Gerhard Richter & Cy Twombly “New Editions”
May 7 – June 4, 2011
Closed on Sun., Mon., and National holidays
Gerhard Richter “ABDALLAH(917-27)” 2010, Lacquer behind glass
Opening Saturday, May 7, 2011, Wako Works of Art is pleased to announce an exhibition of works by Gerhard Richter and Cy Twombly. On view will be Richter’s new cycle of lacquer behind glass series, Abdullah, and Twombly’s set of 15 dry print photograph series, Tulips.
Following Sinbad (2008) and Aladdin (2010), his series alluding to The Book of One Hundred Nights (Arabian Nights), German artist Gerhard Richter presents his latest edition of lacquer behind glass. Like the aforementioned series, Abdullah retain the mirror-like flatness of slick lacquer painted on the back of glass and reversed, and exhibits voluminous colorful abstraction and seemingly manipulated chance at play.
American artist Cy Twombly’s Tulips series is based on his photographs taken in 1985 and printed in 2009. These still lifes are an extrapolation from his more known large-scale abstract, mark-making paintings, and are an exploration of the artist’s fascination with the flora and fauna. These up-close and raked-focus images of the subdued sepia-yellow flowers are almost blurred to the point of abstraction. This series was first shown at the Schirmer Mosel Showroom in Munich, Germany in 2010; similar dry print flora series were presented in the artist’s exhibition Cy Twombly: The Natural World, Selected Works 2000-2007 at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2009.
About the artists
Gerhard Richter was born in Dresden in 1932 and educated at Dresden Art Academy, and following his flee from Communist East Germany, at Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. For nearly half a decade, Richter has been presenting his painting series, such as “Photo Paintings”, “Color Charts”, “Mirror Paintings”, and “Abstract Paintings”, as well as his photo archive Atlas and sculptural works employing mirrors and layers of highly reflective glass. Placed within the often problematic context of postwar European art, Richter is recognized as one of the most significant figures today, and continues to pursue the “possibility of painting” beyond various boundaries. Tate Museum in London is scheduled to hold his latest solo retrospective in October 2011.
Edwin Parker (Cy) Twombly, Jr. is an American artist born in Lexington, Virginia in 1928, and studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Art Students League, New York, and Black Mountain College, North Carolina. His large-scale paintings and drawings are often executed in bold, calligraphic movements that incorporate texts and themes inspired by Classical Greek and Roman mythology, Symbolist poetry, and his extended travels. His work also include sculptures and photography. Twombly has been sharing his time between Virginia and Italy since 1959.
Cy Twombly “Tulips (XIII)” 2009, dry print