one pic friday. Richard Tuttle

Releasing: Biologically Poor Endings, IV, 2016
image courtesy of the artist and Modern Art, London

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I

When brought together,
These two bodies of work*
Will transform space.
The rules of one** are
Longitudinal, which we
Read on a vertical, the
Other,*** the opposite.
They also engage depth
Perception, one, through
Layering brings us in;**
The other, out.*** You
Could give each group
its separate room (place-
in-space). Now, it seems,
mixing them will erase
space, helping to see
each for what it is.
The exhibition, then,
Is a chance to see what
Will happen– though
Each work’s need
Is paramount. We
May try both ways to
Show, it doesn’t matter.

II

The three, 17th c., Dutch
Masters are Vermeer,
Rembrandt and Hals.
The first two paint you
Looking at the glass.
Hals paints the glass
Looking at you. Hals
Uses art to put you
Solidly in the world,
Giving you power,
Making you the subject,
Or, perhaps, more cor-
Rectly, your Psyche.
His paintings often
Leave one uncom-
Fortable, for they rely
On the truth of the
Viewer, who is divided
In the act of seeing a
Painting. The laughing
In Hals comes from
Seeing, the light in light
And darkness is the
Same light- as the viewer
Is left pondering Hals’s
Genius as a painter
Revealed—where did
It come from?

III

Coming home from a
Long walk in New Mexico,
Natural wilderness, I
Thought the painting I
Wanted was not depen-
Dent or independent
On its means of record-
Ing. We are composite
Creatures, not neces-
Sarily accessed planerly,
(Or not), so one could
Produce a painting that
Was first, a statement,
Then, creatively edited
And finally, presented,
Using its own “call to
Form” as a solution—
The whole would unify,
As painting is supposed
To do, and make a pic-
Ture closer to love, truth,
Freedom. I worked like
This for some time, both
In New Mexico and New
York. Where as the results
Bore looking, something
Was wrong… Like music,
The purely visual has
An ability to express, uni-
Que to itself. Thus, be-
Lieving the picture was
Good, justifiable, proven,
But not available, I went
On, seeking an explanation.
The two groups at Stuart
Shave’s**** are the result-
If we have the eyes to
See them? No matter.
If valuable an advance,
We will develop the eyes.
If not, is it not just one more
Try on humanity’s stage
left to the offices of wor-
thy tries and discarded?

*”Pressing: Hole in the Head”
“Releasing: Biologically Poor
Endings”
**”Pressing: Hole in the Head”
***”Releasing: Biologically
Poor Endings”
****Modern Art – RICHARD TUTTLE, NYC, 2017.*

Whenever I see the work of RICHARD TUTTLE, I can’t help but to think about what RASHID JOHNSON said in an interview: “Seeing RICHARD TUTTLE put a small piece of cloth on the wall, I thought to myself, “There’s two kinds of people in this world, the type of people who see RICHARD TUTTLE put a piece of cloth on the wall and both of them say, ‘I can do this.’ But one of them says, ‘I can do this?!’ while the other one says, ‘I can do this,’ in disappointment.

Releasing: Biologically Poor Endings, IV (2016) by RICHARD TUTTLE is part of his solo exhibition entitled My Birthday Puzzle shown at Modern Art in London. This exhibition coincides with a show of TUTTLE’s recent work entitled The Critical Edge at Pace London. Both are closing on May 13, 2017.

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*press release

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