Saturday, February 17, 2007
Aschheim Drawing
The most memorable show during my NYC visit was Eve Aschheim’s drawings at Lori Bookstein gallery on 57th street. Even though they are small and sparse, they explode with movement and energy - I have never seen anyone do so much with so little. Not only do the marks seem to exist on different layers of a deep space, they seem to create magnifications and portals that shift and switch within the negative space. Compressing the tension of these complex situations is the illusion of marks that seem to be in the process of moving. If they were to move, even just a little, the whole space would collapse, and the pockets of form that are beginning to emerge would disappear.
Not only are these drawings wonderful, but I found Eve to be a very kind and generous person as well. She and her husband, John Yau, welcomed me for dinner at their house, along with two of my friends, Philip Van Keuren and Lorraine Tady. I had never met John before, but was impressed with his encyclopedic knowledge of anything that has ever happened in the artworld. Most recently, he wrote the essay for Bill Jensens latest show. He and Philip talked the most, discussing poetry as well as their first hand experiences of historical figures - I felt lucky to be sitting there, drinking wine, and hearing all of their wonderful stories.
Later in the night, I was able to show Eve and John some of my drawings and prints from the last year. I found the whole experience to be very inspiring.
Between the conference, visiting friends, and seeing shows, I have only been sleeping 4 hours a night. This made the whole experience feel a little dreamlike - but a dream I will remember.
I return to Dallas tomorrow (regretfully) and will be soon be posting about some of my other NY adventures.
posted by cjagers at 07:59pm
3 Comments Add your own
1. harold hollingsworth | February 19th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Fantastic stuff Chris. I hope to find these kinds of experiences when I travel, nice to read that you not only had one, but that it was memorable, and what I think of as a once in a blue moon kind of affair. Congrats!
2. chris | February 19th, 2007 at 3:51 pm
Thanks. Strange thing about NY, I didn’t feel like I was traveling - but going home. I’m still thinking about that.
3. Christopher Jagers »&hellip | June 14th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
[…] At the end of Day 3, Eve Aschheim invited me to a picnic in Brooklyn with the Princeton art department faculty. They were all very nice and insightful, and spent a lot of time talking about the changes in NY, and how NY is about “change.” But one conversation stood out: John Yau (Eve’s husband) telling a story about how is dealt with 9/11 within one of his classes. He didn’t really know what to do, but arrived at having them take turns reading the Iliad out loud, the entire book to the whole class. He reported that they were confused for a while, but then started to “get it.” The story is so violent, with so much death - and yet the enemy is never demonized. There is still respect, and contains a very insightful way of looking at war. The Iliad shows how to wrestle with complexity, rather than wish it away by painting the enemy as a cartoon. I found this to be a fascinating solution. […]
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