Robert Mangold’s minimalist work Column/Figure 23 A, 2005, explores the relationship between the part and the whole. Specifically focusing on shapes, forms, and colors, Mangold’s column painting evokes both a tranquil and heuristic perspective in highlighting the objecthood of the piece itself. His work, appearing seemingly direct at first, begins, after some time, to morph into a complex array of lines and forms. In an interview with his partner, Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Robert states, “… I want the work to cause me to drop everything and then slowly pick up the pieces and enter into a dialogue with it.”
The present work, composed of acrylic and pencil on canvas, is shaped in a long vertical form. Mangold chose a rich sunshine yellow for this monochromatic painting, underneath which lies a lightly penciled grid. Layering on top of the pencil grid and paint, Mangold drew freehand two intertwining rhythmic lines along the canvas’s facade. Their gestural S-curve moves seamlessly, weaving down the canvas, uniting the structure of the grid and color beneath it. The lines themselves overlap with one another, bowing out to the edges of the canvas; creating asymmetrical forms and morphing into unexpected shapes throughout the composition. Running from the top of the canvas down to the bottom, the lines seem to evoke continental motion “...in a way that suggests the unending, the eternal.” The canary yellow almost appears to recede back into the composition, allowing the two-dimensional space to take shape. The lines, intertwined with color, define and divide the space, while the curve unites the part of the whole.
Executed in the early 21st century, Column/Figure 23 A is a contemporary example of Mangold’s practice. Composing and developing his geometric vocabulary since the 1960s, the artist has remained primarily centered and faithful to the role of color and form, and the interaction between the two. Using a roller to apply paint and his hand for line work, he incorporates both the physical touch of a draughtsman and the distance that tools provide, both of which are evident in the work.
In his practice, Mangold strives to discover the illusion of depth confronted by flatness. His use of two-dimensional forms and desire to explore space can give his work an almost architectural feel. Like architecture, the use of the column is reminiscent of our built environment; Mangold’s use of the column could attest to the physical cylindrical shape of the structure or perhaps to the movement of kinetic energies travelling all in one direction. “Columns speak to us of time,” Francine Prose writes. “They suggest those historical moments when societies possessed enough stability and self-regard to venture into the vertical.”
In line with his minimalistic doctrines, Column/Figure 23 A rejects the ego and emotional complexity. The artist’s simple yet interactive use of space, animated with line, allows the viewer to interact not with the artist or themselves, but solely with the piece. Just as columns serve as a building block in structures, Mangold’s work does not pretend to be anything it is not; it serves as a part of a whole.