Bick, Andrew M and Hessler, Stefanie and Thorp, David (2013)

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Bick, Andrew M and Hessler, Stefanie and Thorp, David (2013). Andrew Bick. Documentation. Hales Gallery/Galerie von Bartha, London and Basel

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Andrew Bick Andrew Bick “To learn the game of seeing, like any- from historical Constructivism and As T.J. Demos has noted, “(…) while him to follow, perforate or play with it. thing else in life, takes patient practice, Cubism; they criticised the movements the grid indicates the logic of scientific While his research into Constructivism because, unfortunately, we generally for their “dangerous hypertrophy of rationality, the use of chance implies shows in his paintings, he breaks look without seeing. The rules are rationalism” 1. Rather than attempting its total rejection.” 2 Both chance in with the rules of both historical Con inside each of us, and only experience to overcome these complications concrete poetry and the reliance on structivists and Systems artists. Rather can show how well you’re doing at it.” through Abstract Expressionism like mathematical formula were responses than avoiding subjective aesthetic ( Willys de Castro, Folha da Noite, 1959 ) many of their European and North to the over-determined developments choices altogether, his method os American counterparts, the Neocon occurring in art at that point. The cillates between the system and added The paintings of Andrew Bick can per- cretists found remedy in chance, attempt to eliminate arbitrariness and gestural brushstrokes that subvert it. haps best be described as contradictory a method that had already been dis subjectivity of artistic choices and It is a practice that departs from constructivist. They overtly refer to covered and applied by Dadaism. aesthetic decisions was also a reaction certainty, yet simultaneously problem- historical Constructivism and Concrete Whereas the principles of chance are to the hierarchical political systems atises and contradicts it. It may be Art, while at the same time subverting highly rational and stochastic, its of that time. British Construction artists for this reason that Bick has not exhib- the rigid divisions between the different results can never be foreseen. One im- such as Victor Pasmore, Kenneth and ited his own work alongside British camps existing at the time, such as portant landmark of this movement Mary Martin or Anthony Hill continued Systems artists in his practice as a cur- construction vs. composition or the grid was the 1959 “Book-Poem” exhibition, in to use mathematical permutations ator, because they are ultimately vs. gesture. Bick’s interest in the which works by Lygia Pape, Ferreira in their work, which permitted them to concerned with different problems. British successors of Constructivism, Gullar, Willys de Castro, Reynaldo Jardim avoid dependency and to originate new Bick’s method thus dwells in Con namely Construction and Systems and Theon Spanúdis were shown. and unexpected outcomes. Or as struction, yet comments on it from a Art, is not only mirrored in his works, On this occasion, Gullar, the author of the British Systems artist Peter Lowe said metaperspective, and is in that sense but also in his activity as a curator. “Neoconcretist Manifesto” from the about syntactic art in an interview from also deliberately contradictory. Curiously enough, the British Con- same year, introduced concrete poetry 2005, referring to a quote by William structivist artists are not as acknow- to Brazilian Constructivism. In the Blake: “I must create a system or be a In Brazil, the Neoconcretist movement ledged as their Russian, Swiss and exhibition, he presented the results of slave to another man’s.” 3 had a strong effect on subsequent Brazilian equivalents. Today, especially his experiments with poems and their artistic production, an effect that lasts Brazilian Concretists and Neocon visual and syntactic order. The artists The system Andrew Bick developed until today, whereas equivalent British cretists such as Hélio Oiticica, Lygia treated book pages as ready-mades for his painterly process takes its artists have neither received the same Pape and Lygia Clark have gained and by relying on chance, new poems departure from his own recent work. attention nor wielded the same in widespread recognition. Whereas the were created and subsequently integ- He digitalises grids that consist of fluence. This has many reasons,one of influence of artists like Max Bill and rated in their works, one important mainly triangular outlines from his paint which may have to do with the impact Richard Lohse on these movements is example of which are Willys de Castro’s ings, and uses them as base for new of Abstract Expressionism and the well known and documented, British “Cartazes-poemas” (Poster-Poems) works. While projecting the grid on the so-called Britart of the 1990s. However, Constructivist artists have seldom from 1959. undercoat of a new painting, he copies it seems important to re consider Con exhibited alongside them. This essay the lines onto its surface. Subsequently, structivist and Systems Art today and will look at some convergences At the time, Constructivists were he paints over a number of them and to re-think their positioning within art between historical Constructivism and also experimenting with mathematical creates new fields within the grid, history. For instance, one can draw more recent artistic productions, systems. Starting from a set of rules, some of which are translucent, others an immediate connection between the connecting these to British Construc- they allowed for coincidence to create opaque. The rigid method of the grid beginnings of socially and politically tion and Systems Art and to Bick’s new configurations that they would configures a system that hence allows engaged Russian and European Con sustained interest in this field. not have conceived themselves, structivism that aimed at merging art and and that were to be free of style and 2 T. J. Demos (2005), Zurich Dada: The Aesthetics of Exile, life, to Neoconcrete and British Systems in eds. Leah Dickerman & Matthew S. Witkovsky, The Dada In the 1950s, the Neoconcrete move- the artist’s personal handwriting. Seminars, Washington: National Gallery of Art, p. 22. Art that forthrightly engage the viewer. ment in Brazil and the British Systems 3 Peter Lowe interviewed by Alan Fowler, PhD research This thought shall be further developed 1 Ferreira Gullar (1959), Neoconcretist Manifesto, October 69 student, Southampton University (2005). Retrieved from artists were distancing themselves (Summer 1994), p. 91 – 95. www.peterllowe.plus.com/pages/page1.html, 23 March 2013. in the following passages of this text. Both Brazilian Neoconcretists and surface, and which can be seen through separation of a performer from [ the ] to accomplish, was still on the Neo British Constructivists considered art the sometimes more, sometimes less audience, or creator and spectator, concretist agenda. Perhaps most to be in a crisis during Modernism. translucent layers of material. For that of life and art (…).” 5 strikingly, the relation between painting, Artists were increasingly exploring the reason, the timely dimension of ex sculpture and poetry that British possibilities of making art outside periencing art is pivotal for his work. Only five years later, Hélio Oiticica would Construction artists are interested in, of traditional media and categories. The different layers of paint, marker pen introduce his concept of the “supra and the dissolution of the object in Process art and the “Theory of the and wax create a depth that can never sensorial” as “an attempt to generate process art, performance or con Non-Object” from Gullar 4 were be perceived simultaneously, but only creative exercises through increas- temporary relational art were already influential during that time. As much as in a timely successive progression, ingly open propositions, dispensing being addressed then. Neoconcretists relied on chance thus requiring a different agency on with even the object as it has come to and concrete poetry to affect artistic behalf of the spectator. be categorized. These are not painting- As has been shown, besides the inter- production and to eliminate all sculpture-poem fusions, palpable sections of mathematical systems personal handwriting, they were also Departing from Construction, a con- works, though they may exhibit this and chance in Neoconcrete, Construc- aiming at activating the viewers by nection can even be established aspect; they are directed at the senses tion and Systems Art, the spectatorial releasing them from their contemplative to socially engaged art and practices in order that, through them, through agency is a crucial connecting link passive position. De Castro’s “Objetos that require the participation of ‘total perception’, they may lead the between them. Andrew Bick’s work as ativos” (Active objects ) are specific the audience today. At the time of individual to a ‘suprasensation’, to the an artist and as a curator brings ally interesting in this context: he de Castro’s “Objetos ativos” and expansion of his usual sensory capa these strands together. His work offers addressed the problems of the two- Gullar’s experiments with concrete cities […], linked to the quotidian.” 6 a contemporary meta-perspective, dimensional surface and real depth by poetry, Lygia Clark was developing The ultimate goal was for spectators while he continues his research into the considering the edges of his paint- her “Bichos” (Creatures). These to be fully activated through art by potentialities of constructive art. ings and making these usually neglected moveable aluminium sculptures are involving all of their senses. The social With that said, as active engagement of areas central elements of his work. the result of her research into the dimension of integrating art and life, the audience remains a relevant aspect The “Objetos ativos” were intended as deconstruction of the elements of which historical Constructivists aimed in contemporary art today, the his a direct appeal to the viewer. A spec- traditional painting. The “Bichos” 5 George Maciunas (1962), Neo-Dada in Music, Theater, torical correlations between Brazilian tator could no longer stand before the consist only of the elements of line, Poetry, Art, in eds. Charles Harrison & Paul J. Wood, Art in Constructivist and Neoconcrete art Theory 1900 – 2000: An Anthology of Changing Ideas, 2002, artwork and only see it from the frontal plane and surface. The planes are p. 729. Maciunas again describes the mathematical framework and the British Construction and plane, but had to move around it in connected through hinges and can be or method as crucial for creating concrete art: “Further depar- Systems artists touched on in this text ture from [the] artificial world of abstraction is affected by order to experience it fully. Likewise, moved by the spectator, thus creating the concept of indeterminacy and improvisation. Since artifici- deserve genuine re-evaluation. ality implies human pre-determination, contrivance, a truer the relationship between painting, different shapes and constellations. concretist rejects pre-determination of final form in order to sculpture and architecture is vital for Depth and the play between varying perceive the reality of nature, the course of which, like that Stefanie Hessler is a curator and writer based in Germany of man himself is largely indeterminate and unpredictable. and Sweden. She has curated exhibitions such as British Constructivists such as Hill surfaces, at times covering a plane and Thus an indeterminate composition approaches greater con- “Love Triangle” at the Goethe-Institut & Instituto Cervantes, or Systems artists such as Steele. at other times revealing it, function cretism by allowing nature [to] complete its form in its own Stockholm; “Thinking and Speaking” at Galerie Nordenhake, course. This requires the composition to provide a kind of Stockholm; “The Return of the Object” at Invaliden1, Berlin; As for Bick, he aims to create real space similarly to Bick’s multi-layered paint- framework, an “automatic machine” within which or by which, “Performing Recalcitrance” at the Royal Institute of Art, nature (either in the form of an independent performer or Stockholm; “Marjetica Potrcˇ. Caracas: Dry Toilet” at in his works rather than the illusion of ings. Most importantly, the research indeterminate-chance compositional methods) can complete Die Ecke Arte Contemporáneo in Santiago de Chile; and depth. As a result, the three-dimensio by Clark, Oiticica and Pape at the time the artform, effectively and independently of the artist- contributed to “Contaminaciones Contemporáneas” at composer. Thus the primary contribution of a truly concrete the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago de Chile. nality of his paintings is composed of was concerned with the active artist consists in creating a concept or a method by which Hessler holds a Master of Arts degree in Curating Art actual space, of objects such as paint engagement of the audience, rather form can be created independently of him, rather than the form from Stockholm University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree or structure. Like a mathematical solution such a composition from Zeppelin University in Germany. and material that are added onto the than contemplative reflection. Here contains a beauty in the method alone.” George Maciunas (1962), Neo-Dada in Music, Theater, Poetry, Art, in eds. 4 Ferreira Gullar (2007), Experiência neoconcreta: momento- again, the intersection between con- Charles Harrison & Paul J. Wood, Art in Theory 1900 – 2000: limite da arte, São Paulo: Cosac Naify. Gullar argued that crete art and Dada is striking. As An Anthology of Changing Ideas, 2002, p. 728 – 729. by rejecting the frame in their works, artists such as Kazimir 6 Hélio Oiticica (1967), Appearance of the Supra-Sensorial, Malevich and Piet Mondrian abandoned fictional space George Maciunas writes in an essay in eds. Guy Brett, Catherine David, Chris Dercon, Luciano and entered into real space. Kurt Schwitter’s “Merzbau” is an- from 1962, both movements were Figueiredo and Lygia Pape, Hélio Oiticica, Minneapolis: other example of how the division between fictional, illusive Walker Art Center and Rotterdam: Witte de With Center space and real, everyday space was overcome. directed “(…) against the artificial for Contemporary Art, 1993, p. 130. New and Recent Works von Bartha Garage, Basel 2008

Slow Magic

The Bluecoat, Liverpool 2009

Systems for Hesitation

Hales Gallery, London 2009 School Studies: New Work and Selected Works, 1993 onwards von Bartha Garage, Basel 2012 LITHO I 0

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Trauser-Shirth [ faded ] Variant t-s [ linen ] B l I

OGV [ Memory ] I

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OGV [spider] B OGV [spider] Dirty C t

Memory Farm Variant t-s [linen] F d-s '

OGVDS-VAR [compendium] 1 OGVDS-VAR [compendium] 2 Variant t-s [linen] E Mirror Variant [t-s] canvas OGVDS [detail] C OGVDS [detail] A Variant t-s [linen] doubled Exit Variant [tilted] A OGVDS 75% [Ghost] #2 OGVDS 75 % [Ghost] #3 Two Part Drawing, Balinskelligs/London, 2006/09 #12 2006/2011 Variant t-s [flat and tilted] Index OGVDS-VAR [compendium] Two Part Drawing, #2 Balinskelligs/London 2011 – 2012 2006/2009 Trauser-Shirth [faded] 76 × 64 × 3 cm each 38 × 48 cm projected variant acrylic, oil paint, pencil, acrylic, marker pen, pencil, 2008 watercolour and wax watercolour on glassine 135 × 100 × 4 cm on linen on wood and cut paper acrylic, pencil, oil paint, watercolour and wax on wood Variant t-s [linen] E #12 2006/2011 2010 31 × 41 cm Variant t-s [linen] B 135 × 100 × 4 cm acrylic, marker pen, pencil, 2008 acrylic, charcoal, marker pen, ink and water colour 135 × 100 × 4 cm watercolour and wax on cut paper acrylic, pencil, oil paint, on linen on wood watercolour and wax Variant t-s [flat and tilted] on linen on wood Mirror Variant 135 × 100 × 4 cm 2008 – 2012 acrylic, oil paint, pencil, OGV [Memory] two panels, each watercolour and wax 2008 135 × 100 × 4 cm on linen on wood 76 × 64 × 3 cm left: oil paint on acrylic, pencil, oil paint, CNC machined Perspex watercolour and wax on linen right: acrylic, oil paint, pencil on wood and watercolour and wax on canvas OGV [mirror-shift] 2008 – 2009 OGVDS [detail] C two panels, each 2012 135 × 100 × 4 cm 76 × 64 × 3 cm left: marker pen on Perspex acrylic, oil paint, pencil, right: marker pen, pencil, watercolour and wax oil paint and wax on linen on wood on linen on wood OGVDS [detail] A OGV [spider] B 2012 2008 – 2009 76 × 64 × 3 cm 76 × 64 × 3 cm acrylic, pencil, oil paint, acrylic, pencil, oil paint, watercolour and wax watercolour and wax on linen on wood on linen on wood Variant t-s [linen] doubled OGV [double spider] Dirty C 2012 2008 – 2009 200 × 135 × 4 cm 76.5 × 63.5 × 3 cm acrylic, charcoal, pencil, marker pen, oil paint, oil paint, watercolour and wax pencil, watercolour and on linen on wood wax on canvas Exit Variant [tilted] A Memory Farm 2012 2008 – 2009 138 × 122 × 4 cm 189 × 200 × 16 cm acrylic, charcoal, oil paint, acrylic, marker pen, pencil and pencil, watercolour and wax Perspex on wood on linen on wood

Variant t-s [linen] F d-s OGVDS 75% [Ghost] #2 2010 – 2012 2012 135 × 100 × 4 cm 57 × 45 × 3cm acrylic, charcoal, oil paint, acrylic, pencil, oil paint, pencil, marker pen, water- watercolour and wax colour and wax on wood on linen on wood OGVDS 75% [Ghost] #3 OGVDS-VAR [compendium] 2012 #1 57 × 45 × 3 cm 2011-12 acrylic, pencil, oil paint, 76 × 64 × 3 cm watercolour and wax on wood acrylic, oil paint, pencil, watercolour and wax on linen on wood School Studies: Ghosts, Arguments

Hales Gallery, London 2012

• .· . . • -• ( - School Studies: An Architectural Problem von Bartha Chesa, S-chanf 2013

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Andrew Bick, Studio London, 2013 Andrew Bick and David Thorp: DT: But you made this commitment to AB: I think the interesting thing about painterly way, where the forms are studio conversations 2012 – 2013 abstraction very early on, Jasper Johns is also for me what is suggesting an illusion of space, interesting about Robert Ryman, which so that they move back and forwards David Thorp: It seems to me that the AB: yes … is that the attention to the surface of in relation to each other within the abstraction that you have developed things is also about how those things paintings, rather than the earlier has been to one side of the mainstream DT: … right from the outset, and why to ( objects ) interrogate themselves. works which sat solidly, more in real conversation on abstract art, that it you think that was? So typically in Jasper Johns, where you space than these do. has been following a slightly different might have something like a ruler that trajectory. What do you think? AB: Because, in terms of what fun has been screwed down to the surface AB: Yes I think that is absolutely true. damentally interests me, which is of the painting and swished through I think that what’s happened is that Andrew Bick: I think I’ve quite deli paying attention to a visual object in a quarter turn in order to make a smear in those earlier ones, with the building berately looked at certain things back space, it seems to be the most viable in the still wet paint, he is creating up of layers, there was always a sense to front. To start with, when I was way to deal with how that process something which works as a narrative that, like looking in to a frozen pond, first studying there was a moment when worked. If something is going to have of materials, it’s not a narrative in the details got more obscured the deeper a lot of the old ideological hegemonies an object quality and sit on a wall figurative tradition of generating images through the layers your eye penetrated. in British Art Schools started being then I felt abstraction was a little bit like which tell a story. And yes I think that I wanted to start to analyse what dismantled. So at a point when I was the function of poetry within language. this interests me a great deal. that visual process was. I subsequently graduating many people were saying It was something where the syntax found myself coming back to what abstraction was over. I was very could be stripped right down and re DT: But the paintings you are making could seem more like traditional paint- aware people like myself had to find assembled. For me the commitment to now don’t have that same sort of mater- ing or more like composition, where a new way to address it, on the basis that way of thinking has never gone iality that the ones you were making in that element of visually piercing layers that I felt strongly it was still worth away. I’ve always needed to evaluate, the 90s do. These paintings we are is stripped out, or partially blocked doing. Also, as many of my teachers reconsider and renegotiate what looking at in the studio are all painted or sometimes completely obscured. were Constructivists, I saw myself, that rootedness in object qualities on canvas are they not? More contradictions come in to play when I graduated, as an artist making meant for me, set against everything in these newer paintings, so that what constructions. I was told by many else that was going on. AB: They’re canvas over wood, but there would be optically the furthest part people, after finishing my Masters two are also some new paintings which are of the image in terms of its colour tem- years later, that the territory between DT: Well let’s talk about the object just plywood panels, so these would be perature or quasi-perspectival position painting and sculpture that I occupied nature of the paintings, because in the most like the earlier work you were is often, conversely, the nearest ele- was a way of being indecisive, that I your earlier works, ( those ones we’re talking about. The big difference is that ment physically, because it is thickest ought to make up my mind up to commit looking at reproductions of here ) I no longer make them as deep box layer of the painting. Everything that to one or the other … so a lot of what which had pigmented wax layered on sections and I no longer paint around was built up in the earlier work has been was regarded by me as the automatic wood, they had a substantial physical the sides. So the attention has shifted broken down and reassembled; in es- route to understanding what I was doing bulk. They were things in a world of completely to questioning the frontal sence, the fact that they then look more artistically was being swept aside in other things and that makes me think, address of a painting. like a conventional painting is a nice the 1980s. Then I went through early stu- of course, of Jasper Johns and the irony. But there are always caveats. dio life in London at a point (1991– 94 ) way in which he was using encaustic DT: OK, so, in which case then, (as I There is a sense in which I enjoy the when people like Peter Doig were doing and the way in which he was making remember from the early paintings you uncertainty, I enjoy the doubt, so something incredibly new for many his two dimensional images into three would look into them, so that the sur- that whereas in order to establish one- people, which also became incredibly dimensional things. I can still see face would dissolve into other layers self as an artist one needs to say popular, very, very quickly; as a result something of his attention to surface in as you looked through them) with these ‘this is how I see it, this is how it is’, I had to take a hard look at myself, the way that you deal with surface. we are looking at in the studio today I’m trying to take on board the instabil- and reconsider what was essential to Do you think that’s a fair observation, the surface functions in a very different ity of the process of realising work what I did. a fair question? way, maybe, one might say, in a more as part of how it is finished. DT: So when I think about those things, tionship between how he placed him- around how it is received by an audience tackling intractable problems, I see I suppose it comes back to one’s own self and the fractious contradictory and who the audience for it might be. a very difficult human ambition in her background, one’s own tastes and so on nature of the development of construc How important is that to you? writing. but thinking about the object nature tivism within Europe. I have been doing of painting and the way in which surface quite a bit of research on the parallels AB: I think it is very important. DT: Being an abstract artist through works and the way in which illusion between Dada and Constructivism and the 90s, and in the last twenty years has works in painting I’m always drawn back how they might have affected post- DT: So in a way you’re going back to not been a very easy position to be in. to Post Abstract Expressionist painters war Constructivism, particularly figures the age-old thing that one of the I would say that a lot of the time the and the way they thought about their like Anthony Hill, in terms of British reasons you are being an artist is that attention has been elsewhere, with dif- work. But it seems to me that although Art, who has a Dadaist alter ego, Achill you want to communicate. Because ferent kinds of art making. But now you’re demonstrating an understanding Redo. Those paradigms, if you like, people say art’s all about communica- it seems to me that there has for a little and recognition of that in your work based on contradiction, based on a tion and sometimes I wonder about while been a reappraisal of what it maybe you are right that you are more pendulum between positions or on how true that is? means to make abstract images of one aligned with an understanding that holding multiple positions at the same kind or another. I think that your paint- comes out of the Constructivists and time (some of which may be hidden) AB: In a way that idea of communi ings are challenging paintings. When Mondrian in Europe. What do you think? are very important to my work … cation in and of itself is utterly banal. you talk about the contradictions Here again I think Van Doesburg is a I am involved in teaching, I give lec- between wide sensibility and elitism, AB: I would agree, but I also think that supreme example … and all of this tures, I curate, so in those terms that’s not something (although I think of the American artists, the most interests me because it gives some- I guess I communicate a lot. There are about it) that really worries me very important and interesting for me, from thing on which I can build a base I certain things, however, which can’t much, because I think that as I get older very early on, has been Ad Reinhardt. find both vital and viable, from which I be easily communicated, and certain I become more selfish in my desire I also think Reinhardt is much misun feel I can continue to address the things, which are too difficult to com for what I get back from art and I want derstood. He was contrary, he was struggles that we deal with now. municate. In a sense, that is where to look at art that is challenging and supremely an intellectual in his approach art has a role, to visually contain these takes me to places I’ve not been to be- to visual art and he understood that DT: Which are? uncommunicable elements. Self- fore. One thing that is interesting about the value of contradiction is primarily as evidently the most interesting artists your work, although it’s using a lan- a means of sharpening thought. That AB: To do with attention, fundament- of the past are usually struggling guage with which one is familiar, never- places him outside the way most people ally. I think it’s bigger than that, but with something for a whole career, the theless is does something with that understand the American development the question as to why should anyone fight for clarity, in those terms, isn’t which seems to take abstract painting/ of abstraction as a whole. So that, engage with this, with an art object, just about being a good communicator, abstract object making in to a new for example, Reinhardt’s idea of repeat- and why it might be worth the experi- it’s about continually asking what realm. As I am looking at these painting the same painting over and over ence of extended looking, has then communication is for. Something re ings now I am just trying to put my again is something that intrigues me a got to relate to the ambiguous status lated to this I have just been re-reading finger on what that is and it’s partly the great deal. All of the work I have been that any work of art has in the world. was Jon Thompson’s essay for way one responds to their aesthetic making since around 2008 repeats two I am talking about the kind of age- ‘Gravity and Grace’. That exhibition was presence. different compositional structures from old dynamics of the way some things important to me as a student, but I earlier works. These paintings never are apparently available to all and am also a huge admirer of Simone Weil, AB: I suppose two things came into will look anything like an Ad Reinhardt, some might only seem to serve a nar- who the title was taken from. You my mind as you were saying that; one is but the position and the thinking, Rein- row elite. can’t get a more forceful and contra- the idea which a lot of the older Con- hardt’s almost theological approach dictory character in terms of twentieth struction and Systems artists I have to making abstraction (and of course DT: You were mentioning contradic- century thought and philosophy than been talking to think of a lot, which is one of his closest friends was the tions in relation to Reinhardt, is Simone Weil, but in the end I would facture, touch, and the other is what Catholic Monk Thomas Merton), intri that what you see as the fundamental agree with Jon Thompson that you have Jeffrey Steel talks about in particular as gues me, as, of course, does the rela- contradiction in making art, that is to respect and admire her tenacity in material syntax, a syntactical art. Now within a systematic Modernist with the grid’ and then I absolutely of complementary colours, which then The approach to the painting would approach these ideas are clearly have to deal with the grid. Or someone have to be adjusted so that they are by then have been defined by the idea aligned to how such a system operates might see a work when it is simply a not quite right. of adjustment. in determining the work’s final out- layer of watercolour and say, ‘don’t do come, but coming from the generation any more to that, it’s fantastic like DT: So when you adjust them and they DT: The other thing, of course, is that I come from and aware of the diffi- that’ and then I absolutely have to do are then ‘not quite right’, what is it I would describe these as formal culties that my generation encounters, something to it … about them that is not quite right, that paintings. A formal painting, when you there is always a sense of knowing what needs adjusting? look at it, comes together as a unified the caveats are, having to deal with DT: So you are contrary then by nature whole and then we say ‘oh this painting checks and balances. From my point of and that contrariness takes you to AB: I suppose I am talking about a kind works’, when we look at it, because it view, when I am paying close attention places where you are unsure of the of imbalance, which is nevertheless is functioning formally. What interests to what I am doing, it is as selfish as outcome. precise. That’s the best way I can define me about these is that they do work the way you describe your process of it. If a painting is working it needs to on a formal level for me but I wouldn’t viewing. This form of attention is AB: Yes, that would be my resistance have some sort of node or hinge or put them in the formalist camp. something that I respect, in that if I am to working within a system. I have point or maybe two points, which hold I wouldn’t categorise them as formalist going into a museum or any kind of never been a systematic artist myself the whole thing together, but only paintings and as I am looking at them exhibition, even an art fair, there are but I could also never completely be just … And this painting has/is being I am wondering to myself why exactly certain visual qualities I am looking for a gestural or intuitive painter because re-worked … It was shown in ART that is, because they are not Modernist which I can’t quite define until I see I would be frustrated with the ease Basel in 2010 and I asked for it back paintings and yet they contain a lot them, but yet indicate something of the of it either way, once I had got in to the because I wasn’t pleased with it and of the conditions or conventions that mind of the artist, perhaps an alert- flow of that way of working. I guess I am often happier when one might apply to Modernism. ness to the problematic nature of pro- I am attacking an old painting that What I am trying to ask myself as I look jecting a new object into the world … DT: Well let’s talk a little bit about in- I wasn’t convinced by … It’s at a point at them is what it is about them that And these are qualities which require tuition then and the place that has now where it has almost come to a makes them Postmodernist rather than a process of endless correction; ‘no, in your painting. Looking at this paint- new sense of poise, but as I am working Modernist and I can’t quite put my not this’ … ‘no, not that’, ‘that will need ing on the wall at the moment, which on it I start to remember more and finger on it … it’s something to do with revising’ … ‘that will need adjusting’ … has a lot of different colours in it, more things that I did before in other the way they look. In a sense, for me this connects to the tell me a little bit about how you arrive works, more and more solutions that obsession with taking materials in a at those colours? emerged before … and those solutions AB: I think it is a number of things, but very wide scope and trying to put them get quoted or even corrected and to start with there are an awful lot together within a complex material AB: There is a counterpoint going on adjusted. So by then, if it is an intuit- of abstract painters around now who syntax. This is probably the way into of ‘not quite complementary colour’. ive process, it’s a very composite are doing things with triangles, so what I am thinking about, the way There’s also sense in which I am quot- form of intuition, which gives me the there is a lot of making paintings out of into what I am trying to do with this ing with colour, and at that point I question in my own mind, how facets, and I think that comes from work … Once that making process am thinking about some of the more many times can you revise an intuition various sources … With the increasing starts to gel, the paintings can be very crazy beliefs that Mondrian had, for before it doesn’t become intuitive sophistication of computer program- accessible, very seductive pieces of example his belief that he couldn’t use but systematic? ming you can take any almost any work, but there will always be a sense in pure colour in Neoplasticism, he had form and turn it in to a faceted structure which there is a problem interwoven to cut it with white, because pure colour DT: So if that would be the case and rather like something that Buckminster within them, because that is how they would somehow blow people’s minds, it then became systematic, would that Fuller might have taken months and were thought of and how they emerged. that when they looked at the paintings be a problem, would that worry you? months to work out how to do. And then So quite frequently I will have works it would be too much. In a way, I am there is a sense in which when notions in their early stages in the studio and against setting up easy binaries, but I AB: It wouldn’t worry me at all at that of faceted space don’t quite work, or someone might say to me ‘don’t deal am quite happy to put together set-ups point, because of its roots in a method. when they are done in a very crude way, as in some early Russian Constructivist DT: Yes the difference with the one we AB: I would say it really is not a worry or a clear set of contradictions, or painting and drawing, they are special spoke of earlier that you have been for me. More than that it is something within themselves a sense of having for some other reason. I am interested reworking and this new work seems to to play with, to savour. And with achieved an ability to elbow those in all those sources, but not so much be in the way you have considered this work in we have been discussing things aside and have the ability to just because I want to follow them, the the surface of these two paintings, and in particular and with the two un be what they are. attraction is to highlight the problems it is largely to do with the way in which finished ones to its right, which are with them for contemporary percep- you have attended to the surface on obviously much rougher looking DT: Well let’s think about that a little bit tion. There is always a self conscious this new one … it’s a really lovely paint- and much more … then. So if they’re not succeeding desire in my work seize on the prob- ing now I am looking closely at it … they lack a clear set of problems, they lem something might generate, but DT: … and closer to what I think of as lack a clear set of contradictions that cheerfully, with a sense that it is actu- AB: Great! your work … would enable them to be what they ally fun, that there is pleasure in are. That’s what you said more or less? something which upsets its own solem- DT: But it’s far simpler in its appear- AB: Yes, but with all three, they are OK the first two points I understand, nity, which can enjoy the ridiculous. ance than any other painting in details, zoomed in sections of the but this business of them being what That makes me think that someone like this studio now, but it seems to me same grid structure that has been used they are, I don’t fully understand Rene Daniels, with his spatial config that you’re leaving quite a lot of things on all the paintings of this size. The what you mean by that. Do you mean uration based on a bowtie, is as inter- behind, which are to do with a very difference between this approach and that in the old formalist sense that esting as Van Doesburg, but people concrete sense of the object nature of a reductive work is that the perverse they would just exude their presence as who like one don’t necessarily put him painting. This one would seem me system that I am using to make these a thing in the world whether we were in the same context as the other. Rene to be a less concrete statement, in terms gives me permission to focus at will here to look at it or not? Daniels’ importance was to do with of its physical substance than any on sections or details, as a result the new figuration that was emerging in other painting here and its aesthetic of which each is not a distillation or AB: Yes I think that is right, in an old the early 1980s, I am more interested dimension is perhaps heightened essence but a section. I am interested formalist sense that is something that in how he liberated an older artist such as a result. Would you agree with that? in extracting elements from my work I would subscribe to absolutely. as Raoul De Keyser … but then I start at particular moments, as in the I think, however, it’s always cut through to think back to the whole root of Dutch AB: I would agree with everything you way that particular painting is, because or layered with doubt for me. painting and to Van Doesburg and have seen in this painting but only I have won myself the freedom to Mondrain’s place in that … I suppose add one thing, and that is that its com- do that out of everything else that is what might make these paintings of plexity is offstage… in my work. So the two aspects of com- mine Postmodern more than anything plexity and reduction or detail are is the way that my mind is spinning DT: No that’s right … inseparable. There can be no concern around references and ideas in the way with becoming gradually ‘purer’ or that this answer implies. Multi-layered AB: … and that is very, very deliberate. ‘clearer’, but always, however, a need thinking somehow manifests itself in to ask myself the sharpest questions the way the paintings are. DT: Agreed, so its complexity is I can about why something is the offstage and so are you returning to way it is. What relates to that, too, is DT: And I suppose another thing is that a Modernist frame of mind, where that works get re-worked because they you are not reducing down, you are what appears is a reductive essence seem to need it, out of a sort of dis- building up and so they become more of what is internalised, what is within, satisfaction more than faith in intuition. complex as … but then that one and even if you were, does it matter over there, is that finished at the back? these days, whether we are concerned DT: What does that mean though? with these Modernist, Postmodernist, AB: Yes I have finished with that paint- Post-postmodernist categories AB: What it means is that initially they ing, it’s very new but … at all? lacked either a clear set of problems DT: I’d like to ask you more about your ‘cabinet…’ idea in that it involved a role as a curator. Because one of the range of artists from Annelies Štrba to things I have noticed about when Tal R, to Philip Akkerman to AK Dolven artists curate exhibitions is that they and myself. So again I was putting almost always follow the model of myself into the exhibition, but in 2009 the ‘cabinet of curiosities’, a mix and with ‘The North Sea’ and 2010 with match of objects and ideas and so on. ‘Construction & its Shadow’ at Leeds It’s very unusual, in my experience Art Gallery I was very specifically for an artist to curate a solo exhibition narrowing down an area to do with my of another artist but you have done own roots in the constructive tradition that with your recent exhibition of and how they might make sense in Norman Dilworth. What I found interest- a current context. In both exhibitions ing about that and the ideas that you there was no need to include my talked about with your exhibition ‘The own work. Going back to a comment North Sea’ is that not only is it unusual I made earlier about how one looks for an artist to have this approach at art and what it is one is looking for in but that also you are using it to explore art, the idea of identifying affinities your ideas about Constructivism and in a range of artists’ work and joining that whole area of art practice. these through the exhibition format is also something I see as political … AB: Yes I do think so, for me to work politics, in this sense, being about as a curator is about trying to set an interpreting the contemporary situation agenda. What you describe as a cabinet in relation to a new understanding of curiosities, which I would also de- of its historical context and precedents. scribe as an artist trying to be a good host, like if they were throwing a DT: OK, so let’s talk a little bit more party and demonstrating their excellent about these ideas you have around taste in music by doing a turn as a DJ contradiction. You talked about ( or its equivalent in art ) … rather than Reinhardt when we met before and at doing that, I have tried to make exhibi- that point you were discussing him tions which follow through an argument. repeating the same painting again The first public scale one I made and again and how interesting you saw was about abstraction and was at the that to be as part of a wider practice, invitation of GoMA Glasgow, who his politics etc., and later on you re- had bought a work of mine for their ferred to Simone Weil and her thought collection and started the conversation and philosophy. It seems to me there along the lines of “Well nobody is are contradictions thrown up by these doing much in the way of exhibitions of two people, by Dada-Constructivism, abstract art at the moment. We like the formal and the spontaneous, the your work and want you to make an ex- considered and the immediate and hibition which will somehow put it I wonder what kind of bearing all this into a context.” That was in 2002. I then has on your work. Some of these didn’t do another project of that kind things must connect to Simone Weil’s until 2006, which was a bit more like the thought around ideas of aestheticism in relation to the political and of course DT: So to wind up, I have written a AB: … yes, for me the echo of these mysticism, but within your own work, trajectory of artists here, Van Doesburg, artists in my work comes from my in- these kinds of influences, this kind Mondrian, Kenneth and Mary Martin, terest in extracting and analysing of dichotomy that exists between the Anthony Hill, Raoul De Keyser, Rene elements of my practice at particular spontaneous and the strategic, Daniels … as artists who, amongst moments, because I have won my- how do you think these elements gel others, you have cited as being inter- self the freedom to do that out of and would you say that the absurd esting to you, important to you and everything else that I work on including man ifests itself in anything that you I have written a note to myself here, curating. So the two aspects of com- do? ‘what does this tell us about AB’ and plexity and reduction or detail are I wondered if you might find a way inseparable. In this practice there is AB: I think it does, but I am producing to sum this interview up by reflecting no concern, there can be no concern, a body of work that is largely integrated on that … it’s a very interesting line up with becoming gradually ‘purer’ or despite being a restless person. of artists I think. ‘clearer’. Contradiction is the best way I produce work that has a component to explain my alternative to the urge that I would describe as contemplative, AB. There are other people I would to reduce or find the essence of some- but which is informed by impatience. mention that you haven’t put in there, thing. There is always, however, a So on one hand there is this widening I would also add Helmut Federle, need to ask myself the sharpest ques- out into a lot of other activities in terms but just in terms of making a balanced tions I can about why work is the of curating, writing, teaching, lecturing, group the logical people to add way it is. but on the other there is this need would be Sophie Taeuber-Arp and for silence, and for an art activity which Mary Heilmann. David Thorp is an independent curator and founder of The Performance Studio. Recently he has worked as Interim is very intense and direct and focused Director at Modern Art Oxford and before that at London’s on the making of material objects.When DT: Oh right, Mary Heilmann, yes … Institute of Contemporary Art. He was formerly Curator of GSK Contemporary at the Royal Academy, Curator of I started to think, as an undergraduate, Contemporary Projects at the Henry Moore Foundation, and Director of the South London Gallery. He was a member about what might be left of Modernism AB: But as a line of artists, this of the Turner Prize jury in 2004. it seemed that if I could find the perfect for me reflects something important combination of both gesture and because each one could be seen, grid, the spontaneous and disciplined, at certain moments in their work, to that then I would have a way forward. be more recent or contemporary It became clear that that was an in development than any of the others. incredibly naïve approach, and I think That suggests a kind of a historical what has come about subsequently phenomena within abstraction, which, in my work is an awareness that those in my position as artist, proposes positions do not make an obvious porous relationships and progressions binary that can always operate, instead between the Modern, Postmodern the elements of the disciplined and and Post-postmodern. I also think that spontaneous end up switching around, ideas of endlessly correcting things are so gesture can be incredibly strategic at the core of it. None of these artists and a grid spontaneous and so on … are straightforward … But what is interesting for me is the continual activity of shifting positions DT: … they all have their dichotomies or creating a position that is at variance and contradictions. Some of them with itself. It is art that simply has to I know better that others but they all keep moving, has to keep adjusting. operate on more than one front … Artist Biography Solo exhibitions Selected Group Exhibitions Curated Exhibitions & Projects since 2008 since 2008

2012 – 2013 2013 A Sort of Night to the Mind 2012 School Studies: • system • painting A Kind of Night for our Exchanges around Construction An Architectural Problem • construction • archive Thoughts, Illusion and Material- 43 Whitfield St, London von Bartha Chesa, S-chanf, Lion+Lamb Gallery, London ity in Contemporary Painting for Derwent London Switzerland Artists: Andrew Bick, Herbert Read Gallery, Cullinan Richards, Stuart Eliot, Canterbury 2011 2012 Robert Holyhead, Clare The Conversation School Studies: Kenney, Maria Lalic, Karim Slow Magic Galerie Von Bartha, Basel An Architectural Problem Noureldin, David Rhodes, The Bluecoat, Liverpool Artists: Anthony Hill, INDEX Gallery, Stroud Brandon Taylor Artists: Andrew Bick, Rafal Peter Lowe, Jeffrey Steele, Bujnowski, Tomory Dodge, Gillian Wise School Studies: Drawing Biennial 2013 Vincent Falsetta, Henriette Ghosts, Arguments Drawing Room, London Grahnert, Alicia Paz Norman Dilworth Hales Gallery, London Turnpike Gallery, Leigh, 2012 On the Fractured Stage Greater Manchester, School Studies: Off the Beaten Track of the Book Huddersfield Art Gallery Recent Work and Selected Work von Bartha Garage, Basel Eagle Gallery, London since 1993 2010 – 2011 von Bartha, Basel Ha Ha What Does Drawing Biennial 2009 Construction & its Shadow This Represent Drawing Room, London Leeds Art Gallery 2010 Standpoint Gallery, London [as part of Henry Moore Anthony Hill, Peter Lowe, Curators: Katrina Blannin, 2008 Institute research fellowship] Jeffrey Steele, Gillian Wise Francesca Simon Refractions/Shadows Savage School Artists: Andrew Bick, Matthew Lemon St Gallery, Truro 2009 Window Gallery Collings and Emma Biggs, Kat- Curator: Mel Gooding The North Sea Vyner St, London rina Blannin, Hazel Chalk, Ben Artists: Grechten Albrecht, [reconsidering Pier + Ocean] Cove, Stewart Geddes, Dan Andrew Bick, Sian Bowen, Laurent Delaye Gallery London 2009 Hays, Vanessa Jackson, Roger Stuart Burns, Susan Derges, Systems for Hesitation Kelly, Caroline List, Gina Med- Iraida Icazia, James Ross 2006 Hales Gallery, London calf, Alex Gene Morrison, Car- The Kingston Turnpike ol Robertson, James Ryan, Turnpike Gallery, Leigh, 2008 Francesca Simon, Daniel Stur- Greater Manchester, New and Recent Works gis and Trevor Sutton Stanley Picker Gallery, von Bartha Garage, Basel Kingston University 2011 2008 Drawing Biennial 2011 2002 – 2003 Andrew Bick Drawing Room, London Sight Mapping Rubicon Gallery, Dublin Konsthallen Bohuslans 2010 Museum, Uddevalla, Sweden Zig Zag GoMA, Glasgow Charlie Dutton Gallery, Sala Rekalde, Bilbao London

Between the Possible And the Real Kusseneers Gallery, Antwerp Artists: Jon Thompson, Ben Ravenscroft, Andrew Graves, Andrew Bick

Gallery Artists von Bartha Garage, Basel Artists: Andrew Bick, Daniel Robert Hunziker, Karim Noureldin, Magnus Thierfelder, Jens Wolf, Beat Zoderer

2009 Supersurface Galerie Hollenbach, Stuttgart Artists: Andrew Bick, Jane Harris, Alexis Harding, Michael Stubbs Selected Publications Selected Bibliography Published reviews & Journals Invited lectures & Conferences Collections

Ha Ha What Does Mel Gooding Kultureflash Syliva Bächli, Eric Hattan Against Cultural Amnesia, Annenbury Rare Book and This Represent In conversation with Andrew Bick Art Monthly, March 2013 a Talk Manuscript Library University Standpoint 2012 Andrew Bick Hales Gallery The Bermondsey Project of Pennsylvania Foreword: Katrina Blannin & Abstract Critical, Issue 137 (online) School Studies, What if it’s all 25 April 2013 British Library Francesca Simon February 2013 true, What then? Text: David Ryan Aidan Dunne At Mummery Schnelle Gallery Art around us, British Museum Gavin McLafferty Facing up to familiar scenes for Abstract Critical Website the Function of Public Art Chelsea School of Art Artists’ The Source of Inspiration – Andrew Bick Andrew Bick, Diana Cooper, July 2011 Isis Magazine at Modern Art Book Library The Influence of Anxiety INDEX|PRESS Issue 1 Patrick M Fitzgerald, Oxford: Andrew Bick, Edition von Bartha, 2009 November 2012 Thomas Nozkowski Gareth Jones Jonathan Jones, Sally Shaw, Colección Ernesto Ventós Sherman Sam Sherman Sam MK Gallery David Thorp Omedes David Thorp in: Plan D, Irish Times Art Monthly, June 2011 6 February 2013 Cranford Collection Refractions & Shadows, Interview with Andrew Bick 8 April 2005 Seven Artists Von Bartha Quarterly Report A Rational Aesthetic Artists discussion with Fidelity Investments Lemon St Gallery, 2008 January 2013 Susan Conley Southampton City Art Norman Dilworth Gallery of Modern Art Glasgow Mel Gooding Back to Basics Gallery, Art Monthly Huddersfield Art Gallery Sherman Sam Irish Independent February 2008 10 September 2011 and Goldman Sachs Optical Polatic Andrew Bick 8 April 2005 exhibition introduction Landesbank Berlin Artists’ book, 2006 Art Review Online Reviews 17 September 2011 with Tracey Rowledge December 2008 Aidan Dunne since January 2008: Lewisham Hospital NHS Trust Flashback 2004 Construction & its Shadow New York Public Library The Kingston Turnpike Sherman Sam Irish Times Kultureflash convener and keynote intro- Turnpike Gallery, 2006 Things Seen, 7 January 2004 online magazine duction for this seminar to Pearson Jennifer Thatcher Charlotte Beaudry & support Leeds Art Gallery Bagramian/Barlow Portsmouth University Artists’ Andrew Bick Rolf Bier, Sherman Sam exhibition of the same name Serpentine Gallery Book Library Memory Club The Brooklyn Rail Bei der Entschleunigung kann Henry Moore Institute Hales Gallery, 2005 October 2008 man sich nicht lange an Eichelmann/Schmitt 11 May 2011 Simmons & Simmons JJ Charlesworth der Oberfläche aufhalten/ Ancient & Modern Speyer Family Collection Sophie Gorman In the moment Artists Talk, Variant Adam Gillam/Orton-Halliwell Variant Andrew Bick at with Andrew Bick Robert Mangold UBS Artists’ book, Ancient & Modern EMH Arts, London, 2003 Rubicon Gallery Niederrheinischer Parasol Unit EMH Arts, London, 2003 Unilever Irish Independent Kunstverein Joao Penalva 5 March 2010 Gloom 11 April 2008 September 2003 Simon Lee Gallery University College London, Niederrheineischer Construction & its Shadow, Manuscripts and Rare Books Kunstverein, Wesel, 2003 Aidan Dunne Sight Mapping Double agents and split identit- Library Sherman Sam, Rolf Bier Revelation does’t always El Pais ies in the world of Abstraction Victoria & Albert Museum lead to enlightenment 2 June a paper for the Tate Modern Sight Mapping The Irish Times Conference Abstract Yale Center for British Art Sala Rekalde 2003 16 April 2008 Sight Mapping Connections, on Andrew Bick, Sherman Sam, Contemporary Theo Van Doesburg Mark Gisbourne, 2002 Joanne Morra Issue 47/48 and his impact Painting and Translating 25 – 26 March 2009 Andrew Bick Garageland 4 Lisbeth,Bonde Galerie von Bartha/ 2007 Sight Mapping The implications of Liebman Magnan Modern Painters Pier + Ocean Basel/New York, 2001 Studios/Andrew Bick Winter Issue 2003 a paper for United Enemies Bruce W Ferguson Garageland one of a series of seminars Issue 4 online Aidan Dunne organised by Andrew Bick & Jon Wood JJ Charlesworth Patrick Fitzgerald Henry Moore Institute The scene in which Spock plays Irish Times March 2008 three-dimensional chess 4 February 2002 ‘Memory Club’ Kenneth and Mary Martin Hales Gallery Sally O’Reilly exhibition introduction with 2005 Yesteryear/Nowadays Caroline Douglas Time Out Camden Arts Centre Marcus Verhagen 28 August 2001 12 July 2007 Andrew Bick at Hales Gallery Modern Painters Bruce W Ferguson November Issue Magnetic Fields: 2005 The Quality of Looking, Liebman Magnan Helen Sumpter New York/Von Bartha, Basel Andrew Bick Time Out 14 – 21 September 2005 Thanks Imprint

This book is dedicated to Texts Mick Maslen Stefanie Hessler, David Thorp

Thanks to Proof Reading Steffi Hessler and David Thorp Ruth Harrison for their words and insight. Designed by Margareta von Bartha, Miklos groenlandbasel, Basel : von Bartha, Stefan von Bartha, Dorothea Weishaupt, Lena Friedli, Lea Hess, Julia Julia Künzi, Sheena Czorniczek Meier, Rolli Füko, Szabo Füko at Galerie von Bartha Reproductions, Printing Paul Hedge, Paul Maslin, DZA, Druckerei zu Altenburg Stuart Morrison, Sasha Gomeniuk and Charles Photo Credits Robinson at Hales Gallery von Bartha Garage, 2012: Andreas Zimmermann University of Gloucestershire von Bartha Garage, 2008: Department of Fine Art Mark Niedermann Kingston University Depart- Hales Gallery, 2009: ment of Fine Art Peter White Katrina Blannin, Sarah Brown, Bluecoat, 2009: Ben Deakin, John Carter and Andrew Bick Belinda Cadbury, Norman Hales Gallery, 2012: and Christine Dilworth, Sam Damian Griffiths Gathercole, Joanna Greenhill, Chesa 2012 – 13: Mel Gooding, Nat Goodden, Conradin Frei Michael Hall, Anthony Hill, Portrait of Andrew Bick: Stephen Horton, Patrick Robin Friend Fitzgerald, Alex Landrum, Peter Lowe, Rebecca Lesser, © 2013 the artist, von Bartha, Anna Lytridou, Gavin McClaf- Hales Gallery and authors ferty, Sally O’Reilly, David Rhodes, Paul Rosenbloom, Published in 2013 by Sherman Sam, Jeffrey Steele, von Bartha, Basel and Brandon Taylor, Florian and Hales Gallery, London Anke Treu, Nigel Walsh, Jon Wood, Marcus Verhagen, colleagues at Drawing Room and Tannery Arts and those others with whom I have collaborated and had extended dialogue in the last few years

Special thanks to Simon Silver of Derwent London

To Caroline and Noémie, thanks for your patience