
100
Always alert to suggestions that presented explicit than he usually did, by anchoring
DAVID SMITH themselves in the course of working, Smith his airborne circular forms on a horizontal
American, 1906-1965 noticed that when he raised these early rectangular "base" and implying a ground
stages of his sculptures, a negative white plane by means of a reserved wider band
Untitled, 1963
image of the configuration remained on at the bottom of the sheet. To complete the
enamel spray paint what was left of the painted rectangle, out- cycle, the insubstantial silhouettes of the
445 x 295 mm lined by the burnt black traces of welding sprays seem in turn to have found a new
(17/2 x ii 5/s) sparks. In the late 19505 and early 19605 he kind of physical reality in a group of eco-
Gift of Candida and began to incorporate this accidentally dis- nomical, graphic, essentially planar painted
Rebecca Smith, in covered method into his repertory of draw- steel sculptures of the early 19605, including
Honor of the 5oth ing and painting techniques, arranging three Primo Piano sculptures of 1962 and
Anniversary of the pieces of cardboard, wood, or steel on sheets 2 Circles, 2 Crows, of 1963 (figure).
National Gallery of Art, of paper or canvas and substituting a spray Paradoxically, the spray drawings also
1991 of paint for the explosion of sparks.2 represent the antithesis of Smith's usual
The practice is vivid evidence of the practice in other media. In contrast to his
seamlessness of Smith's work in various sculptures, which were always made by
media. The white rectangles were equiva- adding discrete part to discrete part, the
lents of the canvas or sheet of paper, an spray drawings result from a process of sub-
analogy reinforced by the fact that by begin- traction, of un-making. In contrast to his
ning his sculptures against a supporting mature ink drawings, which celebrate the
ground plane (no matter how spatially expressive power of gesture, the spray draw-
articulate they would later become) Smith ings seem designed to neutralize or even
gained the freedom to "draw" with chunks eliminate evidence of the hand. Yet despite
of steel as uninhibitedly as he did with their impersonal, distanced facture, their sil-
strokes of the brush, without worrying about houetted shapes are far from impersonal;
structural logic. By starting three-dimen- instead, like Smith's idiosyncratic, large-
sional works as flat arrangements against scale constructions of the period, which they
a continuous surface—in other words, as resemble in miniature, the spray drawings
reliefs—he was also recapitulating his own are potent evocations of a distinctive individ-
evolution from painter to sculptor, a process ual personality. The ghostly images implied
in which, he said, "the canvas became a by the sprays defy gravity; they are struc-
turally impossible, unbuildable, yet no less
David Smith, 2 Circles 2 Crows, confrontational, no less unignorably present
1963, painted white steel,
Collection of Irma and Norman than their most robust steel counterparts.
Braman, photograph by David KAREN WILKIN
Smith

Provenance 2. Washington 1982,

Estate of the artist. 27-28.
3. Garnett McCoy, ed.,
Notes David Smith (New York,
i. E. A. Carmean Jr., David 1973), 82.
Smith [exh. cat., National
Gallery of Art] (Washing-
ton, 1982), 24-37.

220
221
101
ED R U S C H A
American, born 1937

View of the Big

Picture, 1963

colored pencil with pen

and ink over graphite
each of three sheets:
558 x 456 mm (22 x 18)
Gift of the Woodward
Foundation,
Washington, DC, 1976

Drawing on his experience as a commercial successive parallax views. Rather than

graphic artist, Los Angeles-based Ed Ruscha employing the fixed viewpoint of a single
systematically investigated the idea of texts "snapshot" image, Ruscha's vision breaks
on two-dimensional surfaces in the early through the presumed conceptual frame,
19605. By 1962 he had reached something allowing a glimpse "behind the scenes."
of a turning point and conceived Large Calling to mind cartoon flipbooks, the
Trademark with Eight Spotlights, an oil on photographs of Eadweard Muybridge, and
canvas of monumental proportions (5 x n even the predella panels of Renaissance
feet). That painting, now in the collection of altarpieces, this image's cinematic vision
the Whitney Museum of American Art, New is a fitting tribute to the subject. The artist
York, portrays one of the best-known logos used this "stop-action" strategy on at least
of the past century—that of 20th-century one other occasion, for a drawing triptych
Fox—and marks Ruscha's foray into an entitled Smash (1964).l
informal series of one-point perspectival J O N A T H A N F. W A L Z
images.
In 1963 Ruscha revisited the 20th-
century Fox logo as the subject of the pres- Note
i. Reproduced in Ed
ent drawing, View of the Big Picture. This Ruscha, They Call Her
dramatic work, composed of three separate Styrene (London,
2000), n.p.
sheets, challenges any preconceptions one
may have about the seemingly static nature
of images. With tongue in cheek, Ruscha
takes this popular icon and presents three

222
223
 Jacob Lawrence's expressive narratives works) are carefully articulated in both
encompass historical subjects and the con- facial expression and gesture, presenting
temporary quotidian world. Socially con- a fascinating contrast to the geometry of
scious and autobiographical in nature, the the awnings and stalls that structure the
artist's genre scenes focus on his family, scene as it is thrust into the distance, lead-
friends, and community—at home, at work, ing to Mbari.
at play. Invited by the Mbari Artists' and Writ- Street to Mbari represents Lawrence's
ers' Club Cultural Center in Nigeria to stage extraordinarily sympathetic view of a spe-
102
an exhibition of his work, Lawrence first trav- cific place at a specific time. Yet the artist
JACOB LAWRENCE eled to the African republic in late 1962. explained three decades later that the seeds
American, 1917-2000 Back in Nigeria in 1964 with his wife, of his responses to the forms and colors of
painter Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, Nigeria had been planted many years before,
Street to Mbari, 1964
and writing for a Mbari club publication, within the context of his own experience.
tempera over graphite Lawrence indicated that during his earlier Answering an inquiry as to whether "the
565 x 784 mm stay he "became so excited by all the new patterns he saw in the marketplace were
(22 Y4 x 30%) visual forms I found in Nigeria—unusual inspired by the African textiles he was see-
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. color combinations—textures, shapes, and ing, Lawrence replied that his penchant to
James T. Dyke, 1993 the dramatic effect of light—that I felt an see pattern came from his earliest memo-
overwhelming desire to come back as soon ries—of being conscious of patterns in his
as possible to steep myself in Nigerian cul- Harlem community."4
ture so that my paintings, if I'm fortunate, RUTH E. FINE

might show the influence of the great

African artistic tradition."1
Despite difficulties the couple faced on Provenance secure housing, and under
Terry Dintenfass Inc., New constant surveillance,"
their arrival in Nigeria, the eight months York; Dr. and Mrs. Marvin according to Gwendolyn
they spent there were artistically productive L. Radoff; Terry Dintenfass Knight Lawrence; quoted
Inc., New York; purchased
for Lawrence.2 He completed several draw- in Patricia Hills, "The
by the National Gallery Protest Years of the 19605,"
ings and at least eight works in tempera, of Art with designated in Peter T. Nesbitt and
among the most brilliantly colorful and funds. Michelle DuBois, Over the
Line: The Art and Life of
structurally complex of which is Street to Jacob Lawrence, University
Mbari.3 This meticulously worked painting Notes
1. Irma Rothstein Papers,
of Washington Press in
Association with Jacob
on paper is a celebration of the intense light microfilm roll D286, Lawrence Catalogue
Archives of American Art;
and heat of the Nigerian midday, the tremen- Raisonne Project (Seattle,
quoted in Ellen Harkins 2000), 182.
dous variety of activities within the village Wheat, Jacob Lawrence:
American Painter [exh. 3. See Peter T. Nesbitt
community, and the marvelously rich pat- and Michelle DuBois,
cat., Seattle Art Museum]
terning of color that had so inspired the (Seattle, 1986), 108; in a Jacob Lawrence: Paintings,
footnote to the original Drawings, and Murals
artist on his previous visit. More dramati- (1935~1999)> a Catalogue
source (p. 199) Wheat sug-
cally than the other of Lawrence's Nigerian gests "it is possible that Raisonne, University of
Lawrence's statement Washington Press in
marketplace views, this street scene deeply association with Jacob
regarding African artistic
recedes into space, offering radical differ- influence is based more on Lawrence Catalogue
diplomacy than on desire." Raisonne Project (Seattle
ences in the sizes of the myriad shop- and London, 2000),
keepers and customers; babies at play or 2. The Lawrences went to no. P64-03; see also
Africa independently, not P64-O2, P64-O4
nursing at their mothers' breasts; statuesque under the auspices of the through P64-O9,
women simultaneously bearing children on United States Information and 064-01 through
Agency, which often spon- 064-06.
their backs and baskets of food on their sored artists' trips abroad
4. Hills in Nesbitt and
heads; chickens and sheep, among the during the 19605. The
DuBois, Over the Line, 183.
couple was "black-listed
numerous varieties of animals; exotic food- upon arrival, unable to
stuffs and the dazzling bolts of fabric that
are essential to the celebratory aura of the
image. Dozens of figures (more than had
heretofore appeared in any of Lawrence's

224
225
 In the spring of 1949 while living in Paris, Notes 5. Knowles 1972, 73-77;
1. E. C. Goosen, Ellsworth New York 1973, 97;
Ellsworth Kelly began to make line drawings Kelly [exh. cat., Museum and Linda Nochlin, in
of plants. A hyacinth he bought for his of Modern Art] (New York, Ellsworth Kelly: Drawings
1973) 96. 2961-2962 [exh. cat,
room provided his first subject.1 That sum- Matthew Marks Gallery]
2. Telephone conversation
mer Kelly produced a group of drawings with the artist, 8 January (New York, 1999), 8.
while on Belle-He off the west coast of 2001. 6. Telephone conversation,
8 January.
France.2 He was also making automatic 3. New York 1973, 19.

drawings at that time, exploring ways to 4. Barbara Debs Knowles,

103 introduce more spontaneity into his work.3
"Ellsworth Kelly's Draw-
ings," Print Collectors
ELLSWORTH KELLY It is notable that his plant drawings were Newsletter 4 (September -
October 1972), 73-77; and
American, born 1923 initiated not even a year after Kelly made his New York 1973, 97.
first abstractions and have continued inter-
Small Oak, 1964
mittently alongside his paintings and sculp-
graphite tures throughout his career.4
573 x 726 mm In Small Oak Kelly's elegant forms are
(229/i6X28 9 /i6) in full evidence. This is the second of four
Gift of the Woodward drawings on the subject the artist made in
Foundation, 1964, each rendered with sureness and
Washington, DC, 1976 grace in an even and nearly continuous
graphite line. The closed shapes of the
leaves and the narrow stem endow the pris-
tine form with its own mass and set it apart
from the "background" of white paper. Sub-
tle inflections appear in the undulating line,
caused by changes in direction and pressure
on the pencil. These provide a glint of the
artist's hand.
Despite stylistic differences, Kelly's
drawings have often been compared to those
of Henri Matisse,5 based on their shared
focus on contour line. As Kelly points out,
however, Matisse's forms are generally open,
whereas his are almost always closed.6 This
emphasis on the closed form links Kelly's
drawings directly with his shaped canvas
paintings and sculptures. The exquisite ren-
dering of the natural form in the present
work conveys a perfection much like that in
his paintings. In Small Oak the delicate
motif and medium balance with the struc-
tural strength of Kelly's self-contained con-
tour form to create a subtle tension that is
characteristic of his best work.
MOLLY D O N O V A N

226
227
ro
 Agnes Martin has been a painter since the Notes 2. John Gruen, "Agnes
i. Carter Ratcliffe, "Agnes Martin: Everything, every-
early 19305 when she came to the United Martin and the 'artificial thing is about feeling...
States from her native Saskatchewan. Her infinite,'" ArtNews 72 (May feeling and recognition,"
1973), 26. ArtNews 75 (September
work did not mature (or "get on the right
1976), 94.
track," as she puts it) until 1957, when she
settled in Coenties Slip, New York, the
neighborhood of Ellsworth Kelly and Ad
Reinhardt, with whom she had in common
104 a rejection of 19505 painterliness. Over the
AGNES MARTIN next ten years she created a large and con-
American, born in sistent body of work in a severely reduction-
Canada, 1912 ist style.1
Most of the works of this period are
Water Flower, 1964
made up of lines and grids. Unlike graph
pen and ink with wash paper, in which a grid of squares occupies
over graphite a rectangular field, Martin's grids are made
301 x 303 mm up of rectangles on a square field. For Mar-
(11% XII'5/16) tin the rectangle drains the stability from
Gift of the Woodward the square and introduces more chaotic
Foundation, elements into it, and it is this interplay
Washington, DC, 1976 between the stasis of the square and the
quixotic nature of the rectangles that imbues
her work with its underlying tension.
With its multitude of empty rectangles,
Water Flower is like a piece of graph paper
on which nothing has yet been drawn. The
ground on which Martin has established her
grid is a gray wash, ranging in tone from
cool to warm and overflowing the confines
of the square to fill the borders. The white
ink lines of the grid seem to skim the sur-
face of the paper; sometimes they are crisp
and emphatic, sometimes they are delicate
or broken. The overall impression is of a
shimmering, sometimes floating, some-
times immersed field.
Martin described how she came to use
the grid motif: "I was coming out of the
mountains, and... I came out on this plain,
and I thought, Ah! What a relief!... This is
for me! The expansiveness of it. I sort of
surrendered. This plain... it was just like
a straight line. It was a horizontal line
Then, I found that the more I drew that
line, the happier I got. First I thought it was
just like the sea... then, I thought it was like
singing! Well, I just went to town on this
horizontal line. But I didn't like it without
any verticals."2
JULIA THOMPSON

229
 Agnes Martin's works from the mid-igGos Notes
1. Martin's father, who died
shift back and forth between the expression
when she was a child, was
of external and internal states. While some a wheat farmer.
works refer to generalized, enveloping 2. Joan Simon, "Perfection
is in the mind: an inter-
aspects of nature, others speak to the indi-
view with Agnes Martin,"
vidual's response to nature; still others do Art in America 84 (May
both simultaneously. 1996), 124.

Wheat depicts a grid made up of deli-

105 cately traced lines of black ink on buff-
AGNES MARTIN colored paper. The rectangles of this grid are
American, born in not empty; each contains a dot of white pig-
Canada, 1912 ment. While these dots are not drawn exactly
in the center of each rectangle, they are not
Wheat, 1964
randomly placed either. As the viewer's eye
pen and ink with travels over the drawing, the impression
gouache created by the dots is of a swaying, undulat-
300 x 300 ing field of glistening stalks. It evokes not
(II '3/,6 X I I '3/,6) only the sensation of a vast, ever-changing
Gift of the Woodward landscape but also a profound connection to
Foundation, that landscape.1
Washington, DC, 1976 Over time the meaning of the grid
changed for Martin. She came to consider
her work to be nonobjective—"not about
the world, or nature or things like that" —
and she began to make her first fully
abstract paintings. She refuted the earlier
version of how she came to use the grid
motif (see cat. 104). The grid "came to me
as an inspiration. I was thinking about inno-
cence, and then I saw it in my mind—that
grid. And so I thought, well, I'm supposed
to paint what I see in my mind. So I painted
it, and sure enough, it was innocent. The
grid expresses innocence Art is a concrete
representation of our most subtle feelings/'2
JULIA THOMPSON

230
231
 Best known for her work as a postminimal- rior shapes recall the biomorphs of Arshile
ist sculptor between the mid-igGos and Gorky, whom Hesse admired, and the paral-
1970—an artist who brought a sense of the lel hatchings and repeated squares on some
body and the organic into the regular and of the collage elements prefigure Hesse's
serially repeating geometric modules pio- later simple, repeated modules. The even
neered by such abstract sculptors as Donald colors of the two collage pieces on the right
Judd, Robert Morris, and Carl Andre—Eva flatten the overall image, establishing a tense
Hesse originally aspired to be a painter. As a dialogue with the flowing colors and gestural
io6 master of fine arts candidate at Yale between lines that evokes an ambiguous space.
EVA HESSE 1957 and 1959, she studied color relations Belonging to the earliest of Hesse's
American, born in under Josef Albers, and her early drawings German drawings, this sheet reveals strong
Germany, 1936-1970 and paintings from the 19605 show the continuities with some of the multimedia
influence of abstract expressionists like works she had made in the previous two
Untitled, 1964
Willem de Kooning and Adolph Gottlieb, years, owing to its emphasis on what Hesse
watercolor, gouache, among others. called her "free crazy forms" and "wild"
felt-tip pen, ink, and In 1964, however, her work began to fluctuating space.1 In comparison with the
collage develop in new directions. Returning that drawings that followed, it is among the least
441 x 584 mm summer to her native Germany, where she geometric and most unconstrained and ges-
(i73/s x 23) and her husband, sculptor Tom Doyle, were tural of her German works. In addition to
Gift of Werner H. and to live and work for the next fifteen months the unpredictable contrasts between flatness
Sarah-Ann Kramarsky, under the patronage of F. Arnhard Schiedt, and volume, gesture and stillness, cutting
1998 a German textile manufacturer and art col- and stroking, mechanical and organic form
lector, Hesse began to concentrate more on in this drawing, the most impressive quality
drawing, which led to her first sculptures in is the sheer labor of its execution: not only
1965. In these breakthrough drawings of the layering and interpenetration of its
1964 and 1965, in which mechanical and media and forms but also the sense of its
geometrical forms gradually came to domi- having been worked and reworked. Hesse
nate the more gestural abstract elements, called her best work "absurd," by which she
Hesse experimented with a range of tech- meant enigmatic, thought-provoking, and
niques and formal combinations, moving multivalent.2 Here she seems to play with
back and forth between gesture and geome- different gestures and shapes, augmenting,
try, until a focus on line and contour impelled transforming, or replacing one or the other
her to move into the third dimension. element until the resulting whole evinced
In this untitled and wonderfully enig- the unpredictability of form and connotation
matic work, Hesse demonstrates the contra- that she craved at this time.
diction that was characteristic of her drawing MATTHEW BIRO

during these years. A predominantly pink,

flowing swath of watercolor sweeps in from
the top left to the lower right of the slightly Provenance 1964-1965," in Eva Hesse:
Estate of the artist; Kate Drawing in Space—Bilder
textured white paper, creating an airy and
Ganz, Ltd., New York; und Reliefs [exh. cat.,
shallow volume, which is built up in places Werner H. and Sarah-Ann Ulmer Museum] (Ulm,
with ink and areas of translucent white Kramarsky, 1993. 1994), 113.

gouache. Within this pinkish "mass," hard 2. See Ellen H. Johnson,

Notes
"Drawing in Eva Hesse's
ink outlines define shapes that suggest both i. Letter from Hesse to Work," in Eva Hesse: A
cellular forms and machine parts. Three Sol LeWitt, 18 March 1965; Retrospective of the Draw-
quoted in Helen A. Cooper, ings [exh. cat., Allen
large collage elements also appear: an irregu- Memorial Art Museum]
"From the Chronology:
lar white lozenge with color markings at the Eva Hesse in Germany, (Oberlin, 1982), 14.

lower left of the pink swath; a squarish shape

with a curving yellow tail at the lower right;
and a multicolored shape with fanlike articu-
lations at the upper right. The simple inte-

232
CM
 Between 1951 and 1953 Robert Rauschen- generalized vision of the second half of the
berg developed his technique of "combine" twentieth century as a Dantean inferno.2
painting, a process that integrated gestural A range of newspaper images here
strokes and blotches of paint with mass- reflects the social and political turmoil of the
produced elements such as newspaper 19505 and 19605; Kennedy's Cadillac in the
photographs and common objects such as crosshairs of a rifle scope, Hell's Angels in
clocks, chairs, and ladders. After the ascen- handcuffs, nooses and cross burnings by the
dancy of the largely nonobjective abstract Ku Klux Klan, George Wallace campaigning,
107 expressionists of the late 19405, this tech- Malcolm X making a speech, strippers and
ROBERT nique not only reintroduced representa- patrons of pornographic movies, anti-Semitic
RAUSCHENBERG tional imagery into the painterly vocabulary propaganda, and Adolf Eichmann on trial.
American, born 1925 of the American avant-garde but also coun- Overlapping images of Adolf Hitler, atomic
tered the belief that painting could directly mushroom clouds, destroyed cities and trees,
Drawings For Dante's
reveal the artist's psyche or "self." and living and dead victims in the Nazi con-
700 Birthday, I.B. and
Rauschenberg's combines, recalling abstract centration camps vividly convey a dark trajec-
II.B.,i965
expressionism through their large sizes, tory of horror in the twentieth century.
graphite, watercolor, shallow pictorial spaces, and "relational" Symbols of technology—cars, motorcycles,
and gouache over compositions (with colors and marks bal- trucks, helicopters, a workman standing in
photolithograph anced against one another), "recast the exis- a huge pipe—and the menacing face of a
each of two sheets: tentialist discovery of the self as a discovery screaming baboon increase the violence of
382 x 790 mm of the environment from which the self the images and suggest dangerous aspects
(15x317/16) takes its form."1 of technological and industrial development.
Gift of the Woodward Although Rauschenberg eventually Juxtaposed with one another to create a
Foundation, moved away from the combine process, he staccato but balanced composition, and fur-
Washington, DC, 1976 continued to appropriate images from the ther integrated through Rauschenberg's
mass media, first through the technique of abstract play of color and gesture, the picto-
solvent transfer drawing (see cat. 97) and rial elements resolve into a formally complex
later, under the influence of Andy Warhol in and harmonious design. The relationship
the early 19605, through the processes of between the top and bottom fields adds
photosilkscreening and photolithography. another dimension to the work: not only do
Moreover, Rauschenberg's appropriated the larger images on the bottom (which are
images, used as much for their formal also fewer in number) provide a slight relief
qualities as for their reference or seman- from the multitude of smaller images on the
tics, continued to suggest the distracted top, but the color scheme creates a sense of
or dissociated consciousness of a modern "random order" and connection in this
urban dweller. highly disparate and chaotic work. Despite
In Drawings For Dante's 700 Birthday, the horror that Rauschenberg discovers
LB. and II.B., Rauschenberg creates an omi- around him, he seems to suggest that bal-
nous portrait of the early 19605. He juxta- ance and form can still be achieved through
poses imagery from his own contemporary disciplined and creative activity. Even if one
moment with that of World War II and, can no longer assign meaning to the era, one
through his title's reference to Dante, recalls can still find beauty in its turbulent chaos.
his own Inferno series of 1959 and 1960, MATTHEW BIRO

probably his most symbolic works. There,

Rauschenberg used mass-media images to
provide ambiguous illustrations for each of Notes 2. Similar to the contem-
i. Jonathan Fineberg, Art poraneous "Modern
the thirty-four cantos of Dante's Inferno. In
Since 1940: Strategies of Inferno," published in Life
contrast, Drawings For Dante's 700 Birthday Being, 2nd ed. (New York, magazine (17 December
do not illustrate a particular moment in 2000), 178. 1965), 49-51.

Dante's narrative; rather, they present a

234
S£z
 Decorated cakes, repeated wedges of cherry cream that melts into a pool at the left.
pie, and other intensely colored foodstuffs Throughout the 196os Thiebaud manipu-
were the subjects Wayne Thiebaud depicted lated the relationship between paint and
in his mature still-life paintings of the early subject matter, trying to bring the two
19605. He painted desserts, hotdogs, and as close together as possible so that white,
gumball machines, all subjects that exempli- gooey, shiny, sticky oil paint would "become"
fied popular American eating habits. He frosting. He played with the properties of
continued these themes, in numerous com- materials to create an illusion.
io8 positional variations, through the 19905. Each cake has been carefully—perhaps
WAYNE THIEBAUD Thiebaud referred to black-and-white stud- industriously—molded, and Thiebaud
American, born 1920 ies, such as the present one, as he developed adorns each with viscous "frosting," trans-
paintings and prints (see figure). forming them into icons of American cele-
Study of Cakes,
Misidentified as pop art because of its bration, not necessarily for wedding,
c. 1965
similarities with Andy Warhol's repeated anniversary, or birthday, but for quotidian
brush and ink with images of commercial products, Thiebaud's indulgence.
gouache work has more to do with an exploration of K A T H R Y N M. R U D Y
564 x 768 mm textures and repeated familiar forms than
(22/4X30%) with mechanically reproduced mass culture.
Gift of the Thiebaud The serial arrangement of the cakes seen Note
i. Adam Gopnik, "An
Family, in Honor of here emphasizes their commonality as American Painter," Wayne
the 5oth Anniversary of much as their individuation. As one critic Thiebaud: A Paintings Ret-
rospective [exh. cat., Fine
the National Gallery put it, Thiebaud's images have a "double
Arts Museums of San
of Art, 1991 existence in the worlds of Euclid and Betty Francisco] (San Francisco,
Crocker."1 Thiebaud himself insists on the 2000), 53.

traditionally realist nature of his art, and he

takes inspiration from the seventeenth- and
eighteenth-century masters Johannes
Vermeer and Jean Simeon Chardin.
In this drawing Thiebaud's fluid ink
slinks and spirals over the surface of the
paper, as if it had been extruded from a pas-
try bag. The forms include a donut-shaped
slab of chocolate frosting on the cake at the
upper right, a ring of curlicue frosting deco-
rations at the center, and a circle of white

Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes,

1963, oil on canvas,
National Gallery of Art,
Washington, Gift in
Honor of the 5oth
Anniversary of the
National Gallery of Art
from the Collectors Com-
mittee, the 5oth Anniver-
sary Gift Committee, and
The Circle, with Addi-
tional Support from the
Abrams Family in Memory
of Harry N. Abrams, 1991

236
237
 The two strong horizontals at the bottom of Provenance 2. Interview with Robert
Estate of the artist; Motherwell, in Robert
the composition unite this work with others Dedalus Foundation. Motherwell in California
from the Beside the Sea series that Mother- Collections [exh. cat., Otis
well began around 1962.1 Certain images in Notes
Art Institute Gallery] (Los
Angeles, 1974), n.p.; see
the series explore colors such as blue and i. See David Rosand, ed., Stephanie Terenzio, Robert
Robert Motherwell on Paper: Motherwell e[ Black [exh.
yellow, which suggest the radiance of light Drawings, Prints, Collages cat., William Benton
on water. This one relies on pure black. [exh. cat., Miriam and Ira Museum of Art, University
D. Wallach Art Gallery, of Connecticut] (Storrs,
Motherwell described his approach: "When
109 I use black, I don't use it the way most
Columbia University]
(New York, 1997), nos.
CT, 1980), 42.
3. Jack D. Flam, "With
ROBERT people think of it, as the ultimate tone 53-55-
Robert Motherwell," in
MOTHERWELL of darkness, but as much a color as white Robert Motherwell [exh.
cat., Albright-Knox Art
American, 1915-1991 or vermilion, or lemon yellow or purple, Gallery] (Buffalo, 1983), 12.
despite the fact that black is not color, non-
Beside the Sea #42,
being, if you like. Then what more natural
1966
than a passionate interest in juxtaposing
brush and ink black and white, being and nonbeing, life
778 x 565 mm and death?.. .There are many artists who
(30 5 /8X 22%) paint in black and white, but essentially
The Nancy Lee and they're not thinking of them as colors."2
Perry Bass Fund, 1999 The two broad horizontals lend weight
to the image; they extend beyond the paper,
as if they cannot be contained by it. The
black shape above is large and expulsive;
it marks not only the gesture of a brush on
paper but also the velocity of the gesture, its
vigor and direction. The drips are all caught
with sheer dynamism in the act of flight.
The lines of splashing arrange themselves
like vectors radiating from a single point,
resembling a high-speed study in perspec-
tive. The bold horizon line below—the
source of the pool of black—suggests the
sea collapsing into a storm.
Jack Flam has noted, "In Motherwell's
work, the acts of painting and drawing are
simultaneous. Because of this, even Mother-
well's largest paintings often have the spon-
taneity of his drawings, and his smallest
drawings can have some of the richness of
the largest paintings. In either case, mean-
ing is inseparable from the act of making."3
K A T H R Y N M. R U D Y

238
6£z
 In the hands of Jasper Johns the most uniqueness and particularity of the way the
straightforward subject matter—here the shape of each stenciled numeral submits to
repeated sequence of single-digit numerals the irregularities of the artist's hand, as each
from o to 9 arranged within the pattern of a occupies differentially its allotted space.
grid—becomes an opportunity to elaborate More, the granules of metallic powder have
conceptual questions of the highest order of attached variably to the picture's surface,
complexity. Johns frequently makes use of giving rise to different textures and densities
what appear on the surface to be self-evident and ranges of color. And the warm, bronze
110
subjects—or what he describes as "things color of the wash is dark in some areas yet
JASPER JOHNS the mind already knows"1—not only to revealing in others as traces of the polyester
American, born 1930 accentuate the specific material properties fabric support also show through and pro-
of the work of art but also to bring the meta- vide relief from the dense, coagulated mate-
Numbers, 1966
phorical associations of those properties into riality of this work's rich surface. Even the
graphite with play with conceptual logics that are often nominal linearity of the grid itself, as the
graphite wash and incommensurate with them. In Numbers the structural matrix of the image as a whole,
metallic powder wash artist takes up a motif he had explored in bows to Johns' hand.
on polyester fabric the past: eleven rows and eleven columns Numbers plays with the differences
417 x 337 mm demarcate 121 small rectangular fields, each between systematic regularity of conceptual
(167/16X13/4) of which frames a single numeral whose ordination and the irregularities of irre-
Gift of Leo Castelli outline has been traced with a stencil. The ducible material particularity. That the grid
in Memory of Toiny numerals progress regularly from left to of eleven rows and eleven columns of
Castelli, 1989 right, each row consecutively beginning with numerals from o to 9, moreover, is estab-
a numeral larger by one than that initiating lished according to a number that its fields
the previous row. A single unit at the upper do not figure—according, in other words,
left corner has been left blank so that the to the number "eleven"—proposes a subtle
diagonal ordination from top left to bottom point: that which constitutes the whole of
right also maintains consecutive numeric a work of art will always be greater than
regularity. the sum of its parts. And as if to press this
As conceptual abstractions, numbers point, Numbers is also one of a series of
organize and quantify particulars by reduc- Numbers, each distinct, unique, and inequiv-
ing them to the status of equivalents (by alent by virtue of those aesthetic particulari-
the logic of addition, for example, 1 + 1 = 2 ties that make it one and not another.
only if it is initially agreed that i = i). Johns KATHRYN A. TUMA

underscores this principle of equivalence

in Numbers: the use of the stencil formally
identifies a particular numeral 9 with all the Provenance Note
The artist to Leo Castelli. i. Nan Rosenthal, "Draw-
others; the overall surface of the work has ing as Rereading," in The
been treated in the same way, with metallic Drawings of Jasper Johns
[exh. cat., National Gallery
powder applied over a layer of graphite
of Art] (Washington,
wash; and the grid's systematizing of picto- 1990), 15.
rial space not only upholds equivalence
among each of the rectangular subdivisions
that constitute the picture's overall struc-
tural format but also implies a logical rela-
tion of each part to that larger rectangle
which is the whole.
Yet Johns undermines this principle of
equivalence at the conceptual level of the
aesthetic. Neither the stenciling nor the gen-
eralized treatment of surface nor the sys-
tematicity of the grid is able to reduce the

240
M
CJ
 An incessant draftsman since childhood,1 mation: as they tumble off the cake, they
Oldenburg developed an extremely sophisti- approximate the red double-decker buses on
cated line, which he could freely vary. This the street. As always with Oldenburg, sexual
talent flowered in the decade 1958-1968 overtones are also clear:7 the slang meaning
when he formed his mature styles. He of the fruits above and below reinforces the
explored markedly different types of draw- implications of the rigid tines of the fork
ing, from the roughly torn and darkened piercing this soft confection, a hilarious
edges of cardboard and newspaper collages Oldenburgian metaphor, especially when
Ill of 1960-19612 to the firmly geometric and one realizes that this monument replaces
CLAES OLDENBURG extensively hatched works of igGy-igGg. 3 the statue of Eros in the center of the Cir-
American, born 1929 Another favored style, both in the 19605 cus. Not missing a trick, Oldenburg even
and later, is seen here in the free-form and props the fork on the building that contains
Fork Cutting Cake
rotund line, which speeds loosely across the the famous Cafe Royal, just the place where
No. i: Proposed
page. Its freedom evokes as much as defines one could order such a cake.8
Colossal Monument
forms, brilliantly enhancing the transforma- ANDREW ROBISON
for Piccadilly Circus,
tion of objects into other objects in Olden-
London, 1966
burg's Rorschach visual thought. Lighting
crayon and watercolor and interior modeling are created with Provenance 6. The first real monu-
John Weber Gallery, New ment was the 1969 Yale
380 x 560 mm apparently casual but deftly telling splashes York; private collection, Lipstick, described by Old-
(l4'5/i6X22 I /i6) of watercolor. This style culminated in Chicago; Grant-Selwyn enburg in Barbara Haskell,
Fine Art, New York and Claes Oldenburg: Object into
Director's Discretionary 1965-1966 in Oldenburg's extraordinary
Los Angeles; Marlborough Monument (Pasadena,
Fund, 2000 proposals for colossal monuments. Gallery, New York, 2000, 1971), 96. An excellent
lot 101. recent survey of his exe-
These proposals played with the visual
cuted monuments is given
and emotional effects of grotesque enlarge- by Mark Rosenthal, Ger-
Notes mane Celant, and Dieter
ments of ordinary household and personal 1. Barbara Rose, Claes Old- Koepplin, in Claes Olden-
objects or body parts to take an unexpectedly enburg (New York, 1970), burg: An Anthology [exh.
19- 23, 27. cat., National Gallery of
dominant place among grand architectural
2. Corresponding, of Art] (Washington, 1995),
and public places.4 In one of Oldenburg's course, to the rough edges 254-283,364-413,
most basic principles, "nothing is irrelevant, of "The Street" sculptures 472-535-
and the roughly molded
everything can be used."5 Originally the pro- and painted plaster objects
7. As Oldenburg says
about the erotic element in
posals for colossal monuments were so in "The Store." his art, "If you ignore that,
tongue-in-cheek that one cannot imagine 3. See, for instance, Olden- you're missing the point";
burg's "Colossal Fagend in and note Haskell's pithy
Oldenburg actually thought they would be Park Setting" in this exhi- summary: "All of Olden-
built; it was only later that some, amazingly, bition (cat. 114). burg's objects are surro-
gates for the body or parts
were executed.6 It is especially in the wild 4. An excellent brief sum-
of the body"; see Haskell
mary on the sources,
and wonderful inspiration or conception humor, and some potential
1971, 10 and 8.

drawings of the mid-1960s, however, that sociopolitical implications 8. Giving pointed meaning
of Oldenburg's proposals to Barbara Rose's sum-
they have their most provocative and mary, "The monuments
for colossal monuments of
delightfully outrageous life. the mid-1960s is given in are also a distillation of
Rose 1970,103-105. whatever is, to Oldenburg,
Here the monument is clearly meant for the essence of a particular
5. Quoted in Rose 1970, 9.
Piccadilly Circus (thus the "P.C." at bottom place, the composite of
sensations he has regis-
left), but Oldenburg has dislodged the loca- tered in that environment"
tion slightly to the base of Regent Street (Rose 1970, 105).

(note the curved buildings on the right). A

dirty pink sky effectively recalls the evening
skies of industrial cities like London. The
splendidly artificial-looking cake of food-
coloring-yellow layers with thick white icing
and glossy cherries is true to everyone's
memories of such sweets. The giant cher-
ries also allow Oldenburg a typical transfor-

243
 Initially enthusiastic about abstract expres- an inch wide, is filled in with a different
sionism—"particularly the size of the paint- color, and narrow, irregular, blank spaces
ings and the wholeness of the gesture"1 — separate the color bands.
Frank Stella soon rejected many of the qual- Unlike the paintings of the Protractor
ities associated with this school. In 1959 Series, which were shaped, Stella's drawing
he began his series of Black Paintings: is an abstract image on a rectangular ground.
large, deep canvases, painted in enamel, But if one concentrates on the image alone,
and entirely composed of narrow, repeating Stella's strategy of deductive structure
112
black stripes against a white, barely visible remains clear. The main interior shapes mir-
FRANK STELLA ground. Inspired in part by the example of ror both one another and the overall shape
American, born 1936 Jasper Johns, Stella's breakthrough works of the defining outline; and through this rep-
undermined the psychological content of etition, compositional decisions are reduced
Drawing for Lincoln
abstract expressionist painting as well as its (though not eliminated). Stella's concern with
Center Poster, 1967
shallow, illusionistic spaces and its emphasis flatness and anti-illusionism also continues.
felt-tip pen on graph on "relational painting, i.e., the balancing of First, the bands are interlaced to create maxi-
paper various parts with and against each other."2 mum flatness. No band passes in front of all
988 x 746 mm Resolutely antisubjective and flat, Stella's the other bands, which undermines a reading
(385/16x293/8) Black Paintings obviated many of the deci- of one band as standing before all the others.
Gift of the Woodward sions involved in painterly composition Then, in the two circles many of the same
Foundation, through a strategy that art critic Michael Fried colors repeat asymmetrically in each protrac-
Washington, DC, 1976 called "deductive structure," namely, the prac- tor half, which flattens the image by denying
tice of deriving the "depicted" shape of the the illusion of different color levels placed on
figure from the "literal" shape of the canvas.3 top of one another. Finally, an extra band fol-
Exploring the relationship between these two lowing the outside curve of each protractor
aspects of abstract painting during the 19605, invades the body of its "mate": for example,
Stella first developed the shaped canvas (not two pink curves echo the center double pro-
square or rectangular). He reintroduced color tractor and extend into the upper and lower
contrast, spatial illusionism, and relational vertical protractors, while purple and yellow
composition as his painting evolved. orange curves echo the left and right vertical
Stella's Drawing for Lincoln Center Poster protractors and break up the interior of the
presents a good example of just how far his center double protractor.
abstract and resolutely formalist painting had Despite the deductive structure, Stella's
developed by the late 19605. Related to his drawing is highly composed. Not only do
monumental Protractor Series, comprising the complex color juxtapositions convey the
ninety-three wall-sized paintings created sense of careful composition, but Stella's
between 1967 and 1971, this drawing is meticulous interlaces, which do not mirror
based on the repetition of one simple form one another, create a multiplicity of differ-
or module—the half-circle or protractor ent forms. Drawing for Lincoln Center Poster
shape. Using a commercial graph paper grid, thus demonstrates how radical diversity can
Stella built up a complex image with multi- emerge out of the simplest of forms.
colored, felt-tip pens. A circle at the lower MATTHEW BIRO

right is constructed of two protractors joined

vertically, while a second circle is formed by
the conjunction of two horizontally oriented Notes 2. Frank Stella, lecture at
i. Frank Stella, interviewed Pratt Institute, 1960,
protractors, and a single protractor shape quoted in Rubin 1970, 22.
by Alan Solomon for
caps the composition at the upper left. The "U.S.A. Artists," produced 3. See Michael Fried, Art
three primary elements, intersecting one for National Educational and Objecthood: Essays and
Television and published Reviews (Chicago, 1998),
another at their exact midpoints, each com- in William S. Rubin, Frank 77-99, 213-265, and
posed of protractor modules consisting of Stella [exh. cat., Museum 277-278.
of Modern Art] (New York,
three concentric bands surrounding an inner 1970), 9.
field. Each band, measuring five-sixteenths of

244
Ste
 Although much of the writing on Saul view from his window, and orderly Utopias
Steinberg seems obliged to defend his posi- constructed of pens and their cases, palettes,
tion as an artist, from the postmodern point protractors, and sketchbooks.2
of view there can be little doubt. Steinberg Like so many of Steinberg's drawings,
was not a cartoonist; he made art. Born La Scala di Ferro is a passport to other loca-
in Romania, the son of a bookbinder and tions and a play on the present and the past.
maker of cardboard boxes, he studied litera- It is an essay on authority made light of,

T3
ture, philosophy, sociology, and psychology and at the same time granted importance.
in Bucharest, then architecture in Milan. In And it is a short course on techniques of
SAUL STEINBERG gg 1941 he fled the war in Europe, emigrating replication: the printed bill, the ornamented
American, born in to South America and then to the United envelope, the postage stamps with their offi-
Romania, 1914-1999 States in 1942. Between 1944 and 1946 he cial cancellation, and three nonsense stamps
traveled widely as a correspondent for the of Steinberg's devising. The choice of
La Scala di Ferro,
New Yorker before settling in the city that imagery ranges from caprice to careful
1967 would become the center of his icono- selection, from consciously styled naivete
graphite, pen and ink, graphic universe.1 to deliberate sophistication. However,
colored pencil, rubber The chronicle of Steinberg's education Steinberg leaves no doubt about his claim
stamp, and collage and travels is essential to interpreting the to authorship, having signed the drawing
500 x 649 mm eccentricities of his imagery and the quirky in four variations and then sealed it with
n 9
(l9 /i6X 25 /i6)
) perspectives he projected onto the world the ironic flat thump of his stamp.
Gift of Evelyn and around him. His work is permeated with PETER PARSHALL
Leonard Lauder, 1986 literary and philosophical references and
shaped by the psychology of a multilingual
itinerant who, through his migrations, bore Notes berg, Saul Steinberg [exh.
i. For an abbreviated cat., Whitney Museum of
a love/hate relationship with officialdom. chronology of Steinberg's American Art] (New York,
He collected records and documents of all life, see Saul Steinberg: 1978), 10-36. For an espe-
Zeichnungen, Aquarelle, cially literate response, see
sorts, deployed illegible passages of notary- Collagen, Gemalde, Reliefs— John Updike, "On Saul
like scrawl in his drawings, and commis- 1963-1974 [exh. cat., Steinberg (1914-1999),"
Kolnischer Kunstverein] in New York Review of Books
sioned rubber stamps with indecipherable
(Cologne, 1974), 10-30. A (24 June 1999), 12-13.
legends to "validate" his compositions. sweeping interpretation of
2. Bernice Rose, "Drawing
La Scala di Ferro (The Iron Staircase) the intellectual context for
Tables," in Drawing into
Steinberg's work and his
seems to have begun with the careful place- Being [exh. cat., Pace
relation to twentieth-cen-
Wildenstein] (New York,
ment of two found elements: a torn airmail tury art in general is put
forward by Harold Rosen- 1999). 7-!5-
envelope with a pair of Belgian commemo-
rative stamps that were lifted from some-
where else and reapplied, and a bill from a
restaurant in Sardinia that lends the draw-
ing its title. From these coordinates Stein-
berg improvised an abstract still life that
coyly parodies the style of synthetic cubism.
The flaglike patterns of color that evoke lad-
ders, rainbows, and military decorations
take their cue from the envelope's border. A
shuffled and flattened architecture of shapes
plays out across a table, implicitly Stein-
berg's own drawing table. His work space
was a favorite microcosm that he variously
transformed into little cityscapes of large
import, whole continents mapped over the

246
247
 Among the most antiheroic subjects Claes style. In Colossal Fagend in Park Setting,
Oldenburg has proposed for monuments Oldenburg beautifies a repellent, vilified
is the lowly "fagend," which emerged as object through his skilled draftsmanship
a theme in his work in 1966 during his and capacity for invention. Although figures
extended stay in London. There he was rarely occur in his monument drawings, in
struck by the abundance of columns and Colossal Fagend in Park Setting a hat-topped
other generally phallic forms, as well as by male figure stands in the fagend's shadow,
an antismoking poster placed around the endowing the monument with tangible scale.
114 city that featured a used ashtray. Oldenburg MARLA PRATHER

CLAES OLDENBURG (a former smoker) collected fagends to see

American, born 1929 if he could discern a pattern in their forms,
then mounted them on cardboard bases. Provenance Pasadena Art Museum]
Colossal Fagend in Sidney Janis Gallery, New (Pasadena, 1971), 37.
"In any scale," he discovered, "the Fagends York; Christophe de Menil,
Park Setting, 1967 Oldenburg's first fagend
are a variable and arbitrary composition."1 New York; Leo Castelli drawings and sculptures,
Gallery, New York; Robert made at the studio of Edi-
graphite and watercolor He was also drawn to the form's metamor-
and Jane Meyerhoff, 1981. tion Alecto, Ltd., were
762 x 562 mm phic capacities. The fagend's cylindrical shape included in a show at the
(30 x 22/8) undergoes transformation by the smoker, Robert Fraser Gallery,
Notes London, 22 November -
Promised Gift of Robert who partially consumes it then crushes An earlier version of this 31 December 1966.
text was published in
and Jane Meyerhoff the remains. Washington 1996. 2. Quoted in Oldenburg:
Throughout the 19605 Oldenburg Six Themes [exh. cat.,
i. Claes Oldenburg, Walker Art Center]
explored several other cylindrical shapes, "Fagends," in Claes (Minneapolis, 1975), 49.
Oldenburg: Object into
such as knees—a ubiquitous image in the Monument [exh. cat.,
heyday of miniskirts—lipsticks, baseball
bats, and drainpipes. These related forms
appealed to the artist as analogues for the
human body: "The minute you make a soft
column, you're making references to flesh,"
he has said, "because the body is composed
of soft columns—fingers, penis, legs—all
those things. It's in the realm of coinciden-
tal structure."2
While in London, Oldenburg made a
group of small drawings featuring the fagend
as a monument for Hyde Park. On his
return to New York, he explored the theme
further in several works, including this draw-
ing, made for a show opening at the Sidney
Janis Gallery on 26 April 1967. In the draw-
ings, which show the fagend in its colossal
incarnation, the park setting becomes the
base/ashtray. In fact the artist seems to
have always associated the fagends with a
natural rather than an urban environment.
Oldenburg had previously presented his
monument proposals in the form of collages
and loosely executed sketches (see cat. in).
In 1967 he began to make larger, more for-
mal presentations in a highly illusionistic

248
S
oSz
 This work features a spare variation on The artist's notion of evanescent resolu-
Mark Rothko's paradigmatic pictorial device: tion in his use of color applies to the bright
softly delineated rectangles set apart by a orange and dark maroon Seagram murals
narrower band. Although the composition as well as to the present work: "My colors
resembles canvases of the artist's classic bring into a single house (close confine-
period, the jarring palette of fiery oranges ment) colors that cannot live together, and
and dark oxblood derives from an impor- the vision of harmony lives only for the
tant series of murals he created as part of moment before it is burst asunder."3
115 a 1958-1959 commission for the Four Sea- Rothko claimed he intended for viewers to
MARK ROTHKO sons restaurant in the Seagram Building in feel trapped in the presence of his murals;4
American, born in New York. Rothko was distressed by the the incongruous palette of these brighter
Russia, 1903-1970 ostentatious setting and withdrew from works contributes to that goal.
the commission before the murals were Using the fast-drying medium of acrylic,
Untitled, 1969
installed. Several factors may have contri- Rothko was able to prepare numerous
acrylic buted to his return to this color scheme a works on paper rapidly. The speed of execu-
1,276 x 1,073 decade later.1 tion is apparent in this image, with its vir-
(50 54x42'4) Following an aortic aneurysm in April tuoso brushwork, particularly in the lower
Gift of The Mark Rothko 1968, Rothko established a foundation dedi- rectangle, composed of sweeping jagged
Foundation, Inc., 1986 cated to his work, necessitating an inventory arcs and vertical strokes. The edges of the
of the objects that remained in his posses- forms are delicately indicated with the
sion. He began the process in November bristles of the artist's brush. Rothko
1968, and over the next several months, extended his brushwork to the margin of
hundreds of works on canvas and paper the right lower corner but balanced the com-
were brought to his East 6gth Street studio position diagonally by indenting the upper
to be photographed, signed, and given left corner of the corresponding field above
inventory numbers. From the first of Janu- it. The artist also subtly paraphrased the
ary 1969 Rothko lived alone in the studio, undulating silhouette of the orange-red cen-
surrounded by his work of past and present ter band in the sinuous right edge of this
as the documentation continued. upper field. With its blackening maroons
Over the course of that year Rothko emerging from a nearly Day-Glo orange
chose a set of Seagram murals to make up ground, this brilliant yet somber work resus-
a gift of paintings to the Tate Gallery that he citates the power and tension of Rothko's
had contemplated since 1965. One mural volatile Seagram mural project.
had been donated in 1968, and the Tate's JESSICA STEWART

director, Norman Reid, visited Rothko's stu-

dio in January 1969, and again in Novem-
ber, to determine the final selection. Rothko Provenance 3. Mark Rothko, unpub-
Estate of the artist; The lished text likely from the
and Reid discussed the placement of the Mark Rothko Foundation, 19508 in the Rothko family
works with the aid of a scale model for New York, 1979-1986. archive, quoted here with
which Rothko painted "maquettes" of the the gracious permission
of Christopher Rothko.
murals in tempera on construction paper.2 Notes
1. Rothko reprised the 4. Rothko's comments
Deeply concerned with the presentation of palette and format of cer- were made in reference to
his work, Rothko presumably ruminated at tain Seagram works in his the architectural parallels
Harvard murals of 1962. between his own murals
length about which sequence to donate. The and Michelangelo's Lau-
2. See Tate Gallery Archive. rentian Library but may
Tate was ultimately given nine paintings in Rothko also created dim- well relate to his palette;
somber tones, while Rothko kept the more inutive studies on colored see John Fischer, "The
construction paper for his Easy Chair: Mark Rothko:
vibrant murals (now primarily in the collec- mural commissions, a Portrait of the Artist as an
tions of the National Gallery of Art and the practice that had been Angry Man," Harper's 241
common only in his work
Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, (July 1970), 16.
of the 19305 and 19405.
Chiba-Ken).

251
 Rothko's voluminous production of works immobility."3 Although Rothko had eradi-
on paper in his early career—scores of cated the figure by the late 19405, his
figure studies, preparatory drawings, and work continued to allude to the human
watercolors—tapered off dramatically in form.4 The works in the present exhibition,
the 19505. Then in 1968, following an aortic intended to be mounted on canvas or board,
aneurysm, his health dictated that he paint approach Rothko's professed ideal scale: the
solely on a limited scale. He began to make measure of a man.
numerous small acrylic paintings on paper, Rothko ended his 1947 essay with a state-
116 continuing even when he was able to return ment that is relevant here: "I do not believe
MARK ROTHKO to a larger format. Between 1968 and 1970 that there was ever a question of being
American, born in Rothko produced at least 180 paintings on abstract or representational. It is really a mat-
Russia, 1903-1970 paper, compared with 24 canvases, a testa- ter of ending this silence and solitude, of
ment to their importance in his final years. breathing and stretching one's arms again."5
Untitled, 1969
This exquisitely subtle work and others JESSICA STEWART

acrylic like it, composed of muted or pastel hues

1,848 x i,080 mm highlighted with white, serve as a powerful
(72 3 / 4 X42 I / 2 ) foil to Rothko's black and gray paintings of Provenance proposed as a gift (Tate
Estate of the artist; The Gallery Archive). And by
Gift of The Mark Rothko the same year. Emphasizing pallid shades of Mark Rothko Foundation, March 1969 the UNESCO
Foundation, Inc., 1986 brown, gray, rose, or ocher, such works con- New York, 1979. office in Paris had sent
him a proposal to provide
stitute a return to certain prominent 19405
paintings for a room
watercolors of the same palette. These late Notes that would contain Gia-
1. Rothko opened his 1961 cometti's sculpture (he was
works on paper convincingly illustrate the Museum of Modern Art unable to accept the com-
relevance of Rothko's watercolors from exhibition with several mission). This relationship
watercolors and later told
nearly a quarter-century before.1 In reinter- his friend and fellow
has been discussed prima-
rily in relation to the black
preting his first significant critical success, painter William Scharf and gray works, but Jeffrey
that he would buy these Weiss in Mark Rothko [exh.
this body of material is a poignant coda to works back if he saw any cat., National Gallery of
Rothko's career. of them for sale ("Remem- Art] (Washington, 1998),
bering Rothko," a public
Untitled is spectral in appearance, with 326-329, argues that the
conversation at the influence unquestionably
colors and forms that shift and meld and National Gallery of Art, extends to this other late
quiet brushwork that lends an atmospheric 3 May 1998). A number series.
of these watercolors sold
quality to the surface. The central band, in the 19405, some to 3. Mark Rothko,
museums. An excellent "The Romantics Were
formed both by a horizontal thrust and Prompted," Possibilities i
example is Vessels of Magic,
short vertical flicks, contains the essence 1946, acquired by the (winter 1947-1948).
Brooklyn Museum of Art © 2001 Kate Rothko
of the painting's palette. These hues, a soft Prizel and Christopher
in 1947, which Rothko
brown and white, are strongest here, then described, along with four Rothko.

gradually dissolve into the upper and lower related watercolors, as a 4. In Rothko's 27 October
"culmination of a period of 1958 Pratt Institute lecture
fields, where they seem alternately gray, concerted painting in this he indicated that he had
mauve, or taupe. medium" (letter of May studied the human figure
1947 to the Brooklyn but found it did not meet
A delicate apparition on one level, Museum, quoted in Angel- his needs and that his
Untitled is also solidly grounded in its mate- ica Zander Rudenstine, "current pictures are
Peggy Guggenheim Collec- involved with the scale of
rials. Rothko calls attention to the paper tion [New York, 1985], human feeling, the human
by delineating the white perimeter with 691). drama, as much of it as I
can express." From type-
graphite and incorporating the ground into 2. Rothko certainly knew
script in the Rothko family
Giacometti's work; by
the composition. This approach, together March 1968 a gallery archive, quoted with the
gracious permission of
with the palette, may reveal the influence adjoining the "Giacometti
Christopher Rothko.
Room" at the Tate had
of Alberto Giacometti's paintings, which are been designated for works 5. Rothko 1947-1948.
portraits at their core.2 Giacometti's works by Rothko that the artist
uncannily enact Rothko's 1947 statement,
"For me the great achievements of the cen-
turies... were the pictures of the single
human figure—alone in a moment of utter

252
M
 The series of black—or dark brown—and tion with the vastly different dark region
gray paintings that Rothko initiated in his that surmounts it. The gray, with its softly
final years demonstrates an entirely new and roiling motion and variations in hue that
reductive approach to the format he had suggest mist and sea,6 is painterly, though
refined throughout his career. This cam- its atmosphere veils the artist's hand. The
paign, which defined the artist's 1969 dominant sepia-colored field is executed in
production on canvas, evolved from an a programmatic fashion, yet the viewer is
important sequence of dark brown and gray allowed to witness the exact trajectory of the
117 works on paper that he began in 1968.: On brush. With an emphasis on both vertical
MARK ROTHKO both paper and canvas Rothko limited his and horizontal linear movement, the dark
American, born in palette to two essential hues — allowing field is composed of a virtual cross-hatch-
Russia, 1903-1970 many variations in tone — and established ing.7 The potency of the work derives
a perimeter of white. The white border, a sig- from the play between the two fields, and
Untitled, 1969
nificant new element that arose from the Rothko has emphasized their meeting
acrylic margins of masking tape that secured the point, deliberately leaving elements of
1,530 x 1,226 mm papers to the artist's easel, effectively sealed white ground.
(60/4x4874) the previously expansive edges of his images. JESSICA STEWART

Gift of The Mark Rothko Despite ill health and depression,

Foundation, Inc., 1986 Rothko invested great emotional energy in
this new body of work, ultimately seeking Provenance 4. Pratt Institute lecture,
Estate of the artist; The 27 October 1958, from
the approbation of the New York art world at Mark Rothko Foundation, typescript in the Rothko
a studio party in December 1969.2 The artist New York, 1979. family archive.
died by his own hand a few months later, in 5. Unpublished document
titled "Space II" in the
February 1970, and these dark paintings Notes
Rothko family archive.
1. See Bonnie Clearwater
have since been interpreted as emblematic in Mark Rothko: Works on 6. This quality may derive
of his depression. Yet Rothko had earlier Paper [exh. cat., American from Rothko's interest in
Federation of Arts and The J.M.W. Turner. Barbara
claimed that it was his bright paintings that Mark Rothko Foundation] Novak, who viewed a
were violent, that "radiance is the afterglow (New York, 1984), 51. 1966 Turner exhibition at
the Museum of Modern
of the explosive."3 2. Brian O'Doherty, who
Art with Rothko, relates
attended the "opening" in
If tragedy and death suffuse these dark Rothko's studio, recalls that he was transfixed by
two images and suggests
paintings, the themes are widely applicable that works on paper were
that his interest had to
shown; see "Rothko's
to Rothko's oeuvre. From the early 19405, the Endgame," in Mark do with relationships
between light and dark.
artist strove to invest his paintings with tragic Rothko: The Dark Paintings
1969-1970 (New York, See Barbara Novak and
content. In a lecture at the Pratt Institute in 1985), 5. Brian O'Doherty in Mark
1958 Rothko identified "a clear preoccupation Rothko [exh. cat., National
3. Unpublished document Gallery of Art] (Washing-
with death—intimations of mortality" as the in the Rothko family ton, 1998), 279.
archive. Papers in this
first ingredient of successful art.4 Another archive are quoted here 7. In this reductive man-
ingredient was "intensity." Elsewhere Rothko and below with the kind ner, the work may refer to
permission of Christopher the black paintings of his
implied a relationship between the two: Rothko. friend Ad Reinhardt.
"To live vitally is to tempt death / that is
how near one can approach the edge without
going over the brink. That I believe is the
meaning of intensity, which translates itself
in every day language to the dramatic, to
speed, to the dangerous and exciting."5
This work illustrates the intensity
Rothko was capable of devoting to this pen-
ultimate series. Drama and even speed are
conveyed through the ethereal gray field—
one of the most beautiful passages in all of
Rothko's dark paintings—and its juxtaposi-

254
ro
95*
 For more than three decades Sol LeWitt has boxes have been traced in pencil, detailing
been considered one of the premier concep- the series of repeating permutations that
tual artists in the United States. Reacting are to be drawn into the grid. The variations
to the emphasis on composition, gesture, between the two certificates, the original
and psychological content characteristic of from 1976 and the latter from 1986, suggest
American abstract expressionism in the developments in LeWitt's understanding of
19405 and 19505, LeWitt began to make a his wall drawings. Whereas the original,
seemingly hyperrational and antisubjective handwritten certificate allows for size varia-
118 form of art beginning in the 19605. "The tions as long as the square format and
SOL LEWITT idea," as he wrote in 1967, "becomes a permutation series is respected, the second
American, born 1928 machine that makes the art."2 Best known certificate, which the artist considers to
for his freestanding modular structures of be the official one, specifies the work's
Wall Drawing No. 26,
white-painted wood based on square and dimensions exactly, perhaps a reflection
1969
rectangular forms, which he began to of Le Witt's growing concern that his wall
graphite1 make in 1966, and his wall drawings of drawings were not being executed properly.
914 x 914 mm (36 x 36) horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines, As suggested by Wall Drawing No. 26,
The Dorothy and traced directly onto the wall with black, red, Le Witt's conceptual wall drawings chal-
Herbert Vogel yellow, and blue pencils, which he started to lenge traditional notions of art. Because
Collection, Ailsa Mellon create in 1968, LeWitt emphasized the con- they exist in radically different forms at
Bruce Fund, Patrons' cept or plan behind the physical object or different moments and can be reinstalled
Permanent Fund, and image. Usually based on simple, geometric by the holders of their certificates, they con-
Gift of Dorothy and forms (particularly lines, squares, and found the traditional view of the art object as
Herbert Vogel, 1991 cubes) that were repeated serially or varied largely unchanging and stable across time.
according to a clear set of permutations, Because they can be installed—that is,
sometimes integrated with simple text drawn—by assistants, they undermine the
describing the structure of the work, and commonsense notion that an artist's "draw-
frequently constructed by others, LeWitt's ing" necessarily has to come from the artist's
"hyperrational" works, on longer considera- own hand. Finally, because the ultimate
tion, often appeared tautological and obses- authenticity of the works comes from a cer-
sive—like traces of a rational process tificate and because their simplicity means
emphasized to the point of irrationality.3 that they are easily reproducible, they chal-
Wall Drawing No. 26 [A one-inch (2/5 cm) lenge the idea that artworks can be com-
grid covering a 36" (90 cm) square. Within pletely and unequivocally owned.
each one-inch (2/5 cm) square, there is a line MATTHEW BIRO

in one of the four directions] presents a good

example of the complexities entailed by
LeWitt's conceptual approach. According Provenance Notes
Acquired from the artist 1. The image that is
to the artist, the actual artwork is either illustrated is a graphic
by Dorothy and Herbert
the drawing as installed on the wall or the Vogel. representation of the
wall drawing.
certificate and installation instructions
2. Sol LeWitt, "Paragraphs
when the drawing is not installed. In its lat-
on Conceptual Art," Art-
ter form the present work consists of three forum 5, no. 10 (summer
1967), 80.
sheets of paper: first, a handwritten certifi-
3. See Rosalind Krauss,
cate dated 1976 and signed by LeWitt, sec- "LeWitt in Progress," in
ond an undated certificate of authenticity Krauss, The Originality
of the Avant-Garde and
issued in 1986, printed on thick, cream
Other Modernist Myths
paper and signed by the artist, describing (Cambridge, MA, 1985),
the drawing as it is to appear on the wall; 244-258.

third, a diagram also issued in 1986, printed

on the same cream stock, on which a twelve-
by-twelve square grid and four numbered

257
 Deceptively simple, Sol LeWitt's Six-Part crosses, while, despite the distinct nature of
Color Composite with Two Colors in Each Part the lines, the interaction of different combi-
is a good example of what art historian Ros- nations of yellow, red, and blue produces
alind Krauss calls LeWitt's "absurd nominal- orange, green, or purple. Because of the more
ism," his tendency in his art to painstakingly repetitive and exhaustive nature of Le Witt's
enumerate all the logical permutations of a linear structures, however, his work seems
simple series of contrasting elements.1 In more conceptual—more focused on the idea
addition, unlike a number of his line draw- behind the series—than the work of Martin.
119 ings that deal exclusively with geometric com- MATTHEW BIRO
SOL LEWITT binations, Six-Part Color Composite also
American, born 1928 suggests a strong interest in the nature of
color perception. Provenance Note
Six-Part Color Acquired from the artist i. Rosalind Krauss,
In this work LeWitt explores a series of
Composite with Two by Dorothy and Herbert "LeWitt in Progress," in
color combinations by presenting six rect- Vogel. Krauss, The Originality of
Colors in Each Part, the Avant-Garde and Other
angles of equal size, each made up of two
1970 Modernist Myths (Cam-
intersecting sets of parallel lines. Each set of bridge, MA, 1985), 256.
ink parallel lines is restricted to a single "color"—
473 x 473 mm red, blue, yellow, or black—and, because
(l8 5/8X185/8) LeWitt is here concerned with color permuta-
Promised Gift of tions rather than arrangements of line, each
Dorothy and Herbert set of colored lines always runs in the same
Vogel direction. (Yellow lines are positioned verti-
cally, black lines horizontally, blue lines diag-
onally from top left to lower right, and red
lines diagonally from lower left to top right.)
Each set of colored lines is repeated three
times in the drawing, allowing all possible
color combinations to be represented once.
Moving from top to bottom and from left to
right, one discovers: yellow-black, yellow-red,
yellow-blue, black-red, black-blue, and
red-blue.
LeWitt's delicate integration of colored
lines suggests the work of minimalist artist
Agnes Martin (see cats. 104 and 105). As with
Martin's work, the viewer becomes aware of
how his or her perception of color changes
depending on the nature of the color bands
that are allowed to interact through either
proximity or crossing. In the case of the
LeWitt drawing, one notices how the addition
of black merely darkens the color that it

258
0\
in
CM
 Each of these works belongs to the stacked In these two drawings the open space
color drawing "series" in which Richard endows each chromatic form with a quasi-
Tuttle explored a set of ideas pertaining sculptural presence; both stacks of color
to line, form, space, and color. A series for occupy their space on the otherwise empty
Tuttle becomes a tool for examining a con- sheet, encouraging the viewer to imagine
cept that has no real beginning or end.1 In the shapes in the round.3 This hint at mass
the 19605 and early 19705 the artist typically is belied, however, by the translucent water-
produced such groups often to twelve color medium and the layered color swaths
120
works, revealing the process of investigating that permit the white of the paper to show
RICHARD TUTTLE ideas over time and space. through. While these works contain certain
American, born 1941 Turtle's art relates to ways of being and traditional characteristics of drawing, paint-
to the act of discovery, offering new possibil- ing, and sculpture, they combine to function
Stacked Color with
ities for artistic practice. He belongs to the in a new dimension.
Wavy and Straight
generation of artists who focused their con- The stacked color drawings number at
Side, 1971
cerns on the very process of art making. In least thirteen, with Stacked Color with Wavy
watercolor over graphite contrast to the earlier production of the New and Straight Side among the first in the
302 x 227 mm York School and pop artists, Tuttle's work group and Stacked Color Drawing with Arch
(ll7/8X8'5/i6) conveys a humility informed by his long- of Egg Shaped Form Painted the last. The
standing involvement with Eastern thought mood shifts from the exuberant and light-
and aesthetics. hearted in the earlier drawing to a more
Stacked Color
These drawings have an unmistakably contained spirit in the latter. In the end,
Drawing with Arch
handmade quality, heightened by the use of these drawings reflect on Tuttle's original
of Egg Shaped Form
the variable watercolor medium. The artist and poetic vision.
Painted, 1971
has said that in making these works his MOLLY D O N O V A N

watercolor over graphite strokes of horizontal color "flowed from the

455 x 3°5 mm body through the hand" and that the white
(I7'5/I6XI2) spaces in between allowed for "fluidity and Provenance 3. See Holiday T. Day,
The artist to Dorothy and "Drawing a New Role for
breathing." In making Stacked Color with Herbert Vogel. Drawing: Richard Tuttle
The Dorothy and Wavy and Straight Side, he measured the and His Contemporaries,"
in Richard Tuttle: Drawings
Herbert Vogel increments with his fingers, marking them Notes from the Vogel Collection
Collection, Ailsa Mellon off with a pencil.2 He employed this anthro- 1. Telephone conversation [exh. cat., Institute of Con-
with the artist, 8 January temporary Art] (Amster-
Bruce Fund, Patrons' pometric method in an era when artists 2001. dam, 1992), 33-37.
Permanent Fund, and were eschewing the cold industrial aesthetic 2. Telephone conversation,
Gift of Dorothy and of so-called minimal art in favor of revealing 8 January.
Herbert Vogel, 1991 the hand of the artist and, by extension, the
human element.
In Stacked Color Drawing with Arch of
£gg Shaped Form Painted the elliptical shape
evaporates on the bottom edge of the half-
egg. Such a formless form characterizes
much of Tuttle's work and even suggests a
sense of incompleteness. Economy is inte-
gral, and negative spatial elements become
as important as the artist's marks. In the
careful balance of ingredients the color val-
ues in each progression seem sensitively
weighted and applied—neither completely
random nor entirely scientific in their order.

260
261
 Valley Curtain, Grand Hogback, Rifle, Colo- realized project as a magnificent bright
rado, 1970-72, for which this is a prepara- orange V-shape set against the blue
tory study, became the first work by the Colorado sky. The Christos are said to
husband and wife team of Christo and have chosen the color orange particularly
Jeanne-Claude to be realized in the rural for its ability both to contrast and to blend
American landscape.1 It was the progenitor with the natural landscape.3
of many projects by the Christos in the As with all of the Christos' projects,
United States, the site of more of their proj- Valley Curtain was a temporary installation.4
121
ects than any other country.2 With Valley This concept of ephemerality reflects a gen-
CHRISTO Curtain, the Christos suspended fabric in eration of artists in the 19605 and 19705
American, born in the Rifle Gap near Rifle, Colorado, creating who began to offer new possibilities for an
Bulgaria, 1935 a luminous cascade of billowing orange in impermanent art, one that ultimately ques-
the landscape. The result was an extraordi- tioned the fundamental program of the art
Valley Curtain,
narily beautiful sight in the negative space institution. This premise, central to the
Project for Grand
between two natural land formations. Christos' projects, has become a major
Hogback, Rifle,
Studies such as this anticipate the look legacy to subsequent artists.
Colorado, 1971
of the Christos' projects (all of the studies MOLLY D O N O V A N

colored pencil, crayon, are made in advance) and later provide a

graphite, and enamel record of the evolution of the installation.
paint on photostat with The present one was made not long before Provenance and Marin Counties, Cali-
The artist to Dorothy and fornia, 1972-1976,
fabric, tape, staples, the realized project, and it bears exception- Herbert Vogel. Wrapped Walkways, Loose
and two diazo prints ally close resemblance to the finished work Park, Kansas City, 1977-
707 x 559 mm 1978, Surrounded Islands,
(figure). While the projects themselves are Notes Biscayne Bay, Greater
(27 I3 /i6 X 22) a collaboration between Christo and Jeanne- 1. Christo and Jeanne- Miami, Florida, 1980-
Claude have been most 1983, and The Umbrellas,
The Dorothy and Claude, the drawings are made solely generous in providing Japan-USA, 1984-1991.
Herbert Vogel by Christo. information and counsel. The two projects in
Valley Curtain was pre- progress are: The Gates,
Collection, Ailsa Mellon This collage for Valley Curtain recalls the ceded by three urban proj- Project for Central Park,
Bruce Fund, Patrons' surrealist tradition of photocollage and its ects: 1,200 Cubic Meter New York City, 1979-pres-
Package, Minneapolis ent, and Over the River,
Permanent Fund, and related fantastical notions; yet there is no School of Art, Minnesota, Project for the Arkansas
Gift of Dorothy and metaphoric displacement here as in surreal- 1966; 1,240 Oil Barrels River, Colorado, 1992-
Mastaba and Two Tons of present.
Herbert Vogel, 1992 ist work, for the Christos' projects are real.
Wrapped Hay, Institute of
The collage in fact serves both technical and Contemporary Art, Philadel- 3. Jan van der Marck, "The
phia, 1968; and Wrapped Valley Curtain" in Art in
aesthetic functions: it provides information America 3 (May-June
Museum of Contemporary
about the Valley Curtain, and it represents Art, Chicago, 1969. 1972), 61.
an exquisite object. Photographs show the 2. Following Valley Curtain 4. The Valley Curtain was
were: Ocean Front, New- realized from 10 August to
port, Rhode Island, 1974, ii August 1972 after a pre-
Running Fence, Sonoma vious attempt failed in
October 1971 owing to
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, mechanical problems.
Valley Curtain, Grand Hogback,
Rifle, Colorado, 1970-72,1972,
color photograph by Harry
Shunk, National Gallery of Art,
Washington, Gift of Dorothy
and Herbert Vogel

262
M
 Nancy Graves formed many significant advanced level of conceptual abstraction"3
impressions viewing art, science, and his- when subjected to an artist's perception.
tory exhibitions at the Berkshire Museum Scientists use color in lunar maps to indi-
in Massachusetts where her father was an cate information that was once documented
administrator. The installations inspired in gradations of black and white. For her
Graves to examine how an artist's subjectiv- maps, applying small dabs of gouache in a
ity could affect the representation of scientific style similar to pointillism, Graves carefully
fact. Fusing principles of anthropology and created patterns of color ranging from blues
122
archaeology with aesthetics, she created and metallic grays to highlights of magenta,
NANCY GRAVES massive camels in the 19605 made of latex, orange, and yellow. Each brilliant hue repre-
American, 1940-1995 plaster, and wood that appeared realistic from sents a specific lunar surface feature such as
a distance yet highly manufactured on closer a crater, fault, or ridge, but each color was cho-
Sabine D Region of
examination. In the 19705 Graves' paintings sen for aesthetic rather than scientific reasons.
the Moon, Lunar
and drawings explored how perception influ- Graves' vivid stippling generates a pulsating,
OrbiterSitellP-6
ences the interpretation of spatial depth on a push-and-pull tension—with the lighter,
Southwest Mare
two-dimensional surface, an interest that led neutral colors receding and brighter areas pro-
Tranquilitatis, 1972
her to study cartography. jecting—to emphasize depth and movement.
gouache and ink over As a two-dimensional system that organ- Her map appears somewhat realistic from
graphite izes three-dimensional space, extracting and afar and abstract up close, a characteristic of
c. 572 x 761 mm abstracting information from the natural her earlier camel constructions. Faint horizon-
(22/2x30) world, maps served as catalysts for Graves' tal bands refer to scan lines on television pho-
Gift of Esther Cattell investigations into the manipulation of scien- tographs taken by lunar satellites.4 In the end,
Schmitt, 1992 tific data for aesthetic purposes. Studying aesthetic decisions or gaps in scientific infor-
maps at the New York Public Library as well mation determined the configuration of the
as NASA satellite images at the Jet Propulsion image, which is cropped at slight angles on
Laboratory in Pasadena, Graves produced the sides and the bottom.5 Accentuating the
drawings and paintings of the Earth's ocean artistic nature of her map, Graves omitted
floor, meteorological maps, and geological measurement scales and legends.
maps of planets. After analyzing 250 lunar Graves interpreted her version of mapping
maps, Graves created this work and nine as "a systematic presentation on a surface of
other gouaches for Lunar Orbiter Series in the nature and distribution of phenomena in
the collection of the National Gallery of Art.1 space."6 Merging time, space, scale, and mul-
Graves chose the moon as her subject for tiple viewpoints with aesthetic perception,
scientific and pop culture reasons. Around she transformed landscape painting into a
1968-1970 Americans were flooded with conceptual experience.
televised images from space, as the Apollo RENEE MAURER

missions led to man's landing on the moon.

For Sabine D Region of the Moon and the other
drawings in this series, Graves worked with Provenance 3. Quoted in Roberta
M. Knoedler & Company, Smith, ^ Artists and the
scientific material and video imagery, looking
New York; purchased by Map: Image/ Process/
at geological maps of the moon's surface the National Gallery of Art Data/Place [exh. cat.,
superimposed onto sequential satellite photo- with designated funds. Spencer Museum of Art]
(Lawrence, KS, 1981), n.
graphs. Interpreting two-dimensional abstrac-
4. Linda L. Cathcart, Nancy
Notes
tions of a three-dimensional subject, she took Graves: A Survey 1969/1980
1. Using different colors
many liberties in constructing her own map, [exh. cat., Albright-Knox Art
and orientations, Graves in
1972 also produced a suite Gallery] (Buffalo, 1980), 22.
adding and omitting scientific details, chang-
often lithographs and 5. Mary Fish, "Macrocos-
ing orientations, cropping, and even merging eight paintings based on mic Mapping," ArtWeek 4
portions of maps.2 Ultimately, science was Lunar Orbiter Series. (15 September 1973), i.
2. Thomas Phadon, Nancy 6. Quoted in Nancy Graves
a point of departure for Graves, who believed
Graves: Excavations in [exh. cat., La Jolla Museum
that maps, rather than reflecting a compila- Print, a Catalogue Raisonne of Contemporary Art] (La
tion of data, could become "the most (New York, 1996), 16. Jolla, 1973), 3.

264
265
 This beautiful sheet exemplifies a pivotal Provenance 1. Vija Celmins: A Survey
Riko Mizuno, Los Angeles, Exhibition, introduction by
moment in Vija Celmins' career, when she 1973; Stanley and Elyse Susan C. Larsen [exh. cat.,
took a break from painting and turned to Grinstein. Newport Harbor Art
drawing as her primary mode of expression. Museum] (Los Angeles,
1979), 27.
Whether in drawings or prints, the artist's Notes
An earlier version of this 2. Kenneth Baker, "Vija
depictions of the ocean are meditative in text was published in Celmins: Drawing Without
Withdrawing," Artforum
their quietness and hypnotic in their con- Washington 1991.
22 (November 1983).
stancy. Nothing intrudes on their peaceful-
123
ness or their suggestion of rhythmic motion.
VIJA CELMINS In the late 19605 Celmins began to take
American, born in photographs of the sea. She made her first
Latvia, 1939 graphite drawing of the Pacific Ocean in
1968, which led to intense study of the sub-
Untitled, 1973
ject, both from nature and from the photo-
graphite graphs she took from a pier near her studio
757 x in mm in Venice, California, south of Los Angeles.1
(297/8x4334) Her large early drawings of the rippling sur-
Gift (Partial and face of the ocean fill the page. The water is
Promised) of the brought so close to the picture plane that it
Grinstein Family, in almost seems to enter the viewer's space. In
Honor of the 5Oth 1973 Celmins began to explore the illusion
Anniversary of the of depth in drawings such as this one. She
National Gallery of Art, adopted a more distant perspective, relegat-
1991 ing her placid views of the sea to a narrow
horizontal band in the lower register of a
large sheet of paper. This compositional
strategy emphasizes the breadth of the
panorama. At the same time, the illusion of
depth is intensified by the dramatic feature-
less white background representing the sky.
Compressing the representation of water
into a narrow band at the bottom of the
sheet also increases the abstract qualities
of the image.
One's attention shifts from the literal
subject to the artist's rendering. On close
inspection, one loses sight of the overall
scene and becomes more engaged in the
surface, the graphite markings on the page.
As Celmins explained, "the art is in the
making, not in the object."2 Her painstaking
technique and delicate touch reveal how
devoted she is to the process of drawing.
Celmins' ocean images, distinctive in
their density and tonality, are among her
best-known works. This exceptionally strik-
ing drawing elegantly reflects her delight in
the ceaseless revelations of nature.
CARLOTTA J. OWENS

266
267
 For almost twenty years Philip Guston tial predicament. The half-submerged head
enjoyed widespread recognition as an in Guston's drawing (surely a stand-in for
abstract expressionist, yet even at the height the artist) is also surrounded by a jumble of
of his career his singularity was noted. In a objects, some similarly related to the crafts
1956 review of Guston's work, Leo Steinberg and all likewise representing the artist's psy-
commented on the slower pace of his chological burden. Individual items, such as
abstractions and their sense of having been the lumpy tire above the horizon line, take
"hauled up from unspeakable depths of pri- on allegorical significance. In form and
124 vacy."1 And when the artist embraced figura- meaning the tire recalls the grindstone at the
PHILIP GUSTON tion years later, Steinberg's reading proved center of Diirer's engraving. Both devices
American, 1913-1980 prescient. In works from the 19705 Guston rotate on an axle; both have been made obso-
bared his soul in a manner unique among lete either by disuse or age. The tire can also
Untitled, 1975
his contemporaries. Images such as this one, be read as a rising or setting sun, the radiat-
pen and ink littered with abandoned objects and dismem- ing, dashed-off pen strokes serving as its
483 x 635 mm (19 x 25) bered limbs, appear both painfully emotional nimbus. That interpretation sets up a telling
Promised Gift of Robert and deeply private. "They don't seem to be comparison with the artist's wide-open
and Jane Meyerhoff pictures anymore," observed Guston, "but eyes—two dark orbs struggling to stay above
sort of confessions—exposures."2 the mire, with comically exaggerated lashes
Figures and objects began to emerge for nimbi. As the sun is the source of energy,
in Guston's imagery over the course of the so too is the artist's vision.
19605, with the final break from abstraction Guston paid dearly for these late works.
occurring around 1970. Thereafter a deluge Between the public's first glimpse of them
of "things" spewed forth. In this vigorously in 1970 and the time of his death in 1980,
penned drawing from 1975, with its hard- he was maligned by friends and critics alike,
ened strokes of black ink, Guston lays out most of whom were mystified by the new
the "stuff" of his life: a canvas stretcher, a imagery. Although pained and angered by
discarded tire, a nail-studded shoe, a toppled their responses, Guston saw no alternative
inkpot, severed limbs, and a head buried to to what he sensed to be inevitable, knowing
its eyes and ears in some sort of mire. that, as one of his favorite authors, T. S.
It is hardly surprising to learn that Gus- Eliot, wrote: "In my beginning is my end."4
ton's father was a junkman. Having fled JUDITH BRODIE

the pogroms in Odessa, the elder Guston

took a job as a trash collector in Los Ange-
les in the early 1920$; fifty years later his Provenance 3. Ross Feld, "Guston in
Estate of the artist; David Time," Arts Magazine 63
son would figuratively follow suit. Philip McKee Gallery; Robert and (1988), 41. Feld specifically
Guston's final metier was the junkyard, and Jane Meyerhoff. cites "the book, the inkpot,
the scales, the rhomboid,
his genius lay in his capacity to invest its [and] the rainbow." These
rubble with potency. Notes elements show up in many
1. Leo Steinberg, "Fritz of Guston's works, along
This drawing speaks not only to the twin Glarner and Philip Guston with rough-hewn timbers,
anxieties of old age and death but also to the among Twelve Americans' hammers, and tapered
at the Museum of Modern nails. For an interpretation
burden of the creative mind—a subject that Art," Arts 30 (1956), 44, and illustration of Melenco-
Diirer codified in his 1514 engraving Melen- reprinted in Steinberg, lia I, see Erwin Panofsky,
Other Criteria: Confronta- The Life and Art ofAlbrecht
colia I. The relationship is an apt one. A tions with Twentieth-Century Durer (Princeton, 1943),
reproduction of the master's famed print Art (New York, 1972), 282. 156-171, fig. 209.
hung on Guston's wall, and according to a 2. Musa Mayer, Night Stu- 4. T S. Eliot, "East Coker,"
dio (New York, 1988), 180. Four Quartets (New York,
friend, Ross Feld, "nearly every allegorical
1943), n.
element of Diirer's great diagram... came
down off the wall and fed through Guston's
unconscious."3 Dlirer's figure of Melancholy
is surrounded by a loaded array of objects,
reflecting her state of mind and her existen-

268
\0
 This pastel is one of five drawings Johns The flagstones enclosed by a border
made between 1973 and 1976 based on his (within the imagined square). The left
monumental four-panel painting, Untitled rectangle (oil?) will include area
1972 (Museum Ludwig, Cologne), and like A.B.C.D. The right (encaustic?) will
most of the artist's drawings, it follows the include E.F.G.H. The meeting B.D. and
painting on which it is based.1 The oil, E.G. will not have borders. (Or will they?
encaustic, and collage painting of 1972 is a Aim for maximum difficulty in deter-
pivotal work, recalling motifs employed by mining what has happened?) (The possi-
125
the artist since the late 19605 and introduc- bility of these—or others—in gray.)
JASPER JOHNS ing imagery critical to the work of the suc-
American, born 1930 ceeding two decades. Its far left panel of Whether to see the 2 parts as one thing
green, violet, and orange cross-hatching rep- or as two things.
Untitled (from
resents Johns' earliest use of a motif that
Unfilled 1972),
frequently recurred in works throughout the Another possibility: to see that some-
1975/1976
19705 and 19805 (see cat. 130). The two thing has happened. Is this best shown
pastel and graphite middle panels—oil on the left, encaustic by "pointing to" or by "hiding" it.2
385 x 959 mm on the right—depict in red, black, and
(1537,6x373/4) white a flagstone pattern Johns has said he This "imagined square" results when one
Gift of Jasper Johns, in glimpsed on a wall in Harlem. Crisscross- flagstone panel shifts over the other, align-
Honor of the 5Oth ing the far right panel are wooden slats to ing the patterns and forming a single square
Anniversary of the which are attached flesh-colored body parts panel.
National Gallery of Art, that have been cast from life in wax. The silhouetted shapes in the far right
1990 Three of the drawings based on Untitled quarter of the pastel only schematically sug-
1972 are identical in size and follow the gest the three-dimensional boards and casts
entire composition of the painting. The first of the painting. The warm tones and shim-
and last of the group are monochromatic. mering layers of pastel echo but by no
The present drawing, a richly textured pastel means duplicate the palette of the painting.
on gray paper, closely evokes the color and Each of the boards in the pastel is marked
composition of the painting, but variations with a discrete band of "matching" color at
exist throughout. For example, the cross- either end. This device replaces the "L" and
hatching in the first panel of the pastel is "R" (left and right) stenciled on either end
composed on a scale commensurate with of the boards in the painting.
that of the painting but in different configu- MARLA PRATHER

rations, and the color scheme has been

enhanced with additions of blue, brown,
and yellow. Notes 2. Jasper Johns, "Sketch-
An earlier version of this book Notes," o to 9, no. 6
The flagstone patterns of the pastel care- text was published in (July 1969), 1-2.
fully replicate those of the painting, yet Washington 1991.
there is no analogy here for the two differ- i. On these drawings see
Nan Rosenthal and Ruth
ent media in the painting. In 1969 Johns E. Fine, with Maria
wrote about the perceptual game at work in Prather and Amy Mizrahi
Zorn, The Drawings of
the flagstone panels: Jasper Johns [exh. cat.,
National Gallery of Art]
(Washington, 1990), nos.
Flagstone ptg. 2 panels, one in oil.
63-66.
one in encaustic.

An imagined unit the square of the

height of these canvases.

270
iLz
 The simple, quasi-tautological works of con- ordinary perception—the fact that seeing
ceptual artist Sol LeWitt appear rational only always means interpreting on the basis of
on the surface. On closer examination, their prior knowledge—Le Witt's work also
rationality disappears, and they become inspires reflection on the nature of percep-
"obsessional," "compulsive," and "absurd."1 tion itself. Finally, although quite different
Map of Amsterdam with the Area between from his better-known works, this "altered
Emma-Plein, Europa-Plein, Ooster Park, Nieu- ready-made" harks back to important
markt, and Bus Station Removed is a case in antecedents in the history of conceptual and
126
point. Something of a departure for LeWitt, minimal art, encouraging viewers to recall
SOL LEWITT it consists of page one—the central panel— art's development in the 19605 and 19705.
American, born 1928 of an official map of Amsterdam, published Because it is based on a simple formula
by its office of public works on nine sepa- indicated by its title, Map of Amsterdam calls
Map of Amsterdam,
rate pages and organized according to a to mind Le Witt's earlier combinations of
1976
three-by-three square grid. From this mass- images with texts that define the image's
commercial map with produced schematic representation of the making. Moreover, because of its rational
cutout removed city center, printed in full color and sur- realization of an ultimately irrational
656 x 816 mm rounded by a border of marks and numbers process, one that undermines the function
(25'3/l6X32/8) that indicate the divisions of a regular grid, of the map, it remains true to one of his
The Dorothy and LeWitt has cut a pentagon with uneven artistic priorities. In the end, in terms of
Herbert Vogel sides. The corners of the pentagon are deter- manufacture, the work resonates with the
Collection, Ailsa Mellon mined by the city locations spelled out in earlier removal works of conceptual artist
Bruce Fund, Patrons' LeWitt's hand-printed title at the lower left Lawrence Wiener; and by provoking an
Permanent Fund, and corner of the map. Following the order spec- interplay among the viewer, the work, and
Gift of Dorothy and ified in the title and moving in a counter- their shared physical environment, it recalls
Herbert Vogel, 1991 clockwise fashion, one finds Emma-Plein at one of the central concerns of both minimal
the corner farthest to the left, Europa-Plein sculpture and land art.
below it toward the right, and so on, con- MATTHEW BIRO

cluding with the Bus Station above and

slightly to the right of Emma-Plein.
Seemingly straightforward, LeWitt's Provenance Note
Acquired from the artist i. Rosalind Krauss, "LeWitt
clear, yet ultimately illogical transformation
by Dorothy and Herbert in Progress," in Krauss,
of a ready-made, utilitarian reproduction Vogel. The Originality of the Avant-
Garde and Other Modernist
prompts a number of lines of analysis. First,
Myths (Cambridge, MA,
by rendering the map partly useless, the 1985), 244-258.
artist transforms the schematic of the city
into an independent object, subverting its
transparent representational function and
inviting viewers to consider the nature of
maps in general. No matter how precisely it
is drawn, a map, LeWitt suggests, is an
abstraction; and its careful deformation of
reality serves the world's manipulation and
control, a connotation strengthened by the
overlay of the measurement grid suggested
in the map's border. In addition, by leading
viewers to focus on the map and its grid as
related and overlapping systems of repre-
sentation, this work promotes awareness of
how much one sees in terms of preexisting
systems of knowledge and measurement. By
laying bare this hermeneutic dimension of

2/2
273
 Jim Dine's nine-part drawing is as much an Like other artists of his generation, Dine
inquiry into the self as it is an investigation scales up his image, in this case multiplying
of drawing. The artist made the work over it by a factor of nine. Although each sheet is
the winter of 1976-1977 while living in Ver- physically independent, the artist regards the
mont, having moved there from New York group as a single entity. He frequently works
in 1971. Away from the city and the art in serial format, breaking his subject down
scene that had propelled him to fame in the into a succession of incrementally adjusted
19605, Dine took account of his life as well images. In this respect Nine Self-Portraits
127 as the direction of his work. From 1974 to recalls the late nineteenth-century analytical
1980 he devoted himself almost entirely to photographs of Eadweard Muybridge, yet
JIM DINE
drawing from life and forging links with Dine is not in search of scientific truth.
American, born 1935
established artistic traditions. On the contrary, his work suggests that there
Nine Self-Portraits Scrupulous observation goes hand in is no single truth. And although the obses-
with a Very Long hand with drawing from life, and Dine sive repetition of the composition bears
Beard, 1977 allowed little to escape his attention. "The comparison to Warhol's images of Elvis or
works are about my eyes," he states. "I've Marilyn, Dine's intention is very different.
graphite
tried to teach them to be ruthless and Whereas Warhol's repetition addresses the
each of nine sheets:
kind."1 Indeed in these self-portraits he scru- loss of individuality, Nine Self-Portraits
762 x 559 mm (30 x 22)
tinizes every crevice, chiseling in the deep speaks passionately about the complexity
Promised Gift of the
furrows above the bridge of his nose and the of the individual.3
Artist
scar on his forehead. Although the artist is Commenting on the time he spent mas-
obviously adept at capturing his own like- tering the art of drawing in the 19705, Dine
ness, the work's strength goes far beyond notes, "it taught me to be conscious of the
the mimetic. He invests his countenance language of marks and of the fact that every
with tension by shifting the focus from pen- mark has a specific task in the making of
etrating clarity to hazy obscurity, determin- the whole drawing When I tired of the
ing what to reveal, what to withhold, and discipline... I kept my spirits aroused by
what merely to insinuate. Some of the por- realizing I was doing just what the artists
traits underscore the physical self—the like- that I venerated as a kid had been doing. I
ness the artist sees in the mirror. Most are investigated a way to be part of the human
largely interpretive and imply the psycholog- comedy and to embrace it without fear."4
ical. Some are profoundly elusive, dissolving JUDITH BRODIE

into pure light and atmosphere.

Dine's approach is both physical and
incisive but also subtly suggestive. Areas are Notes Varnedoe, A Fine Disre-
1. Quoted in Constance W. gard: What Makes Modern
sometimes literally worn away by scraping, Glenn, Jim Dine Drawings Art Modern (New York,
and lines are often emphatic and deeply (New York, 1973), 204. 1989), 102-181.
scored. He maximizes the lustrous quality 2. Quoted in Glenn 1973, 4. Quoted in Marco Living-
202. stone, Jim Dine: The
of graphite, laying it on thickly so that its Alchemy of Images (New
3. For a discussion of frag-
steel gray color casts a metallic glow, and he mentation and repetition York, 1998), 231.
works back into the drawings with an eraser in modern art, see Kirk
to create highlights and delicate transitions.
Many of the images are surrounded by a
shadowy accumulation of smudges, thus
openly revealing the traces of their making.
Dine favors the incidental mark: "It's about
the history of the drawing," he observes. "I
like to leave the history in."2 These markings
are likewise further evidence of the artist's
presence, extending the fundamental auto-
biographic nature of Nine Self-Portraits.

274
 N>
•xl
VJl
 Executed in a burst of activity in August of emotive effect that is a subtle combination
1981 at the artist's studio at Bassano in Tev- of elation and melancholy. The ball of plan-
erino, Italy, these drawings were later culled gent scrawl in the first drawing, grounded
from a larger group of related works and as if by its own pathos, with its lilting arc
exhibited as a suite of three. That they display suggestive of a wing unsuccessful in its
the traces of their celerity of execution—a path to flight, confers at the same time on
thumbprint of red at the paper's edge or a the aerial lettering an affective counterpoint
spattering of white paint rising up from the of joy.
128
multicolored mass in Nike like spurts of sea Twombly explores the special properties
CY T W O M B L Y foam—does not suffice to obscure the care- of artistic media with felicity and grace in
American, born 1928 ful deliberation of Twombly's dexterous play the service of the invention of a complex
with pictorial elements. Despite the elliptical poetic domain. Themes derived from classi-
Nike, 1981
bundles of scribbled line and the smeary cal literature and mythology appear fre-
acrylic, crayon, impasto of paint, the apparent insouciance quently in Twombly's art. Here Nike refers
and graphite of artistry is traduced by Twombly's formi- to the Greek goddess of Victory. The title of
997 x 692 mm dable sensitivity to overall compositional the first two works, Sylvae, may allude to
(39/4X27/4) balance, where formal decisiveness is never the poet John Dryden's Sylvae of 1685, the
sacrificed to restlessness of hand. The famous preface for which is a rumination
Sylvae, 1981
artist's nimble touch is everywhere in evi- on the difficulties of translating classical
paint stick, acrylic, dence. From the tremulous letters hovering lyric into a modern style. Yet as the titular
crayon, and graphite in space in the first Sylvae to the deep inscriptions hover in the upper regions of
998 x 705 mm embossing of Nike's title in red, variations each of these pictures, so too does the
(39I/4X273/4) in the placement, quality, and color of words greater meaning of their conjunction hover
play meticulously to each drawing's more elusively over the group as a whole. Enig-
Sylvae, 1981
abstract elements. In the first Sylvae, for matic, the significance of pairing Sylvae and
paint stick, acrylic, instance, Twombly fills in the loop of the Nike orbits around the three works, unan-
crayon, and graphite title's y to rhyme with the colored elabora- chored by clarified reference, enjoining the
998 x 705 mm tions of the scrolling below, and its v tips to viewer instead to delight in the visual and
(39/4X273/4) echo the C of "Cy," only to metamorphose sensual pleasures offered by the artist's
again, amplified, as the alar extension of the imagination and fancy.
Gift of Lila Acheson drawing's featured figure. Thus the artist KATHRYN A. TUMA

Wallace, 1986 syncopates rhythms of form across the

space of the work, holding the composition
taut so as to afford greatest elasticity for Provenance
Sperone Westwater Fisher
his touch.
Inc., New York; purchased
Twombly handles with extraordinary by the National Gallery of
Art with designated funds.
agility the complex relations not only among
forms but also among the diverse media he
employs. As he uses graphite, colored
crayons, paint, and three types of paper,
each distinct in weave and cast of white,
here color remains one of the artist's chief
concerns. Applying paint over colored line,
Twombly melts the two media together to
create a delicious polychromy of pigmenta-
tion. Texture is another source of pleasure,
as Twombly splatters and smears paint,
incises paper with the wrong end of the
brush, and revels in the sinuosity of
repeated line. Although abstract in the
forms depicted, these drawings elicit an

276
M
51
278
K)
-g
so
 Richard Diebenkorn, whose life roughly works were first shown, but a great deal
spanned the classic era of American postwar of verbal response passed among critics,
avant-garde culture, distinguished himself artists, curators, and collectors.
from his peers in many ways. An artist Now, with the hindsight of nearly twenty
whose seriousness and talent matched those years, it is clear that some of the Clubs and
of the great New York School figures such Spades compositions take their place among
as Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and the most original and satisfying works of
Franz Kline, Diebenkorn nevertheless Diebenkorn's career. They deliberately use
129 remained firmly identified as a West Coast images that were emotionally laden for the
RICHARD figure. It may have been in part owing to his artist, whose abiding fascination with her-
DIEBENKORN lifelong resistance to moving to New York, aldry is well known. And yet, in the long tra-
American, 1922-1993 as so many abstract expressionists felt com- dition of modernism, the artist chose to
pelled to do, that Diebenkorn was able to obfuscate the meaning of the images. The
Study for Untitled
forge a series of extraordinary paintings and composition of the present work suggests
(from Club/Spade
drawings whose essence draws on and yet more than simply a variation on the club,
Group 1981-82),
fundamentally departs from the work of his spade, or heart; rather, it veers into a disci-
1982
established fellow artists. plined yet freewheeling variation of the
tempera with pastel and In his early mature style (1949-1956) artist's exploration of these shapes. The
crayon over graphite Diebenkorn evinced two concerns that image here is unusual in being almost sym-
965 x 635 mm (38 x 25) would continue to obsess him artistically: metrical bilaterally. A stemlike, double axis
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. color, always based on observation but supports a figure that seems to have been
Richard Diebenkorn, deployed in increasingly idiosyncratic ways; derived from a distorted version of the
1992 and a kind of restlessly evolving linear quest three-lobed club—stretched into a horizon-
that drew both on naturalistic forms and on tal form, surmounting a field interrupted
symbols, or talismanic shapes, for character. by opulent Matissean curves. This work
It was clear from as early as 1952, especially embodies a classic example of Diebenkorn's
in early works on paper, that the artist was distinctive handling of the edges of a com-
as interested in abstract form as he was in position: both the left and right margins are
figurative depiction. allowed to breathe, as it were, by establish-
An acknowledged source of enduring ing narrow whitish bands. Its most defining
influence for Diebenkorn was Henri characteristic is perhaps its color—an exqui-
Matisse, whose spirit infuses the series of site red that is nearly unique in the artist's
works on paper known as the Clubs and oeuvre. The barest presence of purplish
Spades Group. It is tempting to compare blue on the right side of the composition
Diebenkorris evolution in these works with enlivens the entire surface, in a technique
Matisse's late-style paper cutouts. Both use whose subtlety equals that of Diebenkorn's
paper in ways that transcend the common other model, Paul Cezanne.
nature of the medium; both involve imagery The stately and openly decorative nature
that is abstract and at the same time laden of this work sets it apart from some of the
with symbolic character. Diebenkorn's pic- other works from this period, which tend
tures, however, derive from a very different to be less symmetrical, less clarion in their
impetus than those of Matisse. They employ presence. It is not insignificant that the
shapes or images that the artist himself artist chose this piece to give to the National
acknowledged to refer to the suit symbols Gallery of Art. It stands on its own as clearly
on playing cards. as any of his ambitious, large-scale paint-
The so-called Clubs and Spades draw- ings on canvas and communicates the very
ings (or one might even call them paintings essence of Diebenkorn's later achievement.
on paper) were initially received within what JANE LIVINGSTON

can only be called a climate of puzzlement.

Very little was written about the 1982 exhibi-
tion at the Knoedler gallery in which these

280
CM
 Frequently elaborating on motifs drawn pattern is tempered by the ethereal softness
from his own work to explore subtle nuances of the watercolor washes applied over them,
among artistic media, Jasper Johns executed achieving a gentle play between the linearity
multiple versions of Between the Clock and of the graphite marks and the limpidity of
the Bed over the course of several years in the colors. The overarching compositional
the early igSos.1 The title of the series frame of the work is partitioned into three
Johns took from a late self-portrait by the panels, mimed by the tripartite format of
Norwegian artist Edvard Munch. An image the rectangular shape that partially intrudes
130 of great psychological complexity, Munch's into the right panel from the top. Any mir-
JASPER JOHNS painting depicts a solitary figure standing rored duplication of the design in the left
American, born 1930 between a grandfather clock and a bed, over and right panels that one might pursue as
which lies a coverlet with a stylized graphic an ordering principle for this work is com-
Between the Clock
pattern evocative of the hatching that con- plicated by that shape. Johns has structured
and the Bed, 1984
stitutes the design basic to Johns' series the drawing as a whole around such dis-
watercolor over graphite (see figure). While the shared title may rupted duplications: not only does the cen-
619 x 918 mm appear to invite analogously psychological tral panel not divide in a manner whereby
(243/8X36/8) interpretations of these works, the artist has one half mirrors the other (the brightness
Promised Gift of Robert explained that it was only after the similarity of the more saturated yellow calling atten-
and Jane Meyerhoff between the decorative pattern on the bed tion to that disruptive center) but also
in Munch's painting and the design of his evident throughout the work are other dis-
own work had been pointed out to him that crepancies. Whereas one line establishes the
he adopted Munch's title for the series.2 distinction between each of the three panels
Although it is true that each Between the Clock in the drawing at large, within the smaller
and the Bed creates a subtly distinct mood shape—which would ostensibly be its
through variations in color and artistic mate- "double" in miniature—those dividing lines
rials, it is also deeply characteristic of his art are doubled, bringing the conceit into even
that efforts to impute narrative or psychologi- subtler play. More, the smaller shape is not
cal content to specific works are as much treated with watercolor wash but is visually
invited as they are elusively resisted. set apart by its relative austerity. Finally,
The mildest in overall tonality, this is although the graphite marks that establish
the only work in the series where watercolor the hatching pattern of the larger panels
was used. Here the strictness of the graphite trespass the delineating boundary of the
lines laid down to delineate the hatching smaller form, the hatched marks within that
shape duplicate neither the orientation nor
the regularity nor the quality of touch of the
Edvard Munch, Between the
Clock and the Bed, c. 1949, oil greater design, even as they elicit formal
on canvas, Munchmuseet, Oslo comparison with them.
K A T H R Y N A. TUMA

Provenance Notes
The artist via the Leo 1. For more on this series,
Castelli Gallery to Robert see Nan Rosenthal and
and Jane Meyerhoff, 1985. Ruth E. Fine, The Drawings
of Jasper Johns [exh. cat.,
National Gallery of Art]
(Washington, 1990),
260-267.
2. Mark Rosenthal, "Jasper
Johns," in The Robert and
Jane Meyerhoff Collection,
1945 to 1995 [exh. cat.,
National Gallery of Art]
(Washington, 1996), 76.

282
£
 Dynamically poised between abstraction and geometric abstract art. The sensuously
representation, Joel Shapiro's untitled draw- scumbled surfaces here reveal not only the
ing of 1987 combines the rigid geometry artist's virtuosity but his working methods
associated with minimal art and the fluidity as well. Using an eraser, his finger, and a
of the human form in motion. The floating wide planar implement, Shapiro has pulled
blocks in this drawing strongly relate to those the velvety chalk and charcoal media outside
in such works as Kazimir Malevich's Supre- the edges of the rectangles, a technique that
matist Painting: Eight Rectangles of 1915 is most obvious around the largest block.
131 (Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam). Shapiro The artist's hand is also clearly signaled in
JOEL SHAPIRO humanizes Malevich's reductive aesthetic, the passages of fingerprints—the evidence
American, born 1941 however, by relating it to the figure—a char- of an individual's identity—on the edges of
acteristic of so-called postminimal art. In this the paper.
Untitled, 1987
drawing the alternating rectangles, propor- MOLLY D O N O V A N

chalk and charcoal tionate to human body parts, spring from a

1,886 x 153 mm central axis, as appendages would along a
(74/4x60/4) spinal column. Provenance 2. Donald B. Kuspit
Robert and Jane Paula Cooper Gallery, New refers to them as "toys of
Although the deep black volumetric rect-
York; Robert and Jane thought," in "Manifest
Meyerhoff Collection, angles in this work echo the reference to Meyerhoff, 1988. Destinies," Art in America
1994 limblike beams in Shapiro's sculptures, the 5 (May 1983), 152.

drawings are not studies for the sculptures, Notes

3. Joel Shapiro in Joel
An earlier version of this Shapiro: Tracing the Figure
but finished works in their own right. As [exh. cat., Des Moines Art
text was published in
Shapiro points out, "[in my drawings] I Washington 1996. Center] (Des Moines,
1990), 60.
approached certain intentions that I can't i. Joel Shapiro in Joel
Shapiro: Selected Drawings
realize in sculpture."1 Among these inten-
3968-1990 [exh. cat.,
tions would be the sense of motion. Center for the Fine Arts]
In Shapiro's sculptures the abstracted (Miami, 1991), u.

figures assume active poses but are frozen

in space. In his drawings, however, these
same figures assume active poses that con-
vey an added kineticism, recalling the
implied motion in Italian futurist painting,
evident here in the reverberating lines
under the "legs" and around the "torso."
The energized forms also communicate
a playfulness that threads throughout
Shapiro's work, most notably in his minia-
ture house and chair sculptures of the 19705
and early 19805.2 Subjects suggested by this
drawing include tumbling blocks, a child's
pull-string toy with its appendages ani-
mated, and a dancer in midair. Given the
human scale of the drawing, perhaps the
analogy to a dancing figure is most convinc-
ing. Shapiro affirms, "I am interested in
movement, in dislocation of mass. I am
interested in dance, in the way I'm inter-
ested in sports. I'm interested in the dis-
location of the body from the ground."3
The personal element in Shapiro's
drawing—handwrought marks and finger-
prints—sets it apart from other works of

284
M
286
 Punningly titled The Green House Affect, this his intentions. Decidedly subjective and
imposing drawing—inscribed "35" x 54 34" open-ended, the artist's vision hovers
more or less" toward the lower left—is ambivalently between description and pre-
a wide-ranging meditation on environmen- scription. In fact, much of the power of The
tal themes by Northern California artist Green House Affect derives from the multi-
William Wiley. Wiley rose to prominence tude of ostensible dichotomies — Eastern/
after his inclusion in the landmark Funk Western, obvious/obscured, light/dark,
exhibition at the University of California, beauty/ugliness, word/image, humor/
132 Berkeley, in 1967. Since that time he has anger—that are held in a perpetual state
WILLIAM T. WILEY alternately turned his attention to painting, of tension.
American, born 1937 sculpture, performance, and even film, but J O N A T H A N F. W A L Z

drawing remains at the core of his work.

The Green House
Considered a "draftsman's draftsman,"
Affect, 1988
Wiley here demonstrates his absolute mas- Provenance
Marsha Mateyka Gallery,
graphite and colored tery of the drawing process despite the Spar-
Washington, DC; pur-
pencil tan limitation of his means (graphite on chased by the National
Gallery of Art with desig-
1,518 x 1,016 mm white paper with a modicum of red pencil).
nated funds.
(5934x40) This virtual abecedarium of techniques
Gift of the Collectors includes shading, erasure, stumping, and
Committee, 1995 scratching out. Actual drawing methods,
as well as allusions to the history of the
medium, abound: mechanical drafting, car-
tography, illustration, graffiti, and doodling.
Through the use of an idiosyncratic sys-
tem of symbols developed over the course
of his lengthy career, Wiley confronts the
viewer with an image of a postlapsarian
world spinning out of control. One can
observe a landscape suffering from "car
exhaust and coal smoke," among other ill
effects. In a brilliant stroke of metaphorical
thinking, the artist has envisioned the sheet
of paper as synonymous with the depicted
panorama: just as acid rain physically
attacks mountains and buildings, so Wiley's
emphatic mark-making has scored and
worn away the surface of the present sheet.
From the idea of acid rain it is only a small
conceptual step to the artist's involvement
with printmaking (particularly intaglio,
which uses weakened hydrochloric acid to
bite the metal plate) and to his long-stand-
ing interest in alchemy (the pseudoscience
of transforming one physical substance to
another, sometimes employing acid). This
kind of associative and accumulative linking
elucidates the genesis—and exponentially
possible meanings—of Wiley's art, but not

287
 The stripe is not merely a formal element and metallic gray resemble the windowless
in Sean Scully's work but a subject that he facades of weathered corrugated aluminum
imbues with eloquence and power.1 Meld- in a series of Scully's photographs of simple
ing the disparate traditions of abstract homes in the Scottish isles (figure).4
expressionism and minimalism, he empha- Like his architectural photographs,
sizes gesture and handling within a defined Scully's works on paper are often executed
geometric structure. He builds his richly while he is traveling. This drawing, as its
nuanced colors through almost obsessively title suggests, was made on 10 August 1989
133 repeated application of pigment: here, during a sojourn in Madrid. Scully had
SEAN SCULLY densely layered pastels of gray and black spent significant time in the Prado looking
American, born Ireland, interwoven with warm brown form stripes at paintings by Velazquez, whose sumptu-
J
945 of equivalent, but not identical, proportions. ously costumed "Infantas" held compelling
Scully's work reveals the profound influ- appeal.5 The lush grays and blacks of 8.10.89
8.10.89,1989
ence of the art of Henri Matisse, particularly may derive from the exquisite fabrics in
oil stick and watercolor in his orchestration of somber hues. There Las Meninas, with their contrasting, and
572 x 765 mm is a clear relationship between 8.10.89 and even banded, patterns of dark and light.
(22/2X30/8) Matisse's monumental painting Bathers by The complexity of the suggested portals
Gift of the Collectors a River of 1909-1916 (Art Institute of in Velazquez's masterpiece—mirror, door,
Committee, 1993 Chicago), in which potent gray and black implied window, and paintings on the easel
verticals designate the river and earth, and and walls—must have fascinated Scully as
colossal nudes in essence become stripes.2 well. With disarming lucidity and an expan-
Scully is equally engaged by Matisse's depic- siveness that belies its scale, 8.10.89 subtly
tions of windows, which emphasize the flat- alludes to the splendor that Scully finds in
ness of the picture plane by conflating the highest traditions of art, and in the most
outside views with interior space. elementary forms of architecture.
Scully's mature work consistently JESSICA STEWART

involves internal counterpoint and rhythm.

In the mid-igSos he began to insert smaller
"paintings" of distinct palette and design Provenance extend to that artist's aus-
Mary Boone Gallery, New tere black and gray can-
into his compositions, referring to them as York; purchased by the vases of 1969.
"windows." Scully thus subverts a standard National Gallery of Art
3. Hirshhorn conversation,
with designated funds.
trope—of the painting itself as a window— 1995.
even acknowledging that his windows do 4. The artist began to pho-
Notes tograph architectural ele-
not all "lead to light" but may "feed on the 1. In a public conversation ments in Siena, Italy, in
field and undermine it."3 S.io.Sg's window, with Ned Rifkin at the 1979. The photographs
Hirshhorn Museum and visually relate to his paint-
distinctively rendered in watercolor, allows Sculpture Garden, 14 June ings and drawings because
for refracted radiance, yet its bands of rust 1995, the artist said the he was fully formed as an
stripe functions for him as artist when he began mak-
Sean Scully, a subject, "like a nude or ing them, and his style as
Harris e£ Lewis trees." a photographer was deter-
Shacks, 1990, 2. Scully saw this painting mined by his approach
color C-print, at least by the time of his to painting (telephone con-
courtesy of the 1987-1988 exhibition at versation, 10 January).
artist the Art Institute. He Although the photograph
affirmed the relationship illustrated here was taken
(telephone conversation, in 1990 (after this drawing
10 January) and gener- was executed), Scully shot
ously made available a similar homes with alu-
1992 BBC film, "Artists minum siding in Mexico
Journeys: Sean Scully on in 1987; see Maurice
Henri Matisse." During Poirier, Sean Scully (New
the same conversation York, 1990), 159-160.
Scully clarified that his 5. Telephone conversation,
widely acknowledged debt 10 January.
to Mark Rothko does not

288
6gz
 For more than half a century Helen Franken- largest woodcut to date, and indeed one
thaler has explored the expressive possibili- of her largest prints in any medium.
ties of abstraction to create a body of work The radical distinctions between the
that is both experimental and unabashedly handmade maquette and the printed wood-
seductive and beautiful. Frankenthaler's cut are vividly apparent. To list only a few,
immutable spirit of invention in the manip- the dimensional build-up of paper pulp con-
ulation of materials and techniques is as trasts strikingly with the thin layers of ink
apparent in the joyous lyricism of mature embedded in the woodcut paper; visual vari-
134 works like Freefall as in earlier pieces such ations in the paper pulp are markedly more
HELEN as Mountains and Sea, 1952,l the canvas that vigorous than the delicate, regular wood-
FRANKENTHALER established her reputation among the most grain surface; the edges of paper-pulp forms
American, born 1928 influential painters of postwar America. are less confined than those created by cut
Rather than employing traditional draw- woodblocks; white as a color plays a more
Freefall, 1992
ing media, Frankenthaler worked here for pervasive role in the maquette than in the
pigmented paper pulp the first time with colored paper pulp and print; and, most obviously, the irregularity
1,778 x 1,473 mm dyes, drawing, incising, painting, spraying, of the outer shape of the maquette differs
(70 x 58) and otherwise investigating the visual possi- from the rectangular form created by the
Gift of Helen bilities of these more unusual materials. woodcut's pale violet framing band.
Frankenthaler, 1993 The multiple layers of pulp she set down Experimental artistic approaches to
form Freefall's dimensional surface, which materials and processes throughout the
is closely related to the build-up of paint that twentieth century have caused boundaries
marks many of Frankenthaler's canvases of that historically have separated paintings
the 19805 and early 19905. To make Freefall from sculpture, for example, or drawings
the artist used one of the printing presses at from prints to become less clear. Freefall
Tyler Graphics Ltd. (Mt. Kisco, New York) as offers an intriguing demonstration of this.
a tabletop, letting the size and shape of the The paper-pulp Freefall was listed as a
press bed determine the size of the work. "working proof in the Freefall woodcut
After its completion Freefall was used as a entry of the 1996 catalogue raisonne of
maquette for a woodcut of the same title, Frankenthaler's prints. A working proof
printed on handmade, hand-dyed paper at designation is generally used for early
Tyler Graphics (figure). 2 It is the artist's impressions of unfinished printed images
to which an artist has made alterations by
hand, using paint, crayon, graphite, collage,
Helen Frankenthaler, Freefall, or other materials. Here, however, the term
1993, color woodcut, National has been applied to a unique work on paper,
Gallery of Art, Washington,
Gift of Helen Frankenthaler
made directly by the artist, with no printed
and Tyler Graphics Ltd., 1993 elements at all.
RUTH E. F I N E

Notes Suzanne Boorsch (New

1. Reproduced in John York, 1996), 471-474, no.
Elderfield, Frankenthaler 233; a second paper-pulp
(New York, 1989), 64. maquette was made for
Radius (no. 234). Tom Stri-
2. See Pegram Harrison,
Frankenthaler: A Catalogue anese and Kenneth Tyler
are listed as assisting with
Raisonne, Prints 1960-1994,
both paper-pulp works.
with introduction by

290
i6z
 In the minimalist climate of the 19608 the drawing, Marden went back to conceal
Brice Marden made drawings composed of passages at the right with opaque white
tightly drawn grids and solid rectangles in gouache. Often the overpaint bled into the
charcoal and graphite. Yet even within the underlying tone, creating puddles of color
circumscribed realm of minimalism Mar- that offer up undisguised pentimenti—
den's work tended toward the sensuous. He another factor that contributes to the draw-
paid obsessive attention to surfaces, sanding ing's sense of extended time.
down layer after layer of graphite to yield Since 1973 Marden has made drawings
135 rich, dense blacks. In his Homage to Art (including this one) using sticks from tree
BRICE MARDEN collages of the early 19705 the artist stressed branches as instruments rather than con-
American, born 1938 the plane of the paper by literally "inlaying" ventional pens or brushes. He generally
postcards flush with its surface. And he chooses longish ones, dipping them in
Long Drawing,
often enriched media such as graphite and ink and holding them so as to create an
1993/1996
chalk with beeswax and oil crayon. Looking extended arc reaching from his shoulder
ink and gouache back to his work of those decades, Marden through the end of the branch. He relates
248 x 965 mm states: "I just got to the point where it was this practice to photographs he saw of
(9 1/4 X 38 1/2) more about refining than anything else. Matisse drawing with long segments of
Promised Gift of Robert I wanted more expression."1 In addition, he bamboo that had pieces of charcoal affixed
and Jane Meyerhoff concedes that he "always felt more related to their ends.3 In Long Drawing the pliable
to the abstract expressionists than any implement sometimes met with the paper's
other group."2 resistance, skipping over its surface like a
Prompted by an interest in Chinese pebble across water, leaving a dashed line in
poetry and calligraphy, Marden made a dra- its wake. Where the stick encountered no
matic shift in the mid-1980s, adopting a calli- such resistance, the line flows seamlessly.
graphic idiom that culminated in his Cold Although numerous lines extend beyond the
Mountain series of 1989-1991. Marden paper's edge, the dominant ones loop their
doubtless recognized that the fluid nature of way back into the confines of the image.
calligraphy drew on the same kind of intuitive Instead of suggesting a cropped detail from
expression that energized Jackson Pollock's a larger and frenetic field of activity, Long
work. Over the next decade Marden extended Drawing tracks a more hushed, contained,
the idiom even further. Less informed by the and reflective course.
discipline of calligraphy, works such as Long JUDITH BRODIE

Drawing resonate with allusions to landscape,

movement, and light.
Given that Long Drawing was executed Provenance Rosenthal in Mark Rothko
Matthew Marks Gallery, [exh. cat., National Gallery
over the course of three years, it also appro-
New York; Robert and Jane of Art] (Washington,
priately speaks to the issue of time. Unlike Meyerhoff, 1996. 1998), 361.
Pollock's line, which typically accelerates 3. Interview with Pat Steir
in Brice Marden: Recent
with lightning speed and determination, Notes
Drawings and Etchings [exh.
T. Interview with Janie C.
Marderis meanders. Here it is somewhat Lee in Brice Marden Draw-
cat., Matthew Marks
Gallery] (New York, 1991).
vagrant, even prone to fits and starts. Obser- ings: The Whitney Museum
of American Art Collection
vation requires time, and the artist gives
(New York, 1998), 23.
the viewer license to linger, backtrack, and 2. Interview with Mark
pause. Although Long Drawing possesses the
all-over activity typical of Pollock's work, the
action here is more protracted, like the
unfolding progression of a Chinese hand-
scroll. Dense and tangled at one end, the
pictorial space gradually opens up, admit-
ting light and air. After applying a relatively
even network of lines across the length of

292
293
 Andrew Topolski's drawing, which reads like rectangles, are superimposed on the handles
an arcane plan for some mysterious device of the upside-down canes, props that figure
or project, is executed with a polished preci- prominently in Beuys' work.3 Topolski
sion that implies utter feasibility. The inter- regards the cane as a sign of strength,
locking rings on the left seem charged with since it lends support, but also as an in-
energy and radiate a metallic glow, but dication of weakness, since support is
whether they relate to something material needed. Other influences include artists
or hypothetical is a question that goes unan- from the early twentieth century who were
136 swered. The effect seems almost acoustic, engaged with the machine, such as Marcel
ANDREW TOPOLSKI as when metal strikes metal. The annotated Duchamp. Considering, for example,
American, born 1952 diagram on the right suggests an obscure Duchamp's Chocolate Grinder, No. 2, from
mechanical instrument resembling a tripod. 1914 and his Large Glass from 1915-1923, it
Overground II, 1994
But this tripod is absent one leg, and the becomes clear that Topolski's drawing, like
graphite, pigment, and two existing ones are inverted canes. Duchamp's schematic works, is tantalizingly
transfer type on archi- Although the rings and the mechanism are real but destined never to be actualized.
tects' vellum evidently related, their connection is puz- Topolski rarely thinks in terms of an
1,251 x 917 mm zling. Indeed one of the drawing's most individual statement and considers each
(49/4x36/8) compelling qualities is its ambiguity—the work, whether it be one of his precisely cali-
Gift of Werner H. and way it ostensibly engages one's reason but brated sculptures or a large-format drawing
Sarah-Ann Kramarsky, persistently appeals to the intuition. such as this one, part of a continuum, each
1998 When pressed to explain the work's title serving as a catalyst for the next. He is
and significance (does it relate to "ground acutely attuned to his materials and almost
zero" or "groundwater," or is it meant never limits himself to a single medium.
paradoxically to call attention to "under- In Overground II the burnished coppery
ground"?), the artist states that his titles pigments create a metallic polish, and the
and imagery are not meant to be decoded. smudging endows this rather cool drawing
Nonetheless he allows that his intention is with warmth. It also introduces the element
to disable objects or events that threaten of time, as if the drawing had been handled
one's safety or being, claiming that in taking and scrutinized repeatedly. The smudges are
something apart—especially something the telltale marks of a human hand, perhaps
dangerous—one comes to understand its seeking to sort out the drawing's intention
power. Moreover, by transforming danger or unscramble its mystery.
into beauty, the peril is deflated.1 JUDITH BRODIE

Topolski acknowledges a debt to the

German artist Joseph Beuys, whose all-
encompassing outlook affected his own Provenance zones created when an
Acquired from the artist by atomic bomb is detonated
approach to making art. Topolski thinks
Werner H. and Sarah-Ann (telephone conversation,
globally and often alludes to environmen- Kramarsky. 12 February).
tal and political issues, including the dis- 3. Beuys made repeated
use of canes, for example,
figuration of the landscape and the develop- Notes
1. Telephone conversation in the drawing Eurasian
ment of nuclear energy and its military with the artist, 12 February Staff against a Clandestine
implications.2 A text block repeated twice 2001. American Alliance for Aims
of Political Power (1967), in
in Overground II reads like an indictment 2. The artist says that he the performance I Like
had the mysterious phe- America and America Likes
of imperialist tactics: "Together with pro- nomenon of vegetation Me (1974), and in the book
paganda and periodic terror attacks, an- rings called "crop circles" Conversation (1974).
in mind when he drew the
nounced as reprisals, this increasing
interlocking rings, as well
weakening of the basis of food supply will as the circular radioactive
paralyze and finally break the will of the
people to resist, and thereby force its gov-
ernment to capitulate." These text blocks,
composed of white type on two narrow black

294
295
 Wavy Brushstrokes is one of a group of densely layered color lines of Wavy Brush-
gouaches Sol LeWitt initiated in 1992 that strokes seem remarkable for an artist associ-
employ the primary colors—red, yellow, ated with visual systems.
and blue—along with black and white. They The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collec-
exist in vertical, horizontal, and square for- tion at the National Gallery of Art, both gifts
mats and in multipanel compositions. As a and promised gifts, includes one hundred of
group they explore all possible combinations Le Witt's works on paper dating from 1965
of LeWitt's designated visual elements: (the year of the Vogels' first purchase of this
137 straight lines in vertical, horizontal, and artist's work) through Wavy Brushstrokes of
SOL LEWITT diagonal left to right and right to left orien- 1996, the most recent acquisition. Many
American, born 1928 tations, as well as diverse wavy variations. sheets have personalized notes from the artist
Other gouaches of the 19905 employ less to the collectors. LeWitt, an avid collector of
Wavy Brushstrokes,
classic color combinations and an array of the art of his contemporaries, was among
1996
brush stroke types: Squiggly Brushstrokes; the primary inspirations for the Vogels when
gouache Irregular Brushstrokes; Irregular Grid; and they began to purchase art.5
1,537 x 2,946 mm a 1999 sheet entitled Loopy Doopy} RUTH E. FINE

(60/2X116) LeWitt's works on paper from the late

The Dorothy and 19505 are marked by a sensuous response
Herbert Vogel to materials that has remained evident in Provenance 4. On LeWitt's prints,
The artist to Dorothy and see Jeremy Lewison, Sol
Collection, 1999 his drawings, even the most stringent, Herbert Vogel, 1996. LeWitt: Prints 1970-1986
throughout his career. By the mid-1960s, [exh. cat., Tate Gallery]
(London, 1986); Wendy
LeWitt was an esteemed advocate for con- Notes Weitman, Sol LeWitt:
ceptual art, defined by him as art in which An earlier version of this Prints 1970-1995 [exh. cat.,
text was published in Museum of Modern Art]
"the idea or concept is the most important Washington 2000. (New York, 1996); and
aspect of the work," as distinguished from 1. For an overview of the Kathan Brown, "Sol
art in which "the concept may be changed gouaches of the 19905, see LeWitt: A Mystic, Not a
"Large Gouaches," in Gary Rationalist," in Overview
in the process of execution."2 These beliefs Garrels et al, Sol LeWitt: (Crown Point Press'
have enabled both his sculpture and wall A Retrospective [exh. cat., newsletter), February
San Francisco Museum of 2000.
drawings to be fabricated by others.3 But Modern Art] (San Fran- 5. See Ruth E. Fine,
LeWitt has himself drawn thousands of cisco, 2000), 346-361. "Dorothy and Herbert
works on paper, including Wavy Brush- 2. "Paragraphs on Concep- Vogel in Conversation," in
tual Art," Artforum 5, no. From Minimal to Concep-
strokes, in addition to the matrices for 10 (June 1967), 79-83; tual Art: Works from the
many of his prints.4 reprinted in San Francisco Dorothy and Herbert Vogel
2000, 369. "Sentences on Collection [exh. cat.,
Graphite and black or color inks were Conceptual Art," Art-Lan- National Gallery of Art]
Le Witt's primary drawing media through guage i, no. i (May 1969), (Washington, 1994), 59-
11-13, a^so reprinted in 60. On LeWitt's collection,
the 19605 and 19705. Since about 1982, see Andrea Miller-Keller,
San Francisco 2000,
however, gouache has also been prominent 371-372. "Varieties of Influence: Sol
LeWitt and the Arts Com-
in his repertoire; the resultant works are 3. See San Francisco 2000; munity," in San Francisco
and Sol LeWitt: Twenty-jive
more painterly than linear. Likewise, aug- 2000, 79-81, particularly
Years of Wall Drawings, the section on LeWitt as
menting the geometric shapes and forms 1968-1993 [exh. cat., Addi- mentor and collector.
that were essential to his drawing language son Gallery of American
Art] (Andover, MA, 1993).
from the 19605 through the 19805, LeWitt
has worked with bands and fields of color
since the early 19905.
Concepts and proposals become Le Witt's
titles: Four Basic Lines in Four Directions, in
Four Colors, Superimposed] or Short Straight
Lines, Not Touching, Drawn at Random, and
Evenly Distributed Over the Area; or Wavy
Brushstrokes. The loosely drawn, interwoven,

296
297
 This two-part drawing is a preparatory was set on fire in 1933 and bombed by the
study by Christo for the large-scale public Red Army in I945.2 Following World War II,
project Wrapped Reichstag, Berlin, 1971- it became an emblem of a divided city in a
1995, among the greatest challenges and divided country. Christo was particularly
achievements in the career of Christo and sensitive to East-West relations, having
Jeanne-Claude.1 The drawing envisions the escaped from his native Bulgaria in 1956
Wrapped Reichstag under a gray, late after- and made his way to New York by the early
noon sky, which gives the image an excep- 19605 via Prague, Vienna, Geneva, and
138 tional elegance and calm. The power of the Paris.3 For the Christos the complexity of
CHRISTO realized project comes through in this large- working with multiple governments to
American, born in format drawing, with its monolithic view obtain the permits to wrap the Reichstag
Bulgaria 1935 of the south and east facades of the build- and receiving refusals in 1977,1981, and
ing. Its grandeur underscores the beauty 1987, intensified by the changes in those
Wrapped Reichstag,
of the Christos' transformation of one governments and the thickets of red tape,
Project for Berlin,
of the most symbolic buildings in twentieth- presented seemingly insurmountable
1995
century geopolitics. obstacles. But with the reunification of Ger-
graphite, charcoal, As with nearly all of Christo's drawings, many in October 1990, the Christos found
pastel, crayon, fabric, this work combines collage elements, seen their opportunity to complete the project.
and tape; photograph here in the top panel. Included are a sample The Wrapped Reichstag was on view from
by Wolfgang Volz of the 100,000 square meters of aluminized 24 June 1995 until 7 July 1995 and came
upper part: polypropylene fabric to be used for the to symbolize a unified, peaceful Germany.
380 x 2,440 mm wrapping, a photograph by Wolfgang Volz of MOLLY D O N O V A N
(15 x 96); lower part: the east facade, and a drawing by the artists'
i,066 x 2,440 mm engineers showing the location of the spe-
(42 x 96) cially manufactured steel cages, frames, and Notes 3. David Bourdon, "A
1. Many thanks to Christo Postcard from Berlin,"
Gift of Christo and cornice covers that crowned the four towers
and Jeanne-Claude for in Wrapped Reichstag,
Jeanne-Claude in to exaggerate the contours of the building. their time and attention. 1996, 16.
Honor of Dorothy and In the bottom panel Christo's bravura drafts- 2. Michael S. Cullin,
"The Reichstag: Its Turbu-
Herbert Vogel, 2001 manship distinguishes the work with the
lent History," in Wrapped
mark of the artist's hand, a property of his Reichstag, Berlin, 1971-
drawings not present in his finished sculp- 1995 (Cologne, 1996),
23-26.
tural projects.
This study was completed a few months
before the Wrapped Reichstag was realized
(figure) after twenty-five years of planning.
Built in 1894 and designated the first demo-
cratic parliament of Germany, the Reichstag

Christo and Jeanne-

Claude, Wrapped Reichstag,
Berlin, 1972-95, 1995, color
photograph by Wolfgang
Volz, National Gallery of
Art, Washington, Gift of
Dorothy and Herbert Vogel

298
IS)
\O
NO
 Kelly's Beanstalk is both wondrous and Provenance 3. Much of Kelly's sculp-
Matthew Marks Gallery, ture is predominantly
whimsical—a masterpiece in his graphic New York; Robert and Jane planar and creates a flat-
oeuvre. The subject, which he drew from Meyerhoff, 2000. tened graphic effect; some
invoke the third dimen-
life in his studio, dictated the format of the
sion. In the telephone con-
nearly ten-foot-high by two-foot-wide work. Notes versation of 8 January
1. The first beanstalk draw- Kelly recalled E. C.
It is one of two drawings of such scale by ing of this scale was com- Goosen's observation,
Kelly, both of the beanstalk and both made missioned by a private while preparing for his
patron for her grandson Museum of Modern Art
in 1999.l It produces a spectacular effect in
139 exceeding the height of the human form.
Jack, in reference to the
fairy tale "Jack and the
catalogue, that the artist
repeatedly produced a
Beanstalk." group of drawings before
ELLSWORTH KELLY For this work Kelly reversed the top-to-
2. Telephone conversation he made new sculpture.
American, born 1923 bottom direction in which he usually draws: with the artist, 8 January This implies that the draw-
he began at the bottom and worked his way 2001. ings stimulate Kelly's
Beanstalk, 1999 thinking with respect to
up a ladder, depicting the plant at eye level sculpture and to working
graphite at every stage. Thus no vanishing per- in the third dimension.
2,950 x 565 mm spective is employed. As the artist notes,
(116/8 x 22/4) Beanstalk renders a three-dimensional form,
Promised Gift of Robert which he conveyed in the foreshortened
and Jane Meyerhoff leaves shown slightly darker than the fine,
double-lined stalk;2 in this way the leaves
generally read in front of the stalk. The
third dimension is represented in Kelly's
work only in his drawings and in some of
his sculpture.3
The plant drawings are a distinct but
integral part of Kelly's graphic production
that underscore the intuitive method by
which the artist arrives at the abstract
shapes in his paintings and sculpture. For
Kelly the drawings offer an antidote to the
abstractions, yet his seemingly binary
interest in both abstraction and represen-
tation maintains a single purpose: in both
Kelly translates forms found in everyday
life into closed contour shapes using an
ever perfect line.
MOLLY D O N O V A N

300
301
 Drawn to Tradition: Artists' Paper
through the Twentieth Century

JUDITH WALSH

Over the course of the twentieth century produced worldwide, but the burden of the
almost every aspect of the manufacture and equipment's cost and the volume of fiber
distribution of paper changed. Casting off needed were crippling.3 In 1898 the consoli-
one after another of its craft features, paper dation of seventeen pulp and paper mills
became a specialized, machine-made com- resulted in one of the first papermaking
modity that is today merchandised inter- conglomerates, the International Paper
nationally by huge corporations. A highly Company. By 1901 the company's assets
competitive industry, modern papermaking exceeded $45 million and included thirty-
requires enormous capital to build the four mills in New England, New York, and
newest gargantuan machines and to fill Canada, as well as woodlands, real estate,
their troughs with fiber. Throughout the paper bag manufacturers, chemical compa-
century paper usage expanded as paper- nies, textile plants, and pulp factories.4 Con-
making machines were adjusted to produce solidation was swift: in 1872, 82 percent of
everything from lollipop sticks to roofing paper mills in the United States were owned
felts (fig. i). Machine-made papers for by individuals or in partnerships, but by
artists replaced the inexpensive sheets 1934 the figure was only 2 percent.5 Paper-
of higher quality that had previously making in Europe followed a similar path,
been available. and in the period after World War II merg-
From the fourteenth century European ers and sales of papermaking companies
artists used locally produced, handmade created today's multinational conglomer-
writing papers for their drawings. Begin- ates.
ning around 1760, hand-papermakers and Each move toward economy in the
artists developed specialty sheets for print- production and distribution of paper
making, watercolor, drawing, and pastel.1 By changed the sheets available to artists. For
1900, however, not a single hand-papermak- example, in 1922 the American Writing
ing mill survived in the United States and Paper Company, a business stationery giant,
only fourteen hand mills remained in the reorganized its product line as well as its
United Kingdom, accounting for less than manufacturing and distribution networks.
one half of one percent of Britain's total Based on a study of market needs, output
paper tonnage.2 Although almost negligible was reduced from about 1,500 types of
from the industry's viewpoint, this tiny paper to just 59 standard papers designed
fraction of paper production was critically to meet the needs of commerce. Drawing
important to artists who still, as a rule, papers were restricted to just one type, man-
chose handmade sheets when available. By ufactured in four grades that were distin-
the mid-twentieth century even that tradi- guished only by fiber content and price.6
tional manufacture was gone, and artists By midcentury the remaining artists'
were forced to look for substitutes. Now paper manufacturers also began to consoli-
handmade paper is an international luxury date, and soon fewer types of art papers
item, sold in art supply stores next to mass- were being distributed, albeit more widely.
produced machine-made sheets. Artists lost many treasured sheets for their
After about 1850 papermaking machin- work. The trend reversed by about 1965,
Detail, cat. 64 ery markedly increased the quantity of paper when a generation of artist-craftsmen

303
1. This Fourdrinier papermak-
ing machine was first put into
operation in 1913 and since then
has been rebuilt four times,
most recently in 1992. The
rebuilding doubled the machine
in size and tripled its speed.
Strathmore Paper Company.

revived hand-papermaking, with artists as by artists of the highest rank. Missing from
one target market. Their success was based the survey are student works, modest
on the economy of their small scale and sketches, works compromised by their con-
prompted a few historic mills to open muse- dition, or the first ideas artists jot down on
ums of hand-papermaking in combination any paper at hand—paper napkins, shirt
with paper production. Nonindustrialized cardboard, or check stubs. Rather, the draw-
countries introduced papermaking to vil- ings in this exhibition are independent
lages as a cottage industry, using native works of art, frequently intended for exhibi-
plants and fibers to create exotic sheets tion; they give a reasonable indication of the
that find a ready market in industrialized papers twentieth-century artists chose for
countries. Very recently, hand-papermakers their most deliberate aesthetic statements.
have even begun recreating a few distinctive Almost all the drawings in the exhibition
eighteenth- and nineteenth-century paper that date from before 1915 are made on
types for the arts. Dealers in fine paper handmade papers, and among those, one
around the world offer the most complete papermaker stands out. Winslow Homer in
lines of papers ever to art supply houses, 1901, Pablo Picasso in 1901/1902, John
as trade of premium sheets exists alongside Marin in 1912, Lovis Corinth in 1914, and
the marketing of commercially produced Stanton Macdonald-Wright in 1914 (cats. 3,
artists' paper.7 Today artists have the luxury 4,17, 26, 28) all chose Whatman paper.
to buy almost any sheet produced anywhere Handmade in England from linen rags,
in the world from the comfort of their stu- Whatman paper was creamy white, sturdy,
dios, by mail or online. and perfectly suited to the watercolor tech-
A Century of Drawing offers an oppor- nique; an artist could scrub, scrape, or
tunity to review the types of paper artists re-wet washes limitlessly on such a sheet.
chose throughout the twentieth century. The No other paper has ever had quite the
exhibition presents only a tiny fraction of same properties.
the National Gallery of Art's larger holdings, The Whatman name had been synony-
as these drawings are all masterworks made mous with paper of premium quality since

304
i74°-8 As the ultimate compliment, nine- as Self-Portrait tof 1912 and for the charcoal
teenth-century papermakers in France, Ger- pencil drawing Dr. Koller of around 1918
many, and Austria pirated the Whatman (cats. 20 and 37). Kathe Kollwitz used the
watermark.9 Oddly, from 1807 to 1859 two same paper for lithographs, but she chose a
papermakers in England were both legally gray Strathmore drawing paper for Out of
using the word "Whatman" in their water- Work in 1909 (cat. 12).16
marks, as neither would part with it when During the 19305 Strathmore converted
their parent firm disbanded.10 Pablo its art paper production to Fourdrinier
Picasso's Self-Portrait from 1901/1902 machines and continued to offer the same
(cat. 4) shows a Whatman/Turkey Mill paper lines. The machine-made sheets share
watermark, meaning the sheet was at least many of the visual and working properties
forty-two years old when the young artist of their mold-made predecessors but lack
drew on it. Perhaps the sheet was a gift the satisfying small variations that character-
from his father (also an artist) or Picasso ize hand- and mold-made sheets. Strath-
found it in a shop in Paris—whatever its more papers were used by Arshile Gorky for
origin, the paper demonstrates that from Nighttime, Enigma, and Nostalgia in around
very early in his career, Picasso had an inter- 1932/1934, by Joseph Stella for his Self-
est in and the temerity to use expensive, vin- Portrait in around 1929 and Eggplant in
tage sheets.11 He was not the first or only around 1939, and by Robert Motherwell for
artist to do so. In this exhibition the Marin Black Shapes in 1961 (cats. 64, 57, 69, and
watercolor Storm over Taos, dated 1930, 99). Robert Rauschenberg used Strathmore
appears on a sheet watermarked "J What- illustration boards for his 1965 mixed-media
man 1889," and Claes Oldenburg used an Drawings For Dante's 700 Birthday, LB. and
antique sheet for his 1966 Fork Cutting Cake II.E (cat. 107).
No. i (cats. 58 and in).12 Machine-made papers appealed to some
Mold-machine production was intro- artists, apparently for their fine texture and
duced to Whatman in the 19305, and hand- smooth surface. Auguste Rodin's watercolor
papermaking finally ceased there in 1957.13 Dancing Figure of 1905 (cat. 6) is on a thin
Handmade and mold-made Whatman machine-made paper that reacted to the
papers are also found in this exhibition watercolor by puckering around the figure
in works made by George Grosz in 1922, in energetic rays. Edgar Degas used a
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy in 1922/1923, Charles greenish transparent tracing paper made
Demuth in 1924, Edward Hopper in 1924, by Canson-Montgolfier for Ballet Scene in
Mark Rothko in 1944/1945, and Jacob around 1907 (cat. 9), since he relied on over-
Lawrence in 1964 (cats. 44, 47, 50, 51, 76, laying images when reworking an idea.17
and 102). Some artists may have used machine-made
As papermakers became familiar with papers for reasons of economy. Emil Nolde
the new machines, they began to improve used an English machine-made typewriting
the quality of their paper. From early in the paper18 for his watercolor An Apostle Filled
century the Strathmore Paper Company in with the Holy Spirit in 1909, and Marsden
Massachusetts sold a wide range of high- Hartley's Self-Portrait of 1908 is on a similar
quality mold- and machine-made papers but unidentified paper (cats. 13 and n).
that were of interest to artists.14 One of the In 1916 speculation in the fiber market
company's great successes was a line of and the interruption of trade as a result of
paper that approximated the very beautiful the war in Europe caused the price of paper
and costly vellum papers from Japan.15 to increase by about 60 percent in just six
Made from 1908 to 1941, Strathmore's months, and sheets became scarce.19 Artists,
"japans" found a market in Europe. Mistak- like the general public, had to improvise,
enly identified as butcher's paper in some and they apparently made do with whatever
texts, these Strathmore papers were used by paper they could find. In that year Henri
Egon Schiele for dry brush watercolors such Laurens mounted ^Instrument de Musique

305
2. Hand-dipping sheets in gela-
tin sizing baths at the Arches
mill in 1904. The "secret"
process of sizing the sheets
allowed Arches watercolor paper
to retain bright whiteness as it
aged. Private collection.

(cat. 32) to the lid of a box from Galeries produce high-quality artists' papers on cylin-
Lafayette, a department store in Paris. In der mold machines. In the early years of the
1918 Otto Dix scavenged a large sheet of twentieth century the mill developed, tested,
cream-colored machine-made paper from and aggressively marketed a mold-made
the fly-leaf of a book for his Homunkulus watercolor paper made of cotton fiber, which
(cat. 36). was clearly intended to capture the place
Papermaking thrived between the wars. held by Whatman as the premier watercolor
Throughout the 19205 direct-mail advertis- sheet. During its ten years in development
ing proved a boon to papermakers and Arches had an independent laboratory test
printers, as fashionable broadsides touted its new watercolor paper against handmade
products in subtle combinations of design, Whatman. After aging and exposure to light,
paper, and ink. Machines and pulps were the Arches paper was declared "better" than
adjusted to produce a riot of colors and nov- Whatman (fig. 2).20 Arches' smooth, bright-
elty textures. Large papermaking companies white watercolor paper was used by Rene
sought to accommodate the needs of adver- Magritte for his collage The Murderous Sky
tising and business and abandoned the pro- in 1927 (cat. 53). Georgia O'Keeffe used
duction of drawing and printmaking papers, mold-made, laid Ingres d'Arches drawing
leaving it to the small traditional mills of paper for I-Special in 1916, as did Kathe
England, Germany, and especially France. Kollwitz for her expressive Self-Portrait,
The historic French papermakers of Arches, Drawing, in 1933 (cats. 33 and 65). Similar
Rives, and Canson-Montgolfier produced sheets are a stable part of the Arches
much of the paper used by artists during line of papers and are used by artists up
the next fifty years. to the present day. For example, Robert
Arches had been established in the Motherwell and Nancy Graves used smooth-
Vosges by the end of the fifteenth century. textured Arches paper for Beside the Sea #42
By the mid-nineteenth century Arches had in 1966 and Sabine D Region of the Moon in
stopped hand production but continued to 1972 (cats. 109 and 122). Jim Dine's Nine

306
Self-Portraits with a Very Long Beard of 1977 find no papers suitable for his woodblock
(cat. 127) is on a machine-made sheet cut prints, Gaspard initially pulped rags in his
from a roll of paper that is watermarked kitchen and cast his first sheets on screens
"J Perrigot Special Arches (France)." made by his wife. In January 1925, however,
Now a sister company to Arches, the he relocated his hand-papermaking opera-
Rives mill was founded in 1573, in Isere, tion to the Vidalon mill and for several years
near Grenoble. Its famous BFK watermark21 produced Montval paper specifically for
was placed on machine-made photographic artists' use.26 Matisse used one of Gaspard's
and artists' papers, such as the sheet used sheets for his Self-Portrait of 1937 (cat. 67).
for the charcoal drawing by Charles Sheeler, In contrast to the works by British,
Interior with Stove of 1932 (cat. 63).22 Rives French, and American artists in this exhibi-
was also the likely manufacturer of the tion, which tend to be on handmade or
machine-made drawing paper sold by the mold-made papers from the period between
art supply house Lucien-Lefebvre-Foinet, the wars, those by artists from Austria, Ger-
whose initials appear as the watermark on many, Switzerland, and Eastern Europe tend
the soft, smooth, white machine-made to be on papers that have a more regular
papers used by Alexander Calder for his surface and a machine-made look. Fine-
drawings Untitled and The Circus (cats. textured sheets of a light cream tone offered
61 and 62), both from I932.23 Alberto a more neutral support for expressionist
Giacometti's pencil drawings The Table before images, but sheets appropriated from other
the Dormer Window of 1950 and Annette uses were often not strong enough to with-
Sewing of 1954 (cats. 84 and 92) may also stand artists' aggressive manipulation of
be on a Rives paper, since they are similar to their media. The smooth, machine-made
watermarked sheets he used for other pencil sheet that Lovis Corinth used for Mrs. Hed-
drawings of the period. wig Berend in 1923 (cat. 48) records all the
By far the most colorful and romantic expressive marks made by the artist, but the
of the historic paper mills in France was sheet failed when the artist pushed hard:
the Canson-Montgolfier mills at Vidalon-les- there is a small hole poked through the
Annonay in the Rhone Valley, founded in paper in Mrs. Berend's eye. Likewise, Lud-
I557.24 By 1877 Canson offered more than wig Meidner in 1915 applied the graphite so
seven hundred papers for all uses, including vigorously in Hans Freimark (cat. 29) that
a line designed for arts and crafts. In 1878 even where it was erased at the subject's
they announced that they were able to make proper right ear, a deep impression from the
sixty different colors of paper in ten tones pencil point remains. Erich Heckel exploited
and in five different sizes.25 Despite such another anonymous, smooth sheet in his
rich offerings, twentieth-century draftsmen Siddi in Bed of 1912 (cat. 21), wetting his fin-
used Cansoris cream-colored papers almost ger and smudging the crayon strokes across
exclusively. Henri Matisse used it for the slick surface of the paper.
Antoinette with Long Hair and The Plumed Some artists used beautiful handmade
Hat, both of 1919 (cats. 38 and 39). Stuart Japanese papers that possess the same
Davis used a Canson sheet for Abstract visual characteristics as machine-made
Composition around 1921, and Picasso chose sheets. Asian-style papers have been found
"Canson A Grain" paper for Ruth Dangler in in Western art since the mid-seventeenth
1922 (cats. 43 and 46). Saul Steinberg used century, when Rembrandt used them for
Cansoris Ingres-type drawing paper for etchings. Rarely employed for watercolor,
La Scala di Ferro in 1967 (cat. 113). those lightly sized sheets allow wet pigment
From about 1925 the Canson mills to bleed, an effect that was apparently
accommodated the hand-papermaker Gas- desired by Emil Nolde for his Anemones of
pard Maillol, the nephew of the sculptor and around 1937 (cat. 68). Even slight surface
printmaker Aristide Maillol. Responding in rubbing pulls the long Japanese fibers up
1910 to his uncle's complaint that he could into threads, as seen at the collar in Hein-

307
 rich Campendonk's Self-Portrait of around Head was killed in service. His heirs sold
1912 (cat. 19). Jasper Johns used a light gray his papermaking screens, some of which
Japanese sheet for the pastel Untitled (from had been designed to achieve an ancient
Untitled 1972) of 1975/1976 (cat. 125). look, to the Green family, who by 1924 had
During World War II reduced labor developed a suite of "J. B. Green/F. J. Head"
kept only the most modern high-speed papers for drawing, etching, and woodblock
papermaking machinery active. Paper was printing.30 Hayter may have known the story
declared essential for the war effort and thus of the papermaker, and it is worth consider-
was strictly regulated. One estimate sug- ing if he meant this work to be commemo-
gested twenty tons of paper were needed to rative of the people who fought both wars,
design a battleship.27 Paper manufacturing since by the date recorded on the drawing,
plants were also among the targets of the fighting had finally ended in Europe.
wartime destruction. In 1946 a British Intel- The venerable artists' paper firms sur-
ligence committee reported on the condition vived past midcentury by abandoning their
of paper mills in postwar Germany. The hand-papermaking vats for more profitable
notes on the Hoffsummer mill in Diiren cylinder mold-machines and high-speed
could describe the destruction inflicted on Fourdriniers. They also began to consoli-
both sides: "The mill was very badly dam- date, as commercial papermakers had
aged; the buildings were 80% destroyed, earlier in the century, sharing the costs
and the machinery 50% destroyed. One of advertising and distribution. In 1956
paper machine had been cleared of rubble Arches, Johannot, Marais, and Rives merged
and was nearly ready to start. The envelope to become the Arjomari group, a corporate
factory was completely destroyed. No sam- identity created from the first letters of their
ples of paper were available. All samples four names. They continued as an inde-
and records had been burnt." Only two pendent firm until 1968, when they were
employees were at the mill in 1946: a incorporated into the machine-papermaking
manager and a clerk.28 Regulations on Prioux family of companies. Arjomari-
paper production remained in effect until Prioux purchased 60 percent of Canson in
about 1950. 1976. In 1991 British American Tobacco
With few exceptions, drawings in this merged its two paper companies, Wiggins-
exhibition made during the war appear on Teape (a partnership formed in England in
unidentifiable, nondescript sheets, or on the late nineteenth century) with Appleton
sheets that artists presumably had on hand. Mills in the United States and spun them
For example, Jackson Pollock used papers of off as Wiggins-Teape Appleton. This new
poor quality in 1939/1942 (cat. 70), but in company was quickly acquired by Arjomari-
1945 he was able to find a whiter, machine- Prioux, and now all these art papermaking
made drawing paper of better quality (cat. facilities—Arches, Johannot, Rives, and
78). Mark Rothko was lucky enough to find Canson—proceed from the much larger
a precious piece of prewar Whatman for his corporate body known as Arjo-Wiggins,
watercolor Untitled of 1944/1945 (cat. 76). which has more than 450 subsidiaries.
Stanley William Hayter used a paper It is hard to estimate the value of artists'
with a poignant history for his Sheet of papers to their huge parent companies.
Sketches from 1945 (cat. 77). Its "F. J. Head These anachronistic manufactures provide
& Co" watermark indicates the sheet was comparatively small revenue but must be of
made between 1911 and 1917. F. J. Head was great value in other ways. The names
a charismatic young paper dealer and a Arches and Rives have survived in artists'
favorite of art students. The Green family sheets despite corporate decision-making.
made drawing and printing papers with Fabriano, the ancient and now large Italian
Head's name as the watermark at Hayle papermaker, reintroduced hand- and mold-
Mill, starting about 1911.29 In 1917, within made artists' papers to the lucrative Ameri-
six months of having been drafted, F. J. can market in the mid-igGos. Picasso had

308
used Fabriano's colored Ingres paper for the use of Montval paper in the 19305. But most
elements of his collage The Cup of Coffee of drawings from the 19505 and 19605 seen
1913, and Jacques Lipchitz used a handmade here are made on generic white machine-
Fabriano sheet in 1916 for Pierrot (cats. 25 made drawing papers, which appear to have
and 31). Eva Hesse discovered modern Fabri- been removed from the newly developed
ano paper for her Untitled of 1964 (cat. artists' pads. De Kooning's Woman I of
106). More recently, Cy Twombly used three 1952 (cat. 88) even incorporates the ragged
different Fabriano papers, from rolls, for edge from the wire spiral binding into
Sylvae, Sylvae, and Nike of 1981 (cats. 128). the design.
In the late 19705 the Inveresk Paper Corpo- Since the 19605 small hand-papermak-
ration revived the manufacture of old style ing mills have proliferated in North America
sheets identified with the papermaker T. H. and Europe, with fine artists and printers as
Saunders at St. Cuthbert's Mill in Devon- their primary market. In the last quarter of
shire.31 Sean Scully uses the thick, richly the century artists completed the transition
textured Saunders watercolor sheets for his of hand-papermaking from a trade to an
oil stick drawings such as 8.20.89 (cat. 133). artistic craft, as paper itself became the sub-
Strathmore, now the arm of the Interna- ject of works of art in pulp pieces and paper
tional Paper Company that produces fine sculptures. The signal event of this trend
paper, made a conscious marketing decision was Robert Rauschenberg's 1973 trip to the
in the 19305 to continue manufacturing Moulin Papier de Richard de Bas, founded
artists' papers, although the line did not in 1326 in Ambert, France, where he made
generate a large profit. The company still collage and painted pulp "drawings" for later
reasons that these sheets introduce art and print editions.34 Other artists such as David
design students to its brand name, and later Hockney, Ellsworth Kelly, Jonathan Borof-
in their careers as art directors and book sky, Chuck Close, Alan Shields, and William
designers these users are more likely to Weegee have used colored and painted
specify Strathmore for projects. Since less pulps to create both individual works and
than 10 percent of art materials are sold to some numbered editions. Ken Tyler, who
professional artists—art students, teachers, first broached the idea to Rauschenberg,
and practicing artists—the commercial later helped Helen Frankenthaler create
market is aimed at designers and amateurs Freefall in 1992, a painted and manipulated
who may be enticed by a familiar name. pulp piece in this exhibition (cat. 134; and
Finally, it must be remembered that paper- % 3)-
makers do love paper; there may be no Papermaking changed in the twentieth
reason beyond that for the life of some of century from a cottage industry to big busi-
these sheets. ness, from a trade craft to an artistic one. As
Inspired by the arts and crafts move- twentieth-century papermaking comprised
ment, the so-called hand-papermaking so many different kinds of papers, and
revival in the United States and England twentieth-century artists are broadly under-
grew throughout the 19305 and 19405, stood to have been daring and experimental,
together with the craft bookbinding and one expects to see a wide variety of sheets
modern printmaking revival. Dard Hunter, used in their drawings. Curiously, most of
a remarkable book and paper man, explored the sheets displayed in this exhibition fall
almost every aspect of paper and fine press- within a very narrow range of papers. The
work.32 A couple of his disciples were artists usually chose art papers of high or
sought out by particular artists — Douglas highest quality for their work. Only rarely
Morse Howell,33 who made sheets for Jack- does a self-consciously modernist aesthetic
son Pollock and other abstract expression- assert itself by the appropriation of a com-
ists, and John and Kathy Roller at HMP, mercial paper for drawing. Although outside
who produced sheets for Richard Dieben- the scope of this survey, a similar trend can
korn. Such a relationship recalls Matisse's be found in these artists' choice of media.

309
3. Ken Tyler and Helen
Frankenthaler working on
Freefall. Tyler Graphics; photo-
graph by Marabeth Cohen-Tyler.

They used high-quality watercolors and pas- but infinitely deep space, a vacuum in which
tels and expensive papers even when they an image may float.
had little money, obviously taking pride and Thicker paper could bear the action of
pleasure in their tools. vigorous drawing without tearing or distor-
Although twentieth-century artists tion. Many of the expressionistic flourishes
sought high-quality sheets for their draw- used by twentieth-century draftsmen were
ings, they chose markedly different papers aggressive—digging into the sheets, fraying
than artists of previous centuries. Despite fiber, and spreading paint and ink across the
the literally hundreds of colored papers page. Delicate sheets failed under such vio-
available, these do not appear to have been lent action.
of overwhelming interest to twentieth-cen- Strong paper texture interrupts the light
tury draftsmen. Instead, the paper chosen falling across the sheet and would obscure
for drawings most often was bright white. the drawing in some modern images that
It tended toward thickness. Generally artists rely on the simple elegance of a pristine
also chose smoother sheets, despite being line, as in Ellsworth Kelly's Small Oak of
offered novelty textures. 1964 and Beanstalk of 1999 (cats. 103 and
How did these observed qualities in the 139). Ken Tyler characterized some hand-
sheets—their whiteness, thickness, and made paper as "so beautiful and powerful in
smooth surface—serve the artists who used its surface that it intimidated not only me,
them? Blue, brown, green, or pale pink but also the artists. The images.. .looked
sheets were useful to earlier artists, as the better... on a neutral ground."35 Variable
color provided a middle tone for chiaroscuro paper texture was also useful in minimizing
drawings that easily allowed the suggestion any smudges or false marks an artist might
of modeling three-dimensional or illusionis- erase in the course of creating a work. In
tic space. Few of the artists represented in the second half of the twentieth century
this exhibition were interested in such mod- smudges and fingerprints were often wel-
eling. Their white paper gives the impres- comed as evidence of the process of cre-
sion of flatness—a single plane that holds ation, as in Jim Dine's Nine Self-Portraits
the image. It must be noted, however, that with a Very Long Beard and Joel Shapiro's
most of the colored sheets seen in this exhi- Untitled of 1987 (cats. 127 and 131).
bition are gray or a saturated black. A black Finally, the connections of commerce
background seems to suggest an ambiguous that linked the papermaking industry

310
throughout the century made commercially
produced papers widely available. Just as
twentieth-century ideas about art traveled
from country to country, the trade of sheets
became international also. One sees Ameri-
can papers in Germany, French papers in
American artists' works, and English water-
color paper everywhere. As artists traveled
more freely, they became aware of sheets
found abroad and requested them from
their local suppliers. Fine paper became a
separate commodity in the marketplace,
with its own network of dealers and agents
who place sheets in large art supply houses
around the world.
Throughout the century putting a mark
on paper remained an intimate and per-
sonal act, connected to a long tradition of
drawing. Since drawings are dependent on
their paper supports for so many qualities
that sway the viewers' subtle visual sensa-
tions, it is not surprising that modern artists
continued to "treat" themselves to good
paper, even when it meant financial sacri-
fice. In choosing fine papers, modern artists
assert that their drawings are valuable and
connected to a long tradition in art. Appar-
ently, for twentieth-century artists, as for the
artists before them, good paper was part of
the pleasure of drawing itself.

311
 Notes 6. American Writing H. Picasso apparently 16. I am grateful to Mar-
1. John Krill, English Paper Company, Handbook saved old papers through- garet Holben Ellis, Sher-
Artists' Papers, from Regency of Quality-Standard Papers out his career. In 1980 man Fairchild Director of
to Empire (London, 1987), (Holyoke, MA, 1922), 7-9. John Richardson recalled a the conservation graduate
79-85- visit to Picasso's studio in program, New York Uni-
7. The paper dealers who
2. Geoffrey Wakeman, 1955. The artist opened a versity, who discussed her
make fine papers available
Twentieth Century English bulging portfolio of old knowledge of the papers
to artists and fine printers
Vat Paper Mills (England, papers, declaring them far used by Schiele with me,
are a separate but related
1980), and A. Dykes too good to use. Marilyn and to Rebecca Donnan,
topic of interest to stu-
Spicer, The Paper Trade McCully, ed., A Picasso Mellon Fellow, National
dents of twentieth-century
(London, 1907), 241, 258- Anthology (London, 1981), Gallery of Art, for informa-
paper. See Judith Walsh,
260. 278. Thanks to Ann tion on the Kollwitz print.
"The Japan Paper Com-
Hoenigswald for bringing
3. There are two important pany Centennial," in Hand 17. In 1807 the Mon-
attention to this reference.
designs for papermaking Papermaking 16, no. i golfiers received a patent
machines: the cylinder (Summer 2001). 12. The work by Olden- for their transparent
mold machine and the burg shows a "T&J H "Papier Caique." By the
8. John Bidwell reports
Fourdrinier machine. The KENT" watermark indicat- time Degas used the sheet,
that in 1892 Whatman
cylinder mold machine ing Thomas and John it was manufactured by
papers were four times as
was invented by John Hollingworth were the machine and available in
expensive as high-quality
Dickinson in England in papermakers; they were in rolls. Marie-Helene Rey-
machine-made sheets.
1809. At the present time partnership from 1847 and naud, Une Histoire de
Their price reflected What-
only a half-dozen cylinder still active in 1860. By Papier: Les Papeteries
man's reputation for high
1884 their names had dis- Canson et Montgolfier
mold machines are still in quality and represented a
operation around the appeared from active (Annonay, 1989), 56-57,
premium over other hand-
world; all are used for the papermaking lists. Alfred 94.
made sheets, which were
production of artists' H. Shorter, Studies on the
only three times the cost 18. This sheet shows the
papers and papers for fine History of Papermaking in
of high-quality machine- watermark "JOYNS ...,"
printing. Sheets made on Britain (London, 1993),
made sheets. John Bidwell, which most likely refers
this machine are described 213-251; Paper Trade
Fine Papers at the Oxford to Joynson and Sons, who
as "mold-made" to distin- Review, ABC Paper Mill
University Press (London, were at St. Mary's Cray
guish them from either Guide for Great Britain and
1999), 9. Today handmade Mill in Kent in 1910. Joyn-
handmade or Fourdrinier Europe (London, 1884).
sheets sell at ten to twenty son invented the dandy-
"machine-made" sheets. times the cost of machine- 13. Marian Dirda, in Judith roll, which impressed
Mold-made sheets of high made sheets. Walsh, "Catalogue of the watermarks in already
rag content are closer to National Gallery of Art formed but still wet
9. Peter Bower and
handmade than machine- Paper Sample Collection," machine-made sheets.
Richard Hills, "British
made sheets in quality, CD-ROM, National Gallery Richard Hills, Papermaking
Watermarks: Forgeries
character, and price; most of Art, 1999. in Britain 1488-1988
of Whatman Marks," The
premium fine art paper (Atlantic Highlands, NJ,
Quarterly Review of the 14. Alfred Stieglitz used
sold today is mold-made. 1988), 176-181; Paper
British Association of Paper Strathmore photo-mount-
Makers' Directory of All
Louis Robert invented the Historians 17 (January ing papers for Camera
high-speed papermaking Nations, 1910 (London,
1996), 1-4. Work, and Strathmore mat
machine in France in board for his photograph 1910), 598-
10. "For seven years after
1799. In 1807 Bryan mounts. Georgia O'Keeffe 19. Lyman Horace Weeks,
Whatman's death [17
Donkin made the machine chose Strathmore drawing History of Paper Manufac-
March 1798] the Whatman
operable for the London paper for some of her turing in the United States,
countermark continued to
stationers Henry and Sealy seminal drawings, includ- 1690-1916 (New York,
be used by Hollingworths
Fourdrinier. Paper is pro- ing First Drawing of Blue 1916), 318-319.
& Balston, but in 1806
duced on the Fourdrinier Lines from 1916.
the firm broke up. The 20. Henri Onfroy reported
in an endless roll, which is
Hollingworth brothers 15. Japanese vellum is a that although sized with
made faster and wider by
remained in Turkey Mill creamy yellow, translucent six applications of gelatin
each advance in technol-
and used the j WHATMAN sheet of strength and lus- hardened in a secret
ogy; it is the machine that
TURKEY MILL counter- ter, made at the Imperial process, the aged Arches
makes modern papermak-
mark on their handmade Mill in Oji from mitsumata sheets remained free from
ing possible. See R. H.
papers. Balston was for fiber. In 1875 a second mill acid and did not yellow in
Clapperton, The Papermak-
one year at Hollingbourne at Shidzuoka was opened the slightest. L'Art du
ing Machine: Its Invention,
Mill and thereafter at his to make the same sort of Papier et le Papier d'Art
Evolution, and Development
new Springfield Mill, and paper for export. Richard (Paris, 1906), 35-37.
(New York, 1967), 15-92.
he had the use of i WHAT- T. Stevens, The Art of Paper Arches' "secret process"
4. Lyman Horace Weeks, MAN. In 1859 the Holling- Making in Japan, Japan might have been to run
History of Paper Manu- worths sold their mark to Paper Company (New the sized sheets through
facture in the U.S., 1690- Balston's sons, and since York, 1909), 5-7. Paper- a bath of formalin, to
1916 (New York, 1916), then all papers with either makers around the world harden the gelatin, rather
302-316. mark have been made by tried to duplicate the than adding acidic alum to
5. Louis Tillotson Steven- his descendants, now W. & expensive sheets for print- the gelatin solution as was
son, The Background and R. Balston Ltd." Thomas making, drawing, and typically done to keep it
Economics of American Balston, James Whatman, commercial printing. In liquid and free of mold.
Papermaking (New York, Father and Son (London, English these papers The use of formalin was
1940), 96. 1957)- 139- became known as "japans" described by the British
or imitation vellums. Intelligence Objectives
Subcommittee to make

312
photo-base papers at the 24. The mill manufactured 1978, when the sheets
Schoeller Mill in Diiren, the early fabric-backed were introduced to the
Germany, before World wallpapers famously used American market. Phillips'
War II. W. A. Wiltshire, by the papermakers Eti- Paper Trade Directory of the
W. J. Carter, and A. J. C. enne and Joseph Mont- World (1965), 675. The
Aikman, German Paper- golfier for the first hot air Wookey Hole Mill was
making Industry, British balloon flight in 1782. It reopened in the 19805 as a
Intelligence Objectives took place over the river museum of papermaking
Subcommittee (London, Deume in Vidalon, near combined with an amuse-
1946), 133. These sheets the papermill. ment park; one passes
are a graphic demonstra- from the papermaking
25. Reynaud 1989, 76-79.
tion of the trend toward demonstration into a hall
"whiteness" and "smooth- 26. The sheets made by of mirrors and a display of
ness" over the long history Gaspard Maillol bear dis- pinball machines.
of Western papermaking, tinctive watermarks: a
32. Sylvie Turner and
identified by Elizabeth recumbent nude on a
Birgit Skiold, "Table of
Lunning and Roy Perkin- sliver of a moon, designed
Influences of American
son in The Print Council of by Aristide Maillol, and an
Papermakers," Handmade
America's Paper Sample entwined M and V within
Paper Today (London
Book, Print Council of a circle, with FRANCE
1983), 98-99; Cathleen A.
America (1996), 15- 16. below. Reynaud 1989, 86-
Baker, By His Own Labor:
89, and The Paper Maker
21. The BFK watermark A Biography ofDard
33, no. i (1964), 34-41.
commemorates Blanchet Hunter (New Castle, DE,
Freres et Kleber, the direc- 27. Hills 1988, 188. 2000).
tors of Rives who ran the 28. Wiltshire, Carter, and 33. Alexandra Soteriou,
company from 1820. Aikman 1946, 72-109, Douglas Morse Howell Ret-
22. The watermark and 127-138. rospective (Hackensack, NJ,
date of this sheet suggest 29. The Green family of 1982).
that it was purchased in papermakers owned Hayle 34. Ken Tyler and Rosa-
Europe and carried to the Mill in Kent, England, mund Felsen, "Two Rau-
United States, presumably from 1810 to 1999. Nine schenberg Projects," in
by the artist. In 1897 a tar- generations of Greens Pauline Long, ed., Paper—
iff was placed on imported operated the mill, keeping Art (£ Technology: The His-
papers, and beginning in between two and four tory and Methods of Fine
January 1906, the regula- hand-papermaking vats in Papermaking with a Gallery
tion was enforced. All production into the 19505. of Contemporary Paper Art
papers with watermarks The family made papers (The World Print Council,
that were imported to for fine presses such as 1978), 81-86.
the United States were Oxford University Press,
required to carry the name 35. Ken Tyler, "Experiences
and for bank notes and
of the country of manu- with Paper: the Commer-
fine art. Their commit-
facture in English within cial Workshop," in Long
ment to traditional hand-
the sheet. "Douanes 1978, 79.
made paper and to their
Etrangeres" in Bulletin de family business is a
Fabricants de Papier 22, remarkable story. It ended
no. 23 (i Dec. 1905), 6-7. in 1987 when Simon
Although this sheet is Green was forced to close
watermarked, it does not the mill. Bidwell 1999,
show a country name. The 52-59.
regulation gave rise to
watermarks made particu- 30. Frederick A. Brett, The
larly for export to the Story off. J. Head Papers
American market, and (Leicestershire, England,
eventually perhaps to the 1975). I am grateful to
subtle advertising for the Michelle Facini, graduate
quality of a sheet with student at Winterthur/
watermarks, such as University of Delaware
"Hand Made in England." Program in Art Conserva-
tion, who transcribed this
23. Georgia O'Keeffe pur- text for me.
chased a similar paper by
mail in 1953 directly from 31. "TH Saunders" was a
Lucien-Lefebvre-Foinet. paper made at Wookey
The letter and receipt are Hole Mill in Devonshire
held in the files at her stu- by the Hollingsworths.
dio in Abiquiu, and the Inveresk's St. Cuthbert's, a
remaining sheets are in nearby machine mill,
the collections of the Geor- began using the TH Saun-
gia O'Keeffe Museum ders watermark between
Research Center, Santa Fe. 1965, when the mark was
still registered to the T. H.
Saunders Company, and

313
Artists in the Exhibition

George Bellows, 40 Stanton Macdonald-Wright, 76

Constantin Brancusi, 52 Rene Magritte, 126
Georges Braque, 69 Brice Marden, 292
Alexander Calder, 143,144 John Marin, 54, 136
Heinrich Campendonk, 58 Agnes Martin, 229, 230
Vija Celmins, 266 Henri Matisse, 97, 98, no, 154
Marc Chagall, 80 Ludwig Meidner, 78
Christo, 262, 298 Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, 114
Lovis Corinth, 72, 116 Henry Moore, 166
Stuart Davis, 106 Robert Motherwell, 202, 218, 238
Edgar Degas, 38 Otto Mtiller, 100
Sonia Delaunay-Terk, 75 Barnett Newman, 180,183,186
Charles Demuth, 120 Emil Nolde, 46, 156
Richard Diebenkorn, 280 Georgia O'Keeffe, 86
Jim Dine, 274 Claes Oldenburg, 243, 248
Otto Dix, 92,118 Francis Picabia, 88
Jean Dubuffet, 207, 208 Pablo Picasso, 24, 28, 35, 36, 70,
Helen Frankenthaler, 290 102,105,112
Alberto Giacometti, 188, 204 Jackson Pollock, 161,176,193,194
Arshile Gorky, 148, 168,178 Robert Rauschenberg, 214, 234
Nancy Graves, 264 Odilon Redon, 30
George Grosz, 108,124 Auguste Rodin, 32
Philip Guston, 268 Mark Rothko, 172, 251, 252, 254
Marsden Hartley, 42 Ed Ruscha, 222
Stanley William Hayter, 174 Egon Schiele, 61, 66, 94
Erich Heckel, 62 Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, 153
Eva Hesse, 232 Sean Scully, 288
Winslow Homer, 26 Joel Shapiro, 284
Edward Hopper, 122 Charles Sheeler, 146,164,184
Jasper Johns, 216, 240, 270, 282 David Smith, 211, 212, 220
Wassily Kandinsky, 130 Saul Steinberg, 246
Ellsworth Kelly, 226, 300 Frank Stella, 244
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 49, 56, 64,132 Joseph Stella, 134,158
Paul Klee, 90,129,138,162 Wayne Thiebaud, 236
Franz Kline, 200 Mark Tobey, 170
Kathe Kollwitz, 22, 44, 150 Andrew Topolski, 294
Willem de Kooning, 190, 197, 198 Richard Tuttle, 260
Henri Laurens, 84 Cy Twombly, 276
Jacob Lawrence, 224 Edouard Vuillard, 50
Sol LeWitt, 257, 258, 272, 296 William T. Wiley, 287
Jacques Lipchitz, 82 Alexander Zhitomir sky, 140

315
 Photographic Credits

© The Art Institute of Chicago: figure with

cat. 81

© Estate of Alexander Calder / Artists

Rights Society (ARS), New York: cat. 61; cat.
62 and figure

© The Museum of Modern Art, New York:

figure with cat. 89

Offentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, photog-

rapher Martin Biihler: figure with cat. 59

© Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher

Rothko: cat. 76 and figure; cats. 115-117

Courtesy of Sean Scully: figure with

cat. 133

© Estate of David Smith / VAGA, New

York: cat. 95 and figure; cat. 96; cat. 100
and figure

3i6