Hiddenness, Richard Tuttle; Mei-mei Berssenbrugge

Exhibition Label: "NetWorks: Art and Artists from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection," Mar-2011, Susan Earle, Stephen Goddard, and SMA Interns Richard Tuttle and the Vogel Collection The quietly mysterious watercolor drawings of Richard Tuttle represent thoughtful explorations of the interaction between color and space, and of the role of materiality in contemporary art. Each gestural drawing is intended to function as a component of a sculptural installation, which is activated by the spaces between the drawings and the relationships of the watercolor marks to one another. However, the seemingly impromptu washes of thin paint floating on bare notebook paper pose unique questions about how color and movement convey the physical and psychological processes of drawing. In turn, these issues inform the possible meanings of the larger constellation of drawings as they exist as a sculptural whole. In 1970, Richard Tuttle began a rich and collaborative relationship with Dorothy and Herbert Vogel that informed Tuttle’s development as an artist, as well as the formation of the Vogel collection. The Vogels shared Tuttle’s interest in the connection between drawing and sculpture and the ways that minimalist and conceptual art could deconstruct traditional artistic hierarchies that privileged painting and sculpture. In Herbert Vogel, Tuttle found a valuable confidant with whom he could discuss his ideas and share his works as they evolved. Tuttle called Herb “a seer with a divine grasp of how art is for human beings and the most important thing for the artist is to have someone who can see, who has ‘eyes.’” The profusion of Richard Tuttle’s artworks that is to be found in the Vogel collection represents the collectors’ intuitive understanding of the importance of drawing as part of the artistic process Herbert Vogel has professed his admiration for Tuttle, explaining, “Richard Tuttle is poetical, spiritual, and intellectual. Much of his work is like contemporary manuscripts-and gemlike. One of the most significant components of his art is fragility. Very often his work is delicate and so is our planet. It looks so very simple, however it is mysteriously beautiful and complex.”