GALLERY MISSION Established in 2000, Sundaram Tagore Gallery is devoted to examining the exchange of ideas between Western and non-Western cultures. We focus on developing exhibitions and hosting not-for-profit events that encourage spiritual, social and aesthetic dialogues. In a world where communication is instant and cultures are colliding and melding as never before, our goal is to provide venues for art that transcend boundaries of all sorts. With galleries in New York, Beverly Hills and Hong Kong, our interest in cross-cultural exchange extends beyond the visual arts into many other disciplines, including poetry, literature, performance art, film and music.
Robert Yasuda: An absorbing event in the field of vision By Edward Leffingwell
Given the historically radical nature of Robert Yasuda’s studio production, the facture of his recent panel paintings is distinguished by luminous fields of color that appear fleeting or ephemeral, and are not. Drawing on the wood, glues, linen, primer and framing devices associated with the traditional support of panel painting, he introduces contemporary materials to specific effect. Absorbed with the changing nuances of light in a translucent medium as integral to his work, Yasuda refines the surface, carves into the panel’s edges, and at times introduces a structural device resembling the architectural molding of the ordinary picture frame. Clearly related, the powerful fields and framing devices that emerge today provide him with a way of dealing with the considerations that emerge in his process, the concern for luminosity and the complex, light-filled nature of the field. Not incidentally Yasuda’s recent paintings seem titled to convey a sense of hierarchy in the manner of their presentation, and propose a way of looking to the viewer. Commanding at 80 by 44 inches, the subtly shaped two-
panel painting Ancestor imposes a sweeping gesture, a breath-like halation of color that begins at the painting’s lower edge, with a similar event iterated along the upper reaches. Crossing to the left at more or less the center, the gesture rises and then snaps to the right, proceeding further upward, dominating an intense aquatic field of richly modulated green and blue. Empirically altered at the center and outer edges with a thoughtfully wrought carving, the panels approach the class of things that are kin but not quite symmetrical, the eye oriented along the length of the crevice that runs through the median of the panels, an absorbing event in the field of vision. There is an attractive likeness to the dominant expression of Ancestor that recalls the blue field of the twopaneled Heritage, but an entirely different concern. The carving introduced to the upper edge of the support rises on the left while the lower edge appears true and of a darker periwinkle hue. A glowing warmer blue at the core of Heritage further emphasizes the daring of this fearless painting’s field, the very surface let through into the support with what appear 5
Volunteer 2008 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 36 x 20 inches
as dark, scattered apertures like wounds or pores ornamenting the painting’s patterned depth. These are highly nuanced, perhaps hard-won concerns, the sort of decision that might be accompanied by an inhaled breath at the thought of such risk. He repeats the gesture and then does it again. Key to the perception of any Yasuda painting is the incidence of light across the surface as it changes with the source of available light, specific to the time of day or the studio or gallery’s light. An apparently burnished, opalescent, Tiepolo blue infuses the upper reach of Host, a wash of translucent, dappled yellow that rises from the lower extremity. Joined left of center, the two-part painting
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resonates with scale and authority, its dimensions more or less shared with Heritage and Ancestor, rising at the upper right, dipping on the upper left. Not incidentally the painting retains some sense of the shield Yasuda has remarked as an influence in the development of his work. The painting’s surface reveals inflections of color that responds to the eye’s movement across the surface, following the track of the crafted support at the edges in the process of carving. Among the newest of these daring paintings and of similar size, Herald is constructed in three parts and follows the tradition of the triptych. Yasuda addresses the relationship of two outer panels or wings as joined to the left and right of the dominant central panel. Of a more painterly consideration, the panels visually support the presence of the artist’s hand: The side panels, more burnished than brushed have the rich appearance of passages laid down with gold leaf. A broad signature gesture at moments reminiscent of Ancestor in its ascent from below becomes a soaring pewter hue infused with blue. It seems to rise and fall in the center panel in a single definitive stroke. The deep yellow of the side panels becomes more intense, enhanced by sculpting along the edges, proposing a forward moving sensibility as the viewer approaches. A group of paintings distinguished by elements familiar to the framer propose further radical direction. They rest on finely enameled wooden cradles in the manner of a picture frame, not specifically a framing device but an object thrust forward by a carpentered cradle, revealing the support. In some cases, including Origins, a simple refinement of the framing device surrounds a panel on three sides, as though thrusting the painting forward to intensify a reading as sculpture. In other instances including Tribute, the painting depends from a cornice, edges enlivened with carving, and still elsewhere the device appears above, the
section finished in black or white enamel. These are distinctly architectural matters, some more complex than others, resembling the architecture of a shrine. The exceptional Offering only marginally draws from the triptych model of paintings such as Herald with a dominant panel meeting a narrowing center and a narrow pale green element at the painting’s left edge. A rosy, cloudlike field proceeds across the two principal panels where it appears to dissipate over a field of modulated lavender blue as it meets the outer boundary. Here all is not as structure seems. The upper and lower edges of the central panel appear to angle outward, above and below, abutting a narrow panel that seems to thrust away from what might be understood as the picture plane. What is revealed at the top, right and lower edges seems at first cast in deepest shadow, but what occurs is a simple, three-sided frame in black enamel that opens at the painting’s narrowest edge. The effect--that the central element tilts outward, for example--is again illusion, that the appearance of color is relative, a reification of the paintings’ principal achievement, this haunting use of color. It seems a slight to think of them solely as paintings. Yasuda continues to draw on his past experience as an artist in the production of eccentrically fashioned, intensely vertical objects like Guardian, intended to be installed--again not incidentally--vertically and faced out from the intersection of a room’s walls. There the entire architecture of a room may change with the incidence of the light as it strikes the painting’s surface, expressed as narrow bands of shifting, nacreous light. Among horizontal works such as Ariel and Voyager, Yasuda alludes to the experience of landscape where the work is altered moment by moment in the changing light.
Installation 1979 Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL 10 x 28 feet
Edward Leffingwell is a noted critic and curator based in New York. He has published numerous monographs, catalogue essays, reviews, and articles on contemporary art and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics. In the last 25 years, he has organized exhibitions and publications for various contemporary arts institutions in the United States and abroad. He has also served as chief curator and program director for P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, New York, and as director of visual arts for the City of Los Angeles.
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Coronation 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 80 x 52 inches 8
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Solitude 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 61 x 32 inches 10
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Tribute 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 36 x 49 inches 12
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Aeriel 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 26 x 96 inches 14
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Envoy 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 14 x 17.5 inches 16
Predecessor 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 48 x 36 inches 17
Ancestor 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 80 x 44 inches 18
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Heritage 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 80 x 54 inches 20
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Precedence 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 68 x 36 inches 22
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Offering 2008 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 39.5 x 36 inches 24
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Proposition 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 37 x 45 inches 26
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Origins 2008 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 67 x 31 inches 28
Thermal 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 44 x 26 inches 29
Guardian 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 92 x 11 inches 30
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Host 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 80 x 54 inches 32
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Thesis 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 64 x 54 inches 34
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Voyager 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 14 x 84 inches 36
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Natural Selection 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 40 x 24 inches 38
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Herald 2009 acrylic polymer on fabric on wood 80 x 50 inches 40
CURRICULUM VITAE American, born Lihue, Kauai, Hawaii, November 14, 1940 Lives and works in New York City
ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2010 2008 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2000 1999 1998 1997 1996 1993 1990 1987 1984 1982 1981 1980 1979 1977 1975 1970 1969 1968
Robert Yasuda, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, NY (catalogue) David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, TN Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, TN Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY (catalogue) David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, TN Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, TN New Arts Program, Kutztown, PA Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY Ledbetter Lusk Gallery, Memphis, TN Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY Julian Pretto Gallery, New York, NY Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Marianne Deson Gallery, Chicago, IL Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Hoshour Gallery, Albuquerque, NM Thomas Babeor Gallery, La Jolla, CA Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Galerie December, Dusseldorf, Germany Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Long Island University, Brookville, NY Galerie Bischofberger, St. Moritz, Switzerland Galerie Bischofberger, Zurich, Switzerland
TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2005
Galleria Miralli, Viterbo, Italy (with Judith Murray)
SPECIAL PROJECTS: PAINTING INSTALLATIONS (ROOM AND SITE-SPECIFIC) 2001 1985 1983 1982 1981 1980
1979 1977 1976 1975
Oceanic, nine-panel site-specific permanent installation, Key West, FL The Anchorage Exhibition, large painting installations, Brooklyn Bridge Anchorage, Brooklyn, NY Bayou Exhibition, Houston Art Fair room painting installation, Houston TX Wall Size Works, painting installation, Freeman Gallery, Albright College, Reading, PA Gallery painting installation, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Albuquerque Sight-Line, three-room painting installation, Hoshour Gallery, Albuquerque, NM Sculpture at the Coliseum, freestanding painting installation, New York Coliseum, New York, NY Pompton Road, two-painting installation, Ben Shahn Galleries, William Paterson College, Wayne, NJ Cabrillo Point 10/29, two-room painting installation, Thomas Babeor Gallery, La Jolla, CA Wall Painting—Ryman, Hafif, Pozzi, Jackson, Yasuda, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL Great Big Drawing Show, drawing installation, P. S. 1 Museum, The Institute for Contemporary Art, Long Island City, NY Special Project, 35th Biennial Exhibition, freestanding painting installation, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (stage one: February; stage two: March) Double Oblique, The Clocktower, The Institute for Contemporary Art, New York, (stage one: fall 1976; stage two: spring 1977) Rooms, inaugural exhibition, P.S. 1 Museum, The Institute for Contemporary Art, Long Island City, NY, (two- room painting installation, spring 1976; version two: A Month of Sundays, two-room painting installation, fall 1976) Leaning Wall, painting installation, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY
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SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 185th Annual: An Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, National Academy Museum, New York, NY The Reason for Hope, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, New York, NY The Reason for Hope, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA Here and Now, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Hong Kong In Your Mind’s Eye, Sundaram Tagore Gallery, Hong Kong Winter Selections, J. Johnson Gallery, Jacksonville Beach, FL Surface Impressions, Islip Art Museum, East Islip, NY 2005 Three Abstract Painters, J. Johnson Gallery, Jacksonville Beach, FL Honolulu to New York, The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, HI 2003 Summer Color, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY 2001 Monochrome/Monochrome?, Florence Lynch Gallery, New York, NY David Lusk Gallery, Memphis, TN 1998 Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY 1997 After the Fall: Aspects of Abstract Painting Since the 1970s, The Newhouse Center for Contemporary Art, Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York, NY Ledbetter Lusk Gallery, Memphis, TN 1995 Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY 1993 6 Abstract Artists, Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, NY 1992 Slow Art—Painting in New York Now, P.S. 1 Museum, The Institute for Contemporary Art, Long Island City, NY Stark Gallery, New York, NY 1991 Small Scale Works, Julian Pretto Gallery, New York, NY 1990 Julian Pretto Gallery, New York, NY 1988 Reveal, Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 1986 Wall Constructions, Cutler-Schreiber Gallery, New York, NY Inaugural Exhibition, Cutler-Schreiber Gallery, New York, NY 1985 Craig Cornelius Gallery, New York, NY 8 x 10, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Haggerstown, MD 1984 A More Store, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY Olympic Exhibition, Koplin Gallery, Los Angeles, CA Hundreds of Drawings, Artist Space, New York, NY 1983 Group II, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Rouge et Noir, Hoshour Gallery, Albuquerque, NM CAP Gallery, Houston, TX A More Store, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY 1982 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY 1981 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY A Painting Show, Marianne Deson Gallery, Chicago, IL 1980 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Heath Gallery, Atlanta, GA Drawings from the Collection of Milton Brutten and Helen Herrick, Ben Shahn Galleries, William Paterson College, Wayne, NJ Thomas Babeor Gallery, La Jolla, CA Artist Space, New York, NY Current / New York, Lowe Art Gallery, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 1979 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Drawing, Hal Bromm Gallery, New York, NY Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY Curated by Betty Parsons, Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA 1978 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN Moving, Hal Bromm Gallery, New York, NY 1977 Projects, P.S. 1 Museum, Long Island City, NY, traveling to 12 countries 1977-1979 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA Arte Fiera 77, Bologna, Italy First Annual Chambers Street Workshop, Brooklyn, NY 1976 Betty Parsons Gallery, NY This is Not a Work of Art, Parsons-Truman Gallery, New York, NY 1975 Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Parsons-Truman Gallery, New York, NY Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY 1974 Parsons-Truman Gallery, New York, NY 1971 French & Co., New York, NY Heckshire Museum, Huntington, NY 1970 Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY 1969 Galerie Bischofberger, Zurich, Switzerland 1968 Prospect 68, Düsseldorf, Germany Fordham University, New York, NY 1967 East Hampton Gallery, New York, NY Galerie Bischofberger, Zurich, Switzerland 2010 2010 2010 2009 2008 2007
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BIBLIOGRAPHY 2006 2004 2002 1999 1996 1994 1985 1985 1983 1982
1981 1980 1979 1979 1977
1976 1976
Michael Brennan, “Robert Yasuda,” The Brooklyn Rail, October, p. 26 Edward Leffingwell, “Robert Yasuda at Elizabeth Harris,” Art in America, December Jonathan Goodman, “Review,” Art in America, December Barabara A. MacAdam, “Review,” ARTnews, June James Carroll, “A Visit with Bob Yasuda,” New Arts Program, Kutztown PA catalogue Pepe Karmel, “Review,” The New York Times, February 16, p. C24 Judd Tully, “Luminous Illusion,” Cover Magazine, March, p. 15 Kim Levin, “Art in the Anchorage,” The Village Voice, May 21 Amy Virshup, “Moving Experiences,” New York Magazine, May 20 Susan Fleminger, “Inside the Bridge: Art in the Depths of the Anchorage,” Prospect Press, May 30 Alan Artner, Best Solo Shows, Art 1982,” Chicago Tribune, January 2 Alan Artner, “Robert Yasuda,” Chicago Tribune, June 10 Kathleen Shields, “Robert Yasuda—Albuquerque Sight-Line,” Art Space, spring Tullio Francesco De Santis, “Robert Yasuda,” Reading Eagle, Reading, PA, October 17 David Gilmarten, “Wall Size Works,” Times, Reading, PA, October 13 Anon., “Robert Yasuda,”Los Angeles Times, November 5 George Bradley, “Robert Yasuda Recent Paintings,” Arts Magazine, May Ray Abeyta, “Robert Yasuda: A Subtle Vision,” New Mexico Daily Lobo, November 17 Katryn Callahan, “Robert Yasuda,” Times Advocate, San Diego, CA, November 13 Richard Reilly, “Compositions of Visual Engineering,” San Diego Union, November 16 Hilton Kramer, “Review,” The New York Times, March 24 Alan Artner, “Robert Yasuda,” Chicago Tribune, March 25 Jack Burnham, “Painting up Against the Wall,” The New Art Examiner, May James Auer, “Best of Old, New at Chicago,” The Milwaukee Journal, March 25 Peter Frank, “Bob Yasuda,” ARTnews, February Jo Ann Lewis, “Yasuda at the Corcoran,” The Washington Post, February 5 Donald Sanders, “Robert Yasuda,” Jackson Daily News / The Clarion Ledger, Jackson, MS, February 27 Thomas Hess, “Across the River into P.S. 1,” New York Magazine, April 25 Benjamin Forgey, “Robert Yasuda,” ARTnews, May Noel Frackmann, “Robert Yasuda,” Arts Magazine, June Kenneth Wahl, “Robert Yasuda,” 57th Street Review, January Robert Grosvenor, “Painting Wall,” 57th Street Review, January John Perrault, “Report Card: P.S. 1, I Love You,” The SoHo Weekly News, June 17 Nancy Foote, “The Apotheosis of a Crummy Space,” artforum, October
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Bass Museum, Miami Beach, FL The Brooklyn Museum, NY Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Long Island University, Brookville, NY The McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX The Museum of Modern Art, Phoenix, AZ The New York Public Library, NY Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY Prudental Insurance Company The State Foundation for the Arts, Honolulu, HI Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
EDUCATION 1964 1962
M.F.A., Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY B.F.A., Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY
AWARDS 2008 1981 1962
American Academy of Arts and Letters Purchase Award National Endowment for the Arts, Artist Fellowship Grant—Painting John Hay Whitney Foundation Grant
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Double Oblique 1979 polymer and museum dust on wallboard Corcoran Gallery of Art Washington, DC 10 x 30 feet Sundaram Tagore Galleries New York 547 West 27th Street New York, NY 10001 Tel 212 677 4520 Fax 212 677 4521 gallery@sundaramtagore.com
Beverly Hills 9606 South Santa Monica Blvd Beverly Hills, CA 90210 Tel 310 278 4520 Fax 310 278 4525 beverlyhills@sundaramtagore.com
Hong Kong 57-59 Hollywood Road Central, Hong Kong Tel 852 2581 9678 Fax 852 2581 9673 hongkong@sundaramtagore.com
www.sundaramtagore.com First published in the United States of America in 2010 by Sundaram Tagore Gallery President and curator: Sundaram Tagore Director, New York: Susan McCaffrey Director, Hong Kong: Faina Goldstein Designer: Russell Whitehead Printing: CA Design, Hong Kong
Art consultants: Joanna Berman Rebecca Costanzo Diana d’Arenberg Joseph Lawrence Benjamin Rosenblatt
Special thanks: Laura Hunt Text © Sundaram Tagore Gallery © Sundaram Tagore Gallery All rights reserved under international copyright conventions. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.