Channa Horwitz

Channa Horwitz (née Channa Helene Shapiro, May 21, 1932 – April 29, 2013) was a contemporary artist based in Los Angeles, United States.[1] She is recognized for the logically-derived compositions created over her five decade career. Her visually complex, systematic works are generally structured around linear progressions using the number eight.[2][3][4]

Early life and education

Horwitz was born in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, on May 21, 1932; her father was an electrician and inventor. She studied at Art Center School of Design 1950-52.[5] As a married mother of two she studied painting at California State University Northridge (1960-63) while living in Tarzana. At CSUN she was encouraged by her instructors to paint in an Abstract Expressionist style, to "be free" and "throw the paint."[6] After dropping out of school in 1963 Horwitz created her first mathematically based compositions. She worked on index cards before switching to graph paper as the preferred base for her geometrically inspired drawings.[7] She had a third child[5] before earning a B.F.A. in 1972 from CalArts, studying under teachers John Baldessari and Allan Kaprow, among others.[8] She married her second husband, Jim Horwitz, in 1973.[1]

Early Work

In 1964 Horwitz began drawing with pen on index cards. She combined simple shapes, circles, squares and rectangles with sequential numbers, 1 through 8, to create pictograms. Horwitz arranged these pictograms into logical progressive patterns based on the corresponding numbers. In order to experience true freedom Horwitz had to narrow her choices to the very basics of visual expression, to the most simple shapes and colors.[6]

Window Shades (1964): Also in 1964 Horwitz started a series of architectural interior renderings for a fictitious couple named, “Mr. and Mrs. McGillicutty.” Each rendering was composed of basic interior elements including a window and a window-shade. Horwitz lost interest in all other elements of the series, save for the window-shade. Altering the position of the blinds allowed Horwitz an infinite variety of patterns. [6]

Circle and Square (1966): By 1966 Horwitz had reached the logical progression of her first renderings on index cards. She did away with all narrative pretexts and reduced her vocabulary to just the circle and the square. With four simple rules governing her progress Horwitz composed sixteen paintings in the Circle and Square series. The four rules were: “1) Randomly position two rectangles (on large one small) against a broad field. 2) Draw a circle around the circumference of each of the rectangles. 3) Draw a circle in the center of the entire frame. 4) Color the portion of each rectangle falling outside circle number 3 a darker shade.” [6]

In this manner Horwitz came to her own, self derived, version of minimalism. In the early years of her practice, as she worked out her system of representation, Horwitz was fairly isolated and unfamiliar with Sol LeWitt and other conceptualists working in the same vein. [6] [9]

The Art and Technology exhibition and Sonakinatography

In 1968, Horwitz (then Channa Davis) submitted a proposal to the innovative exhibition Art and Technology (1971), in which artists were paired with technology companies and engineers, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The proposed sculpture consisted of "eight large clear Plexiglas beams designed to move and float in the air within magnetic fields, accompanied by eight beams of light that would vary in intensity based on the adjacent beam."[10] [9] The movement would occur in ten minute cycles. Although the sculpture was never fabricated, Horwitz's proposal was included in the 1970 program catalogue, whose cover prominently displayed the faces of the white male artists whose works appeared in the culminating exhibition at the Museum. Art and Technology's glaring omission of women—specifically the fact that Horwitz was never asked to speak with industry about the possibility of making her sculpture led to a public outcry in the feminist art community in Los Angeles, involving confrontations and eventual concessions from the curator Maurice Tuchman.[11][12]

Not long after submitting the Art and Technology proposal, Horwitz continued her interest in representing motion across time. She asked her then-husband for a break from a tennis match to spend two hours drawing, and during this period invented a system of composition called Sonakinatography, meaning sound - motion - notation.[4] Sonakinatography plots the activity of eight entities over a period of time using numbers, colors, and the eight-to-the-inch squares of the graph paper they appear on. While conceptually complete ends in themselves,[5] and visually appealing in their own right as standalone drawings, Sonakinatography compositions have also been performed via percussion, dance, spoken word, and electronic instruments.[4]

Because of the initial choice of eight-to-the-inch graph paper for Sonakinatography, Horwitz has used the number eight consistently through her work, as she expands and varies her original systems into new sequences.[13]

Current representation

Although for the most part publicly ignored throughout her career, Horwitz's work has been gaining recognition in recent years. She is currently represented by François Ghebaly Gallery and Air de Paris Gallery . Horwitz has commented that this lack of public involvement has likely given her the freedom to pursue and question the directions in which the structures of her work take her.[13]

She has recently exhibited at KW Institute for Contemporary Art (Berlin), Air de Paris, (France), Inhotim (Brazil), Museum Tinguely (Switzerland), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Francois Ghebaly Gallery (Los Angeles), the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles), the New Museum (New York), ZKM Karlsruhe and Kunsthalle Dresden (Germany), and Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea (Spain), the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), and the Whitney Biennial 2014. She has upcoming events across the US and Europe. She received the honor of a Guggenheim Fellowship shortly before her death in April, 2013.[14]

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Selected Group-Exhibitions

References

  1. 1 2 "Channa Horwitz, 1932 – 2013: Artist known for geometric paintings", Los Angeles Times, May 4, 2013, p. AA6.
  2. ↑ Ollman, Leah (2 April 2010). "Art review: Channa Horwitz at SolwayJones and Kunsthalle L.A". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  3. ↑ Frieze Art Fair Review, Retrieved 2012-2-23.
  4. 1 2 3 Martens, Anne (10 April 2010). "ARTLURKER Jet Set Saturdays: Channa Horwitz at SolwayJones and Kunsthalle L.A". Artlurker. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  5. 1 2 3 estate
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Kraus, Chris (2005). Full circle, 1964-2005 : November 19 - December 17 2005. Los Angeles, California: SolwayJones. pp. 5, 6. ISBN 0974940038.
  7. ↑ Troeller, Jordan (Summer 2015). "Channa Horwitz". ARTNews.
  8. ↑ Kraus, Chris. "Chris Kraus on Channa Horwitz". artforum.com. Retrieved 2016-03-04.
  9. 1 2 Ellegood, Anne (2012). Made in L.A. 2012. Los Angeles: Hammer Museum and DelMonico Books. p. 90.
  10. ↑ estate - artist's proposal and writings
  11. ↑ Fox, Howard N. (2008). "In context: LACMA's Art and Technology Program, 1967–1971". LACMA.org. Retrieved 2012-02-23.
  12. ↑ Feminist Response to Art and Technology, Retrieved 2012-2-23.
  13. 1 2 Write-up in COS Magazine, Must search for "Channa Horwitz" in text. Retrieved 2012-2-23.
  14. ↑ http://www.ghebaly.com Retrieved 6-27-2014.
  15. ↑ Profil der Künstlerin auf artfacts.net
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, March 13, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.