CDAI

Discovering A New Wall Drawing

April 7, 2021 11:00 AM

^{Wall Drawing #5A at Douglas Gallery, Vancouver, 1969 (in progress). Photo courtesy Estate of Sol LeWitt}

By Christopher Vacchio, Director of Research, Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné

This is the latest in a series of blog posts in which Artifex Press staff members delve deeper into the artworks they are researching, sharing insights and discoveries gleaned during the intensive process of assembling a catalogue raisonné. Learn more by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

On April 6, 2021, the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné expanded by one artwork. The new work is Wall Drawing #5A, the first and only artwork to be added to the catalogue since its initial publication in August 2018, though existing entries have been continuously updated during that time. The publication of this artwork caps off years of research and is only possible now that the catalogue raisonné research team—led by myself and Editor Lindsay Aveilhé—has confirmed enough information to present the new work to the LeWitt Estate for its approval to include the work in the catalogue raisonné.

Wall Drawing #5A was first installed at Vancouver’s Douglas Gallery (later known as Ace Gallery) in November 1969 for an “American Group Show,” featuring artworks by Carl Andre, Ron Cooper, Sol LeWitt, Fred Sandback, and Keith Sonnier. The exhibition checklist, discovered by the archivist at Ace Gallery in 2017 in response to an information request, details minimal information about the LeWitt work: just the inclusion of an unnamed “Wall Drawing,” and its dimensions, 8 feet by 12 feet. For almost a year, this was all we knew of the work; no photo of the installation had yet been located.

^{Checklist, “American Group Show,” Douglas Gallery, November 12-29, 1969}
Despite a thorough review, the wall drawing installed at Douglas Gallery did not appear in any of LeWitt’s early public recordings of wall drawings (such as his 1972 article “All Wall Drawings,” intended to be a complete accounting of the works up to that point), nor in any of his private lists of works or notebooks from 1969. We requested from Ace Gallery any other information regarding the exhibition, and several newspaper reviews of the show were located in the gallery archives. These were important for several reasons. First, they proved that the work was in fact installed; second, they described the work’s content (the final result of LeWitt’s exact instructions, which are lost): two adjacent squares, the left square consisting of vertical and diagonal right pencil lines, the right square consisting of vertical and diagonal left pencil lines; third, they confirmed that the drafter of the work was artist Glenn Lewis. However, those same newspaper accounts introduced some confusion about the piece, with one review listing its size as 4 feet by 8 feet, rather than the 8 feet by 12 feet of the checklist.

Among the many useful documents in the archives of the LeWitt Studio are boxes of unmarked, unsorted photographs taken over the years, some of which were used as unlabeled photos in LeWitt’s first catalogue raisonné, published in book form in 1984. Over the many years of research into the current publication, the Artifex Press catalogue raisonné research team went through this archive of photographs a number of times to check for photos of works and flag images that did not seem to match installations of known wall drawings, as well as to look for images of installations where no images were extant. Upon another review of this box of photographs in 2018, we discovered an in-progress photograph, previously thought to perhaps be a photo of a different installation at Ace Gallery, that seemed to match the newly located description of the wall drawing at the Douglas Gallery. The inclusion of a part of a Carl Andre floor work that matched the one from the Douglas Gallery checklist seemed further evidence that this might be a match.

With this information already discovered, we decided it would be helpful to contact Glenn Lewis. In a 2018 interview via email, he was able to confirm that he installed a wall drawing at Douglas Gallery but could not be any more specific about either the content or size of the wall drawing (not surprising, considering nearly five decades had passed). For the moment, we were stuck. Luckily, in 2020, after several years of attempted outreach, Douglas Chrismas (former owner of Ace Gallery) provided additional information in a telephone interview, confirming the content of the work and that the photograph in question was indeed of that installation at his gallery; as well as reconfirming the identity of the drafter. Chrismas was also able to explain the differing dimensions listed in the newspaper review and checklist, noting that the walls of the gallery were 12 feet tall, which would mean that an 8 foot wide drawing, featuring two adjacent squares each 4 feet in length, would take up an area of 8 x 12 feet on the wall, even while the drawn section was only 8 x 4 feet. (There are numerous examples of discrepancies in the measurements of wall drawings, as it is not always clear what is to be measured—part of the reason that LeWitt eventually removed dimensions from the standard caption used to record these works.)

Aveilhé and I presented all of this information in late 2020 to the LeWitt Estate, led by Sol’s daughter Sofia LeWitt, with Anthony Sansotta, Artistic Director of the Estate of Sol LeWitt, and John Hogan, Mary Jo and Ted Shen Installations Director and Archivist for Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings, Yale University Art Gallery—both longtime LeWitt drafters. We collectively agreed that the work now had the information necessary for publication—that is, evidence that the work was in fact installed, the date and site of the first installation, the identity of the first drafter(s), and proof of the content of the work (in this case, visual proof in the form of a photograph). What the wall drawing lacked, however, was a “title,” or set of instructions, and a wall drawing number (LeWitt only began officially numbering his wall drawings in the 1980s).

In the course of researching the catalogue raisonné of LeWitt’s wall drawings, we have been able to confirm 32 additional artworks that went unrecorded in LeWitt’s previous catalogues raisonnés or by his studio in their official recordkeeping–this new work is the 33rd. For each newly discovered work, we have assigned a number and letter based on the previously installed work they are most closely related to. (For example, Wall Drawing #16A is a newly discovered work that is distinct, but related to Wall Drawing #16, which was recorded in LeWitt’s 1984 print catalogue raisonné.) Similarly, for each newly discovered wall drawing, we synthesized the written instructions (when available), phrasing and wording from LeWitt’s language used in existing works, and other documentation to create a title that accurately conveyed the content of the work, taking into account LeWitt’s continual revision of the titles of existing wall drawings throughout his career (meaning that a title LeWitt created in, say, 1969, would have been revised by the artist in his 1984 catalogue raisonné, when he standardized many uses of specific language).

Because the newly discovered work at Douglas Gallery is such an early wall drawing (It is chronologically the 27th wall drawing ever installed), both the number and title assigned to the work posed numerous difficulties. Similarly, because we did not have the exact instructions for the work, there were fewer existing works to base the wording of the instructions on. But after a careful review, the work was assigned the title Wall Drawing #5A Two adjacent squares, each with a two-part combination of lines superimposed.

This “new” Wall Drawing is part of a small group of LeWitt works known to have been installed but lacking sufficient documentation for the works to be reinstalled, and which were therefore not included in the catalogue raisonné at the time of its initial publication. Some two and half years later, the first of these once insufficiently documented wall drawings has now entered the catalogue raisonné. These unconfirmed works face a variety of research challenges. In many cases, because LeWitt transmitted the instructions for works verbally, there exists no plan or written record of the installation; in others, no photos have been found of the installation, so there is no proof that the work was in fact ever installed—a requirement for a work of this type to be included in the Catalogue Raisonné. As LeWitt himself wrote, “the plan exists as an idea but needs to be put into its optimum form. Ideas of wall drawings alone are contradictions of the idea of wall drawings.” There exist many cases during LeWitt’s lifetime where he created proposals for Wall Drawings that went unrealized; those works live only in that form, but not as wall drawings. They will never be included as entries in the catalogue raisonné. (An exception exists for LeWitt’s final wall drawings, which were in planning at the time of his death and of which he specifically expressed his desire that they be realized posthumously.) But we continue to research the projects that did come to fruition, and should sufficient information surface for others, they too will one day be added to the catalogue raisonné. It is truly a living document, just as LeWitt’s wall drawing practice lives on through the continuous adaptation and installation of his works at new sites all over the world.
Free Access to the Jim Dine Catalogue Raisonné through April 2021

March 1, 2021 11:08 AM

^{The artist with Harvest, 1984, before it was painted. © 2021 Jim Dine/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo courtesy the artist}

Artifex Press is pleased to announce that it will be offering free access to the Jim Dine Catalogue Raisonné, edited by Sara K. Davidson, beginning today, March 1, and running through the end of April.

Jim Dine: Sculpture, 1983-present is the definitive publication of three-dimensional works created by the artist since 1983, the period during which he has worked extensively with Walla Walla Foundry in Washington. The catalogue raisonné details the artist’s complete output of freestanding sculpture from these years—more than 300 original works. It lists comprehensive information for individual casts within editions, of which there are approximately 900 in total, and it has been regularly updated with information about new works since its initial publication in 2013. The catalogue also includes nearly three dozen exclusive videos of the artist in conversation with Editor Sara K. Davidson, discussing his body of work.

If you have already registered for free access to our site, your account will automatically grant you access to this publication. If you have not yet registered, you may do so by clicking the red "Register Free" button on our homepage at artifexpress.com.

The Jim Dine Catalogue Raisonné will be available for free through the end of April 2021, as part of Artifex Press’s ongoing effort to provide access to its catalogues at a time when many libraries and institutions are closed to the public to combat the spread of COVID-19.

Artifex Press is also pleased to announce that the second volume of the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné, Chuck Close: Works on Paper, will be published this spring. The volume, which comprises approximately 200 works spanning five decades of the artist's career, complements Chuck Close: Paintings, giving an even deeper look into his image-making process. Further details on the new publication will be announced in the coming weeks.
Finding Inspiration from Agnes Martin: An Interview with Tiffany Bell

February 24, 2021 11:05 AM

^{Friendship, 1963. Incised gold leaf and gesso on canvas. 75 x 75 inches.

Digital image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence}

By David Grosz, President, Artifex Press

This is the latest in a series of blog posts in which Artifex Press staff members delve deeper into the artworks they are researching, sharing insights and discoveries gleaned during the intensive process of assembling a catalogue raisonné. Learn more by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

Tiffany Bell is a bit of a legend in the catalogue raisonné world, as someone who has headed up three major CR projects—Dan Flavin (resulting in Dan Flavin: The Complete Lights, 1961-1996. Dia; Yale University Press: 2004), Agnes Martin (resulting in Agnes Martin: Paintings and Agnes Martin: Drawings. Artifex Press: 2017, 2019), and now Brice Marden—a remarkable feat given that for many scholars a single catalogue raisonné is a lifetime affair. Bell is also a legend in the offices of Artifex Press, where she served for many years as Editor at Large, because her talent and experience are only surpassed by her humility and generosity. As part of Artifex Press’s new series of blog posts, I recently interviewed Bell — about Agnes Martin, finding inspiration during quarantine, and, of course, catalogues raisonnés.

David Grosz: You edited the Dan Flavin catalogue raisonné. Then you did the Agnes Martin catalogue raisonné. And now you have embarked on a third catalogue raisonné, for Brice Marden. Given your broad experience in this field, I’m curious to know what you found to be the particular challenges for the Martin project. What made that catalogue distinctive and what were the biggest obstacles you faced as you did your work?

Tiffany Bell: I’ve been lucky to be involved with the work of these three artists. They’re all great artists and they share certain similarities, mainly in relation to minimalism, I guess. But the work is also very different which keeps it interesting.

And yes, these catalogue projects are very long term but the ability to “finish” more than one in a lifetime has been so enhanced by computers and the internet. The database programs, the accessibility to information via the web, and the fast pace of correspondence via email has changed dramatically from one project to the next. To find Flavin’s works, I had to mail letters to many museums just asking if they owned works by the artist and hope they responded. Now, I can get on museum websites and find works as well as a lot of information about ownership, exhibition history, whatever. Plus, I think the general recognition of the importance of these projects has grown, making it more likely to get quick responses to requests for information from dealers, museums, auction houses, and private owners. That is time saving.

As you know, the ease and difficulty of these projects usually stems from the artist’s own attitudes toward documenting their work—that, and how prolific they were. Agnes Martin was not hugely prolific—mainly because she was a late bloomer and had long periods where she didn’t make art. She also discarded a lot of work that didn’t meet her exacting standard. But she did not keep records. It didn’t fit with her frugal lifestyle, nor did it interest her in terms of how she wanted her works to be perceived. For whatever reason, she really eliminated context. For Flavin, dates were really important. His drawings record the day and year they were made and sometimes the order on the day that they were made. Flavin was really interested in documenting his work as part of his creative process. Martin, by contrast, was very casual about dates; I think she would make guesses sometimes years after the fact. And she discarded most “developmental” works.

Also, she didn’t keep studio inventories or photographic records. Or any correspondence about exhibitions, sales, or anything. So essentially we had to collect all that information from galleries, museums, collectors, and friends of the artist. Pace Gallery represented Agnes Martin for several decades, and luckily they kept excellent records. The project couldn’t have happened without that. And the Elkon Gallery was also very helpful, but things were done differently in the 1960s when Martin had her shows there. I think the hardest part of the project was identifying drawings from the 1960s that were mostly untitled, similar in appearance, size, and medium, and had not been photographed at the time of their making or first exhibitions.

I’m really proud of the research we did and the number of paintings and drawings that we uncovered and established a history for. I’m also proud of the chronology of her life that came together over the course of the research. But to credit you, what makes the Agnes Martin catalogue distinctive is the Artifex Press software. That all the information can be presented in such a comprehensive and accessible way—so easy to search and sort—is remarkable from my experience.

DG: However well you know an artist’s work going into a catalogue raisonné project, you will certainly make plenty of discoveries along the way. What was the biggest surprise for you about Martin and/or her work that you uncovered during your research for the catalogue?

TB: I found as I got into the Agnes Martin project that my original understanding of her work and her life was uninformed. I knew her as a mystic who had retreated from the world and I was mostly familiar with her work from the 1970s and up. I really had little knowledge of her biography and I thought of her art in relation to minimalism I guess. I hadn’t seen much of her work from the 1950s or 1960s. That work was a revelation and it provides the context for what she did later. I love all Martin’s art but I was, and am still, blown away by the ambition and beauty of those paintings from 1963-1967. And her life story is inspirational—that she was born on the remote prairies of western Canada and became one of the great American painters of the 20th century—as a woman.

^{Flower in the Wind, 1963. Oil on canvas. 75 x 75 inches. Photo courtesy Pace Gallery}
DG: In past times I might have posed a question asking you to imagine that you were marooned on a desert island with only one Martin artwork to keep you company. Let me instead put a contemporary spin on this and ask that you imagine going into quarantine for a year and being able to select one Martin artwork to bring with you. Which work would you choose and why?

TB: As I said before, I love most of Agnes Martin’s art. There really isn’t a bad painting—perhaps because she knew her work well and edited out anything that didn’t quite make it. So, in my dreams, I’d be happy with almost any drawing, watercolor, or painting. That said though, the group of paintings she made in 1963 stand out in my mind, and if I could have one, I would choose Flower in the Wind. I think that painting would be soothing and offer plenty to look at during a year in quarantine. The color is good—subtle and calming pink—but the intensity of the mark making, the thousands of brushstrokes ordered into an all-encompassing grid pattern—is awesome in every way. It’s also interesting to me that 1963 was also a pivotal year in Martin’s practice. She made these very regal paintings like Flower in the Wind; Night Sea, a royal blue painting; and Friendship, a gold leaf painting, but then, in a move she describes as one towards humility, she began her penciled grids on primed but unpainted canvases. It was a radical move—given the rawness of the penciled grids in comparison to the refinement in earlier ones—that is very provocative and really makes you think about art, life, commitment, and all sorts of things.

^{Night Sea, 1963. Oil, crayon, and gold leaf on canvas. 72 x 72 inches.

Photo by Katherine Du Tiel, courtesy San Francisco Museum of Modern Art}
DG: While Agnes Martin and Brice Marden are very different artists, it seems to me that there is a broad similarity in terms of the arcs of their careers. They are both known for an early period of formally experimental minimalist painting, after which they underwent a radical change in style, embarking on a new body of work with an entirely different signature style, perhaps one that is less formally inventive and instead more concerned with nature, perhaps even spirituality. I wonder if you can comment on this general observation. How are these arcs similar? How are they different? Can we learn anything from this comparison about the general arc of a painter’s career? About minimalism?

TB: I’m still early in my research of Brice Marden’s work and still have lots to learn so I hesitate to comment much about it. But you make an interesting comparison and it’s true that both artists had a break in their practice that may have had something to do with hitting a sort of wall set up by the stylistically reductive aspects of minimalism. But I think in both cases, an overview of the work will show that the continuities and similarities outweigh the differences between the early and late phases of their oeuvres. Certainly, Martin’s art post-1974 incorporated the innovations worked out in the earlier work. One might say the later work lacked stylistic “development” in the conventional art historical sense—compared to the earlier phase. Rather she used changes of emphasis and content—changes in color, surface treatment, linear quality, all techniques worked out in the earlier phase—to make works that while they have much in common always manage to be different, one from the next. I think that the repetition and continuity so clear in the later work was her subject—almost like the rituals of life that mark the passing of time. As she said about looking at the clouds in the sky, they all look alike but not one is the same as any other.

All artwork © Agnes Martin/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York
Artist by Artist: ANZAÏ and Lee Ufan

February 17, 2021 11:00 AM

By Taro Masushio, Research Associate, Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné

This is the latest in a series of blog posts in which Artifex Press staff members delve deeper into the artworks they are researching, sharing insights and discoveries gleaned during the intensive process of assembling a catalogue raisonné. Learn more by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

Time, rope, lamp, lumber, shades of brown, laughing.

How does one archive a phenomenon? Earlier in this series of blog entries, my colleague Christine Lee touched upon the difficulty of illustrating the phenomenological dimension of Lee Ufan’s work, and this remains an ongoing challenge as we research and catalogue the artist’s oeuvre. Of course, art historical conventions evolve, and strategies like indicating that a work’s dimensions are variable, using hyphenated or slashed dates for pieces that evolve or are iterated over time, and documenting performance with video have become some of the conventions for the cataloguing of more complicated artworks. Perhaps, we will soon be using AR- and VR-type simulations to document the difficult works to come. However, for this writing I want to focus on the basic discursive role played by an older mode of documentation—photography, particularly the work of ANZAÏ, who was one of the principal documentarians of Mono-ha, the Japan-based art movement of the late 60s to early 70s, through which Lee Ufan first came to prominence.

Shigeo Anzai, known as ANZAÏ, is a photographer and self-professed “art documentarist,” who, armed with a Leica, recorded a vast number of artworks, exhibitions, events, and so on from the late 60s onward in Japan and internationally. Some 3,000 of his photographs were the subject of a survey exhibition at the National Art Center in Tokyo in 2007. While I made the distinction between his identity as an art photographer and a documentarian of works by others to make legible the diverse oeuvre ranging from large-format portraits to more intimately scaled archival images of artworks, ultimately they are not so different. Even those images that are categorized as documents function performatively through the optic of a photographic artist, just as ANZAÏ’s more “creative” work results in objects that can enter institutions and the marketplace.

Some of ANZAÏ’s photographs demonstrate the belief in the medium’s mechanical nature, which is to say they speak to the objectivity of the record as seen in the photograph. Here, for example, is a fairly standardized eye-level image of a sculptural work on the floor: Lee Ufan’s Relatum (formerly System B), installed at Tamura Gallery, Tokyo, in 1970.

^{Tamura Gallery, Tokyo, January 21, 1970}
But this assumed objectivity dissolves fairly quickly when the artist enters the frame, as can be seen below, in an image of Lee Ufan installing another Relatum at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, also in 1970. ANZAÏ’s use of a tilted angle, a wide-angle lens, depth of field, black-and-white film, hand-written inscriptions, and the oversized negative easel signal his singular subjectivity as a photographer. Additionally, the image not only describes the artwork and its surroundings, but expands the artwork insofar as it renders the tension and contradiction between the work’s objecthood and its contingency. The photograph makes visible the process of the work’s formation in the specific environment at a specific time (while also suggesting the opposite process of the work’s de-formation, which will occur upon its de-installation).

^{August 1970 - “Aspects of New Japanese Art,” National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, August, 1970}
Even in documentary images without the artist present, similar techniques can be observed.

^{August 1970 - “Aspects of New Japanese Art,” National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, August, 1970}

^{Lee Ufan, Nobuo Sekine, Kishio Suga, Susumu Koshimizu, Katsuro Yoshida, “Mono-ha and Post Mono-ha,” Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, June 25, 1987}
This photograph of five Mono-ha artists (Lee Ufan, Nobuo Sekine, Kishio Suga, Susumu Koshimizu, Katsuro Yoshida) is a straightforward group photo that presents a more nuanced reality upon closer examination. ANZAÏ might have wanted simply to describe the movement by depicting its protagonists, but it is his (and his contemporaries’) relentless gaze toward these artists that might actually have allowed for such discursive categories as Mono-ha and Post-Mono-ha to emerge in the first place. The performative symbiosis of the (temporary) sculptural work and the photographic work is such that they continuously valorize each other. From the vantage point of today, the ANZAÏ photographs reanimate the sculptures' significance—the very existence of a photographic record both describes and produces meaning (perhaps a spirit of the avant-garde). Just as the photograph relies on the existence of the sculpture, the sculpture relies on the photograph for proof of its sometime existence. Like Lee’s work, ANZAÏ's work is not entirely conclusive, containing multitudes and contradictions at its core. Looking at these images today, it makes me think that this archive of the past is somehow still alive, still speaking and still acting, much more than mere document.

All artwork © Lee Ufan/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photos © Estate of Shigeo Anzaï, courtesy of Zeit-Foto
Toward a New Direction: Robert Irwin and the First National Symposium on Habitability

February 3, 2021 11:00 AM

^{Working on the skylight, Robert Irwin second from left}

By Marianne Stockebrand, Editor, Robert Irwin Catalogue Raisonné

This is the latest in a series of blog posts in which Artifex Press staff members delve deeper into the artworks they are researching, sharing insights and discoveries gleaned during the intensive process of assembling a catalogue raisonné. Learn more by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

In 1970, Robert Irwin was an accomplished painter who had exhibited his works in numerous galleries and museums. He could have continued on that path. Instead, he decided to shut down his studio, dispose of the tools he had used so far, and steer his work in an entirely new direction by abandoning the creation of discrete objects in favor of responding to the given space or situation he’d been invited to.

It was at this moment that Irwin engaged in wide-raging discussions with Edward Wortz, a research scientist at the Garrett Corporation, during the Art and Technology program organized by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Wortz was preparing an upcoming NASA symposium for the organization to study the issue of habitability and to better understand the conditions that lead to human well-being, particularly in view of manned space voyage. Wortz invited Irwin to collaborate on this program by creating a fitting environment for the three-day symposium.

Irwin’s plan was to expose the symposium participants—scientists from different backgrounds—to environments akin to those they might encounter during space travel. He selected his studio at 72 Market Street in Venice, California, as the symposium venue and meticulously prepared each detail of the three-day event, from the moment participants arrived, to the seating arrangements, to light and sound conditions, and even their lunch breaks.

^{Breaking out the window to enlarge it to a door}
Irwin had the participants enter from the dusty back alley behind his studio, climbing past the rubble of an opening he had specifically broken out of the wall. Inside, they found a clean, simple set up, with an elevated central island with chairs for the speakers and loose cushions on the ground for the audience. Irwin blocked the large unglazed storefront window to keep out light and sound so that skylights with special color coating (by Larry Bell) were the room’s only light source.

^{Left: Irwin cleaning glass panels color-coated by Larry Bell to be inserted under the skylights; Right: Irwin and unidentified person inside the studio set up for the symposium with sonotubes covering storefront window

Participants during the first day with color-coated skylights as only light source}
When the participants returned for day two, however, they found the studio changed. Now the large window opening was covered by a light translucent material, which brightened the interior and permitted a vague sense of the movements and sounds of the street.

On day three, there was another change. Irwin removed any covering from the window opening, erasing all barriers between indoors and outdoors.

In this atypical setting, the participants gradually behaved more casually than they might have in a more conventional environment. Initially irritated or disturbed, they soon realized that the situations in which they found themselves reflected the very conditions they were discussing; instead of approaching those themes abstractly, here they felt the actual impact for themselves.

For Irwin, the symposium marked a turning point in his work, because it highlighted how an individual aesthetic experience was not just an art question but also an environmental and social concern. Irwin carried such concerns with him as he turned away from a studio-based practice and embraced new ways to activate the aesthetic potential of the built environment. With his first consignment from the Museum of Modern Art later that year, he shifted such environmental investigations from the interior spaces of his studio to that of galleries and museums, and in this way the next major phase of his career was born.

All artwork © Robert Irwin/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photos by Larry Bell

^{Paul, 2011

Oil on canvas

36 x 30 in. (91.4 x 76.2 cm)

Photo by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy Pace Gallery}

By Christine Lee, Associate Editor, with Carina Evangelista, Editor, Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné

This is the latest in a series of blog posts in which Artifex Press staff members delve deeper into the artworks they are researching, sharing insights and discoveries gleaned during the intensive process of assembling a catalogue raisonné. Learn more by following us on Facebook and Instagram.

^{Paul, 2019-2020

Oil on canvas

72 x 60 in. (182.9 x 152.4 cm)

Photo by Phoebe d'Heurle, courtesy Pace Gallery

Edie, 2019-2020

Oil on canvas

72 x 60 in. (182.9 x 152.4 cm)

Photo by Phoebe d'Heurle, courtesy Pace Gallery} The Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné, edited by Carina Evangelista, has been updated with new paintings from 2019-2020, including portraits of Paul Simon and Edie Brickell. While Close is probably best known for his portraits of artists, including many self-portraits, musicians have also been important subjects, and the artist in turn has been a source of inspiration to his fellow creatives.

^{Album cover design by Geoff Gans, courtesy Paul Simon/Concord Records}

Paul Simon is also the subject of an earlier painting from 2011. As a testament to their friendship, Simon dedicated his thirteenth solo studio album, Stranger to Stranger, to Close. The album cover features a detail of the 2011 portrait, with a full illustration of the painting on the album sleeve. Of Simon, Close writes, “if the experiences of people like me, who grew up in the 40s, 50s, and 60s, had been the subject of a movie, Paul Simon would have written the soundtrack of our lives.”

^{Album liner notes by Geoff Gans, courtesy Paul Simon/Concord Records}

Upon the release of this album in 2016, Simon was rumored to have hinted at retiring but later clarified that he was simply considering slowing his touring schedule. Close recounts that he called Simon at the time to tell him, “‘Artists don’t retire,’ ….I think I talked him out of it. I said: ‘Don’t deny yourself this late stage, because the late stage can be very interesting.’” Citing the revelations of late-career work by artists like Willem de Kooning and Pablo Picasso, Close also reminded Simon that Henri Matisse did not stop making art even when he could no longer continue painting in his winter years, “Had Matisse not done the cutouts, we would not know who he was.”

^{Lou/Mosaic, 2017

Hand-glazed stoneware and porcelain tile

108 x 84 in. (274.3 x 213.4 cm)

Photo by Emily Korn, courtesy Artifex Press}

If Simon wrote the soundtrack of Close’s generation, perhaps Lou Reed wrote the soundtrack of New York City of his era. And so aptly, beneath the streets of his beloved city, his portrait is permanently installed in the Second Ave-86th St station as part of Close’s “Subway Portraits” (2017). Commissioned by New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts and Design and fabricated by Magnolia Editions, the mosaic is based on a black-and-white Polaroid taken by Close in 2012. Although Reed died before the mosaic was installed, he was able to view the tapestry Close produced in an edition based on the same photograph when Reed attended the opening of Close’s solo exhibition at Guild Hall in 2013.

^{Laurie, 2011

Oil on canvas

108 1/2 x 84 in. (275.6 x 213.4 cm)

Photo by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy Pace Gallery

Laurie, 2000

Daguerreotype

Image: 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. (21.6 x 16.5 cm)

Photo by David Adamson, courtesy Adamson Editions, Washington, D.C} Reed’s widow, the artist and musician Laurie Anderson, has also been the subject of Close’s portraits. A daguerreotype from 2000 was part of a collaboration with the poet Bob Holman that produced a book and exhibition. Holman’s poem about Anderson reads, both on the page and out loud, with a syncopation similar to Anderson’s own music.

^{Audio recording of the poem courtesy Bob Holman}

^{Phil/Maquette, 1969

Gelatin silver print with ink and tape

13 3/4 x 10 3/4 in. (34.9 x 27.3 cm)

Photo courtesy Chuck Close Studio

Phil, 1969

Acrylic on gessoed canvas

108 x 84 in. (274.3 x 213.4 cm)

Photo by Ellen Page Wilson, courtesy Pace Gallery

Phil/Mosaic, 2017

Hand-glazed stoneware and porcelain tile

108 x 84 in. (274.3 x 213.4 cm)

Photo by Rob Wilson, courtesy New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts and Design}

Perhaps the most iconic portrait of a musician that Close has produced is of Philip Glass. In particular, Close has generated scores of iterations of the photograph that he took of Glass in 1968, much like how a musician plays their songs on stage again and again, with each performance taking on a different form. Based on this photograph of Glass are paintings, tapestries, daguerreotypes, and mosaics, most of which are already published in the first volume of the catalogue raisonné, as well as drawings, which will be included in the forthcoming Unique Works on Paper volume.

^{C. to C. (Close to Chuck) Reborn

Boston Ballet, February 22, 2014

Video courtesy Boston Ballet}

In return, Glass composed “A Musical Portrait of Chuck Close” (2005), a solo piano piece comprising two movements. Choreographed by Jorma Elo, the ballet set to Glass’s composition premiered in New York at the American Ballet Theatre in 2007. Above is a recording of a performance of the piece by the Boston Ballet in 2014. Close’s self-portraits are displayed as the backdrop, as Bruce Levingston, who commissioned the piece after seeing one of Close’s portraits of Glass, plays the piano on stage.

^{Chuck Close (right) conducts a band of his housemates in the large, dilapidated frame house that they rented near the University of Washington, Seattle, ca. 1962

Photo courtesy Chuck Close Studio}
Close’s relationship to music dates back as early as his college years, as can be seen by this snapshot above. It is no surprise that Close has regarded his own work and process through musical analogies, as he told the curator Martin Friedman around 2005: "I've made enough of [my paintings] to know how they will read from a distance. I don't have to back up and look at them. The analogy might be to a composer scoring a composition for a number of musical instruments. He knows what the bassoon, the oboe, or whatever will sound like when they are played together.” Close added: “I guess what I'm making are color chords of a kind. I assign qualities to certain marks by giving them colors. When they're played together—or seen together—the color chord melts in the mind (as they used to say about 'acid'). They come together to make some kind of color world."

Just as Close’s modular marks meld in the eyes to produce vibrant portraits of the musicians with whom he has had decades-long friendships, Close and those same friends have come together in a rich back-and-forth of artistic inspiration across the mediums of sound and color.

Art/Work: On Sol LeWitt and Labor

January 13, 2021 11:00 AM

^{Sol LeWitt installing Wall Drawing #136 at Chiostro di San Nicolò, Spoleto, Italy, 1972. Photo by Giorgio Lucarini, courtesy Estate of Sol LeWitt}

By Christopher Vacchio, Director of Research, Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné

This is the latest in a series of blog posts in which Artifex Press staff members delve deeper into the artworks they are researching, sharing insights and discoveries gleaned during the intensive process of assembling a catalogue raisonné. Learn more by following us on Facebook and Instagram

Price list, Benefit For The Student Mobilization Committee To End The War in Vietnam, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, October 23-31, 1968. Photo courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery
When Sol LeWitt created his first wall drawing at Paula Cooper Gallery in 1968 for the Benefit For The Student Mobilization Committee To End The War in Vietnam (which was also the gallery’s first exhibition), his work was the only one not to carry a specific price—the price list noted the work was sold “by hour,” meaning it would be based on the cost of LeWitt installing the work on the buyer’s wall. Although the work didn’t sell during the exhibition, it was the beginning of LeWitt’s long history of highlighting the physical and financial cost of labor in his artworks, a focus directly tied to the leftist politics of the Vietnam War era in which artists and others in the art world began to align themselves as "art workers" within a capitalist system.

^{Wall Drawing #48 at Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1970. Photo by James Mathews, Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY}
Perhaps the best-known of these works is Wall Drawing #48, first installed for the Museum of Modern Art’s landmark Information exhibition, curated by Kynaston McShine. The title of the work, doubling as its instructions, was “Within four adjacent squares, each 4’ x 4’, four draftsmen will be employed at $4.00/hour, for four hours a day and for four days to draw straight lines 4 inches long using four different colored pencils; 9H black, red, yellow and blue. Each draftsman will use the same color throughout the four day period, working on a different square each day.”

The federal minimum wage in June 1970 was $1.45 an hour (equivalent to approximately $10 today), while the New York State minimum wage was about to be raised from $1.60 to $1.85 an hour (nearly $13 today). The disparity between the pay LeWitt afforded his drafters and the minimum wage is a reflection of the value LeWitt placed on his drafters and their work. As he became increasingly successful and the pace of his exhibiting quickened, he depended more and more on drafters to install wall drawings and considered their work integral to the realization of his vision. (LeWitt has been the subject of more than 700 solo exhibitions since the 1960s.)

^{Wall Drawing #43 at Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, 2006 (detail). Photo by Ilmari Kalkkinen, © Mamco, Genève}
In Wall Drawing #43, first installed in April 1970, LeWitt made the tension between employee and employer intrinsic to the work. The instructions for the work as installed at Protetch-Rivkin Gallery, Washington, D.C., were “On the wall measuring 136" x 95" in the gallery, four draftsmen, each using a different color pencil (9H Black, Red, Yellow and Blue) will draw lines for as long as the gallery owners will pay them, but for a minimum of eight hours each. The placement of the lines will remain at the discretion of the draftsmen.” By setting a minimum time for the drafters to work, LeWitt ensured a level of visual completion to the work, as well as a minimum windfall for the drafters. But by leaving the amount of time beyond that up to the gallery owners, LeWitt created a tension between their desire to have a “finished” work to sell and their desire to minimize production costs.

^{Wall Drawing #25 at Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, 1969 (Fifth day, in progress). Photo courtesy Estate of Sol LeWitt}
In Wall Drawing #25, first installed in 1969, the labor of the drafters is explicitly the subject of the work, because it can only be viewed while the drafters are at work, as their final act is to destroy it. The title of the work is “Four drafters each superimpose a band of parallel lines 36 inches (90 cm) wide in a different direction on a different wall on each of four days. On the fifth day they paint out the drawing.” LeWitt did not view the installation of his wall drawings as a performance or theater, and so the fact that this work can be viewed only while being installed implies a desire to make visible the labor and the laborers who physically create his works. LeWitt later cemented this idea by creating a cataloguing system whereby the first drafters of each wall drawing were recorded in the work’s caption and wall label, and the drafters of each individual installation are also listed. By doing so, LeWitt asserted that crediting the drafters by name was as integral to the work as other cataloguing details like title, medium, and date.

^{Wall Drawing #305 at Centre Pompidou-Metz, France, 2012 (detail). Photo © Centre Pompidou-Metz/Rémi Villaggi}
LeWitt entrusted many decisions in the execution of his work to the drafters. While the artist always took complete authorship of his works, in a meaningful number of cases he delegated significant decision-making responsibility to the drafter. The most significant examples are a subset of LeWitt’s location drawings, in which the language of the instructions defines the precise locations of points, lines, and geometric figures on the wall. For these works, rather than indicating the exact locations of the figures, LeWitt's instructions say, “The specific locations are determined by the drafter.” Thus, every installation of these works is completely different, the visual result of decisions by the drafter, as anticipated by LeWitt. Although LeWitt once commented, “what the work of art looks like isn’t too important,” it takes a great deal of trust to allow someone else to make such important decisions affecting the outcome of the work.

^{Sol LeWitt with the drafters for his 2000 retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Photo courtesy Sachiko Cho}
For decades now, the LeWitt Studio, which comprises his drafters and the several chief assistants who oversee them, has functioned as a sort of mini jobs program for working artists. Working as a LeWitt drafter has allowed many younger artists to have flexible work and steady income, so that they could focus on their own studio practices fully at other times. (This is in contrast to LeWitt’s own experience—and that of several contemporaries such as Robert Mangold and Dan Flavin—working the night shift at the Museum of Modern Art so that he could dedicate himself to artmaking during the day.) A number of artists who would go on to widespread acclaim have worked on wall drawings, among them Glenn Lewis, Christian Marclay, Kazuko Miyamoto, Matt Mullican, Adrian Piper, Cindy Sherman, and James Welling. LeWitt was known to give works as gifts to thank the drafters of important exhibitions, to anonymously buy the work of artist friends he wanted to support, and to trade works with artists without regard for the relative financial value of the works. Many of these artists have long commented on LeWitt’s influence on their work. Perhaps more importantly, they have also spoken of his quiet mentorship and generosity in giving them the means to advance their own careers, and his support in helping them navigate the art world on their own terms.
Body Talk — The Art of Tim Hawkinson

January 6, 2021 12:00 PM

^{Balloon Self-Portrait, 1993. Inflated latex. 72 x 48 x 33 in. (182.9 x 121.9 x 83.8 cm). Photo courtesy the artist}

By Christopher Vacchio, Associate Editor

This is the latest in a series of blog posts in which Artifex Press staff members delve deeper into the artworks they are researching, sharing insights and discoveries gleaned during the intensive process of assembling a catalogue raisonné. Learn more by following us on Facebook and Instagram

Tim Hawkinson uses a staggering array of materials and processes to transform everyday objects into idiosyncratic artworks. The utterly eclectic nature of Hawkinson’s practice makes generalization impossible, but throughout his career, the artist’s systematic use of his own body and his dark sense of humor are trends that have stayed consistent across all of his works.

^{Echocardiograph Landscape, 1988. Watercolor on paper. 9 x 43 in. (22.9 x 109.2 cm). Photo courtesy the artist}
In one early work, Echocardiograph Landscape (1988), the artist used the results of a medical procedure, and the graph of his heartbeat it contained, to determine the heights of the trees in a landscape watercolor painting. The juxtaposition between the implied stress of the medical procedure and the calm of the watercolor landscape creates a sense of unease.

^{Bird, 1997. The artist's fingernail clippings and superglue. 2 x 2 1/4 x 2 in. (5.1 x 5.7 x 5.1 cm). Photo courtesy the artist}
Hawkinson’s focus on the materiality of his body can be literal as well—he frequently uses his body as a tool or a material in creating his works. For instance, in Bird (1997), his own fingernail clippings served as the material for the work, serving as the bones of the tiny bird, which were bound together with superglue. He even let his fingernails grow out in order to create the bird’s skull and beak in single pieces.

^{Stalk, 2018. Urethane. 26 x 14 x 12 in. (66 x 35.6 x 30.5 cm). Photo by Johnna Arnold, courtesy Pace Gallery}
Later, in works like Stalk (2018), Hawkinson used impressions of his elbows, hands, feet, and even his belly button as casts, combining the shapes of those body parts into multifaceted works in sometimes humorous, sometimes menacing ways.

^{Blindspots, 1991. Photographs in artist's frame. 22 x 16 x 3/4 in. (55.9 x 40.6 x 1.9 cm). Photo courtesy the artist}
Blindspots (1991) reveals the combination of Hawkinson’s conceptual attitude to materiality and his use of his body. The artist used a pen to draw the edge of his field of vision onto his own skin, creating an outline of the parts of his body he could not see without an aid like a mirror. He then photographed those areas and made a composite map of his body’s “blind spots.” The work represents both a self-portrait and the antithesis of one, since it only depicts areas of the body the artist can never himself see.

^{Averaged Vitruvian Man, 2016. Archival inkjet prints on soda bottles and steel. 80 x 82 x 12 in. (203.2 x 208.3 x 30.5 cm). Photo courtesy the artist and Hosfelt Gallery, San Francisco}
Preconceiving the physical making of an artwork according to a specific system is also a recurring theme in Hawkinson’s oeuvre, with the artist interested in the tension between system and the nature of his medium. In Averaged Vitruvian Man (2016), the artist took photos of each of his body parts, down to his fingers and toes, and then printed them as identically-sized images, each of which was wrapped around a plastic soda bottle. The result underscores that photography is more than a documentary medium, and highlights the psychological tension embodied in one’s self-concept, when how a person sees themselves often comes into conflict with reality.

In thinking about Hawkinson's work, I am reminded of the Ludwig Wittgenstein quote, "The human body is the best picture of the human soul" (Philosophical Investigations II, iv, 1953). Our bodies are how we communicate with one another, through making or doing, something that Hawkinson highlights in his work by foregrounding the physicality and mutability of our human forms, coupled with a healthy dose of absurdity.
Free Access to the James Siena Catalogue Raisonné

January 5, 2021 1:10 PM

^{James Siena, Parsed Digraph, 2020. Acrylic and charcoal on linen. 36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm).

Photo courtesy the artist}

Artifex Press is pleased to announce that it will be offering free access to the James Siena Catalogue Raisonné, edited by Ariela Alberts, beginning January 15, 2021.

The James Siena Catalogue Raisonné is the definitive record of all paintings, sculptures, and gouaches created by the artist dating back to 1989, the year that he began to paint almost exclusively on metal, a decision that defined his painting practice for nearly three decades, until he began working with large-scale canvases in 2017. Also included is an extensive selection of early works dating from 1977 to 1988. Siena’s voice is found throughout the catalogue in excerpts of interviews and, notably, in comments that he has written exclusively for this publication. Last month, the catalogue was updated with the artist’s newest works from 2020, providing the most up to date overview of his oeuvre. Read more about Siena’s latest series of work in this blog post.

If you have already registered for free access to our site, your account will automatically grant you access to this publication. If you have not yet registered, you may do so at www.artifexpress.com.

The James Siena Catalogue Raisonné will be available for free through the end of February 2021, as part of Artifex Press’s ongoing effort to provide access to its catalogues at a time when many libraries and institutions are closed to the public to combat the spread of COVID-19.
An Archivist's Perspective: Documenting Sol LeWitt and Robert Irwin

December 23, 2020 11:00 AM

^{Sol LeWitt, Left: Wall Drawing #482; Right: Wall Drawing #483 at Magasin - Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, France, 1986. Photo courtesy Estate of Sol LeWitt}

By Ashley Levine, Archivist/Digital Resource Manager

This is the latest in a series of blog posts in which Artifex Press staff members delve deeper into the artworks they are researching, sharing insights and discoveries gleaned during the intensive process of assembling a catalogue raisonné.

By the end of the 1960s, both Sol LeWitt and Robert Irwin were expanding their respective oeuvres beyond the parameters of traditional painting and drawing. Instead of traditional art objects, they created installations that were ephemeral (and tied to specific moments in time) and that responded to architecture (tied to specific places). It is often said that these are works that must be experienced in person, and this is certainly the case. But what I want to write about today is the unique vantage point I have as Artifex Press Archivist/Digital Resource Manager, where I’ve had the opportunity to compile, organize, and examine photography of both artists’ bodies of work, including when a single work spans multiple decades and locations. It’s a visual record that reveals the paradoxical fluidity of art fixed in architecture, or as Robert Irwin might call it, “a conditional art.”

A LeWitt Wall Drawing can be executed in a single location, destroyed, and then reinstalled elsewhere, while theoretically remaining the same work. The ostensibly static concepts embedded in the Wall Drawing Diagrams (essentially, blueprints for each work) permit enough flexibility to respond to the architectural particulars of each space. Therefore, many individual wall drawings have been adapted to disparate architectural settings over multiple subsequent installations. Artifex’s collection of photos help document the evolution of individual wall drawings over time, and illustrate the application of LeWitt’s concepts in various environments.

^{Diagram for Wall Drawing #483}
For example, in June 1986, LeWitt first installed Wall Drawing #483 at Magasin - Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, France. LeWitt installed this work adjacent to other similar wall drawings, such that the rightmost portion of Wall Drawing #482 actually extended onto #483's leftmost portion. The photographs here illustrate the monumental scale of the installation—as well as its side by side placement with other wall drawings—both direct responses to the vast open space of the venue.

^{Sol LeWitt, L-R: Wall Drawing #483, Wall Drawing #487 (detail), Wall Drawing #485, Wall Drawing #486 at Magasin - Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, France, 1986. Photo by Quentin Bertoux}
In 2000, LeWitt reinstalled the same work in much tighter confines. For his career retrospective at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, LeWitt created a "Four-row wall drawing," by installing together nine wall drawings comprising 35 parts in total, which were divided and bordered by black bands. Here, Wall Drawing #483 was grouped among a diverse selection of LeWitt’s other, non-pyramid wall drawings, spanning his career. The work appears in the below photo, second row from the top, third wall drawing from the left.

^{Sol LeWitt, Top row: Wall Drawing #956; Second row, L-R: Wall Drawing #423, Wall Drawing #444, Wall Drawing #483, Wall Drawing #442, Wall Drawing #445, Wall Drawing #436; Third row: Wall Drawing #601; Bottom row: Wall Drawing #808 at Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2000. Photo by Paul Rocheleau, courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art}
The third and most recent installation of Wall Drawing #483 occurred posthumously at Evans Hall at the Yale School of Management in New Haven, Connecticut, in 2013. Here, the drawing occupied an entire wall, without any other works competing for space.

^{Sol LeWitt, Wall Drawing #483 at Edward P. Evans Hall, Yale School of Management, New Haven, Connecticut, 2013. Photo by Christopher Gardner, courtesy Yale University Art Gallery}
These three installations represent executed variations of a single conceptual work, and demonstrate the ways in which LeWitt’s seemingly fixed concepts respond to dynamic physical environments. His wall drawings are able to leap from a static page into any number of real spaces, as long as a wall exists.

Interestingly, Robert Irwin initially forbade public dissemination of photography of much of his output of the late 1960s and early 70s. He felt that one had to experience the objects and spaces in person to properly comprehend his work. However, through the ongoing research on Robert Irwin’s oeuvre, I’ve encountered hundreds of images of Irwin’s early works (often taken behind the scenes by friends, and the museums and galleries hosting his work), including of his earliest site-specific projects. And I’ve had the opportunity to compare this photographic record with architectural drawings, blueprints, and other planning documents, to get a sense of what a particular project looked (and felt) like.

In 1970, Martin Friedman, director of the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, invited Irwin to the inaugural exhibition at the museum’s new building, scheduled to open in May 1971. Friedman expressed interest in the “stretched transparent fabric” that he had seen in Irwin’s Market Street studio in Venice, California the year prior—a work that was essentially Irwin’s first installation of its kind. Irwin agreed to execute a variation of the Market Street work, using scrim material (to meet fire codes), and deciding to focus on the Walker’s ceilings, in Gallery 1.

^{Above three photos: Robert Irwin, untitled, 1971 installation at Walker Art Center. Photos courtesy Walker Art Center

Robert Irwin and Jack Brogan and Robert Irwin working on the 1971 untitled installation. Photo courtesy Walker Art Center}
Four years later, in 1975, in advance of his first solo exhibition at the Walker, Irwin produced a large plan, numbered “3”, that altered details of the initial installation. For this reinstallation (to occur in 1976), Irwin attached the scrim to the third, rather than the second, coffer of Gallery 1, bringing the entire installation further away from the rear wall. Further, the fluorescent lights illuminating the work, which had previously been spaced apart, now abutted each other, and the previously untitled work received a new title, Slanting Light Volume. The Walker subsequently re-installed the work in 1976, 1984, and 1989, according to these adjusted instructions.

^{Robert Irwin, Plan "3" for Slanting Light Volume, 1975

Robert Irwin, Slanting Light Volume, 1976 installation at Walker Art Center. Photo courtesy Walker Art Center

Robert Irwin, Slanting Light Volume, 1989 installation at Walker Art Center. Photo courtesy Walker Art Center}
In 2009, Irwin adapted the work a third time, now to accommodate the museum’s new Friedman Gallery. Using his Gallery 1 plan as a reference point, Irwin lowered the Friedman Gallery’s 16 foot ceiling by five feet (accomplished by attaching a board vertically to the ceiling), to meet the height of the original installation. He attached scrim to the bottom of the lowered ceiling coffer and stretched it at the same angle as he had previously done in Gallery 1.

While both LeWitt and Irwin’s works are theoretically fixed in their respective planning documents—LeWitt’s generic, architecture-devoid Wall Drawing Diagrams, versus Irwin’s highly detailed architectural drawings—understanding how works actually responded to different physical spaces involves synthesizing the information in these plans with the historical photographic record.

^{Above two photos: Robert Irwin, Slanting Light Volume, 2009 installation at Walker Art Center. Photos courtesy Walker Art Center}
My role as Artifex archivist has afforded me an opportune vantage point on the evolution of both LeWitt and Irwin’s work and careers. With direct access to the visual breadth of these installations over time, I have been able to see aspects of the works that in-person, single-exhibition viewers will miss. I am afforded a lens into individual wall drawings and site-specific works installed in multiple contexts, rather than in exhibition-specific isolation. Comprehensively cataloging LeWitt and Irwin’s works requires pulling together documentary materials from various museums, galleries, artist studios, libraries, archives, etc., emphasizing the crucial role of archival records and institutional collaboration in constructing digital catalogues raisonnés.

^{Aoxomoxoa, 2020

Acrylic and charcoal on linen

36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm)

Photo courtesy the artist}

By Ariela Alberts, Editor of the James Siena Catalogue Raisonné

For James Siena, making art is an act of discovery. In a way, he surrenders to the idea of his work, determining a point of interest — for example, where the line may go — which he follows to its utmost conclusion, until it has nowhere else to go. In another way, he brings a certain humanity to his work that is anything but predictable. If some of the precision in his work can feel analogous to a circuit board, as has often been said, the particularity of the kinks, curves, and knots is utterly his own. As he makes a work, he teeters from his imagination to submission to his idea, and back again. He is not always certain where he will end up: what resonances will emerge? How will each choice reverberate?

Once Siena has seen the result in single work, he extrapolates, builds, confounds, limits, or expands upon an idea in other works, which is precisely what he’s done with his most recent body of work. Today, the artist’s eight most recent paintings, all from this year, have been added to his catalogue raisonné. I’m going to examine five of these here.

“I wanted to crop those circuits down so that only one side of a circuit would be visible. That really runs counter to a lot of what I’ve dealt with over the last 30 years wherein most of my works are compressed at the edges and isolated from the so-called external world. And in this case, the circuit, a kind of line which is kinked and convoluted which usually returns to itself--it only begins and ends on one side of the page,” Siena said recently in describing his new work.

Perhaps the clearest illustration of this concept is seen in the painting Coeval Cerebellae, which can be seen below alongside Heptesserast, one of his earlier works of the year. If Heptesserast shows us the outline of a rectangular shape with a maze of pathways moving inwards, Coeval Cerebellae focuses on an isolated segment: the top right quadrant. The circuit is cropped, or placed under the magnifying glass.

^{Coeval Cerebellae, 2020

Acrylic and colored pencil on linen

60 x 40 in. (152.4 x 101.6 cm)

Photo courtesy the artist

Heptesserast, 2020

Acrylic and watercolor pencil on linen

75 x 60 in. (190.5 x 152.4 cm)

Photo courtesy Ratio 3, San Francisco}
A photograph alone may not convey that Trectiuff, seen below, measures 6 ¼ feet tall by 10 feet wide. Consider that this comes from an artist who until three years ago had been associated with intimately scaled work and who hadn’t painted on linen for three decades. With these newest works, Siena has expanded upon the essence of his interest not only in scale, material, and medium, but in focus too.

^{Trectiuff, 2020

Acrylic and graphite on linen

75 x 120 in. (190.5 x 304.8 cm)

Photo courtesy Ratio 3, San Francisco}
Trectiuff (above), Aoxomoxoa (at top), and Parsed Digraph (below), in addition to confounding the edges of their paintings to dislocate the start and endpoints of their circuits, also seem to find a renewed interest in the qualities of negative space. The underlying linen is made visible and becomes a subtle but effective counter to the marks on its surface, whether in acrylic, charcoal, or graphite. Siena has moved away from the eye-popping colors of years past and the gloss and slick surface that was a hallmark of his paintings in enamel on aluminum. With this latest body of work, Siena continues on his path of discovery and has uncovered something new.

^{Parsed Digraph, 2020

Acrylic and charcoal on linen

36 x 48 in. (91.4 x 121.9 cm)

Photo courtesy Ratio 3, San Francisco}

Watch Your Eyes — Lucas Samaras's Boxes

December 9, 2020 11:16 AM

^{Untitled (Shoe Box), 1965

Mixed media

10 1/2 x 15 1/2 x 11 in. (26.7 x 39.4 x 27.9 cm)

Photo courtesy Berardo Collection Museum}

By David Grosz, President of Artifex Press

This is the second in a series of blog posts in which Artifex Press staff members delve deeper into the artworks they are researching, sharing insights and discoveries gleaned during the intensive process of assembling a catalogue raisonné.

Last week, my colleague Christine Lee wrote about the art of Lee Ufan, which she described as “charged with a quiet but vibrant energy." This week, tasked with describing Lucas Samaras’ iconic Boxes, I couldn’t have a more different challenge. After all, the Boxes are nothing if not loud and cacophonous, overflowing with strange objects and dark humor, evoking a raucous party gone bonkers sometime pre-dawn.

Above, for example, is Untitled (Shoe Box) from 1965.

And here is Box #112 from 1984:

^{Box #112, 1984

Mixed media

18 x 14 1/2 x 20 1/2 in. (45.7 x 36.8 x 52.1 cm), open; 11 1/2 x 14 1/2 x 17 1/2 in. (29.2 x 36.8 x 44.5 cm), closed

Photo by Ellen Page Wilson, courtesy Pace Gallery}
Atop the first sits a high heel shoe stuffed with a tangle of steel pins, as a cloud of cotton pushes out through the open box lid. Meanwhile, in the second, you’ll find an assortment of objects: a diorama of peacocks, a toothbrush, pencils, dental mirrors, wire, wool, and yarn—many of them bursting through a hole in the box’s side. If Lee Ufan’s work presents a balanced relationship between inner and outer worlds, here interior and exterior are both in tumult: some objects seem to want to pierce into the center, and others to explode outward.

Where do you start in describing these works? Samaras wrote, in a statement from 1972: "We live in boxes, see and eat with boxes, travel in boxes, and even our days and nights are boxes. Box is a lovely principle that carries a lot of symbolic beans…. There is a language of words and sub-language of visibles. Talk is sometimes used as a legitimatizing agent. It is also a lullaby and a dirge."

If words are insufficient to represent these works, so too is a single image:

^{Box #56, 1966, States 1-5

Mixed media

Dimensions variable, open; 12 3/8 x 12 1/8 x 12 1/8 in. (31.4 x 31 x 31 cm), closed

Photos by Robert Gerhardt and Denis Y. Suspitsyn, courtesy Whitney Museum of American Art}
Like Box #56 (pictured above), each Samaras box is both singular and multifaceted, and not one is exemplary of the basic form of the box. In a catalogue raisonné of 295 works, there are 295 exceptions without a single rule. Each work's pleasure lies in its quiddities.

Also, in its paradoxes. Subtlety is not what you would expect of creations that bristle with knife blades, steel pins, and shards of glass, but read this Webster’s Dictionary entry for the word "subtle" and find the definition that the Boxes do not meet:

      1a: DELICATE, ELUSIVE
      a subtle fragrance
      b: difficult to understand or perceive: OBSCURE
      2a: PERCEPTIVE, REFINED
      a writer's sharp and subtle moral sense
      b: having or marked by keen insight and ability to penetrate deeply and thoroughly

      3a: highly skillful: EXPERT
      b: cunningly made or contrived: INGENIOUS

      4: ARTFUL, CRAFTY

      5: operating insidiously

Beauty and revulsion, joy and pain, order and chaos, delicacy and force, discovery and concealment—you’ll find it all tangled together. The boxes allude to modernist icons like the minimalist cube and ancient myths like Pandora’s Box but are born of a spirit of pure iconoclasm.

Ultimately, they feel to me like riddles that turn inward, collapsing into themselves. All those knives and pins cry out: Watch your hands. Watch your eyes. A warning to the viewer, a warning to the artist. Stop, stand back.

But then they add in the next breath: I know you can't resist.

^{Detail of Box #97, 1977

Mixed media

15 1/2 x 15 1/8 x 18 in. (39.4 x 38.4 x 45.7 cm), open; 8 3/4 x 15 1/8 x 18 in. (22.2 x 38.4 x 45.7 cm), closed
Photo by Tom Barratt, courtesy Pace Gallery}
Stand Still — On the Art of Lee Ufan

December 2, 2020 10:51 AM

^{Dialogue, 2017-18

Acrylic on canvas

86 x 114 3/4 in. (218.4 x 291.5 cm)

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Photo by Rich Lee, courtesy Pace Gallery}

By Christine Lee, Director of Research, Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné

This is the first in a series of blog posts in which Artifex Press staff members delve deeper into the artworks they are researching, sharing insights and discoveries gleaned during the intensive process of assembling a catalogue raisonné.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has me secluded at home in extended isolation, I have come to notice the little (or perhaps not so little) things in the confines of my small apartment. From the way that sunlight casts shadows on my walls whose shapes slowly shift throughout the day, to the way that a slight breeze flows through my room in a distinct current, they remind me that, even when things seem quiet and still these days, there is a larger universe in motion.

In an essay titled “Stand Still a Moment” (1997), Lee Ufan recalls this poem by Bashō from 1686:

The ancient pond –
A frog jumps in,
The sound of water.

Just as the poet was able to “sense the reverberations of a larger universe in this tiny, momentary event,” Lee writes that his “own work is aimed at creating stimulating moments of this kind in the impassive world of everyday life.”

Below, I have brought together a selection of paintings, sculptures, and a drawing by the artist that evoke such resonance. By juxtaposing the painted and the unpainted parts of the canvas, by limiting the parts that he makes in order to leave room for the parts that he does not make, Lee opens up a space in which to contemplate the relationship between the inner and the outer, the self and the other. Each of these works is charged with a quiet but vibrant energy that activates a transcendent space born out of this dynamic interaction between the internal and external worlds.

Lee Ufan’s installation works in particular invite a phenomenological encounter which is difficult to transmit through still images. Although I have not seen some of these installations in person, I have gotten to know them through my research on the artist’s catalogue raisonné by collecting photographs as well as reading descriptions by others.

I have provided descriptions of these sculptures in situ in order to convey the ways in which certain aspects of the work shift over time. The dimensions are also included to give a sense of a work’s volume and the space it occupies. I invite you not only to see the steel plates or stones or the painted pigments on the canvas but to imagine and feel the invisible and non-identified external forces elicited by what Lee places on the visual field.

^{Relatum - Box Garden at Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C., 2019

Overall: 33 x 287 x 192 in. (83.8 x 729 x 487.7 cm); steel box: 8 5/8 x 287 x 192 in. (21.9 x 729 x 487.7 cm); stone: 31 x 28 x 29 in. (78.7 x 71.1 x 73.7 cm); stone: 32 x 30 x 29 in. (81.3 x 76.2 x 73.7 cm)

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Photo by Cathy Carver, courtesy Pace Gallery}
Stainless steel plates create a rectangular box which is filled with water. Two stones stand in this man-made pond whose reflection of the sky is often rippled and distorted by the wind.

^{With Winds, 1987

Oil on canvas

71 5/8 x 89 3/4 in. (182 x 228 cm)

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Photo courtesy Gallery Hyundai}

^{Relatum (formerly Things and Words) at Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, 1969

Three sheets of paper: 78 3/4 x 78 3/4 in. (200 x 200 cm) each

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Photo courtesy Studio Lee Ufan}
A virtual exhibition may not allow a direct encounter with artworks, but it does provide an opportunity to present works without the bounds of space and time. So I include here a photograph of a transient moment. Lee has placed three sheets of paper on the ground in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. The wind is blowing these sheets of paper off the ground, and the artist can be seen in the image to the right running to catch them should they drift away too far.

^{With Winds, 1990

Glue and mineral pigment on canvas

71 3/8 x 89 3/8 in. (181.3 x 227 cm)

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Photo by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy Pace Gallery}

^{Relatum - The Shadow of the Stars at Château de Versailles, France, 2014

Overall: 47 1/4 x 1574 13/16 x 1771 5/8 in. (120 x 4000 x 4500 cm); thirty-seven steel plates: 47 1/4 x 118 1/8 x 9/16 in. (120 x 300 x 1.5 cm) each; stone: 41 5/16 x 47 1/4 x 43 5/16 in. (105 x 120 x 110 cm); stone: 51 3/16 x 51 3/16 x 49 3/16 in. (130 x 130 x 125 cm); stone: 59 13/16 x 55 1/8 x 59 1/16 in. (152 x 140 x 150 cm); stone: 68 7/8 x 106 5/16 x 63 in. (175 x 270 x 160 cm); stone: 70 1/2 x 86 5/8 x 90 9/16 in. (179 x 220 x 230 cm); stone: 71 5/8 x 72 13/16 x 71 1/4 in. (182 x 185 x 181 cm); stone: 78 3/4 x 70 7/8 x 63 in. (200 x 180 x 160 cm)

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Photo by Fabrice Seixas, courtesy galerie kamel mennour}
Upright steel plates encircle an arena of white limestone, gravel, and marble on which seven boulders sit in a constellation-like arrangement. Around each stone and directly on the pebbly ground, Lee has painted gray shadows which, at certain points during the day, coincide with the stones’ actual shadows.

^{Untitled, 1996

Charcoal on paper

27 15/16 x 24 5/8 in. (71 x 62.5 cm)

© Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Photo by Hwang Jung wook, courtesy Seoul Auction}
Free Access to the Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné through December 2020

October 28, 2020 5:35 PM

^{Averaged Vitruvian Man, 2016. Photo courtesy the artist and Hosfelt Gallery}
Artifex Press is pleased to announce that it will be offering two months of free access to the Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné, edited by Hannah Barton, from November 1st through December 31st. Over 70 new artworks from 2019 and 2020 have recently been added to the catalogue, in addition to updated exhibition histories and bibliographies, providing insight into the latest additions to Hawkinson’s oeuvre. First published in 2015, the Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné contains detailed records for all of the artist’s works from 1986 to the present, with select meaningful student works dating back as far as 1979, encompassing his entire boundary-breaking career thus far.

If you have already registered for free access to our site, your account will automatically grant you access to this publication. If you have not yet registered, you may do so at artifexpress.com.

The Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné will be available for free through the end of 2020, as part of Artifex Press’s ongoing effort to provide access to its catalogues at a time when many libraries and institutions are closed to the public to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Free Access to Lucas Samaras: Boxes through October 2020

September 15, 2020 2:55 PM

Lucas Samaras with one part of Plastic Boxes, 1964. Photo by Robert R. McElroy, courtesy the artist’s studio.

Artifex Press is pleased to announce that it will be offering free access to the Lucas Samaras: Boxes Catalogue Raisonné, edited by Hannah Barton with consulting editor Vanessa Wildenstein, beginning September 21. The catalogue is the definitive exploration of the artist’s iconic, mixed media series, comprising nearly 300 artworks. If you have already registered for free access to our site, your account will automatically grant you access to the publication. If you have not yet registered, you may do so here.

The Lucas Samaras: Boxes Catalogue Raisonné will be available for free through the end of October 2020, as part of Artifex Press’s ongoing effort to provide access to its catalogues at a time when many libraries and institutions are closed to the public to combat the spread of COVID-19.
Free Access to Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné in August 2020

July 29, 2020 9:46 AM

Agnes Martin in New Mexico, late 1940s. Photos courtesy Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe

Artifex Press is excited to announce that it will be offering free access to the Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné, edited by Tiffany Bell, during the month of August. The Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné comprises two volumes: Agnes Martin: Paintings, published in 2017, and Agnes Martin: Works on Paper, published in 2019. If you have already registered for free access to our site, your account will automatically grant you access to these publications. If you have not yet registered, you may do so at artifexpress.com.

The Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné will be available for free through September 20, 2020 as part of Artifex Press’s ongoing effort to provide access to its catalogues at a time when many libraries and institutions are closed to the public to combat the spread of COVID-19. This follows a period of free access to the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné, which ends July 31, 2020.
An Evening of Sol LeWitt Readings (Video)

July 9, 2020 10:38 AM

Last night, Artifex Press and Paula Cooper Gallery hosted a virtual reading of texts by Sol LeWitt, in celebration of the publication of Sol LeWitt Writings and Sol LeWitt Interviews.

The event featured Laurie Anderson, Nicholas Baume, Lucinda Childs, Gary Garrels, and Zoe Leonard. (Unfortunately, Adrian Piper was not able to attend.)

The event streamed live on PCG Studio, and a video can be seen here.

Sol LeWitt Writings and Sol LeWitt Interviews collectively chart how LeWitt's artistic practice evolved over time, but also underscore the consistency of his thinking about his art and his conception of authorship. The texts cover a range of topics, from his teaching and relationship to the art world, to his theories of artmaking and of specific groups of work, most notably his wall drawings. The volumes were edited by Lindsay Aveilhé and Chris Vacchio and have been incorporated into the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné (Artifex Press, 2018).

Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings, which includes the new volumes, is available free for registered users through the end of July 2020, as part of Artifex Press’s effort to provide access to its catalogues during the COVID-19 pandemic. To register, visit www.artifexpress.com.
Announcing Sol LeWitt Complete Writings and Sol LeWitt Interviews

June 12, 2020 10:44 AM

Working drawing, Layout for Sol LeWitt: A Retrospective (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2000). © Estate of Sol LeWitt/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo courtesy Estate of Sol LeWitt

Artifex Press is pleased to announce the publication of Sol LeWitt Complete Writings and Sol LeWitt Interviews. These new volumes have been compiled and edited by Lindsay Aveilhé and Chris Vacchio, and have been incorporated into Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings, the definitive catalogue raisonné of the artist’s most celebrated body of work, which was published by Artifex Press in 2018.

The entirety of the LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné, including the new Writings and Interviews volumes, is currently available for free as part of Artifex Press’s effort to make its catalogues accessible while libraries, museums, universities, and other institutions are closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sol LeWitt Complete Writings comprises 26 texts spanning the artist’s career, including several previously unpublished manuscripts. Many of the early texts relate to LeWitt’s thinking on conceptual art, a term he popularized, including, most notably, his manifestos "Paragraphs on Conceptual Art," from 1967, and "Sentences on Conceptual Art," from 1969. Several writings address the theory and practice of LeWitt’s wall drawings, including the relationship between himself, as artist, and the drafters who install the works. Additional texts are dedicated to the development of one of his conceptual systems, Drawing Series I, II, III, IIII A & B; the artist's book, a medium he championed as a co-founder of Printed Matter; and the square and the cube, two forms he would return to again and again over the five decades of his career.

Sol LeWitt Interviews gathers 16 interviews, or roughly half of all published interviews LeWitt gave during his lifetime. The selection gives voice to a famously press-shy artist, and covers a range of topics, with early writings frequently devoted to LeWitt's teaching and relationship to the art world, while later ones tend to focus on specific bodies of work, such as wall drawings, and his philosophy of conceptual art. As a whole, the interviews chart how LeWitt's artistic practice evolved over time, but also underscore the consistency of his thinking about his art and his conception of authorship.

Both new volumes include extensive multimedia features. Sol LeWitt Complete Writings features slideshows of original manuscript and draft pages for numerous texts. Sol LeWitt Interviews includes original audio of several of LeWitt’s discussions with interviewers.

In addition to the Writings and Interviews volumes, Artifex Press is publishing extensive exhibition histories of LeWitt’s entire career. The new Solo and Group Exhibition Histories are the most detailed ever published about the artist, with listings of approximately 700 solo exhibitions and 2,000 group exhibitions.

FREE ACCESS

The entirety of the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné, including the new Writings and Interviews volumes, will be available for free through the end of July 2020, as part of Artifex Press’s effort to provide access to its catalogues at a time when many libraries and institutions are closed to combat the spread of COVID-19. Artifex Press will continue to provide free access to a rotating selection of catalogues throughout the health crisis.

To access Artifex Press’s free catalogues, users can register at www.artifexpress.com.

Download the press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
LeWitt in Manila: An Interview with Carina Evangelista

March 3, 2020 2:00 PM

This interview of Carina Evangelista, independent curator and Editor of the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné, by Sam L. Marcelo, conducted on the occasion of Special Project: Sol LeWitt at Art Fair Philippines, was originally published by BusinessWorld with the title "‘The Democratic Hand’ and the Primacy of Ideas over Execution" on February 19, 2020. It is reprinted here with permission of the publisher.

SAM L. MARCELO: Could you walk us through the thought process behind bringing Sol LeWitt to this year’s edition of Art Fair Philippines? Why him after Weegee, the street photographer whose work you brought in last year. It’s quite a turnaround from Weegee’s gritty photojournalism to conceptualism.

CARINA EVANGELISTA: Lisa Periquet, Trickie Lopa, and Dindin Araneta actually approached me about bringing LeWitt to Art Fair Philippines right after they saw my inclusion of a LeWitt work in Counterfeit Monochromes, the 10th anniversary exhibition I mounted for MO_Space in December 2017.

Weegee’s iconic photographs provided the context for a public talk to which I invited Raffy Lerma and Ezra Acayan to present their work [in 2018]. The searing images they have captured left some members of the audience at the art fair in tears, providing a barometer for the fact that even at something like an art fair, Filipinos are in fact bewildered by the toll of the drug war rhetoric that transformed policy into practice.

Although programming such as this might come across as radically different from conceptual art (which is the kind of art that is really my cup of tea), what has in fact drawn me to conceptualism is its predisposition for institutional critique and political content. It bears noting that the roots of Conceptualism can be traced not just to the US but also to Latin America, practically birthed by political upheavals there. Conceptual form and thought can thrive on social and political conditions. Although LeWitt was never overtly political, the very inception of the Wall Drawing series was for an exhibition that was clearly political in nature, the Benefit for the Student Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam, an exhibition at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York in 1968.

Asked whether art should have a social or moral purpose, his response was, “No, I think artists should have a social or moral purpose.” [The exhibition thesis I had for Counterfeit Monochromes was in fact premised around the social realities in the Philippine context that underpinned the lexicon of conceptual forms.]

SLM: By accounts, Sol LeWitt is not the kind of artist one would see at an art fair. How did you get permission to mount his work? And how do LeWitt’s wall drawings function in the context of an art fair?

CE: The LeWitt Estate indeed avoids installing his wall drawings in art fairs as a matter of policy. This Special Project took two years of corresponding directly with Sofia LeWitt, Sol’s daughter, who patiently listened to my advocating for such a project at Art Fair Philippines, pointing out the astonishing volume of as many as 40,000 visitors, comprising mostly students.

In a way, Art Fair Philippines provides the annual event to which this many Filipinos are able to consider both the contemporary art that’s out in the market, works by Philippine masters, and some international art. I spoke of how interesting LeWitt’s conceptual approach to ordinary materials and bare walls allows us to consider what walls are, what walls speak, what walls accrue, what walls become.

How such conceptualism works in the context of an art fair specifically here in the Philippines is its proposition about “the democratic hand” — that such art can be made even by hands not necessarily academically trained.

While Philippine appetite for art can tend to hew close to photorealist virtuosity and whereas an extremely robust strand of Philippine contemporary art is social realism (particularly as a record of artistic response to the repression of the Martial Law years during the Marcos regime), it is important to provide a platform for the likewise consistent output of Philippine conceptualists who are not driven by the urge to paint hyperrealist work, to trade in social realist imagery, or to indulge in “pakapalan ng pahid ng oil paint” (who can apply oil paint thicker).

This is not to knock this kind of output that has always fared well in the art market because there IS room for everything. It is to suggest that an understanding of conceptualism could round out the understanding of contemporary art that Art Fair Philippines attempts to cultivate. LeWitt’s conceptualism that started out with among the most basic elements of art and design — the line — proved to be extremely generative in ideas. The examples of his wall drawings posit what incredible range of forms is within the realm of possibility and imagination even within the restrictive or prescriptive parameters of instructions for abstract forms.

Sofia LeWitt was quite patient with all my questions and helped figure out what would work given whatever logistical constraints we might have while ensuring that the project is installed in the spirit of LeWitt’s conceptualism. Anthony Sansotta, the Artistic Director of the Sol LeWitt Estate, and John Hogan, Installations Director and Archivist for Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings at Yale University Art Gallery, were both generous with their time and the “institutional memory” of which they have been custodians from decades of having worked side by side with Sol on hundreds of installations. [When I mentioned to John Hogan that I relish the thought of LeWitt’s commitment to “the democratic hand” gracing the walls in an art fair in a country currently under rule of self-proclaimed “iron fist,” he said that if LeWitt were alive, he would agree.]

SLM: From an art historical perspective, could you describe how groundbreaking LeWitt and his approach to art-making were. As I understand it, the primacy of the idea over authorship/execution when it comes to conceptual art was — and still is, in some quarters — controversial.

CE: LeWitt laid the precepts of conceptualism in his writing such as “Sentences on Conceptual Art” and “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art.” These articulated what artists in the 1960s were discussing and exploring as they tried to break free from the traditional notions of how to make and exhibit art.

With premium given to the idea and to process, art could now be made with anything (including the artists’ own bodies and thus yielding to performance art), made anywhere (any wall in LeWitt’s case; out in the fields or the desert in the case of land/earth art), and made any which way (as enumerated in Richard Serra’s 1967–1968 Verblist that suggested “to shave / to smear / to fold / to tear / to scatter / to hide / to discard / to weave / to erase / to spill / to knot…” are viable ways of making art.

If this remains controversial in some quarters, it is from the distaste for work that does not look like it warranted skill or talent to produce or work that looks happenstance or work that doesn’t seem invested at all in looking beautiful or work that was fabricated by someone else.

A bunch of lines drawn directly on the wall with markers or a tautological sentence written directly on the wall would easily be dismissed with “And you call this art?” And yet, the incredible range of variations that such attitude toward making art has indeed pushed the frontiers of how art can be made, how art can look, and what meanings art could mine or what questions art could trigger.

SLM: LeWitt wrote “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art,” a manifesto of sorts published in 1967. Which of the comments he made there, in your opinion, are the most relevant today?

CE: It would have to be this: “The idea becomes a machine that makes the art.” It is what has made Conceptualism truly generative. And contrary to the notion that conceptual art is dry, that it can really be done with any medium has meant not just more than 1,300 permutations of what a wall drawing can be for LeWitt.

In the Philippines, this spirit was embodied by Shop 6, the loose organization of artists that actively filled the walls of an empty commercial stall in Pasay from 1974 to 1975. Joe Bautista, Ed Castrillo, Roberto Chabet, Joy Dayrit, Danny Dalena, Nap Jamir, Julie Lluch, Red Mansueto, Joe Mendoza, Fernando Modesto, Yola Perez-Johnson, Allan Rivera, and Judy Sibayan were among the artists who flouted the medium-defined disciplines of painting and sculpture at Shop 6 by exhibiting all manner of things, ignited and driven by ideas.

The conceptual output of this group at the time was perceived as an artistic indulgence when the repressive chapter of Martial Law was in fact making the ground fertile for social realist tableaux. But conceptualism allowed the artists a language that defied Imelda Marcos’s “the true, the good, and the beautiful” attempt with her cultural propaganda to perfume and mask the grotesquerie and brutality of the regime.

Shop 6 mounted exhibitions on a WEEKLY basis — perhaps with a sense of urgency, of stealthily evading the radar of censors, or with a feverish energy during a time marked by nightly curfews. The Shop 6 impetus was a direct action that was indirect: a series of shows akin to garage theater, the only injunction of which was artistic experimentation — essentially the willful exercise of freedom of expression. Instead of boycotts or sit-ins: a series of art-ins.

Although critics of Conceptualism might find the method responsible for “deskilling” in contemporary art practice — whereby academic training is no longer needed or the virtuosity of the artist’s hand no longer appreciated, it has truly given license to the “democratic hand” and it continues to place a premium on the weight of the idea.

SLM: To add some personal color — what’s favorite LeWitt work and why?

CE: With me, it’s not a matter of a much-coveted piece from an artist’s oeuvre as it is about the spirit of an artist’s attitude or output. But if I have to pick from the wall drawings that number more than 1,300, I’d pick Wall Drawing #897. It’s a simple piece painted in irregular shapes in glossy white at the top and in flat white at the bottom. Such a simple piece yet so evocative of quality that the work itself, once the paint has dried, is physically not. It makes the wall look like moisture has condensed on its surface or that the wall is somehow weeping.
Artifex Press to Publish Anthony Caro Catalogue Raisonné

October 16, 2019 4:30 PM

Anthony Caro, Month of May, 1963. © Barford Sculptures Ltd. Photo courtesy Barford Sculptures and Gagosian Gallery, London

Artifex Press is pleased to announce that it has been named publisher of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Anthony Caro, which is being produced in partnership with Barford Sculptures Ltd. This digital catalogue raisonné will update and revise the fifteen-volume catalogue of Caro’s sculpture, edited by Dieter Blume (multiple publishers, 1983-2011). In addition, the digital catalogue raisonné will expand upon the Blume publication through the inclusion of sculptures created between 2010 and 2013, the use of color photography, and the complete documentation of Caro works in all mediums, both two- and three-dimensional.

Anthony Caro (1924-2013) was one of twentieth-century’s leading sculptors. He studied at the Royal Academy Schools in London (1947-52) and first came to public attention following a 1963 exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery. In that show, he placed his large, abstract brightly painted sculptures directly on the ground, a radical departure from how sculpture had previously been exhibited.

Best known for his works in steel, Caro also created works in bronze, silver, lead, wood, stoneware, and paper. He had major retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (1975); Trajan Markets, Rome (1992); Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1995); Tate Britain, London (2005); and three museums in Pas-de-Calais, France (2008), to accompany the opening of his Chapel of Light at Bourbourg. Caro was the recipient of many awards during his lifetime, including the Praemium Imperiale for Sculpture in Tokyo in 1992 and the Lifetime Achievement Award for Sculpture in 1997. He was knighted in 1987 and received the Order of Merit in May 2000.

The Anthony Caro catalogue raisonné will be published in chronological volumes beginning with the 1960s. Current and past owners of Caro’s works are encouraged to contact Olivia Bax at olivia.catrais@barfordsculptures.org or Sile Stuttard at sile.catrais@barfordsculptures.org at Barford Sculptures Ltd.

Download the press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Sol LeWitt Catalogue Featured in Art Newspaper

September 4, 2018 3:04 PM

In their latest issue, The Art Newspaper reviews the recently published Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné, asking the question, “Is this the future of catalogues raisonnés?”

The article is available in the September print edition of The Art Newspaper (no. 304) and online here.

The Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné was published in July 2018 after more than a decade of continued research in close collaboration with the Estate of Sol LeWitt. The catalogue is accessible through the Artifex Press platform via subscription.
Artifex Press Publishes the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné

August 13, 2018 11:10 AM

Wall Drawing #260 at San Francisco Museum of Art, 1975. © Estate of Sol LeWitt/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Rudy Bender, courtesy San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Artifex Press is pleased to announce the publication of Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings. This is the seventh digital catalogue raisonné published by Artifex Press, following those for Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Tim Hawkinson, Agnes Martin, Lucas Samaras, and James Siena.

The Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné is the definitive publication of LeWitt’s most celebrated body of work. The catalogue features comprehensive information for LeWitt’s approximately 1,350 wall drawings, comprising approximately 3,500 installations at more than 1,200 venues.

The Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné developed out of a project begun by the artist before his death in 2007. During his lifetime, LeWitt produced three earlier catalogues raisonnés, all edited by Susanna Singer (1984; 1989; and 1992), but he intended to replace these with an updated catalogue raisonné, which he began to outline at the end of his life. After more than a decade of continued research in close collaboration with the Estate of Sol LeWitt, Artifex Press has completed work on this catalogue and has published it in digital form. The catalogue encompasses all details of the previous catalogues raisonnés with critical updates ranging from newly discovered wall drawings to corrected titles, caption information, and installation histories. As this is a digital catalogue, it will continue to be updated with new installations, new photography, and any additional information that is discovered after the initial publication date.

“We are indebted to the diligent and comprehensive effort led by Lindsay Aveilhé, Chris Vacchio, Susanna Singer, Veronica Roberts, Béatrice Gross, Anthony Sansotta, John Hogan, Christine Lee, and David Grosz,” said Sofia LeWitt, director of the Estate of Sol LeWitt. “Their exhaustive scholarship has produced the definitive resource for scholars, galleries, institutions, and collectors.”

Nearly every first installation of each wall drawing is illustrated with an archival photograph and additional images illustrate subsequent installations—approximately 6,000 images in total. Also included are images of the wall drawing diagrams—schematics that indicate how a work is to be installed—and dozens of multimedia features, including rarely-seen installation videos and an audio file of LeWitt delivering installation instructions for the exhibition Art By Telephone at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in 1969.

Detailed notes highlight the evolution of many wall drawings and call out important distinctions from one installation to the next. There are explanatory texts introducing each of LeWitt’s series, from the Drawing Series through Broken Bands of Color. Several essays by LeWitt are reproduced, some featuring reproductions of original manuscripts in the artist’s hand.

Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings was edited by Lindsay Aveilhé, with Director of Research Christopher Vacchio. Critical contributions were made by Research Associate Christine Lee and David Grosz, Artifex Press’s Editor in Chief. The catalogue was completed in close collaboration with the Estate of Sol LeWitt, led by Sofia LeWitt, Anthony Sansotta, Artistic Director, and John Hogan, the Mary Jo and Ted Shen Installation Director and Archivist for Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings, Yale University Art Gallery. Artifex Press would also like to acknowledge the vital contributions of Editor Béatrice Gross, Editor Susanna Singer, and Director of Research Veronica Roberts.

The catalogue is accessible through the Artifex Press platform. Individuals may subscribe or access the catalogue through a subscribing institution.

Download the press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Newly Published Chapter in the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné

August 10, 2018 1:07 PM

Selected Mosaics: “Subway Portraits”

Pozsi/Mosaic, 2017
Hand-glazed ceramic tile, 69 x 56 in. (175.3 x 142.2 cm)
© Chuck Close. Photo by Nafis Azad, courtesy Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts and Design

Artifex Press is pleased to announce the publication of "Subway Portraits," a new chapter in the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné. Featuring 12 large-scale mosaic portraits commissioned by New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts and Design, the mosaics are installed in the Second Avenue-86th Street Subway Station, which opened on January 1, 2017. Chuck Close, Vik Muniz, Jean Shin, and Sarah Sze were the artists selected to produce mosaics for the stations on the Second Avenue subway line that had been long awaited since the approval of its initial proposal in 1929.

Although Close began experimenting with creating portraits in mosaic nearly two decades ago, none had proved satisfactory to the artist until he thoroughly explored the possibilities of the medium for the subway portraits with two fabricators: Magnolia Editions in Oakland, California, and Mosaika Art and Design in Montreal. The portraits are mosaic translations from paintings, prints, and photographs of Close's subjects—artists, friends, family, and self-portraits. Although some of the artists featured might be internationally iconic such as Philip Glass, Lou Reed, and Cindy Sherman, his selection of subjects was meant less to reflect celebrity than to reflect the diversity of the ridership of the trains.

Close has referred to himself as “an inventor of means.” The series of mosaic portraits is virtually a representative sampler not only of the range of people Close has chosen as subjects but also of the variety of methods he has explored or innovated to render the human face. Most of the glass, ceramic, or porcelain tiles were individually custom-glazed and cut by hand. The choice of material and the translation of each image in tile posed a methodological challenge specific to the source image, depending on how Close generated it.

For mosaics based on paintings created with overlaid colors and shapes such as the 2000 painting Emma, tiles were individually custom-glazed in colors as close to the discrete strokes in oil paint on the canvases. The tiles were then individually cut and pieced together by hand to replicate the shapes in the painting. Mosaics based on watercolor prints such as Zhang Huan/Mosaic required adopting Close’s process of overlaying coats of color in glaze. Based on multiples made with felt hand stamps, Cecily/Mosaic and Kara/Mosaic required sourcing thousands of glass chips in different colors that were mechanically tumbled in different batches to keep the colors separate, each batch taking around 12 hours. The tumbled glass chips were then pieced together to approximate the nesting disks of oil paint in the felt hand stamp multiples.

Mosaics based directly on photographs posed the challenge of striking a balance between translating the seamless realism of the photographic image and the tactile quality of mosaic tiles. This was achieved with micromosaics assembled using stained glass chips or hand-glazed ceramic tiles individually cut by hand in minuscule shapes. For example, the fine mesh of tiles creates a shimmering effect and the diagonal orientation of the grid produces dimensionality in Pozsi/Mosaic and Sienna/Mosaic. In his December 19, 2016, review of the subway portraits for The New York Times, Randy Kennedy noted that the slivers of stained glass representing the artist's facial hair in Self-Portrait (Yellow Raincoat)/Mosaic "are alone worth missing a train to inspect at close range."

Self-Portrait (Yellow Raincoat), 2017 (detail)
Stained glass micromosaic, 108 x 88 in. (274.3 x 223.5 cm)
© Chuck Close. Photo by Emily Korn, courtesy Artifex Press

For Alex/Mosaic, which was based on a grisaille reduction block print that also appears to be continuous-tone from afar, some tiles were hand-glazed with texture both to translate the fine detail of sinuous lines, dots, or hatches in the print, and to simulate the metallic feel of the print. These cited methods were all developed and executed by Mosaika Art and Design.

Besides both being portraits of musicians whose creative life stories are inextricable from the fabric of New York City, Lou/Mosaic and Phil/Mosaic were created after eight years of refining an experiment using a UV-cured acrylic printer at Magnolia Editions. Reversing the traditional masking strategy, the tiles were hand-glazed in 19 layers, each corresponding to a value in a spectrum from white to black. For each layer, magenta acrylic ink was applied using the printer over image areas to seal the image, washed to remove the glaze in non-image and unsealed areas, and then fired to burn off the acrylic mask. The layers of unwashed then fired glaze cumulatively built the image in topographic relief. [A time-lapse video of the process can be viewed in the Notes section of Phil/Mosaic.]

Close identified the collaborative relationship with the fabricators as the most exciting aspect of the project with the process of seeing his ideas interpreted by others. Of the mosaics, he noted, “[Commuters] can run their fingers on the wall. The physicality is in many ways what it’s all about.”

Carina Evangelista, Editor of the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné, would like to acknowledge Saskia Siebrand, Kori Smyth, and Osheen Harruthoonyan of Mosaika Art and Design; Donald Farnsworth, Era Farnsworth, and Tallulah Terryll of Magnolia Editions; Lester Burg and Tamar Steinberger of New York State Metropolitan Transportation Authority Arts and Design; Beth Zopf at Chuck Close Studio; and Ariela Alberts, David Grosz, Emily Korn, Ashley Levine, and Sarah Rossow of Artifex Press.
We've Moved!

June 18, 2018 2:54 PM

Artifex Press has moved! Please note our new address:

Artifex Press
260 West 35th Street, 14th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Tiffany Bell Named Editor at Large

January 11, 2018 1:10 PM

Tiffany Bell, editor of the Agnes Martin catalogue raisonné, has been named Editor at Large at Artifex Press.

Bell, who edited Agnes Martin: Paintings (Artifex Press, 2017) and Dan Flavin: The Complete Lights, 1961–1996 (Dia; Yale University Press, 2004), will continue in her role as Editor of the Agnes Martin catalogue raisonné. She is currently working on the second volume of the catalogue raisonné, Agnes Martin: Drawings, while updating the paintings volume with new exhibitions, publications, and changes to provenance.

In her new role, she will also advise on Artifex Press’s other catalogue raisonné projects, sharing her expertise on how to organize catalogue research, consider a budget, and tackle complex cataloguing questions.

“There are very few people who have completed two major catalogues raisonnés, and it is hard to think of two artists who present such diverse cataloguing challenges as Dan Flavin and Agnes Martin,” said David Grosz, President of Artifex Press. “Tiffany is a real pro and a great colleague. We’re very excited about her new role.”

“I am so pleased to have an expanded role at Artifex Press. It has been a great experience working with their fantastic staff to produce Agnes Martin: Paintings and I look forward to helping out on future projects as Artifex continues to publish catalogues raisonnés, such important contributions to art historical research,” said Bell.

Download the press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Artifex Press Publishes the Lucas Samaras: Boxes Catalogue Raisonné

December 20, 2017 11:31 AM

Lucas Samaras, Box #134, 1989. © 2017 Lucas Samaras. Photos courtesy Pace Gallery

Artifex Press is pleased to announce the publication of the Lucas Samaras: Boxes Catalogue Raisonné. This is the sixth catalogue raisonné published by Artifex Press, following those for Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Tim Hawkinson, Agnes Martin, and James Siena.

Lucas Samaras: Boxes is the definitive exploration of the artist’s iconic, mixed media series, a total of 295 artworks begun in the early 1960s. Samaras’s boxes delve into the subject of the self, allowing viewers access into the artist’s mind through personal and found objects or manipulated self-portraits, which are sometimes guarded by pins, razor blades, or broken glass. In addition, many works are distortions of the form of the box itself, with playful multi-colored appendages or constructions made entirely of chicken wire. Also included are related room-sized installations, such as the artist’s celebrated Mirrored Room (1966).

Lucas Samaras: Boxes contains vivid color photography of artworks, with images of both the open and closed states of boxes, and provides an extensive collection of primary source documents such as the artist’s note cards, notebooks, and drawings, plus archival photography from important exhibitions from the 1960s and 1970s. In addition, Artifex Press created a series of videos for the catalogue raisonné displaying the moving components of boxes in the round.

Lucas Samaras: Boxes was edited by Hannah Barton, who previously edited Artifex Press’s Tim Hawkinson catalogue raisonné. Barton is building upon work done by Vanessa Wildenstein, who inaugurated this catalogue in 2004 and has served as Consulting Editor. Access to the catalogue is through subscription.

Download the press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Call for Information: Robert Irwin Catalogue Raisonné

October 23, 2017 6:03 PM

Robert Irwin in his studio, Venice, California, 1962. Art © Robert Irwin/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo © Marvin Silver, courtesy Craig Krull Gallery

A catalogue raisonné of the works by Robert Irwin is being prepared for publication by Artifex Press. Collectors, museums, and galleries who own or have owned works by Robert Irwin, including paintings, objects, and installations, and have not yet been contacted, are invited to be in touch with the editor, Marianne Stockebrand, at:

Artifex Press
109 West 27th Street
8th Floor
New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212-414-1482
Fax: 212-414-1486
Email: IrwinCR@artifexpress.com

All information will be kept strictly confidential upon request.
Call for Information: Carl Andre Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné

October 23, 2017 6:02 PM

Installation view, Carl Andre, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, 1978. © 2017 Carl Andre/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY. Photo courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York

The Carl Andre Catalogue Raisonné project seeks to document and research sculptures by Carl Andre for a catalogue raisonné prepared by Artifex Press in collaboration with the Carl Andre and Melissa L. Kretschmer Foundation.

Collectors, museums, and galleries who own, or have owned, sculptures by Carl Andre are invited to submit details of the works. To share information, please download a PDF registration form at http://www.carlandre.net or contact the Foundation at catalogue@camkfoundation.org.

Registration forms may also be mailed to:

Carl Andre and Melissa L. Kretschmer Foundation
10-02 37th Avenue
Long Island City, NY 11101
Our Patent Has Expanded

July 18, 2017 3:00 PM

Artifex Press is proud to have a patented software, a mark of the innovative nature of our product. We received our first patent in 2014 and are pleased that the United States Patent Office has recognized further uniquely designed features in an expanded patent that issued on July 11, 2017 (USP 9,703,857). To read full details, click here.
Artifex Press Partners with Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation to Publish Yves Tanguy Catalogue Raisonné

June 7, 2017 10:44 AM

Yves Tanguy, Mama, Papa Is Wounded!, 1927. © 2017 Estate of Yves Tanguy / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY

Artifex Press is pleased to announce that it has been named publisher of the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the paintings, gouaches, and objects by Yves Tanguy, sponsored by the Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation.

Self-taught as a visual artist, Yves Tanguy joined the newly formed surrealist revolution under the leadership of André Breton in 1926. Tanguy quickly developed a distinctive style envisioning vast, desolate, and otherworldly landscapes that became a touchstone for his fellow surrealists and for the rapidly expanding field of modern science fiction. When he immigrated to the United States in 1939 with the American painter Kay Sage, he re-united with his childhood friend, Pierre Matisse, now a leading New York art dealer. After Sage and Tanguy married, they settled in Connecticut, not far from their old friend, Alexander Calder, their works an inspiration to one another. In response to the war in Europe, Tanguy’s works of the 1940s and 1950s became ever more hallucinatory and disturbing.

After his early death in 1955, his widow devoted herself to the compilation of a complete catalogue of his paintings, gouaches, and objects. The catalogue was published by the Pierre Matisse Gallery shortly after Sage’s death. Owners of works not included in the 1963 catalogue immediately began to contact Pierre Matisse, who dedicated himself to publishing a supplement, but was unable to complete the project during his lifetime. His widow, Tana Matisse, established the Yves Tanguy Committee in 1999, inviting four specialists to fulfill his wish. With access to the Pierre Matisse Gallery archives and Kay Sage’s papers, the Committee has been able to review his oeuvre in detail to prepare a revised complete catalogue of his paintings, gouaches, and objects. Charles Stuckey, Head of Research, says, “Documenting Tanguy’s work completely for the first time, this publication will be an invaluable addition to the literature on surrealism and post-war American art.”

The final meeting of the Yves Tanguy Committee will take place September 25-28, 2017 at The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation offices in New York. Current and past owners of Tanguy’s works are encouraged to contact Charles Stuckey, Head of Research, at yvestanguycatalogue@artifexpress.com.

The results of this research will be published as a digital catalogue raisonné by Artifex Press, with an anticipated publication date of 2018.

Download the press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Artifex Press Digital Catalogues Raisonnés Available Through Subscription

April 19, 2017 11:02 AM

Artifex Press is pleased to announce the launch of its subscription service geared toward museums, academic institutions, public libraries, auction houses, galleries, and interested individuals.

Initial subscribing institutions include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Frick Collection, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Museum of Modern Art, the Saint Louis Art Museum, Princeton University, Yale University, Christie’s, and Sotheby’s. A full list of subscribing institutions will be updated regularly and can be viewed here.

To date, Artifex Press has published five catalogues raisonnés: Chuck Close, Paintings, 1967-present, published in 2012; Jim Dine: Sculpture, 1983-present, published in 2013; Tim Hawkinson, published in 2015; and Agnes Martin: Paintings and James Siena, both published in February 2017. Later this year, Artifex Press will publish two additional titles: Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings and Lucas Samaras: Boxes.

Our annual All Catalogues subscription package entitles subscribers to all Artifex Press catalogues raisonnés, updates to those catalogues, and any new catalogues published within the subscription period. Subscriptions come with the promise of new publications each year and the ongoing release of new technology.

Single Catalogue subscriptions are also available for individuals whose interest is limited to a single artist.

For more information about our subscription service, please contact us at info@artifexpress.com.

Download the press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Artifex Press Announces Editorial Team for Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné

April 19, 2017 10:19 AM

Lee Ufan, Dialogue, 2008. © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris.
Photo by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy Pace Gallery

David Grosz, President and Editor in Chief of Artifex Press, has been named Editorial Director of the Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné. Christine Shang-Oak Lee, who has been assisting Artifex Press’s forthcoming Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné, will be the Director of Research. The Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné will establish the definitive list of works by the artist in various mediums, including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper.

For nearly five decades, Lee Ufan (b. 1936, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea) has traveled between South Korea, Japan, Europe, and the United States, and created an internationally recognized body of work that draws from all of these influences. Lee first came to prominence in Japan in the late 1960s as the key theoretician of the Mono-ha (“School of Things”) group, who criticized modernism for viewing the world through abstracted representations. In his sculptural works, titled Relatum, Lee juxtaposes natural and industrial materials, usually stone and steel, and encourages a phenomenological encounter between the viewer, these objects, and the surrounding space. Beginning in the 1970s, Lee developed his iconic From Point and From Line series of paintings, whose repetitive marks across the canvas record the passage of time. Lee moves away from this systematic approach in the 1980s with his paintings series titled From Winds and With Winds, whose multi-directional, scattered brushmarks show the artist freeing himself to an undefinable, exterior force. In his paintings series titled Correspondance (1991-2006) and Dialogue (2006 – ), Lee uses a wide-tipped, flat brush to apply broad rectangular strokes on a large white canvas. The painted and unpainted areas suggest the metaphysical relationship between being and nothingness, evoking a sense of infinity. Most recently, Lee collaborated with Manufacture de Sèvres to produce ceramic works that continue to address philosophical concerns regarding materiality, time, and space.

Lee Ufan has been the subject of more than one hundred solo exhibitions, including a career retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 2011, and a major presentation of site-specific works at the Château de Versailles, France, in 2014. Works by Lee are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; the National Museums of Modern Art in Tokyo and Kyoto; and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, among other public institutions. The Lee Ufan Museum, designed by Tadao Ando, opened on the island of Naoshima, Japan, in 2010. Lee was a professor of art at Tama University in Tokyo from 1973 to 2007, and has authored numerous critical texts throughout his career. He lives and works in Kamakura, Japan, and Paris.

Further details about the Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné are forthcoming.

Download the press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Artifex Press Publishes the Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné

February 28, 2017 11:34 AM

Left: Agnes Martin, The Islands, 1961. © 2017 Agnes Martin/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo courtesy Pace Gallery
Right: Agnes Martin, Untitled #5, 1998. © 2017 Agnes Martin/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Ellen Page Wilson, courtesy Pace Gallery

Artifex Press is pleased to announce the publication of the first volume of the Agnes Martin catalogue raisonné, Agnes Martin: Paintings, edited by Tiffany Bell. This publication is the product of more than seven years of research into the artist’s work and represents the most definitive and comprehensive study of Martin’s oeuvre to date. It joins a growing roster of catalogues raisonnés published by Artifex Press, including those for Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Tim Hawkinson, and James Siena.

Agnes Martin (1912-2004) is known for quietly serene paintings that use the subtleties of line, surface, color, and proportion in geometric compositions of grids and stripes. Her focused body of work, which evolved over years of exploration of form and content, has informed and influenced several generations of artists, scholars, and art enthusiasts. Commencing with student paintings from the late 1940s, the Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné provides complete documentation of more than 630 paintings, constructions (mixed media collages and assemblages), and the film Gabriel. Many of the works are documented in this catalogue for the first time. The catalogue contains approximately 1500 high-resolution photographs, and a zoom feature allows for extremely detailed views of the artworks. Comprehensive exhibition and literature histories are available for each artwork record, in addition to indexes of all solo and group exhibitions, and six bibliographies. Provenance information is detailed on each artwork page.

The Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné includes exclusive content such as previously unpublished manuscripts and pictures of the artist, in addition to many newly commissioned photographs of artworks. An Audio, Video, and Film Archive compiles multimedia pertaining to Martin’s art and also includes content exclusive to the catalogue. The Artist’s Writings and Interviews bibliography directs readers to published records of Martin discussing her art and life in her own words. An illustrated chronology provides a thoroughly researched and in-depth chronicle of the artist’s life.

A second volume of the Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné, which will include unique works on paper, is forthcoming. Current and past owners are encouraged to contact Tiffany Bell at MartinCR@artifexpress.com.

Download the press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Artifex Press Publishes the James Siena Catalogue Raisonné

February 28, 2017 11:34 AM

Multiple views of the James Siena catalogue raisonné

Artifex Press is pleased to announce the publication of the James Siena Catalogue Raisonné. This online catalogue raisonné is the definitive record of all works created by the artist dating back to 1989, the year that he began to paint exclusively on metal, a decision that has defined his painting practice ever since. Also included is an extensive selection of early works dating from 1977 to 1988. The catalogue raisonné includes the artist’s paintings, sculptures, and gouache works. A second volume, featuring his drawings, will follow. This is one of five catalogues raisonnés published by Artifex Press, including Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Tim Hawkinson, and Agnes Martin.

James Siena (b. 1957, Oceanside, California) is a New York-based artist best known for his intensely concentrated, vibrantly-colored geometric abstractions created using a set of self-imposed, predetermined rules, or “visual algorithms.” Siena is actively creating new work, and the catalogue raisonné will expand as his oeuvre grows. To date, the catalogue contains records of more than 430 artworks, 400 publications, and 275 exhibitions. There are approximately 900 high-resolution images, hundreds of which have never been published before, and recently unearthed audio and video content can be found in a multimedia archive. Siena’s voice is found throughout the catalogue in excerpts of interviews and, notably, in comments that he has written exclusively for this publication.

The James Siena catalogue raisonné was edited by Ariela Alberts, who has been actively researching Siena’s body of work and collaborating directly with the artist and his studio on this project since 2014. Access to the catalogue is through subscription.

Current and past owners are encouraged to contact Ariela Alberts at aalberts@artifexpress.com.

Download the press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Announcing the Artifex Press Subscription Service

January 24, 2017 5:50 PM

In February 2017, Artifex Press will offer its digital catalogues raisonnés through a subscription service.

We will offer two types of subscriptions: All Catalogues subscriptions and Single Catalogue subscriptions.

All Catalogues subscriptions are for academic, museum, and public libraries; art galleries, auction houses, and art professionals; and interested individuals. These annual subscriptions entitle you to all existing Artifex Press catalogues raisonnés, updates to those catalogues, and any new catalogues published during your subscription period.

For institutions, access is through an IP block, providing you the ability to have an unlimited number of users. Our subscription rate is based on the size and type of your institution, and follows the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Learning.

Single Catalogue subscriptions are for those whose interest is limited to a specific artist. If you are interested in two or more catalogues, we encourage you to consider an All Catalogues subscription.

Please contact us for rates and/or a free demonstration at info@artifexpress.com.

More information about our subscriptions will be added to the website shortly.
Announcing the Artifex Press Advisory Board

November 29, 2016 3:21 PM

We are honored to introduce the Artifex Press Advisory Board, comprised of six accomplished art professionals from such institutions as Columbia University, the Frick Collection, Hunter College, Pace Gallery, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and Princeton University.

The members are William C. Agee, Curator and Evelyn Kranes Kossak Professor Emeritus of Art History, Hunter College; Sandra Ludig Brooke, Director, Marquand Library of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University; Carole Ann Fabian, Director, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University; Deborah Kempe, Chief, Collections Management and Access, Frick Art Reference Library; Jon Mason, Director, Research and Archives, Pace Gallery; and Samuel Sachs, President, Pollock-Krasner Foundation.

Our advisory board offers advice on issues ranging from digital preservation strategies to new cataloguing projects to the launch of our subscription service. We are grateful for their ideas, contributions, and commitment to helping us make Artifex Press the best resource it can be.

Please find extended biographies of the members of our advisory board here.
After the Event: Symposium: The Catalogue Raisonné in the 21st Century

November 28, 2016 4:20 PM

It was our pleasure to co-host the first ever symposium on catalogues raisonnés in the United Kingdom with Lund Humphries on Friday, November 18, at London's Chelsea College of Arts.

For those who were not able to attend, we're pleased to share this video from the event with you:
Symposium: The Catalogue Raisonné in the 21st Century

September 23, 2016 2:03 PM

Publishers Lund Humphries and Artifex Press are co-hosting a one-day international symposium on the importance, challenges, and practicalities of compiling a catalogue raisonné, including the new publishing options afforded by digital technology. The symposium, "The Catalogue Raisonné in the 21st Century," will be held on Friday, November 18, 2016, at London's Chelsea College of Arts.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS:

• Dr. David Anfam, Author, Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas, Yale University Press, 1998

• Lindsay Aveilhé, Editor, Sol LeWitt: Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné

• Dr. Lee Beard, Editor, Ben Nicholson: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings & Carved Reliefs

• Susan Cooke, Director of Programming, the U.S. Catalogue Raisonné Scholars Association; and Associate Director of David Smith Sculptures: A Catalogue Raisonné

• Dr. Dietmar Elger, Director of the Gerhard Richter Archive at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden; and editor of the Gerhard Richter Catalogue Raisonné

• Dr. Jo Melvin, Director Barry Flanagan Estate; and Reader in Fine Art Theory, Archives and Special Collections at Chelsea College of Arts

• James Rawlin, Independent advisor and curator, formerly Head of Modern and Post-war British Art at Sotheby's

• Karen Sanig, Head of Art Law, Mishcon de Reya

• Mark Waugh, Head of Research and Innovation, Design and Artists Copyright Society (DACS)

• Sarah Whitfield, Editor, William Scott: Catalogue Raisonné of Oil Paintings, Thames & Hudson, 2013

The day will be chaired by art historian Dr. Nicholas Tromans, curator of Watts Gallery.

Register for the symposium here.
Selected Press for Robert Irwin's Permanent Installation at Chinati Foundation

September 23, 2016 12:25 PM

This July, a new permanent large-scale installation by Robert Irwin opened to the public at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas. We congratulate the artist on this major achievement.

The Robert Irwin catalogue raisonné is forthcoming from Artifex Press and will be edited by Marianne Stockebrand.

Below is a sampling of articles related to the new installation.

Robert Irwin, untitled (dawn to dusk), installation interior, 2016. © 2016 Robert Irwin/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo © 2016 Philipp Scholz Rittermann, courtesy of the Chinati Foundation

The Art Newspaper:

"Robert Irwin Plays with Light and Dark in Marfa" by Dan Duray, July 12, 2016.

Artforum:

"Robert Irwin" by Janelle Zara, July 19, 2016.

Texas Monthly:

"Miracle in the Desert" by Michael Agresta, July 2016.

W Magazine:

"Robert Irwin's Grand Stand in Marfa" by Ally Betker, July 21, 2016.

89.3 KPCC's The Frame:

"Artist Robert Irwin Checks out the Light in West Texas" by Tom Michael, July 18, 2016.

The Creators Project:

"Inside Robert Irwin’s Dazzling New Monument to Light and Space" by Naila Perez-Stringari, August 21, 2016.

Architect's Newspaper:

"Artist Robert Irwin's Largest Work Ever, 16 Years in the Making, Is on Display in Marfa, Texas" by Jason Sayer, August 30, 2016.
Announcing the Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné

May 27, 2016 3:02 PM

Lee Ufan, From Line, 1982. © 2016 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris. Photo by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy Pace Gallery

Artifex Press is pleased to announce that it will partner with internationally celebrated Korean artist Lee Ufan to publish the Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné. The publication will establish the definitive inventory of works by the artist in various mediums, including paintings, sculptures, and works on paper.

“The primary purpose of creating a catalogue raisonné is to organize and evaluate my work,” said Lee Ufan. “I trust that I will be able to make widely known the path that I have walked and my ideas.”

For nearly five decades, Lee Ufan (b. 1936, Gyeongsangnam-do, Korea) has traveled between South Korea, Japan, Europe, and the United States, and created an internationally recognized body of work that draws from all of these influences. Lee first came to prominence in Japan in the late 1960s as the key theoretician of the Mono-ha (“School of Things”) group, who criticized modernism for viewing the world through abstracted representations. In his sculptural works, titled Relatum, Lee juxtaposes natural and industrial materials, usually stone and steel, and encourages a phenomenological encounter between the viewer, these objects, and the surrounding space. Beginning in the 1970s, Lee developed his iconic From Point and From Line series of paintings, whose repetitive marks across the canvas record the passage of time. In his recent paintings series titled Correspondance (1991-2006) and Dialogue (2006 – ), Lee uses a wide-tipped, flat brush to apply broad rectangular strokes on a large white canvas. The painted and unpainted areas suggest the metaphysical relationship between being and nothingness, evoking a sense of infinity.

“Lee Ufan has a unique sensibility that is immediately apparent, but the full story of his creative life has yet to be told,” said David Grosz, President of Artifex Press. “Mr. Lee's works have been exhibited and collected throughout the world, and it is only with a catalogue raisonné that we can begin to understand the full scope of his achievement. It's a great honor that he has entrusted us to help him realize this career-defining publication.”

Lee Ufan has been the subject of more than one hundred solo exhibitions, including a career retrospective at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, in 2011, and a major presentation of site-specific works at the Château de Versailles, France, in 2014. Works by Lee are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; the National Museums of Modern Art in Tokyo and Kyoto; and the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, among other public institutions. The Lee Ufan Museum, designed by Tadao Ando, opened on the island of Naoshima, Japan, in 2010. Lee was a professor of art at Tama University in Tokyo from 1973 to 2007, and has authored numerous critical texts throughout his career. He lives and works in Kamakura, Japan, and Paris.

Further details about the Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné are forthcoming.

Download the full press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Artifex Press to Collaborate on Forthcoming Frank Stella Catalogue

November 2, 2015 12:24 PM

© 2015 Frank Stella / Artist's Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bill Orcutt

Artifex Press is pleased to announce a collaboration with Frank Stella, whose retrospective is currently on view at the redesigned Whitney Museum in New York. We will be announcing further details about this forthcoming catalogue in the new year. Current and past owners of Frank Stella's paintings are encouraged to contact editor Rebecca Ann Siegel at rebecca@frankstella.us.

Visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Artifex Press to Publish Lucas Samaras Catalogue Raisonné

November 2, 2015 12:23 PM

Lucas Samaras, Box #70, 1986. © Lucas Samaras. Photos by Ellen Labenski, courtesy Pace Gallery

Artifex Press is pleased to announce that it will publish a catalogue raisonné of Lucas Samaras Boxes, a series of mixed media works that explore the boundary between outer appearance and inner psyche. The catalogue is being compiled by Hannah Barton, Research Associate, Artifex Press. Barton is building upon work done by Vanessa Wildenstein, who inaugurated this catalogue in 2004 and is serving as Consulting Editor.

Samaras began creating boxes in the early 1960s. In the catalogue for his 1972-73 show at the Whitney Museum of American Art, he wrote, “We live in boxes, see and eat with boxes, travel in boxes, and even our days and nights are boxes… I found myself making boxes. And I thought that box was as important a form as the rest of the art forms or categories. The professional scribblers were not willing to consider it as mainstream art. I stubbornly persisted in waiting for new verbal criteria to be formulated.” Samaras’s boxes often delve into the subject of the self, allowing viewers access into the mind of the artist in the form of personal and found objects or manipulated self-portraits, which are often guarded by pins, razor blades, or broken glass. In addition, many of these works are distortions of the form of the box itself, with playful multi-colored appendages or constructions made entirely of chicken wire.

Samaras has been the subject of more than one hundred solo exhibitions and seven major career retrospectives. He works in a variety of mediums, from photography to painting to collage, and frequently manipulates, distorts, and appropriates his own image to create complex reflections on identity. As exemplified in the boxes, his work emphasizes the duality of interior and exterior expression.

Current and past owners are encouraged to contact Editor Hannah Barton at hbarton@artifexpress.com.

Download the full press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Artifex Press to Publish Niki de Saint Phalle Catalogue Raisonné

October 29, 2015 12:02 PM

Niki de Saint Phalle with Tea Party, 1971. © Niki Charitable Art Foundation, All rights reserved. Photo: © Robert Doisneau/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

Artifex Press is pleased to announce that it will publish the second volume of the Niki de Saint Phalle catalogue raisonné, created in partnership with the Niki Charitable Art Foundation, which has maintained the artist’s archive since her death in 2002. The catalogue will establish the definitive inventory of Saint Phalle’s women sculptures, focusing on Nanas, the artist’s large-scale and brightly colored sculptures of women, a series introduced in 1965 and that continued throughout her career. The catalogue raisonné will be compiled under the supervision of Jana Shenefield, Director of the Archives, Niki Charitable Art Foundation.

This will be the second catalogue raisonné of the the artist’s work, following Niki de Saint Phalle : Catalogue Raisonné 1949-2000 : Paintings, Tirs, Assemblages, Reliefs, published by Editions Acatos in 2001.

A retrospective of Saint Phalle’s work opened at the National Art Center, Tokyo, on September 18, and runs through December 14, 2015. This is the third and final venue for this traveling retrospective, after stops at the Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Grand Palais, Paris, from September 17, 2014 to February 2, 2015; and at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, from February 27–June 7, 2015.

Current and past owners of Saint Phalle works are encouraged to contact the Niki Charitable Art Foundation at nanacatalogue@gmail.com and to register their works here.

Download the full press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Artifex Press to Partner with John Hoyland Estate on Paintings Catalogue Raisonné

October 8, 2015 11:23 AM

John Hoyland, Scando 2.10.80, 1980. © The John Hoyland Estate. Photo by Prudence Cuming Associates

Artifex Press is pleased to announce that it will partner with the Estate of John Hoyland on a catalogue raisonné of the artist’s paintings. One of Britain’s leading abstract artists, Hoyland (1934-2011) has been the subject of nearly 100 solo exhibitions in the UK and internationally. He made a definitive break with figurative painting while at the Royal Academy Schools in the late 1950s, becoming a vocal proponent of non-figurative imagery, which possessed, he once wrote, “the potential for the most advanced depth of feeling and meaning.” Hoyland disliked the term “abstract,” which he said, “smacks always of geometry to me, of rational thought. There's no geometry, there's no rectangles in nature... There's only the circle, the one really powerful form in nature I keep getting drawn back to.” He worked in loose series, treating each painting as independent—communicating a vivid, sensory experience, accomplished through his expert use of color and scale.

This fall, fellow British artist Damien Hirst will inaugurate his new gallery, Newport Street Gallery in London, with a show entitled John Hoyland: Power Stations (Paintings 1964–1982). The exhibition, which opens today, October 8, 2015, features Hoyland works drawn entirely from Hirst’s personal collection. Hirst has called Hoyland “by far the greatest British abstract painter.”

Current and past owners of John Hoyland works are encouraged to contact catrais@johnhoyland.com.

Download the full press release here, and visit our press page for other Artifex Press news.
Call for Information: James Siena Catalogue Raisonné

August 10, 2015 3:38 PM

Hercules (for Goltzius), 2006. © 2015 James Siena. Photo courtesy Pace Gallery

The James Siena Catalogue Raisonné is now requesting provenance information from collectors of the artist's work. We kindly ask that owners of these works fill out a registration form (PDF). Please return it to Artifex Press, 109 W. 27th St, 8B, New York, NY 10001, submit it online here, or email it to Ariela Alberts, at aalberts@artifexpress.com, who may also be contacted with any inquiries.

All information will be kept strictly confidential upon request.
Catalogue Updates: Jim Dine and Tim Hawkinson

August 10, 2015 3:37 PM

JIM DINE SCULPTURE CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ

Man Wears All Black, 2013, Painted wood, 79 x 49 x 26 in. (200.7 x 124.5 x 66 cm), Catalogue #2013.05

The Jim Dine Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné, published in early 2013, now includes all new works by the artist from 2013 to the present. The new work comprises the artist's classic Pinocchio and Venus motifs, as well as a new series of work using blown glass. Also included is new information about previously published works, including the fabrication of new casts. All artworks with newly added or updated information are published in a chapter titled "2015 Update." (Subscription required to access link. Become a subscriber here.)

TIM HAWKINSON CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ

Möbius Ship, 2006, Wood, plastic, Plexiglas, rope, staples, string, twist ties, and glue, 104 x 122 x 51 in. (264.2 x 309.9 x 129.5 cm), Catalogue #2006.01

The Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné was published in January 2015 with complete artworks, exhibition history, and literature history. We have now added provenance for approximately 125 artworks. Provenance research is ongoing, and collectors are encouraged to contact the editor, Hannah Barton, at hbarton@artifexpress.com.

Photo credits: © 2015 Jim Dine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Melissa Christy, courtesy Walla Walla Foundry; © 2015 Tim Hawkinson. Photo by Steve Oliver, courtesy Pace Gallery
Agnes Martin Retrospective at Tate Modern: Selected Press

August 5, 2015 3:39 PM

Agnes Martin, the retrospective that opened at the Tate Modern on June 3, and will travel to Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, has been drawing rave reviews.

Below is a sampling of articles related to the show, which was co-curated by Tiffany Bell, Editor of the forthcoming Agnes Martin catalogue raisonné, and Frances Morris, Head of Collections, International Art at Tate Modern.

Artforum:

"The Rest Is Silence: The Art of Agnes Martin," Summer 2015.
Ten artists and scholars revisit Martin’s abstraction: Anne M. Wagner, Glenn Ligon, Molly Warnock, Matt Saunders, Prudence Peiffer, Jo Baer, Christina Rosenberger, Robert Indiana, Catherine de Zegher, and Dorothea Rockburne.

Economist:

"Agnes Martin at Tate Modern: Sublime Simplicity" by A.C., June 3, 2015.

Guardian:

"Agnes Martin: The Artist Mystic Who Disappeared into the Desert" by Olivia Laing, May 22, 2015.

"Off the Grid: The Quiet, Controlled Paintings of Agnes Martin" by Adrian Searle, June 1, 2015.

New York Times:

"On the Grid: Two New Books about Agnes Martin" by Patricia Albers, June 25, 2015.

Telegraph:

"Agnes Martin, Tate Modern, Review: 'Immaculate'" by Alastair Sooke, June 1, 2015.
Art Libraries Journal Features Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné

August 5, 2015 3:20 PM

"A catalogue raisonné is not just a compendium of dry details but can in fact tell stories," writes Carina Evangelista, Editor of the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné, in a recent article published in Art Libraries Journal (vol. 40, no. 2).

The article, titled "The Digital Catalogue Raisonné: When Form Is Function," was part of a special issue dedicated to catalogues raisonnés, collection catalogues, and the future of artwork documentation, which can be purchased at Art Libraries Journal's website.

The article is available courtesy Art Libraries Journal, published by ARLIS/UK and Ireland.
Tiffany Bell Co-Curates Agnes Martin Retrospective and Contributes to Exhibition Catalogue

June 2, 2015 3:36 PM

We congratulate Tiffany Bell, Editor of the forthcoming Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné, on co-curating Agnes Martin, a large-scale retrospective exhibition, with Frances Morris, Head of Collections, International Art at Tate Modern, with assistance from Dr. Lena Fritsch, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern.

Bell has also co-authored the exhibition catalogue. The British and American covers are reproduced below.

Left: Tate Publishers Exhibition Catalogue; Right: Distributed Art Publishers Exhibition Catalogue

The retrospective includes paintings, drawings, watercolors, and constructions, and spans Martin's entire career—her early, experimental and biomorphic works, her penciled grid paintings, both gray and colored stripe paintings, and her final works, which reintroduce bold forms. The exhibition is on view at the Tate Modern from June 3 to October 11, 2015.

After the Tate, the show will travel to the Kunstsammlung NRW, Düsseldorf, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Agnes Martin, Friendship, 1963. © 2015 Agnes Martin /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. © 2012. Digital Image, The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence.
Announcing the Robert Irwin Catalogue Raisonné

May 27, 2015 12:29 PM

Robert Irwin, Scrim veil—Black rectangle—Natural light, 1977. Installation view, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Cloth, metal, and wood. 144 × 1368 × 49 inches. © 2015 Robert Irwin / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo © Philipp Scholz Rittermann

Artifex Press is pleased to announce that it will publish the Robert Irwin Catalogue Raisonné, and that Marianne Stockebrand has been named Editor of the project.

Stockebrand, former Director of the Chinati Foundation, Marfa, Texas, and organizer of an Irwin retrospective during her time as Director of Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany, will edit the catalogue raisonné of Robert Irwin’s complete works, spanning six decades, beginning in the 1950s and continuing today.

Irwin began his career as a painter, but gave up painting at the end of the 1960s, when he closed his studio and decided to work in given architectural, or natural, environments and develop work in response to them. Beginning in 1970, Irwin worked in, and with, entire rooms or spatial settings, both interior and exterior, intervening in these spaces in order to enhance or alter certain features. Irwin exemplified his approach in numerous museum and gallery exhibitions, many of which were temporary and have therefore been dismantled. He also received commissions for urban projects of considerable scope, including the Arts Enrichment Master Plan for Miami International Airport, the outdoor sculpture Portal Park Slice in the John W. Carpenter Park, Dallas, and the Central Gardens for the Getty Center in Los Angeles. In addition to the paintings from the ‘60s and the site-specific projects dating back to 1970, Irwin has since 2008 created a series of pieces made with fluorescent lamps.

Works by Robert Irwin are in the collections of, among others, The Museum of Modern Art, New York; The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Dia Art Foundation, New York; The Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; and The Indianapolis Museum of Art. He also has the distinction of being the first artist to receive the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur “Genius” Award, which he won in 1984.

The Robert Irwin Catalogue Raisonné will feature a comprehensive inventory of paintings, sculptures, and installations by the artist with complete artwork information, provenance, installation details, exhibition and publication histories, plus high resolution images and additional multimedia. The publication will be a sortable, searchable, web-based catalogue published by Artifex Press using its patented software platform.

Current and past owners of Robert Irwin works are encouraged to contact Stockebrand at IrwinCR@artifexpress.com.

About the Editor

Marianne Stockebrand received her Ph.D. in Art History from Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, in 1979. She organized a retrospective of Robert Irwin’s work at the Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany, where she served as Director from 1989 to 1994. Earlier positions include serving as Director of Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany, from 1985 to 1989; and as Curator of Krefelder Kunstmuseen, Krefeld, Germany, from 1979 to 1985. From 1994 to 2010, she was Director of the Chinati Foundation, during which time the foundation’s collection expanded to include an installation of poems by Carl Andre (1995); an installation in fluorescent light for six buildings by Dan Flavin (2000); and the John Wesley Gallery (2004). Stockebrand continues her scholarly work and lectures at museums internationally.

Download this press release as a PDF.
After the Event: Tim Hawkinson at the New York Public Library

March 17, 2015 6:13 PM

Thank you to all who joined us for the launch of Tim Hawkinson's catalogue raisonné on March 10, 2015! For those who could not attend, or would like to access a recording of the event, please listen here:

Pictured below are Tim Hawkinson, Peggy Fogelman, Acting Director of the Morgan Library, and Hannah Barton, Editor of Tim Hawkinson's Catalogue Raisonné, who participated in a lively and engaging discussion of Tim Hawkinson's catalogue and work.
Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné Just Published

January 16, 2015 5:45 PM

Artifex Press is pleased to announce the publication of Tim Hawkinson's Catalogue Raisonné. This online catalogue raisonné contains detailed records for all of the artist’s works from 1986 to the present, with select meaningful student works dating back as far as 1979, encompassing his entire boundary-breaking career thus far. This is the third publication from Artifex Press, following catalogues raisonnés for Chuck Close and Jim Dine.

The Tim Hawkinson catalogue raisonné was released online on January 15, 2015. It will be celebrated with a public launch on March 10, 2015, at 6PM, at the New York Public Library. Hawkinson will participate in a discussion about the creation of his digital catalogue raisonné, on which he has been an active collaborator, along with Editor Hannah Barton and President David Grosz, both of Artifex Press. The event is free and open to the public.

The Tim Hawkinson catalogue raisonné contains extensive records for more than 520 works, approximately 1500 high-resolution images—including detail shots, multiple views of three-dimensional works, and installation images—and a video archive showing kinetic works in motion. Complete exhibition and literature histories are available for each artwork record, and indexes of publications and exhibitions are hyperlinked to illustrated checklists of major solo exhibitions and important critical texts. Hawkinson’s presence is seen throughout the catalogue, including in his artist's descriptions of key artworks.

The Tim Hawkinson catalogue raisonné is the latest example of Artifex Press’s “living catalogues raisonnés,” our new take on this essential, authoritative artist catalogue, which allows us to document in real time the most up-to-date incarnation of an artist’s complete body of work. Hawkinson’s ongoing participation in the publication’s future development will ensure the catalogue grows as his œuvre expands. The catalogue will be further extended with our ongoing provenance research.

Access to the catalogue is subscription-based, though for a limited time we are offering free access to this catalogue, as well as to Artifex Press’s previously published catalogues raisonnés for Chuck Close and Jim Dine. Forthcoming Artifex Press catalogues include Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, and several others.

If you have any information about the ownership of Hawkinson artworks, please contact the editor, Hannah Barton, at hbarton@artifexpress.com.

Download the full press release here.
Tiffany Bell Is Co-Curator of the Agnes Martin Retrospective at Tate Modern

September 30, 2014 3:47 PM

The Tate Modern has announced plans for a large-scale retrospective exhibition on the works of Agnes Martin. The show, which opens in June 2015, will be the first retrospective of the artist's work since her death in 2004.

Agnes Martin, Happy Holiday, 1999. © 2014 Agnes Martin /Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by G.R. Christmas, courtesy Pace Gallery
The retrospective will span Martin's entire career, including paintings, drawings, and watercolors, beginning with early, experimental works, encompassing her penciled grid paintings, both gray and colored stripe paintings, and concluding with her final works, which reintroduce bold forms.

After the Tate, the show will travel to the Kunstsammlung NRW in Düsseldorf, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York.

The exhibition will be co-curated by Frances Morris, Head of Collections, International Art at Tate Modern, and Artifex Press's Tiffany Bell, Editor, Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné, with assistance from Dr. Lena Fritsch, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern.
Artifex Press, Now Patented

September 30, 2014 3:44 PM

We are pleased to announce that the Artifex Press digital catalogue raisonné platform is no longer "patent-pending." Now it's patent-approved! (Patent US 8819853 B2) We pride ourselves on the unique capabilities of our software, which unites a robust digital archive system with a sophisticated publishing tool, enabling users to create catalogues that can be constantly updated. And we are honored to receive this official recognition of our creation.

This patent is a tribute to our talented design and engineering teams, and also to the useful feedback from our artist partners and our editorial team.

For those who are interested in learning more about our patent, you may view it here.
Chuck Close Reflects on 9/11

September 11, 2014 3:17 PM

In October 2001, the Fine Arts Work Center of Provincetown, Massachusetts, honored Chuck Close. In a video interview, Chuck Close accepts the award and talks about about being in Lower Manhattan on and just after September 11, 2001. We share this with you on the anniversary of 9/11.

Producer: Stephanie Vevers
Editor: Erik Moskowitz
Video courtesy Stephanie Vevers

To view the entire interview, please visit our Video and Audio Archive in Chuck Close's Catalogue Raisonné.
Artifex Press Reviewed by ARLIS/NA

August 6, 2014 12:41 PM

This month, Michael Dashkin reviewed Artifex Press's digital catalogues raisonnés for the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA).

"Artifex’s [catalogues raisonnés] offer the flexibility and accessibility that will benefit any number of researchers and arts organizations; these resources can be regularly updated which is not a reality for their print counterparts. The platform’s mobility will, in particular, benefit those users who work across dispersed locations. The search functionality and the common user interface provides a consistent experience across the two published catalogues and those that are forthcoming, all while accomplishing the mission of a catalogue raisonné. Artifex’s catalogue platform promises a whole new category of accessibility, opening up an artist’s oeuvre to broad audiences across the world."

Read the entire review here.
Announcing: Selected Daguerreotypes by Chuck Close

July 28, 2014 12:11 PM

We are excited to announce the addition of a new segment to the Chuck Close catalogue raisonné, which, to date, includes all paintings by Chuck Close from 1967 to the present, selected early paintings from Close's undergraduate and graduate school years, and the sole film he has created, Slow Pan for Bob (1970).

Now, we have also added a chapter titled "Selected Daguerreotypes: A Couple of Ways of Doing Something." Chuck Close first experimented with daguerreotypes in 1997 but was dissatisfied with the results. In September 1999, he began exploring ways to solve some technical problems with the daguerreotype process with Jerry Spagnoli. In 2002, a portfolio of 20 prints pairing daguerreotypes and praise poems written by Bob Holman was published in an edition of 75 by Art of this Century in conjunction with Harry Jancovici. Digital pigment prints were then produced for the exhibition catalogue A Couple of Ways of Doing Something, published by Aperture Foundation in 2006.

We have published records for these 20 works, each of which includes high-resolution images, and, particularly thrillingly, audio recordings of poet Bob Holman reading the praise poems. This selection of daguerreotypes precedes the release of a chapter on another photographic body of work, the Photo Maquettes, for which research is ongoing.

Below, we're sharing a sneak preview of this new chapter including Chuck Close's daguerreotype of James Turrell with the accompanying audio of Bob Holman's praise poem, along with the typeset poem.

James, 2001
Daguerreotype
Image: 8 1/2 x 6 1/2 in. (21.6 x 16.5 cm)
Verso, in permanent marker: signed, titled, and dated
Made in association with Jerry Spagnoli, New York
Catalogue #DG 2001.05

© Chuck Close. Photo courtesy David Adamson, Washington, D.C.

James Turrell, 2006
Digital pigment print of daguerreotype by Chuck Close and poem by Bob Holman
Original typography and letterpress printing by Ruth Lingen; made in association with David Adamson

Artwork © Chuck Close; Poem © Bob Holman. Photo courtesy David Adamson, Washington, D.C.

Audio recording of the poem courtesy Bob Holman

If you have already registered for Artifex Press, you can view the entire selection of daguerreotypes here (registration required). To register for access to our catalogues, click here.
Sol LeWitt Catalogue Raisonné Research Intern (Paid internship)

July 8, 2014 4:41 PM
Artifex Press seeks a detail-oriented, organized, and dedicated Research Intern to contribute to the preparation of the definitive catalogue raisonné of Sol LeWitt wall drawings.

Position details:
Duration: One year
Type: Full-time / Temporary
Start date: September 2014

Responsibilities:
The responsibilities will include:
- Gathering and organizing material pertinent to the artist’s body of work;
- Documenting literature and exhibition histories;
- Entering information into the catalogue raisonné database;
- Sourcing images and obtaining rights for publication.
Background and qualifications:
- Master’s degree in Art History, Art Criticism, or Art Theory
- Knowledge of late 20th century American art, and conceptual art in particular
- Reading knowledge of Italian, French, and/or German preferred
- Proficiency in major word processing and database programs; Familiarity with content management systems and other web-based platforms a plus
Required experience:
- Curatorial and/or editorial work experience
- In-depth research experience
Interested candidates may send their resume and a cover letter to LeWittCR@artifexpress.com. Subject header: Sol LeWitt Research Intern Website: https://artifexpress.com/pages/sol-lewitt

See the listing at NYFA.org.
Photography Archives Internship

June 19, 2014 1:46 PM

Artifex Press, a publisher of digital catalogues raisonnés, is seeking an energetic and highly organized individual for a paid summer photography archives internship.

Artifex Press is the first publishing company dedicated to the creation of comprehensive, publicly accessible, online catalogues raisonnés. Artifex Press’s first two catalogues are Chuck Close: Paintings, 1967-present and Jim Dine: Sculpture, 1983-present. We are also working on catalogues for Sol Lewitt and Agnes Martin, with several more to follow.

The intern will be responsible for assisting the Archivist and Artifex staff with a range of photography-related tasks, including but not limited to:

-Handling original photographic materials including color transparencies (4x5, 5x7, 8x10, etc.), 35mm slides, photographic negatives, and photographic prints.
-Scanning, editing, retouching, and color correcting artwork photography using Adobe Photoshop.
-Digitizing moving images using various video capturing software.
-Embedding digital photographs and moving images with metadata according to IPTC standards.
-Utilizing a digital asset management system to organize digital photographs, videos, and audio recordings.
-Assisting with graphic design projects for Artifex promotional materials
-Performing administrative tasks as necessary

This paid internship starts immediately and requires a commitment of 2-3 days a week through August, with the possibility of an extension.

Qualifications:
-BA in fine art, graphic design, photography, or related field preferred (BA candidates welcome). MA/MLIS candidates concentrating in library or archival studies and possessing adequate photo-editing skills are also highly encouraged to apply.
-Interest in contemporary art
-Familiarity with the Adobe Creative Suite
-Familiarity with flatbed scanner and slide scanning
-Familiarity with IPTC metadata schema
-Basic photography and color correcting knowledge
-Keen attention to detail
-Proficiency in Microsoft Office
-Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills

Application Instructions:
To apply, candidates should email a resume and cover letter to Artifex Press Archivist, Ashley Levine, at alevine@artifexpress.com.
Updates to the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné

May 14, 2014 9:57 AM

By Carina Evangelista, Editor, Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné

At the launch of Chuck Close: Paintings, 1967 to the Present at the New York Public Library in December 2012, Close announced that his latest painting at the time, Cindy (2012), would be the last of its style. And indeed, his three newest paintings since then, artwork records for which have been added to the catalogue raisonné, reflect a shift.

When Cindy Sherman posed for the photograph on which the 2012 Cindy is based, she wore a busily patterned scarf. Close painted Cindy on a diagonal grid, with the canvas fractured into his trademark blocks of brightly colored abstract shapes that critics have compared to bits of Murano glass.

Left: Cindy, 2012. Right: Cindy, 2013. Photos by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy Pace Gallery

All artwork images © Chuck Close

The 2013 paintings—Cecily, Cindy, and Cindy II—retain the grid format, but the cell blocks comprising layers of abstract shapes have been replaced by layers of monochromatic 'washes' of oil, thinly applied to approximate the lighter effect of watercolor. Much has been written about how the individual cells within each of Close’s paintings from the early 1990s until 2012 stand as small abstract paintings that collectively form a figurative portrait. Close has drawn an analogy to musical composition, with the orchestration of visual chords from colors “played together” capturing varying chromatic registers within the larger whole. In the pre-2013 paintings, these visual chords reveal discernible shapes and forms—lines, squares, circles, ovals, and triangles that call to mind donuts, lozenges, jelly beans, bottles, boomerangs, crosses, and amoeboid blobs.

The chromatic chords in the 2013 paintings have completely shed these shapes. Still viable as small abstract paintings, from afar they look like rounded tiles in gemstone colors. The 2013 version of Sherman’s riotously patterned scarf is rendered in pulsating orbs of jewel tones. Viewed up close, the brushstrokes are visible as are the overlaid swatches of yellows, cyans, and magentas. A first pass of amber might glint beneath a unit that ultimately registers as mauve.

Detail, Cindy, 2013 [oil on canvas]

Close has always claimed that the activity of work is the wellspring of ideas. The process in one medium might inform that of another, thereby triggering innovations across his entire practice. The transition between the 2012 Cindy and the 2013 Cindy was made possible by his experimentation with archival watercolor pigment prints in 2012. These were created by overlaying specific swatches of color selected from hundreds of small watercolor strokes that Close made to produce tiles of the full color chart and grayscale. In a way, these new paintings are a hybrid of his incremental grids in oil and his earlier continuous-tone paintings, in which colors were mixed right on the canvas.

Left: Close making the watercolor swatches for the archival watercolor pigment prints. Right: Cindy, 2012 [archival watercolor pigment print (90 degrees) on Hahnemühle rag paper]. Photos courtesy Magnolia Editions

As a child, Close wanted to be a magician or an artist. He sees paintings, prints, and drawings as magical things because their material reality–colored dirt on a piece of cloth, ink on paper–is transcended. The 2013 paintings illustrate his predilection, à la Penn and Teller, for creating magic while also showing the trick. These paintings are deliberately unfinished at the bottom to reveal the process by which the chromatic chords are achieved. Cecily (2013) in particular shows the gradation of finish from bottom to top.

But with Close, every transition is also a recycling. The 2012 watercolor pigment prints inspired his shift in 2013, but his newest paintings are also anticipated by 35 years with the 1978 drawing, Mark/Watercolor/Unfinished.

Left: Mark/Watercolor/Unfinished, 1978. Photo courtesy Pace Gallery. Right: Cecily, 2013. Photo by Kerry Ryan McFate, courtesy Pace Gallery

Please note that the newly published artwork pages for the 2013 paintings will be continually updated as our research for provenance, exhibition, and literature histories progresses.

Other Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné Updates

Solo Exhibitions

Close’s solo exhibition history has been published in the catalogue. Select exhibition entries link to their respective exhibition pages, featuring paintings that appeared in those exhibitions.

Chuck Close and Freedom of Speech, 1967

For an artist most known for straightforward portraiture—a rather benign art form—Close has not been immune to, or apolitical about, censorship. In 1991, on the heels of the public trial against works such as Robert Mapplethorpe’s homoerotic photography and Andres Serrano’s 1987 Piss Christ, Close testified at a Congressional hearing against stronger anti-obscenity restrictions. But his stance on artistic freedom of speech dates back to 1967, when his first solo exhibition at the University of Massachusetts drew enough controversy that it was immediately taken off the walls without his knowledge. A link to the transcript of the court case that came out of this dispute, “Charles Close v. University of Massachusetts,” has been published. It is cited regularly as the first legal action asserting the extension of freedom of speech to the visual arts.

Audio and Video Archive

This section is expanded with the assistance of Artifex Press Archivist/Digital Resource Manager Ashley Levine and Research Assistant Ariela Alberts as more material is acquired. Recently added videos include a recording of the full performance of C to C (Close to Chuck), restaged by the Boston Ballet in February 2014. The ballet, which originally premiered at the American Ballet Theatre in New York in 2007, was choreographed by Jorma Elo to the musical portrait of Close composed in 2004 by Philip Glass. Close’s 1969 painting of Glass has become one of the artist’s iconic works.
Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné: A Trip to Texas and New Mexico

May 13, 2014 1:55 PM

To collect information for the catalogue raisonné and an upcoming retrospective of the work of Agnes Martin, Tiffany Bell, Editor, Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné, recently made a trip to Texas and New Mexico. Martin spent several formative years in New Mexico and returned to make it her home for the last three decades of her life.

The visit was filled by meetings with friends of the artist who have added details to the chronology of her life such as an account of a boat and camping trip up the Mackenzie River in northwest Canada; with collectors who have stories and information about works from Martin’s earliest period as an artist; and by a visit to the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos, which hosts a permanent installation of the artist’s paintings and a growing archive of photos and documents about her work.
A Studio Visit with Tim Hawkinson

May 12, 2014 2:38 PM

By Hannah Barton

After about a year of research on the Tim Hawkinson catalogue raisonné, I was graciously invited by the artist to his home studio in the hills above Pasadena to discuss his work and review the catalogue. Tim and his wife, painter Patty Wickman, share a studio, which they had built behind their house. The studio is large enough to accommodate both artists easily, giving Tim the space he needs to experiment with the multitude of materials he collects. Entering the studio was thrilling; immediately I was surrounded by a plethora of bizarre materials: stacks of eggshells, shelves full of nuts and bolts, containers full of feathers, piles of paint cans, glue bottles, and plastic bags. It is inspiring to think that within months these mundane, mostly recycled materials could turn into perfectly constructed eggshell sculptures, unconventional self-portraits, or imaginative and deceptive timepieces.

Left: Tim Hawkinson holds two recent plaster casts of his head and hands. Right: A model for a project in progress at the Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco.

After digging into the details of Tim’s digital catalogue raisonné, to resolve discrepancies concerning titles, mediums, and other aspects of his work, he took me on a tour of the space and showed me the newest work. One recently completed piece was a cratered orb assembled completely out of eggshells. Still untitled, the work hung delicately from a wire in the corner of the studio. As Tim removed it, he began to explain that a hairline crack in one eggshell fragment had caused weeks of repair. His patience for this type of construction is what makes his work so unique; though many of his pieces seem inspired by a child-like curiosity, it is his enduring mindfulness toward the materials he uses that transforms these everyday objects, so easily taken for granted, into sources of awe.

Tim stands next to the still untitled eggshell orb, with the plaster model used to cast Samoa (2013) on the right.

Our meeting culminated with a tour of the tree house Tim built for his young daughter, Clare. Sitting atop the studio, the structure is accessible by a ladder built into the trunk of an adjacent olive tree. Putting my camera in the basket dumbwaiter, I scrambled up the tree after Tim. Most of the structure was built using reclaimed wood from a recent home remodel. Found stained-glass windows let in a warm, colorful light. A small turret extends out to one side of the structure and a twisting staircase, its railing constructed out of recycled Christmas tree branches, leads up to an observation tower, whose ceiling is a sturdy old umbrella. Like all of his creations, the tree house is a model of resourcefulness. My visit with Tim was meant to resolve several crucial unanswered questions about his work, but along the way I had a chance to experience firsthand the artist’s daily practice and the whimsical, fantastical world that he creates all around him. Tim’s work requires the same kind of diligence and meticulousness that is necessary to create a catalogue raisonné, but it is the unceasing exploration and play that he brings to his life and work that I was most privileged to experience on this visit.

To see more images of the tree house, take a look at this article from the New York Times in 2012.
Call for Information: Jim Dine Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné

April 17, 2014 2:32 PM

The first volume of the digital publication, which covers the years 1983 to the present, is available for a limited-time free subscription here.

Works from 1959-1982

We are continuing the project by collecting information on the ownership of sculptures from 1959 to 1982. Collectors are encouraged to assist us by filling out this worksheet (PDF) for any of the artist’s sculptures in your collection or previously owned by you. We would also welcome images, which you may submit here.

Works 1983-Present

We will be adding new artworks created in 2013 and beyond, and we will continue to track the provenance of sculptures already included in the catalogue. Kindly complete the worksheet (PDF) if you have further ownership information on sculptures from any date. To submit images, please click here.

Please address submissions to editor Sara Davidson at sdavidson@artifexpress.com.

Image:
Nancy and I at Ithaca, 1966-1969
Sheet metal and straw
62 x 72 x 14 in. (157.5 x 182.9 x 35.6 cm)
© 2014 Jim Dine/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo courtesy Pace Gallery
#MuseumWeek takes us #BehindTheArt

March 27, 2014 11:34 AM

This week is #MuseumWeek on Twitter and today we go #BehindTheArt. Below, a video that Artifex Press produced takes us behind Jim Dine's Crommelynck Gate with Tools, 1983, with editions in the collections of some remarkable museums:

Edition 1 Collection Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Edition 2 Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

Edition 3 Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio

Edition 4 Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri

Edition 5 The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Edition 6 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

For further information on the artwork, please register for free access to our catalogues and click here.

Follow Artifex Press on Twitter.

^{Photo credits: Edition 1 ©2014 Jim Dine/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo courtesy Walker Art Center, Minneapolis Edition 2 ©2014 Jim Dine/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut Edition 3 ©2014 Jim Dine/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Tim Thayer, Oak Park, Michigan, courtesy Toledo Museum of Art Edition 4 ©2014 Jim Dine/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Tiffany Mason, courtesy The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri Edition 6 ©2014 Jim Dine/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Lynton Gardiner, © The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Licensed by Art Resource. Historical photos ©2014 Jim Dine/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Courtesy the artist and Pace Gallery.}
Artifex Press Launches Newsletters

January 23, 2014 4:08 PM

This month, we released our inaugural newsletter which can be viewed here.

To receive the latest news and updates about Artifex Press, please subscribe to our mailing list.

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Also, take a look at our improved About Artifex Press pages: Learn about our catalogues raisonnés, watch our how-to-use video, and meet our editors.
Call for Information: Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné

January 21, 2014 4:00 PM

The Agnes Martin catalogue raisonné project is accepting submissions from owners of paintings and unique works on paper by Agnes Martin. Prints will not be included at this time. We kindly ask that owners of these works fill out an examination agreement (PDF) and return it to Artifex Press, 109 W. 27th St, 8th FL, New York, NY 10001. Submissions for entry will be considered by a committee of art professionals. Please address inquiries to Tiffany Bell, editor of the project, at tbell@artifexpress.com.

All information will be kept strictly confidential upon request.

Catalogue homepage photo by Charles R. Rushton
Announcing: Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné

January 17, 2014 4:15 PM

Artifex Press is pleased to announce the forthcoming catalogue raisonné for Tim Hawkinson. Since the mid-1980s, Hawkinson has been creating an inventive and highly eccentric body of work that touches on such diverse subjects as music, the passage of time, and his own body. He frequently works with non-traditional media such as latex, eggshell, fingernail clippings, slide whistles, and aluminum foil, as well as a range of discarded and scavenged objects. His art encompasses two- and three- dimensional objects and ranges in scale from the minute to the gigantic. His materials and artistic process are indelible parts of the finished works, many of which are kinetic or interactive.

Artifex Press has been actively researching Hawkinson’s artworks, publications, and exhibitions in an effort to ensure the accuracy of this comprehensive publication. We are working in close collaboration with the artist to produce this catalogue, which is expected to be an ongoing project as Hawkinson continues to create work. We would like to take this opportunity to solicit any and all pertinent information about Hawkinson’s work, including information that pertains to exhibitions, publications, and ownership, either past or present. Please note that Artifex Press maintains strict confidentiality of collector identity and contact information, and respects requests for privacy and anonymity.

Please email Hannah Barton, Research Associate, at hbarton@artifexpress.com with any relevant information or queries.

Hawkinson’s work is currently showcased in a group exhibition at Pace Gallery titled Grounded, on view at 534 West 25th Street until February 14, 2014.
New Videos Added to Jim Dine Catalogue Raisonné

January 17, 2014 3:35 PM

Artifex Press has produced 35 original videos of Jim Dine discussing his body of work in a series of conversations held with Editor Sara K. Davidson. Here, we present a sample video, in which Jim Dine discusses a central theme in his work: Tools.

To access all of the videos we have produced, please sign in or register for Artifex Press. Subscriptions are free of charge for a limited time. Once you have logged in, you can access the first four videos of Dine discussing key recurring subjects here.

In other videos, which will be added to the catalogue in upcoming weeks, Dine discusses technique and medium as well as specific artworks; these videos can be found on individual artwork pages.

Stay tuned: the remaining videos will be added within the next month.
Chuck Close: Photo Maquettes

January 16, 2014 5:42 PM

Artifex Press is pleased to announce the forthcoming publication Chuck Close: Photo Maquettes, a new volume in the artist’s catalogue raisonné. Photography is central to the artist’s practice, and this new volume will document the gridded photographs from which Close has created works in other mediums, including paintings, drawings, prints, and tapestries.

Close has likened his photography to “a well to which you can return again and again and each time get a bucket full of different stuff from it.”(1) For example, his 1969 photograph of Philip Glass has generated dozens of works, including the monumental and iconic grisaille painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art; fingerprint drawings of various sizes and formats (including one on paper watermarked with flowers); works in wet paper pulp, watercolor, and rubber stamp ink; houndstooth-patterned drawings; silk tapestry; and even an anamorphic print in which the image resolves as a reflection on a steel cylinder. Glass has fittingly stated that his face was to Close what haystacks were to Monet.(2)

Curator Madeleine Grynsztejn has described Close’s process as “the meeting of the frozen instant of the snapshot with the long, unhurried duration of a hand distributing paint over a surface.”(3) If his entire oeuvre is the mediation of gridded photographs, each maquette bears the marks of the meditative process of looking at a photograph and translating its information onto canvas, paper, or textile. Close has explained, “If I am looking for a certain thing in the photograph, then I make one kind of work, and if I deal with some formal aspect of it or make a different choice of material and technique, I will find entirely different elements embedded in the photograph.”(4)

Each maquette also bears evidence of the artist’s use of the grid — which he has referred to as a visual metronome whose orientation and size arbitrate the final work’s ocular rhythm. How tight or loose is the grid in relation to the scale of the canvas? Will an iris be boxed in or sliced through? Is the grid horizontal or diagonal? (The same nose in profile will be transformed by this choice.) “This is the great thing about the maquettes,” Close has said. “You see the decisions that I made, where those lines fall… That’s really what it is all about. And if someone were to take a lot of time analyzing them, I think they would find that there’s a method in the madness.”(5)

In preparation for the publication of the Photo Maquette volume, kindly contact Carina Evangelista, Editor of the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonne, at cevangelista@artifexpress.com with information pertaining to the exhibition, publication, or ownership of any of the artist’s maquettes. Please note that Artifex Press maintains strict confidentiality of collector identity and contact information, and respects requests for privacy and anonymity.

(1) Chuck Close, in Joanne Kesten, ed., The Portraits Speak: Chuck Close in Conversation with 27 of His Subjects (New York: A.R.T. Press, 1997): 219.
(2) Philip Glass, “I’m Just a Haystack,” in Demetrio Paparoni, Daguerreotypes (Milan: Alberico Cetti Serbelloni Editore and Gabrius S.p.A., 2002): 6.
(3) Madeleine Grynsztejn, “A Constant-in-Process: Chuck Close’s Self-Portraiture,” in Siri Engberg and Madeleine Grynstejn, Chuck Close: Self-Portraits 1967-2005 (San Francisco: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 2005): 15.
(4) Close, in The Portraits Speak: 219.
(5) Close, in Jonathan Weinberg, Chuck Close: Photo Maquettes (New York: Eykyn Maclean, 2013): 52.

List of images from top, left to right:

Phil/maquette, 1969 © Chuck Close. Photo courtesy Chuck Close Studio
Phil, 1969 © Chuck Close. Photo by Ellen Page Wilson, courtesy Pace Gallery
Drawing for Phil/Rubber Stamp, 1976 © Chuck Close. Photo by Al Mozell, courtesy Pace Gallery
Phil/Fingerprint, 1978 © Chuck Close. Photo by Bevan Davies, courtesy Chuck Close Studio
Phil Fingerprint/Random, 1979 © Chuck Close. Photo by Al Mozell, courtesy Pace Gallery
Phil with Flowers, 1980 (and detail) © Chuck Close. Photo by Al Mozell, courtesy Chuck Close Studio
Phil, 1991 © Chuck Close. Photo courtesy Chuck Close Studio
Phil/Wet Paper Pulp, 1983 © Chuck Close. Photo by Ellen Page Wilson, courtesy Pace Gallery
Phil (Anamorphic), 2007 © Chuck Close. Photo courtesy Chuck Close Studio
Chuck Close working on Large Phil Fingerprint/Random, 1979 © Chuck Close. Photo courtesy Chuck Close Studio
Carina Evangelista Contributes Essays to Two New Catalogues

January 9, 2014 12:03 PM

We congratulate Carina Evangelista, Editor of the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné, for her contributions to two recently released publications.

Carina has contributed four essays to Roberto Chabet: 50 Years, a compendium published by King Kong Art Projects on the occasion of the Filipino conceptualist's retrospective that traveled to 15 venues in Manila, Hong Kong, and Singapore from 2011 to 2012.

Carina is also a contributing author to the catalogue for Constancio Bernardo, the Filipino modernist's centennial exhibition at the Ayala Museum in Manila, which runs through February 28, 2014. The catalogue was published by Soumak Collections.
We've Moved!

January 8, 2014 4:10 PM

Our offices are now located at:

109 W. 27th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10001

Our new telephone number is:

(212) 414-1482

Artifex Press Staff toasts the move and the new year

The view at sunset from our offices
Installing Sol LeWitt's "Wall Drawing #84"

January 6, 2014 5:41 PM

Lindsay Aveilhé, Research Associate for the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné, helped organize an installation of Wall Drawing #84 at The Artist's Institute on November 20, 2013. In order to install the work, "a drafter uses every single color from the original Crayola 12-pack — Red, Yellow, Blue, Green, Orange, Purple, Black, White, Brown, Carnation Pink, Indigo, Gray — and wears down the crayons in their entirety to form a dense twelve-inch square." John Hogan, senior draftsperson and Mary Jo and Ted Shen Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Installation Director and Archivist, Yale University Art Gallery, led the installation with the help of graduate students from the Hunter College Art Department and staff members of Artifex Press. Below are some photographs illustrating the installation in process.

Artwork © 2013 Estate of Sol LeWitt/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photos by Hannah Barton, Artifex Press
Artifex Press Visits Chuck Close's Studio

January 6, 2014 5:38 PM

On November 11, Chuck Close invited the staff of Artifex Press to visit his studio and private collection of art. Carina Evangelista, Editor of the Chuck Close catalogue raisonné, and several additional Artifex staff members and interns were able to put aside their archival work and spend a relaxed afternoon with Chuck Close, as he talked about his life and his art, giving us a tour of his studio and his apartment. Below are some photos from our visit.

All artworks © 2013 Chuck Close. Photos by Manolo Bustamante.
Artifex Press joins in for #AskACurator Day

September 19, 2013 1:53 PM

Yesterday Artifex Press was excited to join the conversation on Twitter for #AskACurator day, with over 600 arts organizations participating from 37 countries. At Artifex Press, we are fortunate to communicate regularly with curators from around the world, but yesterday offered a public forum for these interactions, encouraging new conversations and access to expertise.

A highlight from our twitter exchanges for #AskACurator is this conversation with the Georgia O'Keefe Museum:

@ArtifexPress @metmuseum Curator asking curators a related question..what is the future format of the catalogue raisonné? #AskACurator
— GeorgiaOKeeffeMuseum (@okeeffemuseum) September 18, 2013

@okeeffemuseum @metmuseum Artifex Press believes that the future of the catalogue raisonné is digital. Monographs may remain books however.
— Artifex Press (@ArtifexPress) September 18, 2013

@ArtifexPress @metmuseum I would agree--traditional CRs are databases stuck in print form, easily outdated and less inherently useful
— GeorgiaOKeeffeMuseum (@okeeffemuseum) September 18, 2013

@okeeffemuseum @metmuseum We couldn't have said it better. We're working hard on precisely this issue #digitalcatalogueraisonne
— Artifex Press (@ArtifexPress) September 18, 2013

Another highlight is our conversation with the Santa Monica Museum of Art:

@ArtifexPress Any catalogue raisonne of a living artist should be regularly updated. #ElsaLonghauser
— SMMoA (@SMMoA) September 18, 2013

@SMMoA That's one of the key ideas behind Artifex Press. Our Chuck Close and Jim DIne catalogues will be updated as new works are created.
— Artifex Press (@ArtifexPress) September 18, 2013

Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Follow Artifex Press on Social Media

September 10, 2013 5:54 PM

Artifex Press has joined Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Like and follow us for updates on our catalogues raisonnés, news about our artists, photos from our archives, and much more. Be sure to keep up with us to hear the news first.

Find us here:

https://www.facebook.com/artifexpress

http://instagram.com/artifexpress

https://twitter.com/ArtifexPress

http://www.linkedin.com
We're Hiring

September 10, 2013 5:16 PM

Digital Resource Manager/Archivist

Artifex Press is looking for a Digital Resource Manager/Archivist to oversee its growing digital image collection and to execute a strategy for future publication and archival needs.

The Resource Manager/Archivist will report to Artifex Press’s President and work collaboratively with the Editors of Artifex Press's several catalogue raisonnés projects. Current publications include Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Sol LeWitt, and Agnes Martin.

For more information on this opening, please view the job listing at NYFA or VRA.
Artifex Press at ARLIS/NA Pasadena

April 10, 2013 12:39 PM

Artifex Press will be an exhibitor at the 41st annual conference of the Art Libraries Society of North America in Pasadena, from April 25 to April 29.

Editor in Chief David Grosz will be on hand to demonstrate the Chuck Close and Jim Dine catalogues raisonnés and discuss Artifex Press's proprietary software platform and digital publishing program.

Come visit him at booth 1107.
Béatrice Gross Named Editor of the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné

March 13, 2013 3:55 PM

Artifex Press and the LeWitt Estate are pleased to announce that they have named Béatrice Gross Editor of the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné.

Gross, an independent curator and critic based in New York, will edit the catalogue raisonné featuring complete caption information, installation views, and diagrams for all of LeWitt’s approximately 1300 wall drawings, as well as provenance information, and selected exhibition, literature, and installation histories. The publication will be a sortable, searchable, web-based publication hosted by Artifex Press’s proprietary software platform.

Current and past owners of wall drawings, all members of wall drawing installation teams, and all others who have worked with the wall drawings are encouraged to contact Artifex Press’s LeWitt catalogue raisonné research team at LeWittCR@artifexpress.com.

Read the full press release here.
Listen: Jim Dine & Artifex Press

February 28, 2013 3:35 PM

To mark the launch of Jim Dine's digital catalogue raisonné, Artifex Press and the New York Public Library hosted a talk between the artist; Sara Davidson, editor of the Jim Dine Catalogue Raisonné; and David Grosz, Editor in Chief of Artifex Press.

Please listen to the discussion here.
Artifex Press Launches Jim Dine Catalogue Raisonné

February 21, 2013 12:19 PM

On February 27, Artifex Press and the New York Public Library will present an artist talk with Jim Dine in celebration of the launch of his digital catalogue raisonné,___ Jim Dine: Sculpture 1983-present___.

The event will feature a demonstration of the digital catalogue raisonné, followed by a discussion between Dine; Sara Davidson, Editor of the Jim Dine Catalogue Raisonné; and David Grosz, Managing Partner/Editor in Chief of Artifex Press.

Read the press release.

© 2013 Jim Dine/Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo courtesy Walla Walla Foundry.
Listen: The Future of Art Book Publishing

February 14, 2013 3:50 PM

On February 12, the New York Public Library hosted a panel discussion on The Future of Art Book Publishing. The talk featured Margaret Chace, Associate Publisher, Skira-Rizzoli; artist and publisher Paul Chan; Sharon Gallagher, President of Artbook/D.A.P; MoMA Associate Publisher Chul R. Kim; and moderator Arezoo Moseni.

During the talk, Artifex Press Editor-in-Chief David Grosz was invited to give an impromptu talk about Artifex's digital catalogue raisonné publishing program.

Please listen to the discussion here.
Listen: Chuck Close & Artifex Press (Updated)

February 12, 2013 2:52 PM

To mark the launch of Chuck Close’s digital catalogue raisonné, Artifex Press and the New York Public Library hosted a talk between the artist; Carina Evangelista, editor of the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné; and David Grosz, Editor in Chief of Artifex.

The audio stream of the discussion is currently available through the internet art radio station, ArtonAir.org, located in the Clocktower Gallery in Tribeca.

UPDATE: Listen to the podcast for the Dec. 19 Artifex inaugural event featuring Chuck Close at the New York Public Library.
We're Hiring

January 14, 2013 5:48 PM
Research Associate

Artifex Press seeks a research associate (4 days a week) to assist on the preparation of a new catalogue raisonné.

Under the supervision of the Catalogue Raisonné Editor, the associate’s responsibilities will include, but are not limited to: documenting and organizing material pertinent to the artist’s work; gathering information on literature references, exhibition histories, provenance, etc.; sourcing images and obtaining rights for publication; and helping with general duties and office management.

Requirements:
- Knowledge of late 20th century American art
- In-depth research experience
- Organized, detail-oriented, independent worker
- Proficiency with major word processing and database programs
Additional experience that would be helpful:
- Work experience in museums or galleries – curatorial and/or editorial
- Experience working in content management systems and other web-based platforms
- Reading knowledge of Italian, French, and German
Please send resume and cover letter to JOBS@artifexpress.com. Subject header: Research Associate
Welcome to Artifex Press

December 17, 2012 5:22 PM

Artifex Press is a new company dedicated to the production of digital catalogues raisonnés.

We're launching on December 19, 2012, with our first two catalogues: Chuck Close: Paintings, 1967-present,

and Jim Dine: Sculpture, 1983-present.

For the next several months, we're offering free, limited-time subscriptions to both catalogues. Access will be granted on a rolling basis. Please register at the top of any page of this website to request access. We will email you when your free subscription begins.

Artifex Press has also been named publisher of the catalogues raisonnés for the estates of Sol LeWitt and Agnes Martin along with contemporary artists Chuck Close, Jim Dine, Tara Donovan, Loris Gréaud, Tim Hawkinson, Thomas Nozkowski, James Siena, Bosco Sodi, and Richard Tuttle. In the upcoming months, we will announce several more collaborating artists and estates.

Please check our blog for information about upcoming catalogues and announcements about participating artists.

To learn more about Artifex Press, please email info@artifexpress.com.
Artifex Press Launches Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné

December 4, 2012 11:39 AM

Artifex Press, a new company dedicated to the production of digital catalogues raisonnés, will launch next month with the web-based catalogue raisonné for artist Chuck Close.

On December 19, Artifex Press and the New York Public Library will present an artist talk with Close in celebration of the launch.

The first of Artifex Press’s digital catalogues raisonnés, Chuck Close: Painting, 1967–present, is a searchable, sortable interactive web publication detailing the artist’s iconic photo-based portraits.The launch event on December 19 will feature a demonstration of this interactive catalogue, followed by a discussion between Close and David Grosz, Managing Partner/Editor in Chief of Artifex Press, and Carina Evangelista, the editor of the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné, whose professional credentials include curatorial and editorial experience at institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art where she worked on the 1998 retrospective of Chuck Close organized by Robert Storr.

Read the full press release

Blog

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Free Access to the Jim Dine Catalogue Raisonné through April 2021 March 1, 2021 11:08 AM

Finding Inspiration from Agnes Martin: An Interview with Tiffany Bell February 24, 2021 11:05 AM

Artist by Artist: ANZAÏ and Lee Ufan February 17, 2021 11:00 AM

Toward a New Direction: Robert Irwin and the First National Symposium on Habitability February 3, 2021 11:00 AM

Color Chords: Chuck Close’s Portraits of Musicians January 20, 2021 10:50 AM

Art/Work: On Sol LeWitt and Labor January 13, 2021 11:00 AM

Body Talk — The Art of Tim Hawkinson January 6, 2021 12:00 PM

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An Art of Discovery — James Siena's Newest Works December 16, 2020 11:00 AM

Watch Your Eyes — Lucas Samaras's Boxes December 9, 2020 11:16 AM

Stand Still — On the Art of Lee Ufan December 2, 2020 10:51 AM

Free Access to the Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné through December 2020 October 28, 2020 5:35 PM

Free Access to Lucas Samaras: Boxes through October 2020 September 15, 2020 2:55 PM

Free Access to Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné in August 2020 July 29, 2020 9:46 AM

An Evening of Sol LeWitt Readings (Video) July 9, 2020 10:38 AM

Announcing Sol LeWitt Complete Writings and Sol LeWitt Interviews June 12, 2020 10:44 AM

LeWitt in Manila: An Interview with Carina Evangelista March 3, 2020 2:00 PM

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Newly Published Chapter in the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné August 10, 2018 1:07 PM

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Tiffany Bell Named Editor at Large January 11, 2018 1:10 PM

Artifex Press Publishes the Lucas Samaras: Boxes Catalogue Raisonné December 20, 2017 11:31 AM

Call for Information: Robert Irwin Catalogue Raisonné October 23, 2017 6:03 PM

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Our Patent Has Expanded July 18, 2017 3:00 PM

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Artifex Press Digital Catalogues Raisonnés Available Through Subscription April 19, 2017 11:02 AM

Artifex Press Announces Editorial Team for Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné April 19, 2017 10:19 AM

Artifex Press Publishes the Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné February 28, 2017 11:34 AM

Artifex Press Publishes the James Siena Catalogue Raisonné February 28, 2017 11:34 AM

Announcing the Artifex Press Subscription Service January 24, 2017 5:50 PM

Announcing the Artifex Press Advisory Board November 29, 2016 3:21 PM

After the Event: Symposium: The Catalogue Raisonné in the 21st Century November 28, 2016 4:20 PM

Symposium: The Catalogue Raisonné in the 21st Century September 23, 2016 2:03 PM

Selected Press for Robert Irwin's Permanent Installation at Chinati Foundation September 23, 2016 12:25 PM

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Artifex Press to Partner with John Hoyland Estate on Paintings Catalogue Raisonné October 8, 2015 11:23 AM

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JIM DINE SCULPTURE CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ

TIM HAWKINSON CATALOGUE RAISONNÉ

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Tiffany Bell Co-Curates Agnes Martin Retrospective and Contributes to Exhibition Catalogue June 2, 2015 3:36 PM

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After the Event: Tim Hawkinson at the New York Public Library March 17, 2015 6:13 PM

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Photography Archives Internship June 19, 2014 1:46 PM

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Works from 1959-1982

Works 1983-Present

#MuseumWeek takes us #BehindTheArt March 27, 2014 11:34 AM

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Call for Information: Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné January 21, 2014 4:00 PM

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Chuck Close: Photo Maquettes January 16, 2014 5:42 PM

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Free Access to the Jim Dine Catalogue Raisonné through April 2021

March 1, 2021 11:08 AM

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February 24, 2021 11:05 AM

Artist by Artist: ANZAÏ and Lee Ufan

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Toward a New Direction: Robert Irwin and the First National Symposium on Habitability

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December 23, 2020 11:00 AM

An Art of Discovery — James Siena's Newest Works

December 16, 2020 11:00 AM

Watch Your Eyes — Lucas Samaras's Boxes

December 9, 2020 11:16 AM

Stand Still — On the Art of Lee Ufan

December 2, 2020 10:51 AM

Free Access to the Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné through December 2020

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Free Access to Lucas Samaras: Boxes through October 2020

September 15, 2020 2:55 PM

Free Access to Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné in August 2020

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July 9, 2020 10:38 AM

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June 12, 2020 10:44 AM

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March 3, 2020 2:00 PM

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Artifex Press Publishes the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné

August 13, 2018 11:10 AM

Newly Published Chapter in the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné

August 10, 2018 1:07 PM

We've Moved!

June 18, 2018 2:54 PM

Tiffany Bell Named Editor at Large

January 11, 2018 1:10 PM

Artifex Press Publishes the Lucas Samaras: Boxes Catalogue Raisonné

December 20, 2017 11:31 AM

Call for Information: Robert Irwin Catalogue Raisonné

October 23, 2017 6:03 PM

Call for Information: Carl Andre Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné

October 23, 2017 6:02 PM

Our Patent Has Expanded

July 18, 2017 3:00 PM

Artifex Press Partners with Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation to Publish Yves Tanguy Catalogue Raisonné

June 7, 2017 10:44 AM

Artifex Press Digital Catalogues Raisonnés Available Through Subscription

April 19, 2017 11:02 AM

Artifex Press Announces Editorial Team for Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné

April 19, 2017 10:19 AM

Artifex Press Publishes the Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné

February 28, 2017 11:34 AM

Artifex Press Publishes the James Siena Catalogue Raisonné

February 28, 2017 11:34 AM

Announcing the Artifex Press Subscription Service

January 24, 2017 5:50 PM

Announcing the Artifex Press Advisory Board

November 29, 2016 3:21 PM

After the Event: Symposium: The Catalogue Raisonné in the 21st Century

November 28, 2016 4:20 PM

Symposium: The Catalogue Raisonné in the 21st Century

September 23, 2016 2:03 PM

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September 23, 2016 12:25 PM

Announcing the Lee Ufan Catalogue Raisonné

May 27, 2016 3:02 PM

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November 2, 2015 12:24 PM

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November 2, 2015 12:23 PM

Artifex Press to Publish Niki de Saint Phalle Catalogue Raisonné

October 29, 2015 12:02 PM

Artifex Press to Partner with John Hoyland Estate on Paintings Catalogue Raisonné

October 8, 2015 11:23 AM

Call for Information: James Siena Catalogue Raisonné

August 10, 2015 3:38 PM

Catalogue Updates: Jim Dine and Tim Hawkinson

August 10, 2015 3:37 PM

Agnes Martin Retrospective at Tate Modern: Selected Press

August 5, 2015 3:39 PM

Art Libraries Journal Features Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné

August 5, 2015 3:20 PM

Tiffany Bell Co-Curates Agnes Martin Retrospective and Contributes to Exhibition Catalogue

June 2, 2015 3:36 PM

Announcing the Robert Irwin Catalogue Raisonné

May 27, 2015 12:29 PM

After the Event: Tim Hawkinson at the New York Public Library

March 17, 2015 6:13 PM

Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné Just Published

January 16, 2015 5:45 PM

Tiffany Bell Is Co-Curator of the Agnes Martin Retrospective at Tate Modern

September 30, 2014 3:47 PM

Artifex Press, Now Patented

September 30, 2014 3:44 PM

Chuck Close Reflects on 9/11

September 11, 2014 3:17 PM

Artifex Press Reviewed by ARLIS/NA

August 6, 2014 12:41 PM

Announcing: Selected Daguerreotypes by Chuck Close

July 28, 2014 12:11 PM

Sol LeWitt Catalogue Raisonné Research Intern (Paid internship)

July 8, 2014 4:41 PM

Photography Archives Internship

June 19, 2014 1:46 PM

Updates to the Chuck Close Catalogue Raisonné

May 14, 2014 9:57 AM

Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné: A Trip to Texas and New Mexico

May 13, 2014 1:55 PM

A Studio Visit with Tim Hawkinson

May 12, 2014 2:38 PM

Call for Information: Jim Dine Sculpture Catalogue Raisonné

April 17, 2014 2:32 PM

#MuseumWeek takes us #BehindTheArt

March 27, 2014 11:34 AM

Artifex Press Launches Newsletters

January 23, 2014 4:08 PM

Call for Information: Agnes Martin Catalogue Raisonné

January 21, 2014 4:00 PM

Announcing: Tim Hawkinson Catalogue Raisonné

January 17, 2014 4:15 PM

New Videos Added to Jim Dine Catalogue Raisonné

January 17, 2014 3:35 PM

Chuck Close: Photo Maquettes

January 16, 2014 5:42 PM

Carina Evangelista Contributes Essays to Two New Catalogues

January 9, 2014 12:03 PM

We've Moved!

January 8, 2014 4:10 PM

Installing Sol LeWitt's "Wall Drawing #84"

January 6, 2014 5:41 PM

Artifex Press Visits Chuck Close's Studio

January 6, 2014 5:38 PM

Artifex Press joins in for #AskACurator Day

September 19, 2013 1:53 PM

Follow Artifex Press on Social Media

September 10, 2013 5:54 PM

We're Hiring

September 10, 2013 5:16 PM

Artifex Press at ARLIS/NA Pasadena

April 10, 2013 12:39 PM

Béatrice Gross Named Editor of the Sol LeWitt Wall Drawings Catalogue Raisonné

March 13, 2013 3:55 PM

Listen: Jim Dine & Artifex Press

February 28, 2013 3:35 PM

Artifex Press Launches Jim Dine Catalogue Raisonné

February 21, 2013 12:19 PM