Frances Muldoon
August 31, 2014
Adv. Lynne Cook
More
Than Just Childs Play
Venezuela born
artist Arturo Herrera and Connecticut born artist Carroll Dunham each have
extensive careers, which include diverse bodies of work with variations in
themes, techniques and materials. It would be a nearly impossible task to
discuss Arturo Herrera and Carroll Dunham’s vast amounts of work in this short
essay, so instead I will focus on those works which most pertain to my own
areas of interest. I will focus on the early drawings of Carroll Dunham (1982-1995)
and a series of collages created by Arturo Herrera in 2002. I have selected
these particular works for their involvement in my own studio practice, for
their cartoon like visual language and quality of line as well as the themes
and ideas expressed in them. I will discuss each body of work in terms of the
artist process, references and ideology before discussing two pieces in depth.
Arturo Herrera’s
instrument of choice in the studio is not pen nor pencil, but rather an X-acto knife
(McElheny). “The
x-acto knife cuts everything into little bits, fragments that I then use to
create new images. These are like little bits of modernism all around me . . .
My fragmentation provides another view of the contamination or impurity of
modernism” [1] (McElheny).
Herrera stated in a fall 2005 Interview for BOMB Magazine. Herrera’s fragmented
pieces of cartoon imagery and paintings, carefully cut from their original contexts
are added to a large table containing vast piles of fragments, organized by
theme or visual similarities. [2] From these extensive piles Herrera carefully
pulls together new images, re contextualizing the original images (Arturo Herrera | Artspace).
Herrera’s works have been likened to that
of Jackson Pollack, as well as the Abstract Expressionists in his works drippy
and splatter worn effect. Herrera also borrows from Surrealism’s affinity for
striking juxtaposition[3] as well as the dream like
quality produced by his use of airbrushed backgrounds devoid of identifying
characteristics (Meschede). Herrera also attempts to access the subconscious by
re-contextualizing common images from “cartoons, coloring books and fairy
tales” (Arturo
Herrera | Artspace) allowing the familiar to peek
through the wilderness of lines and layers to touch on the viewer’s past
experience. These
images borrowed from the pages of childhood are mixed with images involving adult
themes including “violence and sexuality”[4] (Arturo Herrera | Artspace).
Carroll Dunham like
Herrera utilizes cartoon imagery and layers in his work, layers of charcoal, pencil
drawing and paint, some lines erased, some painted over. This layering or
recording of incident collimates in an exiting space full of movement and
action with in the pictorial space (Kimmelman).
Carroll Dunham, in a 1990’s interview
states . . . “I’m not thinking
symbolically or in literary terms. The things that come up in my paintings tend
to be much more an expression of an attitude about process than they do the
expression of an attitude about subject matter” (Sussler). Much of Dunham’s work, his drawings in particular, seem organically
formed as if he created them with out deliberation, hesitation or hardship. It
is as if the images already live in his hand, needing only a pencil as catalyst
to spill out over the page. The erasures present (or more often the covering
over of previous marks) become the evidence of struggle indecision and human
imperfection. Dunham’s figures or shapes seem to bound directly from the
artist’s unconscious to the page, reminding the viewer of Surrealism, a
commonality with Herrera (Johnson). Many of Dunham’s drawings can also be seen as being
related to the Abstract Expressionist as well as the strong lines of
cartoonists. The cartoon like drawings in Dunham’s work seem, as discussed, to
spawn organically from personal imagination where as in Herrera’s work, his
cartoons come from a recognizable pop culture distorted and fragmented to then
make them his own.
While both artists involve
cartoons alongside adult themes such as sex and violence -- Herrera’s work
involves this subject much more subtly than Dunham. Many of Dunham’s shapes or
characters if you will, do not stand alone as shapes but rather have added
sexually appendages most often the male sexual organs[5] (Thorkildsen).
Neither artists views
their work as having a set meaning, deliberate plot line or set narrative but
both allow their work to remain open to viewers interpretation and perception. The
visual effects of one Herrera’s collages as well as one of Dunham’s drawings
will now be explored in depth.
 |
| Arturo Herrera You Go First |
In “Arturo Herrera You Go First” a collection of nearly one hundred of
his collages are reproduced without titles, dimensions, medium or exact dates
to identify them. This particular collage consists of three main images - two
completely abstract pieces presumably taken from watercolor paintings and one
representational though a severely fragmented cartoon image. The image is constructed vertically on the page
and the fragment of a cartoon man’s head creates the base for the image. This
fragmented face appears to be taken strait from a children’s coloring book, for
on close examination one can see traces of lines which must have been on the
reverse side of the coloring book. The man maintains two eyebrows one full eye
and one ear; the second eye is complete except for the line that would indicate
the bottom lid. A pale slightly dirty looking patch of pink watercolor paper
appears slightly behind the image of the man’s head. This piece is reminiscent
of a castle with two turrets on either side, a distorted jar shaped hole is cut
from the middle of this pink paper revealing the whiteness of the background.
Three further pieces of watercolor appear to float upwards inside the jar
shape. Hovering slightly above all this remains the last splotch of blue grey
watercolor paper cut into a drippy morphing shape.
 |
| Carroll Dunham: A Drawing Survey |
In Carroll Dunham: A Drawing Survey a 300+ page book complied of the
drawings an doodles of Dunham ranging from the drawing which begins the book
dated Nov 5 1982 which bears the number one to the last mage in the book with
1/26/12 and 1/27/12 written on it. Covering at thirty-year practice of Dunham’s
the drawings shift and change over the years. Like Herrera’s You Go First there are no titles, mediums
or dimensions to label or help contextualize the work. However in each one of
Dunham’s drawings resides a date and most often his initials C.D. This gives an
idea of the progression of his work.
The drawing I have chosen
to focus on was created on 8/8/95. This drawing is composed of a large central
oblong shape resembling a finger or something more phallic. It is reminiscent
of the “jar” shape previously mentioned with Herrera’s drawing. Inside this
shape are rectangles divided with short horizontal lines resembling windows,
along with curly lines like a child would use to reference a cloud. Black spots
of what may be charcoal create dots and give weight to the form. It appears the
drawings were created first and a layer of what may be crayon or some sort of
wax product in a pale slightly fleshy pink were added with quick strokes on top.
The pink does not remain inside the lines of the shape but rather protrudes aggressively
as if an angry child were coloring. Two more window-like shapes appear to
explode from the main shape along with many teardrop and oval shapes, which
pour both upwards and downwards, exploding from the pink form. With in these ovals,
resides lines which create a slit this may be reference to female genitals[6] this
theory is given strength when one looks at one particular tear drop shape
inside the pick shape resembling a cartoon drawing of a vagina.
The work of Carroll Dunham
and Arturo Herrera is extensive and diverse. Their cartoon collages and
drawings share references to Abstract Expressionists, Serialism, and
Cartoonists. Neither artists place a specific narrative in their work but
rather leave it open-ended for the audience to decipher on their own terms.
Bibliography
"Arturo
Herrera | Artspace." Artspace. Artspace Marketplace, 2013. Web. 14
Aug. 2014.
"Arturo
Herrera Fragments of a Pictorial Language." Deutsche Bank. Deutsche
Bank Art
Works, 2012. Web. 14 Aug. 2014.
BOMB - Artists in Conversation,
Fall 2005. Web. 10 Aug. 2014.
Bois,
Yve-Alain, and Rosalind E. Krauss. "Cadaver." Formless: A User's
Guide. New
York: Zone, 1997. 63. Print.
Dunham,
Carroll. Carroll Dunham: A Drawing Survey. Los Angeles: Blum & Poe,
2012.
Print.
Friel,
Tom. "Residual Histories: An Interview with Arturo Herrera.": Bad
at Sports. Bad
At Sports Contemporary Art Talk, 20 Nov. 2013.
Web. 14 Aug. 2014.
Johnson,
Ken. "Suggestive Forms That Come Out of the Plywoodwork." The New
York
Times. The New York Times, 24 Mar. 2008. Web. 6 Aug.
2014.
Kimmelman,
Michael. "Getting Past the 80's: An Evolutionary Tale." The New
York
Times. The New York Times, 31 Oct. 2002. Web. 6 Aug.
2014.
McElheny, Josiah.
"Bomb." BOMB Magazine — Arturo Herrera by Josiah McElheny.
Meschede,
Friedrich, and Arturo Herrera. Arturo Herrera: You Go First. New York,
NY:
D.A.P./Distributed Art, 2005. Print.
Sussler,
Betsy. "Carroll Dunham." BOMB Magazine — Carroll Dunham by Betsy
Sussler. BOMB - Artists in Conversation, 1990. Web. 6
Aug. 2014.
Thorkildsen,
Asmund. "Who Is Pointing at Who-and Why-in Carroll Dunham's
Drawings." X#*(ing) INDEX! Trans.
Peter Cripps. London: Koenig, n.d. 271-303. Print.
[1] Herrera delves
further into the discussion of Modernism, stating that the fragmentation he
employs “might show that modernism’s potential for universality can never be
realized.” For although he divulges he is much “indebted to modernism” Herrera
attempts, through the use of fragmentation and re- contextualization to delve
into the aspects of modernism which he feels succeeded that which failed.
[2] It may be noted that Herrera’s studio table “is so
long that you would need a telephone to talk to some one at the other end.” It
is a place where Herrera “communicates with his pictures” ("Arturo Herrera
Fragments of a Pictorial Language.")
[3] Herrera’s use of fragments created in various
intervals of time to be reassembled in new ways is reminiscent of the
surrealist’s game of the exquisite corpse, or “cadaver exquis” referring to “the various games of chance to which
the group [surrealists] turned as a way of outwitting the rational mind and gaining
access to the unconscious” (Bois).
[4] In my own studio practice I have involved children’s imagery
particularly children’s cartoons. In doing so, highlight the underlying dangers
and hidden innuendos of childhood, in an attempt to view childhood through the
eyes of an adult.
[5] In Dunham’s recent series
Bathers, his focus shifts to women’s breasts, anus and vaginas. This shift
becomes visible in Dunham’s drawings beginning 2008 and continues on (Dunham).
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