18″x24″; watercolor on paper; 1960. Knoxville Museum of Art, 2012 gift of Stephanie and John Case, 2012.03.01
FROM KOLAJ 35
Todd Bartel Interprets Selections from “Currents” at the Knoxville Museum of Art
Uncollage is rather like water’s capacity to morph, eddy, flow, and conform to any shape, but also transform between solid, liquid, gas, and “inframince”—to borrow Duchamp’s collage-based term of subtle co-mingling changes. This broad plasticity describes the versatility of uncollage in the work on display at the Knoxville Museum of Art. In the article, “Uncollage in Action” which appears in Kolaj 35, Todd Bartel reports on his experience using his theory to interpret artwork on view at the Tennessee museum. He writes, “Is there a seamless union of sourced parts? Is the collage aesthetic subsumed into an unexpected medium or in a medium otherwise devoid of paper and glue? Is the flow of material that constitutes the collage aesthetic iconic in its own way?”
This article appears in Kolaj 35. From the Scottish Highlands to the shores of Lake Ontario to Mombasa, Kenya, the printed magazine brings the wide-world of collage to your doorstep. To read the full article, SUBSCRIBE to Kolaj Magazine or Order a Copy of the Issue.
Lambda print on Plexiglas; 2005. Mint Museum, Gift of the Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, 2013.68.1. Photo by Ric Kasini Kadour.
The uncollages in the “Currents” show included the artists: Richard Clarke (Noblesville, Indiana 1923-1997 Knoxville), Hamlett Dobbins (Knoxville 1970; lives and works in Memphis), Susanne Kühn (Leipzig, Germany 1969; lives and works in Freiburg, Germany), Julie Heffernan (Peoria, Illinois 1956; lives and works in Brooklyn), Jiha Moon (Daegu, South Korea 1973; lives and works in Atlanta), and Robert Rauschenberg (Port Arthur, Texas 1925-2008 Captiva Island, Florida). The six uncollages in “Currents” comprised three paintings and three prints, each presenting a unique strategy for blending composite imagery.
This article appears in Kolaj 35. From the Scottish Highlands to the shores of Lake Ontario to Mombasa, Kenya, the printed magazine brings the wide-world of collage to your doorstep. To read the full article, SUBSCRIBE to Kolaj Magazine or Order a Copy of the Issue.
“Currents: Recent Art from East Tennessee and Beyond” is ongoing at the Knoxville Museum of Art. Learn more at www.knoxart.org.
Todd Bartel is a collage-based artist. His work assumes assembled forms of painting, drawing and sculpture that examine the roles of landscape and nature in contemporary culture. Since 2002, Bartel has taught drawing, painting, sculpture, installation art and conceptual art at the Cambridge School of Weston, Weston, Massachusetts, USA. He is the founder and the Director of the Cambridge School’s Thompson Gallery, a teaching gallery dedicated to thematic inquiry, and “IS” (Installation Space), a proposal-based installation gallery. Bartel holds a BFA in painting from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA in painting from Carnegie Mellon University. Bartel’s four-part series on Uncollage appeared in Kolaj 25-28. His article “The Third Thing Is Immaterial: Are Readymades Uncollages?” appeared in Kolaj 34. Learn more at www.toddbartel.com.