Published on the occasion of the exhibition Richard Deacon. Recent sculpture 1986/1987 [Fehler im Katalog: Es müsste wohl 1985–1987 heissen] organized by the Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht and the Kunstmuseum Luzern in association with the Fundación Caja de Pensiones Madrid and the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, with support by the British Council, London.
Herausgegeben zur Ausstellung Richard Deacon. Recent sculpture 1986/1987 [Fehler im Katalog!] organisiert vom Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht und vom Kunstmuseum Luzern in Zusammenarbeit mit der Fundación Caja de Pensiones Madrid und dem Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, mit Unterstützung durch das British Council, London.
ISBN 90-72251-01-6
Text
Charles Harrison: Empathy und irony: Richard Deacon‘s sculpture, Seite 50–57
Charles Harrison: Empathie en ironie: de sculpturen van Richard Deacon, Seite 57–66
Charles Harrison: Empathie und Ironie: Die Skulptur Richard Deacons, Seite 67–74
Whenever I draw I tend to avoid drawing the middle . . .
Richard Deacon's work stands or falls by a single contour line. He rejects the classical view that form arises from a nucleus within the mass. Klee saw the growth of a tree as the perfect metaphor of artistic creation. The branches take their form from within; but Deacon would charge the wind with their shape: and see the bare spruce trees taking their shape from the background dunes.
"I do draw occasionally whilst I'm making things, in a notebook kind of fashion. I also doodle fairly repetitively. "
His sculpture i s generally a composition o f strips of wood or galvanized steel. There is no q uestion at all of high q uality techniq ue. The Strips are stuck to one another or provisionally riveted together. The actual process is, to say the least, highly economical and reminiscent of his doodling . Although the line appears to be a chance division between within and without, it is nevertheless sharply drawn and organic in character.
The decisiveness with which it is drawn and the layer upon layer which is gradually built up are all strong indicators of a hidden core. Then suddenly the centre can be found . As the essence of language can sometimes be found by reading between the lines, so too do these forms hover between the boundaries normally prescribed. We say that they 'hover' because the nucleus does not stay in one place. It has a kaleidoscopic effect.
The organization of this exhibition has been a fascinating exercise. In the first place, we would
like to thank the artist himself for the continuing dialogue which accompanied the organization.
The initial work on the catalogue and exhibition by Martin Kunz and Nicholas Logsdail's work as a go-between for us and the owners of the works exhibited was of enormous importance to us.
