Los Angeles born and based Channa Horwitz (1932–2013) sought to direct her practice through the consideration and deployment of rules as a means to experience greater freedom and depth of exploration within her work. Fundamental to the artist’s thinking is a relationship of numerical sequence, line and systems developed through intensive and exhaustive drawings that characteristically operated within the boundaries of the grid and evolved to be structured on the number eight. The artist's 8 part Design Series from 1982 exemplifies the original beauty found within the parameters of her linear logic, and showcases her exquisite draftsmanship.
Read moreEach one of Horwitz' bodies of work grew out of an investigation of her previous series, where new approaches would be created out of rules previously established. For example, she would add dimensions and levels, reduce what she had to its essence, slice that from different directions, layer iterations of eight on top of each other, or like in the Design Series, deconstruct.
The Design Series playfully breaks down her previous Canon series, a group of works that multiply her algorithms to create dense graphic matrixes of up to 14 levels, to reveal the designs between the mathematical layers. Looking further back, the Canons evolved from her Slices series, laying the eight sequential Slice shapes over each other to create a colorful geometric forest. And the Slices in turn are the result of reducing a specific work from her now iconic Sonakinatography series. Such are the sequential rhythms and patterns of Channa Horwitz' practice. The Design Series Triangle amplifies Horwitz's self-challenging embrace of "design" in light of what had been considered pejorative in the context of fine art. Demonstrating the progressive deconstruction of the Canon, she reveals the designs one by one within their concentrated layers. Each individual drawing creates a waveform pattern, demonstrating the richness found in just intersections of colored pencil lines and ink.
