| Richard Artschwager explores perceptual experience through powerful, generalized
abstractions of recognized and unremarkable objects, such as tables or chairs,
which stimulate the viewer to ponder the difference between functionality and
pure objectness. In much of his work, common construction materials such as
Formica and Celotex (which Artschwager first encountered in the craft of furniture
making)
become double-edged signifiers, pointed reminders that things are not necessarily
what they seem in the arbitrary universe of individual perception. Artschwager
blatantly denies efforts to quantify, detail, or encompass the functional aspects
of his subjects. His belief in the use of everyday forms as the basis of his
sculpture and his intellectual approach to object making place him historically
as a pivotal figure between pop and minimalism, and in this sense his work
could be described as “neopop,” or as he says, “preliterate
vision...”
- Terrie Sultan, formerly Curator of Contemporary Art
Corcoran Gallery of Art |
Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from
the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
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:: The Curator's Journals Project
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