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Lot Essay
Characterized by an unusual marriage of modernist formalism and nineteenth century Romanticism, Brice Marden's art is one of fusion. At a time when the ultimate goal of many artists was to remove from their work any trace of the artist's hand or process, Marden emphasized the specificity of touch, a focus that lends his art a moving immediacy and resonance.
In the late 1980's Marden began a new body of work in an effort to evade his own self-stylization. Abandoning his palette knife for a paintbrush (often attached to the end of a long twig), the subtle textures of his early monochrome panels matured into skeins of lyrical marks and looping gestures. This means of mark-making has come to be recognized as Marden's signature style, one which at once continues and modifies his early inquiries into formalism, flatness, and materiality.
Inspired by his frequent travels, Marden's paintings began to bear the influence of Eastern aesthetics in the 1980s. Traveling first to Thailand in 1984, and later to Suzhou, China, he became interested in calligraphy, particularly in the verses of eighth century poet Han Shan (or Cold Mountain)--for whom the present drawing is named. This work is a beautiful and lyrical example of the Cold Mountain series, for which Marden would often use the structures of Han Shan's poems as starting points for organizing his graphic marks. Unable to read the Chinese characters, he absorbed the poems on a formal level; as lines, unfolding to reveal form, then dissolving back into line.
In conversation with Marden, friend and American poet John Yau addresses the significance of this decision while discussing the tendencies of Romanticism, defining it as "that period in literature and art when intellect [was subordinated] to emotion, the critical to the creative, cleverness and wit to tenderness and pathos." While setting his work apart from the bare objectivity of his contemporaries, this romantic proclivity does connect him with ideals of the Abstract Expressionists.
In his exploration of the formal dimension of the sublime, Marden can be considered a late-Modernist. To wit:
In a 1973 notebook, from 1973, Marden writes in stream of consciousness, naming his artistic interests and concerns. Listing "form," "no form," "form in space," "color," "substance," and "light," he concludes with a pointed question:"Am I explaining to myself what I have been doing--a formal search for the romantic?"
In the late 1980's Marden began a new body of work in an effort to evade his own self-stylization. Abandoning his palette knife for a paintbrush (often attached to the end of a long twig), the subtle textures of his early monochrome panels matured into skeins of lyrical marks and looping gestures. This means of mark-making has come to be recognized as Marden's signature style, one which at once continues and modifies his early inquiries into formalism, flatness, and materiality.
Inspired by his frequent travels, Marden's paintings began to bear the influence of Eastern aesthetics in the 1980s. Traveling first to Thailand in 1984, and later to Suzhou, China, he became interested in calligraphy, particularly in the verses of eighth century poet Han Shan (or Cold Mountain)--for whom the present drawing is named. This work is a beautiful and lyrical example of the Cold Mountain series, for which Marden would often use the structures of Han Shan's poems as starting points for organizing his graphic marks. Unable to read the Chinese characters, he absorbed the poems on a formal level; as lines, unfolding to reveal form, then dissolving back into line.
In conversation with Marden, friend and American poet John Yau addresses the significance of this decision while discussing the tendencies of Romanticism, defining it as "that period in literature and art when intellect [was subordinated] to emotion, the critical to the creative, cleverness and wit to tenderness and pathos." While setting his work apart from the bare objectivity of his contemporaries, this romantic proclivity does connect him with ideals of the Abstract Expressionists.
In his exploration of the formal dimension of the sublime, Marden can be considered a late-Modernist. To wit:
In a 1973 notebook, from 1973, Marden writes in stream of consciousness, naming his artistic interests and concerns. Listing "form," "no form," "form in space," "color," "substance," and "light," he concludes with a pointed question:"Am I explaining to myself what I have been doing--a formal search for the romantic?"