ART CITIES:London-Crossroads,Kauffman, Judd and Morris
Characterized by an obsessive pursuit of sensuality within the structure of painting, Craig Kauffman’s engagement with unconventional materials and techniques defies categories. Throughout his prolific career, Kauffman challenged conventions, as he merged his interests in abstraction, color and perception. Although he has been associated with critical groupings such as Finish Fetish and Light and Space, Kauffman’s work precedes those categories, and his work substantially transcends their limitations.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Sprüth Magers Gallery Archive
The exhibition “Crossroads: Kauffman, Judd and Morris” presents six works from Kauffman’s period of 1966-71, when he addressed the issues of structure and form in painting, the use of industrial materials, painting’s relationship to the wall, and dematerialisation. His work is contextualised by the inclusion of the stack piece “Untitled (Bernstein 80-4)” (1980) and the floor piece “Untitled, DSS 234” (1970) by Donald Judd and the two felt works “Untitled” (1968) and “Fountain” (1971) by Robert Morris, as well as supplemental materials from the Kauffman archives. Kauffman rose to the attention of critics and collectors with his first solo exhibition of paintings at Landau Galleries in Los Angeles in 1953. He was a member of the original group of artists at the Ferus Gallery (founded in 1957 by Edward Kienholz and Walter Hopps), and had a solo exhibition at that gallery in 1958. After an initial group of works with flat plastic, Kauffman discovered the industrial process of vacuum forming, and proceeded to translate his sensuous forms into wall reliefs, painted on the reverse with sprayed acrylic lacquer. The works were shown first at Ferus, and subsequently by Pace Gallery in New York, where they were well received. By the summer of 1966, Kauffman’s acrylic plastic wall relief paintings were featured on the cover of Art in America. Kauffman would go on to participate in 57 exhibitions in New York during his career. In 1967, Kauffman relocated to New York, encouraged by the successes of his first solo show in the city, titled “Recent Work”, while there, he began a friendship with Donald Judd. Like the work of Judd, Kauffman’s three-dimensional plastic paintings occupy this liminal category. Their volume suggests that they are sculpture, but their presence on the wall reinforces their status as paintings. The unity of colour and form, achieved through the use of industrial materials, is another point of similarity between the two artists’ objectives. Kauffman’s move to New York also reignited his friendship with Robert Morris, whom he had met in San Francisco ten years earlier. Their frequent discussions resulted in a short lived collaboration for the exhibition “Using Walls (Indoors)” at the Jewish Museum in 1970, which remained open for only one day, and which Kauffman described as a combination of both of the artists’ ideas. Two of the earliest works from 1966 demonstrate how Kauffman addressed some of the issues which were important to Minimalist art and theory: seriality, industrial multiples, and anonymity. But where the New Yorkers’ opted for material and formal austerity, Kauffman’s supple plastic works were coloured and full of curves.
Info: Curator: Frank Lloyd, Sprüth Magers Gallery, 7A Grafton Street, London, Duration: 19/1-31/3/18, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, http://spruethmagers.com
