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| Scan of the Guggenheim's exhibition brochure |
Within the
Guggenheim’s text about this exhibition, Lee Ufan is described as an artist, a
poet, & a philosopher. These can seem like lofty terms, but I was convinced
that Ufan shows the qualities of each within his work. Marking Infinity was Ufan’s first retrospective in a North American
museum, & was the first time I was introduced to his work. The exhibition was organized by theme & series, giving insight to Ufan’s practice.
Ufan’s sculptures
rely on the relationship between space & objects. Space related to physical features, such as the walls of the Guggenheim, but it also meant the space
that occurred between the materials in Ufan’s work. Many of his sculptures pair
natural & man-made materials together. The piece, Relatum—silence b is composed of a stone placed before a sheet of
metal that leans against the gallery wall. It felt as if the stone was
confronting the metal, or standing before it in order to understand it. Ufan
did not set out to evoke certain emotions from his viewers—instead he let the
objects appear as they are. In this setting, the objects interact with the
elements in the gallery: light, air, & shadows.
I instantly thought
of the word dialogue, relating to how the objects appear to be having a
conversation. I use this in the abstract sense, but the term also lends itself
to a series of paintings by Ufan. Even while working through different mediums,
Ufan has been able to carry over certain themes, gestures & vocabulary.
The first set of
paintings came from Ufan’s From Point series, which focused on painting
as action & process. Known for working within a repetitive nature, in this
series Ufan made continuous points
on a canvas until there was no ink left on his brush. These points mark the
passing of time—another record of the physical nature of painting. The painting
represents the action & process of painting--it is the direct result. The
brush-marks are a record of the action—they show the direction, force, & flow
of the paint. On a personal level, the painting From Point, 1975 reminded me of my Erasure Series (Up North it
Begins to Snow) from my Senior Thesis.
A similar technique was applied
in the From Line series. These paintings begin with the idea
explored in From Point, but move away
from the process of making art toward a focus on the finished
painting—toward the outcome & the lines' ability to move. Ufan became
concerned with the space of the canvas & how brush-marks occupied that
space. In these paintings, Ufan began making his lines disfigured & applied
all over the surface of the painting. The paintings in From Winds show his final transition.
Further up the ramp we are
introduced to newer works in the Relatum series. Again Ufan interweaves natural &
man-made materials—this time making work that played with the properties of the
materials. In one sculpture, pieces of metal have been embedded in a block of
wool. Both wool & metal have distinct textures, but when placed together,
the object takes on qualities of both. The metal appears weightless within the
wool, & the wool appears dense & thick. These were shown in front of
paintings from his Correspondence series—the importance between occupied & blank space became repeating grey
marks that took up space but also created it & avoided it. These are the
predecessors to the Dialogue series.
The Dialogue
paintings—created with large flat brushes & grey paint—were my
favorite series within the retrospective. The wall text introducing
these paintings touched on Ufan’s usage of the color grey: the color
represents “a vague, ephemeral & uncertain world.” The paintings are
large, bearing minimal marks from Ufan. They show past influence from
his From Point & From Line
series: individual marks that use the entire amount of paint on the
brush which have been placed on the canvas according to how they
interact with the available space. The brush-marks become the subject of
the work, its entire composition, & represent everything Ufan has
worked towards in his craft. Again we think of process & the passing
of time, but in a larger context. The scale of the paintings &
their placement within the final gallery create a reflective mood. The
marks almost feel fabricated, as if silk-screened & bear no trace of
Ufan’s hand. Three Dialogue paintings
were created on the walls of the museum--a triptych of grey marks that
created a space which interacted with the properties available on-site
& that left the experience to the viewer to interpret.
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| Dialogue--space, 2009/11. Via The Guggenheim |
