Lot 146 email save

ROBERT MANGOLD, One 72" square with 6 distorted re

One 72" square with 6 distorted rectangles, 1979
Graphite on six sheets of paper. 210 x 192.5 cm. (83 x 75 3/4 in).
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PROVENANCE Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
Drawing for me is a process. It's true that my paintings in a lot of ways are as much drawing as they are paintings. I think my involvement from the beginning has been very linear in terms of how I work, and I've never been involved in paint the way a lot of painters are. It's been a way of coloring a surface or a step, but drawing is the starting point. It'll start with a little sketches where I get an idea about fitting one from within another or I'll do some thumbnail sketches and then I'll go through a process of picking and choosing or deciding if it's a good idea or not a good idea, and making larger drawings and finally drawing with color so basically I have a pretty strong idea of what I'm going to do. That's pretty well established in the drawing state. Because I work in shaped canvas, I have to have the idea worked out so that I can build the stretchers, because there's a cost commitment when you build a stretcher. You want to get if figured out ahead of time so you don't waste too many stretchers, so there's a sense in using the drawing in that way. Drawing is central to the work. (Robert Mangold in conversation with John Yau, The Brooklyn Rail, March 2009)

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