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Presented as part of the Paris Drawing Week at the the historic Atelier 11 Cité Falguière, that was established more than 150 years as a studio for sculpture production, this event explores the relationship between drawing and sculpture.
Meet American artist Jennifer Printz and discover how an artist who draws can approach the practice with the same physical nature as a sculptor does wood or stone, transforming the material into a new form with an expansive meaning. Following a series of professional events and studio visits, Jennifer Printz invites everyone to Atelier 11 to learn more about her research as she investigates the work of artists who worked in Montparnasse during the 20th century. The event is co-hosted with Association des amis de Marc Chagall to support the launching of the official Marc Chagall website, catalogue raisonné & archives. |
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Saturday 25 March, 3 pm to 7 pm
11 Cité Falguière, 75015 Paris
My research in Paris will investigate the work of three artists who worked primarily in sculpture but also drawing: Chana Orloff, Ossip Zadkine, and Auguste Rodin. Time will be spent in the museums related to each of these artists which in the case of Zadkine and Orloff also preserve the physical space and environment of the artist’s working studio. Qualities of each artist’s work reverberate with me – Zadkine’s focus on the poetry of form, the weight of line and balance of dignity and humor in Orloff’s work, and the use of repetition and reworking in Rodin’s practice. Collectively I am interested in the remains of process in each of these artist’s work and how each placed the process of creation in the forefront of their completed work. From coarsely gouged areas to gentle incisions, the surfaces of their sculpture reveal the labors of the artist hand – the push and pull of hand against surface and material.
Like the work of these three sculptors, my hand will be revealed in all the work that grows out of this research and a legacy of process will remain in the final form. The engagement of the artist’s bodily movement with the drawn mark will come from a laborious and repetitive application of graphite onto paper. The work will challenge the physical limits of drawing via an obsessive and intense mark-making that starts to alter and at times even disintegrate the paper being drawn on. Through pressure graphite will be burnished into paper making the surface warp and buckle pushing it towards an uneven three-dimensional surface. As the paper tears new compositions will be created via arranging these fragments of dark mirror-like paper across the wall in a manner that references Rodin’s working methods and the displays in Orloff’s studio. Compositionally the work will also pull from Zadkine’s lyrical forms and Orloff’s weight of line.
Conceptually much of my practice has hinged around the use of graphite. I relish using the mundane pencil to create a generous, hopeful moment. Graphite, like the majority of life on this planet is carbon based, making it a perfect tool to reference the similarity and interconnectedness between everything on earth, on the molecular level and beyond. Naturally formed by a metamorphosis of sedimentary material, graphite is itself a symbol of transformation which allows the creation of this work to push towards an alchemical process where an intense darkness also holds and reflects light. My goal in using graphite in this way is to develop within my work formal beauty as well a poetic multiplicity of meaning to create what Zadkine calls “the mysterious attraction and inexpressible miracle of forms and lines.”
11 Cité Falguière, 75015 Paris
My research in Paris will investigate the work of three artists who worked primarily in sculpture but also drawing: Chana Orloff, Ossip Zadkine, and Auguste Rodin. Time will be spent in the museums related to each of these artists which in the case of Zadkine and Orloff also preserve the physical space and environment of the artist’s working studio. Qualities of each artist’s work reverberate with me – Zadkine’s focus on the poetry of form, the weight of line and balance of dignity and humor in Orloff’s work, and the use of repetition and reworking in Rodin’s practice. Collectively I am interested in the remains of process in each of these artist’s work and how each placed the process of creation in the forefront of their completed work. From coarsely gouged areas to gentle incisions, the surfaces of their sculpture reveal the labors of the artist hand – the push and pull of hand against surface and material.
Like the work of these three sculptors, my hand will be revealed in all the work that grows out of this research and a legacy of process will remain in the final form. The engagement of the artist’s bodily movement with the drawn mark will come from a laborious and repetitive application of graphite onto paper. The work will challenge the physical limits of drawing via an obsessive and intense mark-making that starts to alter and at times even disintegrate the paper being drawn on. Through pressure graphite will be burnished into paper making the surface warp and buckle pushing it towards an uneven three-dimensional surface. As the paper tears new compositions will be created via arranging these fragments of dark mirror-like paper across the wall in a manner that references Rodin’s working methods and the displays in Orloff’s studio. Compositionally the work will also pull from Zadkine’s lyrical forms and Orloff’s weight of line.
Conceptually much of my practice has hinged around the use of graphite. I relish using the mundane pencil to create a generous, hopeful moment. Graphite, like the majority of life on this planet is carbon based, making it a perfect tool to reference the similarity and interconnectedness between everything on earth, on the molecular level and beyond. Naturally formed by a metamorphosis of sedimentary material, graphite is itself a symbol of transformation which allows the creation of this work to push towards an alchemical process where an intense darkness also holds and reflects light. My goal in using graphite in this way is to develop within my work formal beauty as well a poetic multiplicity of meaning to create what Zadkine calls “the mysterious attraction and inexpressible miracle of forms and lines.”
Medium: Graphite on Epson Ultrachrome Inks on Antique Ledger; Paper Size: 12 x 18.5 in
