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Lot Essay
Alfred Schmela carried the canvas pieces for his March/April 1968 exhibition of Richard Tuttle's in Dusseldorf in a canvas bag from New York. Tuttle's works, which developed from his canvas octagons were made of washed-out canvas pinned directly to the wall. Jost and Barbara Herbig bought three of these works and two other sculptures.
In a correspondence between Dr. Herbig and the artist, Richard Tuttle wrote of this work on 13 February, 1973:
Dear Dr. Herbig
The work I am most pleased to be exhibiting (including the others of course) in the show of your collection is the pale-violet canvas dating from 1967. It was a work difficult to find because I looked so hard for it, and, strangely, it represents an on-going problem for me in my work. To me this work, which has a graphic structure simpler than most of the other pieces made at this time, is the outline of a square with three diagonals coexistently crossing out and supporting the square, the material making these opposite and contradictory "functions" possible. The pale-violet color probably has more to do with breaking down a deep purple color than it does with recognition of a particualar color as in most of the other cloth pieces. It is the kind of work which emphatically states a direction although fails to solidify it. This is a very rewarding concept to grasp, but it is nothing to be proud of, for what is enjoyed is far greater than the piece itself. In other words, although the realized formal work "knows" its own existence, it still manages to preclude its existence to the problem of being existent (if you know what I mean). One might say the "before" and the "after" of this piece are somewhat the same, unreal in the same dimension, leaving the necessity to face the unknown in terms which are definitely unreal, separate and complete unto themselves, not confused. We find then a happiness with the incomplete, which, in this case is represented by the piece itself, a confidence.
P.S. The above may be real (= true or false) dependent on the state of consciousness of the viewer, as far as I can tell.
In a correspondence between Dr. Herbig and the artist, Richard Tuttle wrote of this work on 13 February, 1973:
Dear Dr. Herbig
The work I am most pleased to be exhibiting (including the others of course) in the show of your collection is the pale-violet canvas dating from 1967. It was a work difficult to find because I looked so hard for it, and, strangely, it represents an on-going problem for me in my work. To me this work, which has a graphic structure simpler than most of the other pieces made at this time, is the outline of a square with three diagonals coexistently crossing out and supporting the square, the material making these opposite and contradictory "functions" possible. The pale-violet color probably has more to do with breaking down a deep purple color than it does with recognition of a particualar color as in most of the other cloth pieces. It is the kind of work which emphatically states a direction although fails to solidify it. This is a very rewarding concept to grasp, but it is nothing to be proud of, for what is enjoyed is far greater than the piece itself. In other words, although the realized formal work "knows" its own existence, it still manages to preclude its existence to the problem of being existent (if you know what I mean). One might say the "before" and the "after" of this piece are somewhat the same, unreal in the same dimension, leaving the necessity to face the unknown in terms which are definitely unreal, separate and complete unto themselves, not confused. We find then a happiness with the incomplete, which, in this case is represented by the piece itself, a confidence.
P.S. The above may be real (= true or false) dependent on the state of consciousness of the viewer, as far as I can tell.