Thursday, December 28, 2017

Richard Tuttle has spent the majority of his career working within a very limited set of formal constraints - line, color, and form - to explore deeper issues of abstraction. His practice has encompassed a wide variety of materials including from etchings, aquatints, and woodcuts to more ordinary materials such as cardboard, Styrofoam, wire, wood, cloth and rope. From nearly the beginning of his career, line has been elemental to his work ranging from simple filaments of wire to thin pencil marks drawn directly on the wall. This exhibit will explore Tuttle's exploration of line within the limits of printmaking, and reflects his desire to bend those constraints outward. He is particularly interested in seeking the answer to this basic question - when does a line become a sign? This exhibit is pulled from the Museum's permanent collections and will feature three significant portfolios by the artist including The Edge, Line, and Edges.