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Richard Tuttle

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Richard Tuttle
Born(1941-07-12)July 12, 1941(age 83)
Rahway, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
EducationTrinity College
Known forPainting,Sculpture,Installation art
Notable workPaper Octagonals(1970)
MovementPostminimalism
SpouseMei-mei Berssenbrugge
AwardsSkowhegan Medal for Sculpture (1998), Aachen Art Prize (1998)
Sheet from5 Loose Leaf Notebook Drawingsby Richard Tuttle,Honolulu Museum of Art

Richard Dean Tuttle(born July 12, 1941) is an Americanpostminimalistartist known for his small,casual,subtle, intimate works. His art makes use of scale and line. His works span a range of formats, from sculpture, painting, drawing,printmaking,andartist’s bookstoinstallationand furniture.[1][2]He lives and works inNew York City,Abiquiú, New Mexico,[3]andMount Desert, Maine.[4]

Biography

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Tuttle was born inRahway, New Jerseyand raised in nearbyRoselle.[5]He studied art, philosophy and literature atTrinity CollegeinHartford, Connecticutfrom 1959 to 1963.[5]After receiving his B.A. in 1963, he moved to New York where he spent a semester at theCooper Unionand had a brief stint in theU.S. Air Force.[5]He then began working at theBetty Parsons Gallery.One year after taking a job as an assistant to Betty Parsons, she gave him his first show in 1965.

Tuttle's reputation as a master was secured in Europe as it swiftly embraced Tuttle's minimalist art. In the United States, however, acceptance of his work was slower. His works on paper are considered seminal works in American art. His first works, small monochrome reliefs,[6]were followed by making palm-size paper cubes with cut-out designs and shaped wood reliefs that seemed like a twist on geometric abstraction.[7]Beginning in the mid-1960s, he began to create eccentrically-shaped painted wood reliefs, followed by ideograms made of galvanized tin, and unstretched, shaped canvases dyed in offbeat colors.[8]Tuttle had a survey exhibition in 1975 at theWhitney Museum of American Art.The exhibit was controversial and the show's curatorMarcia Tuckerlost her job as a result, after a scathing review byHilton Kramer.[9]Kramer, thenart criticforThe New York Times,wrote, referring toLudwig Mies van der Rohe's dictum "less is more","in Mr. Tuttle's work, less is unmistakably less... One is tempted to say, where art is concerned, less has never been as less than this ". According to art critic Christopher Knight of theLos Angeles Times,Tuttle'sWire pieces,which the artist made in 1971 and 1972, "collectively rank as his most distinctive contribution to art history".[10]In 1983, Tuttle madeMonkey's Recovery for a Darkened Room (Bluebird),a wall relief of branches, wire, cloth, string and wood scraps, which he says formally relates toJan van Eyck'sCrucifixion and Last Judgement diptych.[7]

In the early 1980s, Tuttle embarked on an extensive series of suites of watercolors,The Loose Leaf Notebook Drawings.Each sheet consisting of a few strokes on low-grade loose leaf paper. The paints bleed and pooled, causing the paper to buckle, giving the works three-dimensionality.[11]The illustration from the suite5 Loose Leaf Notebook Drawingsfrom 1980 to 1982, in the collection of theHonolulu Museum of Art,demonstrates how the suites challenge viewers to contemplate the distinction between fine art and trash. His works in the 1990s consisted mostly of smaller-sized work, followed by bodies of low-relief wall-bound pieces that integrate painting, sculpture, and drawing.[8]

In 2004, Tuttle installedSplash,his first public art project, a mural 90 by 150 feet with about 140,000 pieces of colored glass and white ceramic tiles. It stretches up the side of a luxury condominium building designed byWalter Chathamfor a private, guarded island community inMiami Beachcalled Aqua.[12]Tuttle has always "privileged newness, not found or weathered elements that refer to past lives and experiences,"Sharon Butlerwrote in aTwo Coats of Paintreview of "Days, Muses and Stars," his 2019 expansive multiple-gallery exhibition at Pace. "The distinctive feature of his aesthetic endeavor is his reverence for the present. His objects, though they may convey a sense ofwabi-sabiprecariousness, are invariably made of pristine materials that reflect the proximate experience of making. "Tuttle's work has been extremely influential on a younger generation that has embraced thecasualismthat he pioneered.[13]

Textile works

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During a residency atThe Fabric Workshop and Museumin 1978, Tuttle embraced the silkscreen printing process and the idea of fabric to make a series of clothing —Shirtsin 1978 andPantsin 1979.I Don't Know, Or The Weave of Textile Language,on view at theTate Modernin 2014,[14]was made for the museum's turbine hall and is Tuttle's largest to date spanning nearly 40 feet in length. Featuring the textiles he designed and fabricated, the work is suspended from the ceiling in contrast to the hall’s industrial architecture.[4]

Exhibitions

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Art and Music I,1987,Münster(Germany),Domplatz/Fürstenberghaus

Tuttle's first major museum exhibition in 1975 was covering his first ten years of work organized by theWhitney Museumin New York. Tuttle has since been the subject of museum exhibitions around the world, and included in theVenice Biennale(1976, 1997, 2001), threedocumenta(1972, 1977 and 1987)[15]and threeWhitney Biennialexhibitions (1977, 1987, 2000).[3]In 2005, theSan Francisco Museum of Modern Artorganized a major retrospective of Tuttle's 40-year career. The exhibition traveled to museums throughout the United States, including theWhitney Museum of American Artin November 2005. Tuttle continues a 20-year relationship with the Kunsthaus Zug inZug,Switzerland, out of which have grown five exhibitions and many publications from catalogues to posters and ephemera.

An exhibition of his new fabric sculptures,Richard Tuttle: Walking on Air,was on view through April 25, 2009 at ThePace Gallery's 534 West 25th Street gallery. A series of his colored aquatints was on exhibit at theDubner Modernegallery inLausanne,Switzerland from February 11 through March 15, 2010.

Collections

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TheCentre Georges Pompidou,theHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,theHonolulu Museum of Art,Kunsthaus Zug(Zug, Switzerland),Kunstmuseum Winterthur(Winterthur, Switzerland), theMetropolitan Museum of Art,theNational Gallery of Art(Washington, D.C.);Serralves(Porto, Portugal), theStedelijk Museum Amsterdam,theTate Modern,and theWhitney Museum of American Art(New York City) are among the public collections holding work byRichard Tuttle[4]

Recognition

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Tuttle has been the recipient of many awards for his work, including the 74th American Exhibition,Art Institute of ChicagoBiennial Prize, theSkowheganMedal for Sculpture in 1998, and the Aachen Art Prize in 1998 from theLudwig Forum für Internationale Kunst.[16]In 2012, he was elected to theNational Academyand in 2013 he was invited to become a member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters.[4]Tuttle was the artist in residence at theGetty Research Institutefrom September 2012 through June 2013.[17]

He presented a lecture in collaboration with his poet wife,Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge,through theVisiting Artists Programat the School of theArt Institute of Chicagoin April 2009.

Art market

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Tuttle is represented by thePace Galleryin New York, Galerie Schmela inDüsseldorf,Galerie Greta Meert inBrussels,and by the Annemarie Verna Galerie inZürich.In 2002, a tin wall piece calledLetters (The 26 Series)(1966)[18]sold at auction for $1 million.[12][19]

Personal life

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Tuttle is married to the poetMei-mei Berssenbrugge.For their residence inAbiquiú, New Mexico,they commissioned architectSteven Hollto design a 1,300-square-foot guest cottage, built between 2001 and 2005.[20]

References

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  1. ^Birmingham Museum of Art(2010).Birmingham Museum of Art: guide to the collection.[Birmingham, Ala]: Birmingham Museum of Art. p. 247.ISBN978-1-904832-77-5.
  2. ^"The Art of Richard Tuttle".Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Archived fromthe originalon April 15, 2013.RetrievedJuly 26,2012.
  3. ^abRichard Tuttle: Matter, September 21 - October 31, 2013Marian Goodman Gallery,Paris.
  4. ^abcdRichard Tuttle: Looking for the Map, February 7 – March 15, 2014Pace Gallery,New York.
  5. ^abcChristopher Miles (July 31, 2005),Branching in all directionsLos Angeles Times.
  6. ^Richard TuttleMuseum of Modern Art,New York.
  7. ^abMichael Kimmelman(May 14, 1999),At the Met with Richard Tuttle: Influence Cast In StoneThe New York Times.
  8. ^abThe Art of Richard Tuttle, November 11, 2006 – February 4, 2007Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.
  9. ^Julie Ault,Alternative Art New York, 1965-1985: A Cultural Politics Book for the Social Text Collective,University of Minnesota Press, 2002, p205.ISBN0-8166-3794-6
  10. ^Christopher Knight (April 28, 2007),Whispered, not shoutedLos Angeles Times.
  11. ^Papanikolas, Theresa, "Richard Tuttle: Loose Leaf Notebook Drawings",Honolulu Museum of Art,March, April, May 2016, p. 9
  12. ^abJulie Salamon (December 3, 2004),Artist or Guru, He Aims DeepThe New York Times.
  13. ^Sharon Butler (December 29, 2019),Richard Tuttle Sees the LightTwo Coats of Paint.
  14. ^Richard Tuttle: I Don't Know, Or The Weave of Textile LanguageTate Modern,London.
  15. ^Richard Tuttle: The Place in the Window, April 26 - June 1, 2013Tomio Koyama Gallery, Tokyo.
  16. ^"Richard Tuttle Awarded the Aachen Art Prize".Sperone Westwater.11 December 1998.Retrieved26 July2012.
  17. ^Getty Research Institute Announces 2012/13 Scholars, Richard Tuttle is Artist in ResidenceGetty Research Institute.
  18. ^Mark Stevens (November 21, 2005),Deadpan AlleyNew York Magazine.
  19. ^Carol Vogel (May 16, 2002),Richter and Warhol Rule at Contemporary-Art SaleThe New York Times.
  20. ^Michael Kimmelman(May 21, 2006),The Architect, His Client, Her Husband and a House Named TurbulenceThe New York Times Magazine.

Further reading

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  • Madeleine Grynsztejn (2005).The Art of Richard Tuttle.Distributed Art Publishers/San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.ISBN978-1933045009.
  • Douglas Walla (1987).Metaphor: Myron Stout, Richard Tuttle, Richard Wentworth,Win Knowlton.Kent Fine Art/New York.
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