Beschreibung:

Wade Guyton Untitled 2006 Epson UltraChrome inkjet on linen 74 x 65 in. (188 x 165.1 cm.)
Provenance Petzel Gallery, New York Exhibited New York, Petzel Gallery, WADE GUYTON Color, Power & Style, February 23 - March 25, 2006 Literature J. de Vries, ed. WADE GUYTON Color, Power & Style, Kunstverein Hamburg: Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, 2006, p. 54 (illustrated) Catalogue Essay Wade Guyton’s inkjet on linen mechanisms are not products of technology, but rather, products of process itself. Whether by accident or design, Guyton’s canvases display a unique vulnerability to the printing errors from which they derive: scales are slightly off-tilt, paper-like linen is purposely jammed, and cartridge toners imprint a stuttered, smudged, and diverged hue. Every snag and hitch is encouraged, recorded, and ultimately re-worked to meet the needs of the artist’s process. Guyton notes, “This is a recording process as much as a production process. And I have to live with it, smears and all.” (W. Guyton, quoted in C. Vogel, 'Painting, Rebooted', in The New York Times, 27 September 2012). The linen skin of Untitled, 2006 embraces the scars of Guyton’s manner, not only documenting the innate fallibility of its mechanical root, but also the treatment during its actual birth. The stern formalism of what were once cogent digital monochromes now appears distressed. Rivulets of pigment drip across the hypnotic bands of printed inkjet, as if watching an old Hollywood film projected onto screen. Scrapes and scuffs mark up the work’s surface, a result from the artist jerking the linen swathe in and out of the inkjet printer, tugging it across the studio floor and turning it over, only to undergo this practice all over again. “The drips; the accidents; the ink runs out; the canvases pile up on the floor. I'm rough with them because they're bigger than I am, and often it's just me working alone, so I'm dragging them around. Whatever happens when I'm making them is part of the work” (W. Guyton, quoted in D. De Salvo, 'Interview', Wade Guyton OS, exh. cat., Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2012, p. 208). Operating in a scale too large for his printer, Guyton is forced to bisect Untitled, 2006 into two halves, printing the computer’s image on one side and then the other. As a result, the viewer is presented with a central white seam, offering both form and function. The work is divided, yet wholly defined, placing its technological foibles onto a stage, the eye bouncing back and forth between each side in absolute comparison. Differing tones, asymmetrical margins and circular shapes that vanish or duplicate without warning quickly become apparent. Technology may be the birthplace of Untitled, 2006, but it does not define it. Life takes shape through Guyton’s process, producing a readymade not defined by origin or conclusion, but by the course it takes throughout. Read More