“I’ve always had the desire to make the work be a unity... I wanted the elements, which were the periphery line and the internal line, the surface, color, et cetera, to be equal. I wanted them to be so totally locked together that they were inseparable. No one area of the painting should be more important than another – even the idea.”
—Robert MangoldMasterfully morphing Minimalism with Abstraction, Robert Mangold’s 2003 Column Painting 8A (Dark Red Study) examines the tension between line and structure, surface and color. Dramatically reducing the painting’s form to a series of rhythmic lines, the present work is emblematic of the simple yet exhilarating visual vocabulary that is characteristic of the artist’s practice. Creating his own narrow, columnar canvases of varying sizes, the larger Column series engages with subtle abstraction to further interrogate the notions of verticality and gesture, an innovative method that is central to Mangold’s oeuvre. Mangold’s celebrated works have been included in the Whitney Biennial three times and have been exhibited in major exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Kunsthalle Basel, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
The present work resembles a column, an essential form in both art history and the natural world, in its efforts to explore verticality and space, two ideas that Mangold investigated frequently in his practice. Evoking architectural elements in their structure and emphasizing the vertical, the series brings together a spiral with a columnar shape, forcing the viewer to “scan from top to bottom [and] continues to spiral away from us in a way that suggests the unending, the eternal.”i This manipulation of gaze to create a dramatic and engaging visual experience draws from art historical precedent and relates directly to the influence of classical and Renaissance art and architecture, namely the work of Francesco Borromini, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and more contemporary artists like Constantin Brancusi.
"I mean if you’re going to make an impact, is it going to be expressive, is it going to be personal color? Is it going to be red, blue, green, yellow? Or is it going to be symbolic? Color is so erratic. It’s a wild card in painting. Your attitude towards color is the hardest thing. And now I think of myself as much a colorist as a structuralist.”
—Robert Mangold
Beginning the series in 2000 to explore the possibilities of vertical painting on a large scale, Mangold relied on a structured, mathematical grid onto which the precise lines are structured within each Column. Using a steady hand to develop a series of parabolic lines onto the top of the grid, the present work explores the contrasts between flatness and depth, playfulness and control, instinct and calculation. These lines at once explore the dichotomy between confinement and fluidity and emphasize the interplays between drawing and painting. Suggestive of kinetic movement, each imperfect, hand-drawn curve evolves on its own rather than following a prescribed path, using the grid merely as a guide onto which the dramatically reduced curves are encouraged to take shape. Mangold’s use of deep red heightens the sense of movement from his linework and firmly establishes a sense of interconnectivity and harmony throughout Column Painting 8A (Dark Red Study). Using a series of abstracted lines on a sparse image, the present work allows for Mangold’s gestural iconography to take center stage, while the precision of line removes the personal from the painting. Creating work that incorporates the artist’s hand while separating it from the emotion of the canvas, the present work encapsulates Mangold’s signature techniques and helps to position him as one of the foremost artists of both Minimalism and the 20th Century.
