Richard Tuttle

Richard Tuttle and Herbert Vogel selected nine pieces from the series How It Goes Around the Corner for this assemblage. These intimate works demonstrate a remarkable economy of means, revealing the physical, often delicate qualities of the materials and the artist’s construction process, which eschews illusion and embellishment. The drawings are understated, with minimal markings and alterations to the paper (graphite lines, slight folds, washes of color, crumpled tissue paper, and dried toothpaste), and they are glued to the backing board of the unfinished wood frames rather than mounted and matted. Central to Tuttle’s work is the relationship between the object, the wall, and the viewer. His constructions function more like viewing boxes than traditional works on paper in glass-paned frames. The space typically occupied by a mat is converted into a gap, preserving the drawings’ closeness to “reality” and the viewer. The frame is a part of the work of art, its borders essential to the viewing experience. Tuttle’s method for joining the frames’ strips of unfinished wood is transparent and highly considered (one nail for each connection), creating a counterclockwise movement around the center that recalls the series title.