JUNDT
ART
SEPTEMBER
6 - OCTOBER
GONZAGA SPOKANE,
MUSEUM
UNIVERSITY WASHINGTON
12;
2013
lilt's SO fine and yet so terrible to stand in front of a blank canvas." - Paul Cezanne
In the end, they're of white
paint.
Museum,
just sections of wall.
Completely
ordinary,
these five sections
gallery space and to support they briefly exhibit. handful
become
Another
spaces are - at 8 by 111/2 Casstevens,
The Drawn
toothy,"
digs through
feet - a lot of artistic
tabulae
qualities
rasae for an exceptional are being evaluated
by a
says one, smoothing
his bag of drawing
supplies for whatever
seems intimidated, to fill.
her hand across a pale surface.
although
will make the
the monolithic
It's late April and the artists, still have plenty
canvas Margot
of time to
gallery that invited
12, offers a challenge
images up on their assigned at which
time the artists
painstakingly
how Dine reacts to a potentially
but
The show will
will paint over the work they've
disastrous
can't pay for his works to be shipped.
recreate
- not only in capturing
that is simple,
piece of wall.
to the Wall series comes from the 1995 short documentary
him to exhibit
various birds) but in showing
6 to October
blank state.
on the Walls. The film observes
mesmerizing
drawable
"real estate"
from September
the wall to its original
for the Drawn
and an assistant
used to mark
and dream.
be open to the public for just over a month,
Portrait
At the Jundt Art
all are normally
Roger Ralston, and Carl Richardson,
not easy: the group has two weeks to get their
The impetus
utilitarian.
orks of ar . But every three years or so
canvasses - marvelous
best line. So far, nobody
to the Wall V exhibit,
done and return
some plaster, a coat
of artists.
Elaine Green, Kurt Madison,
plan, experiment,
completely
of moveable hung
And right now, their
"It's surprisingly 1
Some plywood,
his drawings
the finished
right
work
the human struggle to get the job done.
problem:
the German
With only six days to work,
on the gallery's
(enormous
Jim Dine: A Selj-
walls.
self-portraits,
The documentary the sweeping
Dine is
lines of
The work is as taxing physically
as it
is emotionally.
Dine goes through
knee pads and finger bandages,
a wash of Pepsi to get the charcoal gallery
lines properly
space, but only for a short six weeks.
blended.
uses broom
handles,
bread, and even
The works fill the walls of the Ludwigsburg
In the end, as will happen
Wall show and the four before it, the work was all painted
with the current
Drawn to the
over and only exists now in memory
and in
film.
The Drawn to the Wall artists more time to prepare. more about orking
"You'll
Five months
the exhibit,
than
before,
both in terms
Dine in that they collectively
the artists
met with
of its philosophy
Interim
have less space to fill and
Director
and its practicalities.
karen Kaiser to learn
Kaiser explains
how the
process should go:
have two weeks.
here you're
You'll come in and fight
going to work,"
ill have their own studio closed to the public
she smiles,
half-kidding.
during
the two weeks that you'll As I<aiser continues
work spaces, Sharpies and paper go around
artists are recording the exhibit's
their signatures
art doesn't
over the spaces "Everyone
space, as it were, and the galleries will be
but it's by no means private." artist's
are luckier
for the show's
be working,
to talk about the the room. brochure,
exist yet. The work will be intensely
The since
physical,
aiser warns: there will be three ladders to share, but the artists are elcome to bring in their own, or even scaffolding can also bring in additional materials
and while
work lighting.
the concept
aint or even sculptural . elcome at the party. are nearly impossible estions at this point.
elements,
if it helps.
The discussion
They
moves to
of Drawn to the Wall allows
for
it's clear one group of media isn't
"No oil paints or pastels," says Kaiser. "They to fully paint over." The artists start volleying 2
"Has anyone used silverpoint?"
asks Green, who recently took a
class on Drawing Materials and Tools in the 17th Century at the British Museum. Madison extols the virtues of General's Chunks, actual hunks of charcoal that he says give "an intense depth of color." "How about airbrushing?" asks someone else. "Those are all okay," says Kaiser. "Anything that can be physically removed or sanded down should be okay." The conversation turns to a discussion of the walls themselves, and what they're like to work with.
"How dense is the wall?"
wonders Casstevens, her eyes bright with tactile possibilities. "It's plywood covered in wall board," says Kaiser. "You won't need to drill it but you can't push pin it either." This is an important point as in previous years some artists have used three-dimensional methods to "draw" on the surface with string and fabric. Ralston
3
comments that he's not used to drawing in such a large scale; Kaiser responds that there's nothing that says you have to use the entire space. Richardson asks, "Has anyone laid the wall down to draw on it?" As the artists ponder the logistics of this, Kaiser explains that it's next to impossible - each wall is more or less anchored with three feet of sand inside. They can be moved - with difficulty - but not laid down. And then the best question of the meeting suddenly comes from Green, who's decided to go back to media and materials:
"Are live creatures allowed?"
There is laughter but Green isn't entirely kidding.
She talks about the kinds of tracks a small animal might make, or how it could be part of an installation if caged. "We've never had anyone do that before," says Kaiser. While Green's fellow artists laugh and suggest what kinds of live animals might best "draw" on the walls, I<aiser makes the hard decision: animals.
no
s the artists walk through artists,
many of whom
University, actually
the museum's
are on the faculty
know one another.
Falls Community ribbing
on Drawn
It helps that most of the
College and Eastern Washington
and some excitement
- to test the materials
aiser says that the process of working
alone.
at Spokane
There is good-natured
draw on the walls - discreetly
like summer
gallery space, the mood is convivial.
as a few of the artists
they might be using five months
to the Wall fosters
from now.
a real sense of camaraderie.
camp," she says. "The space is closed to the public but the artists are definitely
You learn to share equipment
hat's interesting
is that nobody
and material,
and to bounce
seems intimidated,
or by the size of the walls themselves.
either
the other
of working
and when they're
walls in the gallery
as the portentous
not working
ideas off one another."
by the prospect
The walls are enormous,
"It's
standing
they suggest
dimensions
under deadline apart from
nothing
of the monoliths
so much
from 2001: A
Space Odyssey.
"They
might
not be intimidated
ask her about
it privately
now,"
later.
I<aiser admits
"But that
often
when they come in to work for the first time." the last few days in particular planned
images
don't
work
comes
and
I
later
She says that
can be extremely out
when
stressful
materials
as
sometimes
prove recalcitrant.
It's an incredible physical
work
amount
for something
of planning, that
and effort,
isn't intended
and hard
to last.
The
artists will, at the end of the show, remove the images they've so carefully be doing intentional 4
crafted.
The sanding
as part of the exhibit's erasure.
and painting contract
But the erasure
will
over they'll be an act of
is far from total.
In the
路 end, the experience of Drawn to the Wall, both for the artists and the observers, lives on, whether it's in a callus from rubbing charcoal to create big shadows or a photo of the resulting art snapped on someone's iPhone.
Although the art doesn't "last" in the physical, historical sense, it will persist in memory, in
conversations, in photography, perhaps even film. Drawn to the Wall V, for all its "leave no trace" end philosophy, will definitely leave something behind. What will it be? Sheri Boggs Guest Essayist, 2013
5
iMAGES~ COVER:
Gina Freuen (Contemporary American), Self-Portrait Obscured, 2007, DTTW III, Charcoal, wood & pit fired stoneware, printed & waxed mulberry paper 1. Ken Yuhasz (Contemporary American), Odd Planets, 2007, DTTW III, Latex paint, found objects, and neon and argon filled tubing 2. Allie Kurtz Vogt (Contemporary American), Altar: There Is a Time and Season for Every Purpose, 2004, DTTW II, Pastel and charcoal with attachments 3. Bradd Skubinna (Contemporary American), Shot Through, 2004, DTTW II, Plastic with plastic tape 4. Richard Schindler (Contemporary American), In Memory of a Free Spirit, 2007, DTTW III, Sumi ink, walnut ink, charcoal, and graphite with handmade paper 5. Scott Kolbo (Contemporary American), Jeremiah at the Mall: The Praphecy of God's Impending Judgment Against the City on the Hill, 2004, DTTW II, Acrylic, charcoal, pastel, colored pencil, plywood and photocopies
This publication
is funded by the Jundt Art Museum's Annual Campaign, 2012-13
漏Jundt Art Museum, Gonzaga University, Spokane, Washington
99258-0001