New York-Pace is pleased to announce an exhibition of new works by Richard Tuttle at 510 West 25th Street. Coinciding with Tuttle's exhibition of ninety-four drawings from the 1970s on view at Pace's neighbouring headquarters at 540 West 25th Street, this exhibition will feature over twenty new works produced over the summer of 2019 at the artist's new studio in Maine. Split into three series, 'Days', 'Muses', and 'Stars', these works explore the relationship between what is directly portrayed through picture making and the act of perception. Like all of Tuttle's work, these new pieces reveal his continuous ability to create a unique visual language that defies categorisation and blurs the boundaries between drawing, sculpture, and painting. Richard Tuttle Days, Muses and Stars will be on view from November 12 2019 through January 11 2020, with an opening reception on Tuesday, November 12 from 6-8pm.
In conjunction with the opening reception for this exhibition, Pace will host a special book signing with the artist in celebration of his forthcoming publication: Richard Tuttle: A Fair Sampling. Collected Writings 1965-2018. The event will take place from 5-7pm at the gallery's newly opened research library at 540 West 25th street, which holds over 10,000 volumes of Pace's vast archival materials and catalogues. The 500-page book, edited by Dieter Schwarz, spans Tuttle's prolific career as both a poet and artist. Published by Buchhandlung Walther König in Germany, the monograph will be released in January 2020. Advance copies of the book will be available at the event.
The genesis for Richard Tuttle Days, Muses and Stars stemmed from his time spent at his recently acquired property in Mount Desert, Maine. His expansive new studio and the vast surrounding landscape energised Tuttle with an influx of new ideas, resulting in one of the most productive and fertile times of his artistic career.
Comprised largely of plywood and spray paint, these new assemblages draw on a range of influences from the nine muses in Greek mythology, after which some of the works are titled, to broader themes concerning nature and the cosmos. In Tuttle's own words:
'The entire
Body of work
Was produced
In the summer
Of 2019
After ar
Duous beg
Ginings where
No consis
Tent forms
Or materials
Took place, dom
Inated, a
Breakthrough
Took place
That showed
Itself as
A zig zag be
Tween two
Surfaces
That let
Light into
A darkness
Much the
Same as
When light
Penetrates
The dense for
Rests of
Maine How a
A little piece
Of light can
Get through
(Or a deer
Can so ele
Gantly slip
Through the
Density) is
Astonishing
And pictoral
The density
Is also pic
Toral
In fact
It is known
Just as much
As the light
Penetrating
It
All the
Elements of
A picture are
Here
So much
So they can mine
Picture making
In ways never
Before possible
It is so rich
In fact it has
To be held
Together by
Humanity
For the au
Diance it is
Intended
To serve
The group of work called
Stars are this group
The
Group called
Muses shows
The capacity
For portrayal
Each work
Showing each
Of the nine
Muses from
Hesiod's
Theogony
Not as il
Lustration
But from his
Source Days
Shows the
Ability to
Play and dis
Play from the
Same source,
Love, and light.'
-Richard Tuttle, Zurich, November 1, 2019
Richard Tuttle has revolutionised the landscape of contemporary art, challenging rules and notions of genre and media. His work exceeds rational determinations, sensitising viewers to perception and the unconscious, and engages aspects of painting, drawing, sculpture, bookmaking, printmaking, and installation.
Exposed to the Pop movement and the beginnings of Minimalism as a young artist, Tuttle began to explore the possibilities of material and form freed from historical allusion and precedent. Early investigations into the merging of painting and sculpture are evident in his 'Constructed' paintings which exist in a liminal space between mediums. For Tuttle, the 1980s and 1990s marked wider experimentation with material and a move toward in the-round constructions. He began incorporating the frame as an element in his compositions, collapsing the boundaries between the artwork and its surrounding space.
Tuttle's engagement with scale, light, and systems of display have endured throughout his oeuvre and can be seen in his attention to marginal spaces such as floors, corners, and over door frames. Rejecting the rationality and precision of Minimalism, Tuttle embraced a handmade quality and the invention of forms that emphasise the occupation of these spaces along with volume. Over the course of his career, he has continued to overturn traditional constraints of material, medium, and method that engage a variety of traditional and non-traditional processes such as in his wire, small-scale collage, dyed cloth, and octagonal pieces. The beauty and poetry that Tuttle draws out of everyday materials can be experienced in works that exist in the present moment, reflect the fragility of the world, and allow for individual experiences of perception.
Press release courtesy Pace Gallery.
510 West 25th Street
New York, 10001
United States
www.pacegallery.com
+1 212 421 3292
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