Richard Höglund
Sea Picture LIV, 2016
Silver, lead, titanium, cadmium, cobalt, poppy oil, bone pulver, marble dust, and acrylic emulsions on linen
226 x 183 cm
89 x 72 1/8 in
89 x 72 1/8 in
Copyright The Artist
"...I had also just been reading Paul Valéry’s Péri Tôn Tou Théou. He
was thinking about the sea, and he notes some things that resonate with
what I wanted to achieve with these paintings:
A. Tu regards éternellement la mer. Tu attends.
B. Oui et non. Je regarde ce qui n’est pas terre.
Je tourne toujours vers mes yeux sans le vouloir
vers la partie de l’espace où ils puissent ne rien
distraitement
voir. Je voudrais sans le savoir une vue de quelque
chose qui me mire ma pensée, laquelle s’ignore
comme j’ignorerais mon visage sans les miroirs.
L’âme cherche à se considérer.
Le ciel et la mer sont miroirs. Le ciel et la mer
sont les régions de la sphère visible où est l’éternel
avenir. La terre est passé. Les pierres ont une histoire
(cf. notre [Bretagne ?]) Les feuillages sont présents.
les yeux
Mais l’âme qui contemple/nt les effacements et
les reprises de la nature marine et qui ensuite
prennent font
prend le ciel à témoin. Se fait mer et ciel
alternativement, en tire/nt du silence et des soupirs
et elle attend d’elle même de quoi abolir cette mer
l’âme
et ce ciel – et ce qu’il faut pour ne pas leur être.
Ils semblent vouloir toujours enfanter
quelque chose- Elle(mer) veut rejeter
je ne sais qui est en elle. Il (ciel) veut
signifier, et ne signifie rien –
I wanted to make a picture that would respond to Valéry’s request: “I want to unknowingly behold something that mirrors my thought ”. To do so would require rethinking representational strategies of signification. I wanted the painting to provide an original experience. I felt like this would bring the picture closer to Burke’s notion of the Sublime, something that I had come across when traveling in Iceland. I could achieve this by painting a dynamic field. The Picture, like the Sea, could be a dynamic field within eternally fixed limits, within an eternal arrangement governed by laws of gravity, perception, and scale."
Sea Pictures are dynamic fields of writings. Indexical signs of human behaviour –marks– are made with styli of different metals (e.g. gold, silver, bismuth, tin, lead, et al) appear and recede beneath thin layers of oil paint.
A. Tu regards éternellement la mer. Tu attends.
B. Oui et non. Je regarde ce qui n’est pas terre.
Je tourne toujours vers mes yeux sans le vouloir
vers la partie de l’espace où ils puissent ne rien
distraitement
voir. Je voudrais sans le savoir une vue de quelque
chose qui me mire ma pensée, laquelle s’ignore
comme j’ignorerais mon visage sans les miroirs.
L’âme cherche à se considérer.
Le ciel et la mer sont miroirs. Le ciel et la mer
sont les régions de la sphère visible où est l’éternel
avenir. La terre est passé. Les pierres ont une histoire
(cf. notre [Bretagne ?]) Les feuillages sont présents.
les yeux
Mais l’âme qui contemple/nt les effacements et
les reprises de la nature marine et qui ensuite
prennent font
prend le ciel à témoin. Se fait mer et ciel
alternativement, en tire/nt du silence et des soupirs
et elle attend d’elle même de quoi abolir cette mer
l’âme
et ce ciel – et ce qu’il faut pour ne pas leur être.
Ils semblent vouloir toujours enfanter
quelque chose- Elle(mer) veut rejeter
je ne sais qui est en elle. Il (ciel) veut
signifier, et ne signifie rien –
I wanted to make a picture that would respond to Valéry’s request: “I want to unknowingly behold something that mirrors my thought ”. To do so would require rethinking representational strategies of signification. I wanted the painting to provide an original experience. I felt like this would bring the picture closer to Burke’s notion of the Sublime, something that I had come across when traveling in Iceland. I could achieve this by painting a dynamic field. The Picture, like the Sea, could be a dynamic field within eternally fixed limits, within an eternal arrangement governed by laws of gravity, perception, and scale."
Sea Pictures are dynamic fields of writings. Indexical signs of human behaviour –marks– are made with styli of different metals (e.g. gold, silver, bismuth, tin, lead, et al) appear and recede beneath thin layers of oil paint.
“I did not want to rely upon representational imagery for symbolic signification. Bone pulver, marble dust, various metals and oils; each material carries its own burden of sense.”
On his series Sea Picture, Richard Höglund writes: “the title came to me through the air and alighted on my desk”. This openness to metaphysical and poetic inspiration rooted in the natural elements permeates Höglund’s paintings, which incorporate a complex preparation of metalpoints and alloys. Sea Pictures are among the largest silverpoint and goldpoint drawings ever made. The gradient palette evokes expansive horizons and the hours when the sky and sea seem particularly inextricable.
The painting juxtaposes metalpoint drawing and layers of minerals commonly associated with the foundations of human society and the primitive accumulation of empire.
--
Steeped in philosophy and language, Richard Höglund produces paintings and works on paper, all grounded in what he views as the most fundamental expressive form: drawing. As he explains: “Drawing is about making marks, and those marks need to be sensitive and responsive. The lines need to be unmediated as much as possible, to be made with the least amount of obstructions between mind, hand, tool, surface.” Using repetition and seriality along with nonobjective forms and patterns, Höglund’s lines are the fundamental layer within all of paintings.
For Höglund, the act of drawing is as close as we can get to our thoughts before they become inevitably altered by language. The artist employs metalpoint to bring drawing into paintings without diminishing the value of the handwritten line. Utilizing pure silver, gold, iron, lead, bismuth, and copper, and Höglund uses alloys such as bronze, electrum, tin, and lead.
On his series Sea Picture, Richard Höglund writes: “the title came to me through the air and alighted on my desk”. This openness to metaphysical and poetic inspiration rooted in the natural elements permeates Höglund’s paintings, which incorporate a complex preparation of metalpoints and alloys. Sea Pictures are among the largest silverpoint and goldpoint drawings ever made. The gradient palette evokes expansive horizons and the hours when the sky and sea seem particularly inextricable.
The painting juxtaposes metalpoint drawing and layers of minerals commonly associated with the foundations of human society and the primitive accumulation of empire.
--
Steeped in philosophy and language, Richard Höglund produces paintings and works on paper, all grounded in what he views as the most fundamental expressive form: drawing. As he explains: “Drawing is about making marks, and those marks need to be sensitive and responsive. The lines need to be unmediated as much as possible, to be made with the least amount of obstructions between mind, hand, tool, surface.” Using repetition and seriality along with nonobjective forms and patterns, Höglund’s lines are the fundamental layer within all of paintings.
For Höglund, the act of drawing is as close as we can get to our thoughts before they become inevitably altered by language. The artist employs metalpoint to bring drawing into paintings without diminishing the value of the handwritten line. Utilizing pure silver, gold, iron, lead, bismuth, and copper, and Höglund uses alloys such as bronze, electrum, tin, and lead.