Smoke Drawing, Rockne Krebs

Artwork Overview

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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Images

Label texts

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.

Exhibitions