So much of my production starts with a simple mundane geometric proposition: scissor jack shapes, chain links or objects mounted on a common spindle. The proposition in this instance is the pie chart.
I had created informational pie charts during my institutional existence and had liked their sense of completion. More recently I tried merging the pie chart with some experiments in plaster. I made a few examples with the anticipation of doing more. I have since moved away from plaster for its weight and fragility, but the chart theme has stayed with me. Ubiquitous as it is, I have often wondered why I haven’t seen the form elsewhere in an art context.
And then there it was, lurking on a far wall in an Art In America photo, part of an article on a show at the Blanton Museum of Art concerning the Park Place Group. Neither the artist nor the multicolored piece is identified. I had to crop and Photoshop to make the pie chart, situated behind a di Suvero sculpture, stand out a little.
Some unidentified person had actually done a pie chart – and way back in the sixties. I am contacting the museum for whatever specifics they can provide.
Meanwhile, for the sake of this post, I dug out an pie chartish example that had survived last year’s plaster purge. By way of explanation, this object was formed by pouring plaster onto a plastic sheet, stretched over a plywood cutout of the desired shape. This was then sealed with gloss polyurethane varnish.
The question, then, might be: do you seek out work by others that is similar to your own? Do you do this in a spirit of anticipation or trepidation?
Both. Anticipation: finding an affirmation of my work. Trepidation: finding out that my voice as an artist is not unique – it’s been done before.
Jay,
Your icy sword of Damocles is quite elegant, and happens to relate to an upcoming post of mine. It seems from both your examples that there’s something compelling about incomplete disks.
I often seek out similar work by others, and in fact that was the subject of one of my first A&P posts, Four views of bare limbs. Sometimes it’s annoying to find out I’m not the first with an idea I think I’ve come up with on my own, but mostly it’s a very helpful prod to think more deeply about what I’m doing. Not that there’s no value in repetition–which is never exact, anyway–but I like having a sense of historical and contemporary context.
Tom:
You can maybe find someone who does something similar and much better. That can be a problem.
Steve:
Turns out the Park Place Group was into science. Can’t say that it jumps out at me. Perhaps it was a sales thing.
Jay,
This image is captivating. It reappeared in my mind in the evening. I especially like the texture of the arrow against the black with its reflection.
Birgit:
May I ask what you had for dinner? I’m trying to account for that reappearance.
Jay,
Nothing hallugenic. Not even a glass of red wine, its being the off night. To rejuvenate, I now medicate myself with a glass of red wine/reservetrol on alternate nights.
Doing more art now, my brain/mind enjoys amusing me with images.
painting is called Redball by Ed Ruda
1965
Jeanne Claire van Ryzin shows the Ed Ruda’s Redball on her blog.
Thank you, riorocket. I myself was having a hard time running this thing down.
Birgit:
You never cease to amaze me. Redball is a very effective piece. I wonder if Ed Ruda suffered for his name resembling Ed Ruscha. If I remember, Ruscha was a little later, but way better known.