“As an artist, I experience freedom through limitation and structure. It would appear that limitation and structure are dichotomies to freedom, but through experience, I have found them to be synonymous and the basics of freedom.” – Channa Horwitz
Lisson Gallery is pleased to present Channa Horwitz’s solo debut in China, her fifth presentation with Lisson Gallery globally. Horwitz (1932-2013) is renowned for her role in the Conceptual Art and West Coast Minimalist movements, specifically, her mathematically constructed compositions which played with numbers one to eight. The exhibition offers a dynamic exploration of line, shape and pattern, highlighting the artist’s rigorous conceptual structures, self-determined rules, and her fascination with capturing space, movement and time. This presentation follows Horwitz’s solo exhibition with Lisson Gallery in New York, from 3 March – 16 April 2022.
After leaving school, the first thing Horwitz was interested in was reducing her choices to the least number. “The less choices I had the more I could discover”, she noted. Within the rules she had established for herself, she created a multitude of complex and intricate drawings, paintings, moving sculptures and performances. The rules she applied to each work were rigorously followed, causing sequential shifts as each pattern bourgeons naturally. Woven by their various configurations and set against a graph, these patterns overlap, moving incrementally through meticulous precision.
Read moreUnder-recognised during her lifetime, despite the parallels between her system-based approach and the conceptual practice of artists such as her peer and long-time friend Sol LeWitt, Horwitz chose to pursue her own distinct language through logical systems. In Horwitz’s practice, each new body of work evolved as a deepening inquiry, born from the prior series. Setting the foundations of her guiding principles, Horwitz’s early artistic inquiry Language Series introduced repetitive patterns and numerical groupings that were organized sequentially based on combinations of eight pictograms. In the Sonakinatography drawings, Horwitz explored ways to compose movement and time, reflecting the artist’s philosophy of expressing the fourth dimension two-dimensionally.
The selection of works evidence Horwitz’s pursuit of freedom through the imposition of a fixed set of rules. Canon presents a kaleidoscopic grid, where layering and conjoining lines create a sense of movement as the colours burst and travel parallel to one another. Works in the Canon series involve an expansive relationship of numerical sequence, line and system, evolving further as the Moiré drawings, in casein and gold leaf, share a close methodology and use of systems. It was when creating the Moiré series that Horwitz realised she had been working with eight angles. She subsequently gave each of the angles numbers and a colour as she searched out all possible combinations.
The Moiré series provides an introduction to the various works from the Rhythm of Line ll series. Each work from Rhythm of Lines ll is composed from the pairing of two sets of eight lines, wherein each area of intersection creates intricate and unique moiré patterns. These paintings represent a vibrant example, with various shades of pink, orange, red, blue, green, and the inclusion of gold leaf. On the surface, these works appear mathematical and computer-generated yet all of the artist’s algorithms were entirely self-generated, resolutely hand-made and non-technological.
“作为一名艺术家，我在限制与结构中感受到自由。虽然限制与结构似乎与自由相悖，但经验告诉我，它们代表了自由，也是自由的基础。”——夏纳·霍维兹
里森画廊宣布于上海空间呈现夏纳·霍维兹 (Channa Horwitz) 在中国的首次个展，这也是她在里森画廊的第五次个展。霍维兹 (1932-2013) 是观念艺术和美国西岸极简主义运动的代表人物，其标志性实践为以数字1到8为基础来创作数学模型般精密的作品。本次展览旨在呈现霍维兹对线条、形状和图案进行的多种探索，突出艺术家严谨的概念性结构、自我制定的规则，以及她对于空间、运动与时间的刻画。
从学校毕业后，霍维兹首先感到兴趣的是尽可能地减少自己的选择。她曾表示：“选择越少，我越能更深入地探索。”依照为自己制定的规则，她创作了大量错综复杂的素描、绘画、表演和动态雕塑。应用于每件作品的规则极其精确，这令每种图案之间的演变和发展显得十分自然及合理。霍维兹的图像以图表和线形图为主，在一丝不苟的实践之下，它们组合出的不同形态和结构互相重叠，并逐步推进。
虽然霍维兹的系统性创作方法，与她的挚友索尔·勒维特 (Sol LeWitt) 等同辈观念艺术家的实践有相似之处，但她并未得到充分认可。尽管如此，霍维茨依然坚持通过逻辑系统来塑造她的独特艺术语言。在她的实践中，每一个全新作品系列的诞生都是对以往系列的一次深入探索和发展。在早期作品系列《Language Series》(语言系列) 中，霍维兹将八个图形符号在带有网格的纸上进行组合，以此形成重复的图案及不同数量的图形分组，这一系列为她创作的指导准则奠定了基础。在随后的《Sonakinatograph》(声动符号) 系列绘图中，艺术家则探索了描绘动态和时间的方法，代表了她尝试在二维平面之上勾勒四维空间的视觉哲学。
本次展览呈现的作品体现了霍维茨通过实施一套固定的规则来寻求创作中的自由。《Canon》(准则) 体现了一个万花筒般的网络，不同颜色的网格依次排列，形成彩虹般的色彩渐变，而网格中重叠和相接的线条则营造了一种动感。《Canon》系列的创作建立于数列、线条及秩序之间的广泛关系，基于一套类似的创作方法及系统，霍维兹继而发展出以酪酸涂料及金箔为主要媒介的《Moiré》(莫列波纹) 系列。也正是在创作《Moiré》系列时，霍维茨意识到她的所有作品都运用了八个不同的角度，于是在随后的实践中，艺术家赋予每个角度对应的数字和颜色，进而尝试所有可能的组合。
与《Moiré》系列相承接的是《Rhythm of Lines II》(线条的韵律 II) 系列。此系列中的每件作品都由两组八条线条组成，线条的重叠部分形成了复杂而独特的莫列波纹。《Rhythm of Lines II》系列的绘画可以说是霍维兹作品中较为活泼鲜艳的一组，艺术家使用的金箔及粉红、橙、红、蓝、绿等色彩，为画面增添了活力。这些精密严谨的作品看起来像是计算机生成的，然而霍维茨实践中的一套系统完全由她本人一手建立，并亲手创作所有作品，并不涉及对科技的使用。
