BLUE STONE by BARN DOOR
ROBERT PETERSEN
DECEMBER 6, 2013 - JANUARY 19, 2014
Imogen Holloway Gallery is proud to present new works on paper and found objects by Robert Petersen. The show marks the debut of Mr. Petersen's return to the journal drawings which established his career in the 1980's. Mr. Petersen made his first journal drawing in 1976 on Captiva Island, Florida, where he lived and worked closely with artist Robert Rauschenberg. The journal artworks began as collections of ephemera from everyday life on the island, postcards and photographs, feathers and bits of glass, as well as scribbled observations of his daily surroundings. Each month he would tack a sheet of paper to the studio wall and worked directly there, distilling the month's highlights into a 20 x 30 inch drawing. He exhibited these journal drawings extensively through the '80s and early '90s. Thankfully, Mr. Petersen has recently revisited this way of working in his Tivoli studio, transferring images with a water-based printmaking technique, hand coloring using vivid pigments, smudging, writing and marking intuitively with pen, pencil and paint.
On view at IHGallery will be two journal-based drawings, the most recent "October & November, 2013" as well as one from his earlier years "June, 1985". Alongside these pieces are what the artist refers to as details, small drawn fragments of the larger journal pieces, hand colored and produced in a limited edition. The show also includes sculptures made from found objects collected by Mr. Petersen, meticulously annotated with description time, date, and location--thus "Blue Stone by Barn Door". These objects not only make concrete the memory of a passing moment, but serve directly as a color reference for the drawings. These objects, having been picked up, brought into the studio, traced around, observed and handled during the making of the month's drawing, develop a history of their own in relation to the work and because of this are important to the exhibit, lending to it a sort of museum-like atmosphere.
Article in Hudson Valley Almanac Weekly
Artist's CV
On view at IHGallery will be two journal-based drawings, the most recent "October & November, 2013" as well as one from his earlier years "June, 1985". Alongside these pieces are what the artist refers to as details, small drawn fragments of the larger journal pieces, hand colored and produced in a limited edition. The show also includes sculptures made from found objects collected by Mr. Petersen, meticulously annotated with description time, date, and location--thus "Blue Stone by Barn Door". These objects not only make concrete the memory of a passing moment, but serve directly as a color reference for the drawings. These objects, having been picked up, brought into the studio, traced around, observed and handled during the making of the month's drawing, develop a history of their own in relation to the work and because of this are important to the exhibit, lending to it a sort of museum-like atmosphere.
Article in Hudson Valley Almanac Weekly
Artist's CV