Smoke Drawing

Rockne Krebs

1938–2011

Smoke Drawing, 1973

Where object was made: United States

Material/technique: colored pencil; candle smoke

Dimensions:
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 28 x 43.3 cm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 11 1/2 x 17 1/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 20 x 25 in

Credit line: Gift of Philip M. Smith

Accession number: 2010.0217

Not on display

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Exhibition Label: "Rockne Krebs: Drawings for Sculpture You Can Walk Through," Aug-2013, Steve Goddard Krebs’ works with light often make use of some particulate matter, such as water vapor, to reflect light and render light beams visible to the naked eye. One installation was dubbed an “electric fog-filled happening” in reference to this phenomenon. Krebs’ need for a reflective atmosphere may explain the smoke drawings he created in 1973, at around the same time as he was beginning to experiment with an airbrush. The smoke drawings, which he made by holding a smoky candle under a piece of paper, resulted in forms resembling vaporous clouds. In this example, Krebs has erased areas of smoke to create the impression of parallel beams of sunlight that pass through prisms, spreading the refracted the light into the colors of the rainbow.