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david row

Born in Portland, Maine, 1949
Studied at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (B.A., 1972; M.F.A., 1974)
Lives and works in New York City

2006 Statement

Mirrors and Echos
A suite of four color lithographs

In the process of painting Demons in Paradise (an exhibition of paintings in the fall of 2006) I generated a lot of ideas that fed directly into this suite of lithographs. The prints have a very informal, stripped down quality. In this sense they are very much of a piece with the paintings of the last year. All the drips and splashes are left as part of the image. They are not 'cleaned up' or made presentable. They bleed out into the border space and even off the edge of the paper.

The color is basic, utilitarian, unmixed, and sculptural. These are the colors of blood, earth, grass and sea. They are not used in relation to other colors, or as symbols. They represent themselves and retain the specific 'feel' of one hue with all its material and emotional qualities unmitigated. The title of the suite refers to structural manipulations both within each image as well as from image to image.

Selected Recent Exhibitions

Selected Public Collections

The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York.
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
Edwin A. Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, Kansas
The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois
Oklahoma Museum of Art, Oklahoma City
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California
Rochester Institute Museum Collection, Rochester, New York
RxArt, New York, New York
Sherbrooke Fine Arts Museum, Sherbrooke, Quebec
Spencer Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico

2003 Statement

Over the years printmaking had become and important part of my artmaking life. It was not something I had originally intended to pursue but, once I started, I loved everything about it: the process, the quality of the image, the excuse to use great paper, the chance to make my work in a social environment, having expert advice, and most important of all, not having to clean up!

I have always loved the look and feel of the litho stones themselves, so I came with the idea of looking for the broken and eccentric ones, then pushing them into a bunch and letting the decisions about drawing, structure and color some from the configuration. That is pretty much what happened. Most of these stones were initially occupied by some very beautiful Jim Dine drawings. I thnk Jim for relinquishing them even if he wasn't present for the decision.

Although I had the idea of how I would proceed before I got to the shop, what the image actually became was, as always, a surprise. I am reminded of performers who say that no matter how many times they go on stage they are always nervous beforehand. I never bring a pre-made image to the printshop with me. I approach the process of making prints the same way I do making paintings, so the improvisation and nervousness is always there. But this is the risk and the magic of making art. I wouldn't have it any other way.

1999 Statement

For some time my work has involved the tension between fragments and wholes. I'm not exactly sure why I'm drawn to this quality except that it seems to reflect the disparity between what we desire (wholeness) and what we experience (fragment). The charm of lithography stones is precisely in those aspects-the rough edges and imperfect shapes that remind you they are fragments of some vast geological event. In any case, for my purposes, they make perfect fragments, individually or in groups.

For this project, I chose two grouping of litho stones. Each grouping is made up of three stones pushed together making a shaped configuration. I drew on the stones with tusche and shop black. The imagery is new but is combined with two notions that have dogged my work for years; namely, endless imagery (inspired by Brancusi's columns) and the provisional shape of the support.

The drawing and the stone have an interesting relationship. The drawing knits the parts together but by the same token exists above and separately from them as well as beyond their natural edges. Likewise the individual fragmentary quality of each stone is enhanced by the conditional nature of its place in the configuration.

As anyone who has worked with them knows, it is hard to compete with the beauty and dignity of the stones themselves. So it is fitting that these six stones, having completed their temporary tasks as receivers of fragmentary imagery, will be ground to that original dignity again.
-David Row

Selected recent exhibitions

Selected public collections
Ackland Art Museum
Brooklyn Museum, New York
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
Galleria Nazionale D'Arte Moderna, San Marino, Republica di San Marino
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California
University of Massachusetts, University Gallery, Amherst, Massachusetts
University of Miami Art Gallery, Miami, Ohio
University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, New Mexico
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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Last updated: May 2007.