Robert Seydel
-
Upload
cue-art-foundation -
Category
Documents
-
view
228 -
download
1
description
Transcript of Robert Seydel
CUE Art Foundation
March 15 - April 21, 2007
CuratedbyPeterGizzi
robErt sEyd E l
lEAd sPoNsor oF 2006-07 sEAsoN oF EXHIbItIoN CAtAloGUEs:
KYESUNG PAPER GROUP (SOUTH KOREA)
AddItIoNAl sUPPort ProVIdEd by
ELIZABETH FIRESTONE GRAHAM FOUNDATION
Making proceeds for me by serial invention, from piece to piece and across time. the means are
collage and drawing, picture as writing, scaled intimate and to the hand. Essentially I want to
write an art, to make of the visual a kind of text, and have it be as well a poor art, assembled from
scraps. Material is essential; scuffings carry history, which wanders throughout. In one of
her journal pages from The Book of Saul, ruth Greisman, both eponymous and real aunt and the
artist of the Book, wrote: “Art an ongoing limit, open to wind. I make it thru me, draughty r.”
Her formulation holds throughout the Book and also across the wider field. but the Book defines
the territory. It is composed of fragments and encompasses a rotation of styles, is a biography of
her (our) making and consists of a pile of pictures in and across time. Artifacts of a life, both hers
and mine; the refuse and rejecta of days, “open to wind.”
other figures besides ruth run through the work. Her brother saul, for example
(the two together make up my initials, and also carry my mother’s), and the recurring droon, a
maker of drawings (“droon is to draw as draw is to Coleslaw”), and previously Welch, a professor,
and Eckstein-sousa, and others. Personas, altar egos, others, not myself. Every figure reveals
aspects of the total form, which is open and green. Art, as creation and as sign of primary
Imagination, is not objects but a state, a kind of fluid. It is revelation of a sort that both objects
and figures are the excess of. Nor is it happenstance that the face, the portrait, the animal,
fantastic or otherwise, is central. Everything starts from there. Children always begin with it: two
eyes, a mouth, animal or human – a round, split and trussed and multiplied and confused. the
portrait is also artifact, collage of time, a token and remnant. In her work ruth is always speaking
to herself: “to collage night, against and for stays.” the wind is what comes through, barely glued
down, sign of what maker here.
Artists' statement RobertSeydel
We are honored to host this exhibition generously curated by Peter Gizzi. Mr. Gizzi, a writer
and poet, has chosen robert seydel, an artist who resides in Amherst, MA. Mr. Gizzi’s appreciation
of Mr. seydel’s work demonstrates how the Foundation’s discretionary selection process allows
for a natural cross-pollination between differing forms of expression.
CUE appreciates that geographic location can sometimes limit an artists
exhibition possibilities elsewhere, thus CUE is pleased to offer Mr. seydel the opportunity for his
first solo exhibition in New york. Mr. seydel and we, together, wish him a future of fulfillment
and success.
Foreward CUEArtFoundation
Ruth Greisman, Untitled [A.S. Wolfe. Photographer], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Mixed media on card, 4" x 2 1/2"
robert seydel’s compositions are saturated with visual pleasures but they also invite one to read,
to enter, to be undone by them. Who knew such light could come from torn paper, or that the
occult processes of time could be revealed by bricolage, wrack, spitball wads, wrappers, and
bottle caps. He works almost exclusively in notebooks. He calls them “knotbooks”; that is to say,
he works not on paper but on pages. And so many of his tools are a writer’s: whiteout, pencil and
pen, erasers, tape, type, and newsprint which he uses to capture light and color, the movement
between what is lasting and fleeting, conducting acts of salvage rather than consumption. In this
way he makes something gorgeously animated out of raw material that is, on one hand, familiar
and, on another, alien and even unwanted.
seydel’s work, viewed collectively, has a voice as much as a vision whether its
tone is elegiac, monumental, or whimsical. In the past decade or so, he has produced hundreds
of works in multiple ongoing and interrelated series that move freely between lyric and narrative
modes. samuel beckett once said the task of the artist is to find a form to accommodate the
mess, a statement that describes well the openness and flexibility of seydel’s art and its crucial
link to the materials of everyday life. He is a strong believer in art-making as a process not just
of representing but of uncovering a world that would otherwise remain hidden. the uncanny
likenesses rendered in his various portraits show a love of metamorphic intensity and of mysteries
on the verge of being revealed. so often what he is unveiling is the face. blake’s notion that “the
most sublime act is to set another before you” perfectly captures seydel’s sense of the sacred in
relation to the face, the image, and the made thing. Ultimately, his works convey perception itself
as a devotional act.
Curators' statement PeterGizzi
Ruth Greisman, Untitled Postcard, from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Oil and ink on postcard, 3 1/2" x 5 1/4"
Ole? Boen, from A Fauna, 2005Mixed media on card, 6 1/2" x 4"
Ruth Greisman, Untitled [to Joseph C.], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Paper, ink, and found photograp
Uncle Ole, from A Fauna, 2005Oil, ink, watercolor, and white-out on card, 6 1/2" x 4 1/2"
Robert Creeley, from Series Homages, 2005Collage and mixed media on paper, 6 3/4" x 4 1/4"
Untitled, from New Droon Works, 2002-2004Graphite, sumi and ink on paper, 4 1/4" x 4"
Turkish Air (T21), from Siselnamés (or, Mixed Melodies), 2000Collage and mixed media on paper, 8 1/4"
Ruth Greisman, Untitled [Woman and Bird], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Collage and mixed media on found photograph, 6 1/2" x 4 1/4"
Ruth Greisman, Untitled [Precipitation], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Collage and mixed media on found photograph, 6 1/4" x 4 1/2"
Ols!, 2005Collage on paper, 4" x 6 3/4"
Old fig., 2003Collage and mixed media on card, 4" x 2 1/2"
Ruth Greisman, Untitled [Orn Du], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Collage on card, 6 3/4" x 5 1/2"
biography RobertSeydel
robert seydel, born in New york, Ny, lives in Amherst, MA, where he is Assistant Professor of
Photography at Hampshire College. He received a bFA in English and Photography from New
york University and an MFA from the rhode Island school of design. He has taught on the faculty
of the University of Massachusetts, dartmouth, and the University of Connecticut at storrs, and
served for a number of years as director of Exhibitions at the Photographic resource Center at
boston University.
seydel received a regional fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts
for his serial work, A Short History of Portraiture. A selection from his ongoing Book of Saul was
published in 2005 in 1913: A Journal of Forms, issue 2. In 2006 work from the series Eckstein-
Sousa was exhibited in Five Contemporary Visual Poets at the Wright Exhibition space in seattle,
WA. this exhibition at CUE Art Foundation marks his first solo exhibition in New york City.
PeterGizzi
Peter Gizzi grew up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His books of poetry include The Outernationale
(2007), Some Values of Landscape and Weather (2003), Artificial Heart (1998), and Periplum
(1992). He has also published limited-edition chapbooks, folios, and artist books. His honors
include the lavan younger Poet Award from the Academy of American Poets (1994) and fellow-
ships in poetry from the Howard Foundation (1998), the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
(1999), and the John simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2005). His work has been trans-
lated into numerous languages. He currently works for the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Ruth Greisman, Untitled [Fine Hig], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Collage on found photograph, 6 1/2" x 4 1/4"
All artwork © robert seydel
Catalog design by Elizabeth Ellis
Printed on triPine paper of Kyesung Paper Group (south Korea)
Cover: triPine Art Nouveau 209gsm (78lb), text: triPine silk 157gsm (106lb)
Printer: yon Art Printing (south Korea)
IsbN-13: 978-0-9776417-9-6
IsbN-10: 0-9776417-9-1
Mission statement CUEArtFoundation
CUE Art Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization,
is dedicated to providing a comprehensive creative forum for
contemporary art by supporting under-recognized artists via a
multi-faceted mission spanning the realms of gallery exhibitions,
public programming, professional development programs and
arts-in-education. the Foundation was established in June of 2002
with the aim of providing educational programs for young artists
and aspiring art professionals in New york and from around the
country. these programs draw on the unique community of artists,
critics, and educators brought together by the Foundation’s
season of exhibitions, public lectures, workshops, and its studio
residency program: all are designed to be of lasting practical
benefit to aspiring and under-recognized artists. the entire CUE
identity is characterized by artistic quality, independent judg-
ment and the discovery of genuine talent, and provides long-term
benefits both for creative individuals associated with CUE and
the larger art marketplace. located in New york’s Chelsea gallery
district, CUE’s 4,500 square feet of gallery, studio and office space
serves as the nexus for educational programs and exhibitions
conducted by CUE.
BoARdoFdiRECtoRS
Gregory Amenoff
theodore s. berger
Patricia Caesar
thomas G. devine
thomas K. y. Hsu
brian d. starer
AdviSoRyCoUnCil
Gregory Amenoff
William Corbett
Vernon Fisher
Malik Gaines
deborah Kass
Kris Kuramitsu
Jonathan lethem
Irving sandler
ExECUtivEdiRECtoR
Jeremy Adams
diRECtoRoF
dEvEloPmEnt
Elaine bowen
PRoGRAmS
CooRdinAtoR
beatrice Wolert-Weese
PRoGRAmSASSiStAnt
Kara smith