Gallerynote 1/2003

March 7 to April 26, 2003

DAVID RABINOWITCH (b. 1943),
Carved Woodblock Monotypes 1962 – Sculptures 1968 – 1993
About a hundred monotypes are shown in this exhibition. They are printed onto various sorts of small-format paper, or, as perhaps more fittingly described, peeled away from the rough, sometimes multipart woodblocks. The shapes convey the mass ((falls Plural von Mass: dimensions)) of the sculptural object onto which the paper was applied and from which the heavy, often unctuous paint substance was lifted. The sheets are of monochrome color – red, yellow, dark blue, brown, black. Painting is suggested. Yet the reference to sculpture becomes quite obvious. In 1962, the young artist stood at a crossroads. Unsatisfied with the possibilities of painting, he reacted by switching over to sculpture. The vocabulary of forms, the multipartite nature of some motifs, the thematicized cuts are a clear anticipation. The important sculptor went on to process and treat this rich fund in sculptures and drawings. The idiom is again recognizable in the autonomous inventions and independent constructions of the mature artist. Quick-ready spontaneity is not David Rabinowitch's thing. Hard work on the plans for his complex floor sculptures serves to legitimize the finished piece. This is how the titles 'Construction' or 'Construction of Vision' should be understood.

A number of sculptures from 1968 to 1993 and drawings from 1973 to 1978 complete our show. The works are decidedly abstract. They are occupied with the way the viewer constructs the phenomena of the visible world. The work of art defines a place. It invites recipients to approach this place with their own sensory faculties and to realize the thus established relationship with the work as their own experience.

Yet it would be a misunderstanding to think of these works as experimental layouts. It is a matter of decisive artistic definitions, of complicated visual occurrences linking space and time, mass and volume to form a self-referential unit. The work of art occupies a blank space and overcomes the probable void with its abundance.

It was in 1977 that the gallery first presented sculptures by David Rabinowitch. In the years to follow, numerous solo and group exhibitions of sculptures and drawings provided in-depth access to the work of this significant contemporary figure. David Rabinowitch was born in 1943 in Toronto, Canada, and lives in New York City.

In conjunction with the Peter Blum Gallery in New York, the Annemarie Verna Gallery will edit an illustrated publication on the 'Carved Woodblock Monotypes 1962' featuring a text by Kenneth Baker, San Francisco.

Exhibitions

Donald Judd 1955–1968, The Menil Collection, Houston, USA, January 31 to April 27, 2003

Robert Mangold, 18 large-format paintings, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, Colorado, USA, February 14 to April 13, 2003