Email Page
del.icio.us
Facebook
DiggThe Materialization of Sensibility: Art and Alchemy
September 8, 2006- October 14, 2006
Edgar Arceneaux, Lynda Benglis, James Lee Byars, Dean Byington, John Chamberlain, Walter De Maria, Teresita Fernández, Spencer Finch, Roni Horn, Yves Klein, Larry Miller, Man Ray, Dario Robleto, Beverly Semmes, Andy Warhol, Robert Watts, Lawrence Weiner, James Welling
Leslie Tonkonow Artworks + Projects
535 W 22nd StLeslie Tonkonow and Spring Publications, Inc. invite you to celebrate the exhibition The Materialization of Sensibility: Art and Alchemy, curated by Klaus Ottmann, and the publication of Ottmann’s new book, Thought Through My Eyes: Writings on Art, 1977–2005.
The exhibition explores the intrinsic relationship between art and alchemy.
Among the works on view, ranging from the 1960s to the present, will be John Chamberlain’s #33 (1966), a rarely exhibited sculpture made by cutting, folding, and tying polyurethane foam; Man Ray’s gilded book object Lèvres d’or (1967); Yves Klein’s Table bleue (1961/2006), filled with blue pigment; Andy Warhol’s Silver Cloud (c. 1966); Walter De Maria’s stainless-steel High Energy Bar (c. 1966); works by Roberts Watts, including a 1977 lead box entitled Radioactive Substance and Chromed Stones (1963); James Lee Byars’s gilded Philosophical Nail (1986); Teresita Fernández’s Burnout (2005), an amorphous configuration of small glass cubes; a drawing from Spencer Finch’s Studies on Alchemy (1997); and a 2006 painting by Dean Byington, entitled Tourmaline, an imaginary landscape of prismatic crystals.
Klaus Ottmann is an independent curator and scholar based in New York. His most recent curatorial project, Still Points of the Turning World, the Sixth SITE Santa Fe International Biennial, remains on view through January 7, 2007. He has also curated major retrospective surveys of Wolfgang Laib and James Lee Byars. Ottmann recently translated Gershom Scholem’s book Alchemy and Kabbalah into English and is the author of Wolfgang Laib: A Retrospective; The Genius Decision: The Extraordinary and the Postmodern Condition; James Lee Byars: Life, Love, and Death, as well as many other books, articles, and essays on art and philosophy. He is Chairperson of the Department of Cultural Studies and Søren Kierkegaard Professor of Media and Communications at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fe, Switzerland.
______________
Curated by KLAUS OTTMANN
The exhibition explores the intrinsic relationship between art and alchemy. Both seek to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary, attributing ideological and spiritual meaning to the materials themselves. As in the alchemical visions of Yves Klein, who considered art as a means toward liberating matter and color as the materialization of sensibility, the material becomes the idea. In his text The Monochrome Adventure Klein writes: Sensibility has no hidden corners; it is like humidity in the air. Color, for me, is the “materialization” of sensibility.
Gershom Scholem, the leading scholar of Jewish mysticism, writes in Alchemy and Kabbalah that “at the center of any alchemy, however understood, is the transmutation of metals into gold as the highest and most noble one existing in the world.” The medieval name used for alchemists was artistae (those who know the art of alchemy) and fire was considered the elementary force of creation, which was applied to the prima materia, the first matter. The purely “chemical” pursuit of physical gold, however, soon became replaced by philosophical gold — the purification and perfection of the soul. LESLIE TONKONOW ARTWORKS + PROJECTS 535 W 22 ST NEW YORK
Among the works on view, ranging from the 1960s to the present, will be John Chamberlain’s #33 (1966), a rarely exhibited sculpture he made by cutting, folding, and tying polyurethane foam into instant material presence; Man Ray’s gilded book object Lèvres d’or (1967); Yves Klein’s Table bleue (1961/2006), filled with blue pigment; Andy Warhol’s helium-filled Silver Clouds (c. 1966); Walter De Maria’s stainless-steel High Energy Bar (c. 1966); several works by Roberts Watts, including Radioactive Substance (1977), a lead box with gold lettering, and two Chromed Stones (1963); James Lee Byars’s gilded Philosophical Nail (1986) ; Teresita Fernández’s Burnout (2005), an amorphous configuration of small glass cubes; a drawing from Spencer Finch’s Studies on Alchemy (1997), made in homage to Strindberg's alchemical experiments and a reference to Wittgenstein's famous line about Rembrandt painting gold but never using gold paint; and a 2006 painting by Dean Byington, entitled Tourmaline, an imaginary landscape of prismatic crystals.
KLAUS OTTMANN is an independent curator and scholar based in New York. His most recent curatorial project, Still Points of the Turning World, the Sixth SITE Santa Fe International Biennial, remains on view through January 7, 2007. Ottmann recently translated Gershom Scholem’s book Alchemy and Kabbalah into English and is the author of Thought Through My Eyes: Writings On Art, 1977–2005; The Genius Decision: The Extraordinary and the Postmodern Condition; James Lee Byars: Life, Love, and Death, as well as many other books, articles and essays on art and philosophy. He is currently writing a book on the philosophy of Yves Klein.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
|
 | |||||||||||||||||
|
© 2005-2008 chelseaartgalleries.com The information on this page is provided "as is", and might be incorrect, incomplete and/or out of date. The site owner makes no representation as to the accuracy of the information or its suitability for any purpose. The owner disclaims any liability for errors that may be contained therein. sitemap |
