[Will Insley, Logical Insanity] | Exhibition

Westwood Gallery NYC Exhibition Space

262 Bowery New York New York 10012 United States COPY Direction

Event Date: End 2020-03-14 10:00 ~ 2020-04-25 18:00

Project Key : #abstract, #city, #Drawing

https://www.westwoodgallery.com/
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Drawing ONECITY and the Abstract /Buildings/ [Will Insley, Logical Insanity]

Will Insley, ONECITY Building Room, Section Red Green Elevation, 1978-81

Drawing ONECITY and the Abstract /Buildings/ [Will Insley, Logical Insanity] | Exhibition

Westwood Gallery NYC Exhibition Space

262 Bowery New York New York 10012 United States COPY Direction

Event Date: End 2020-03-14 10:00 ~ 2020-04-25 18:00

Project Key : #abstract, #city, #Drawing

https://www.westwoodgallery.com/
GO PAGE

Description
Additional Info.

Westwood Gallery NYC is pleased to present Logical Insanity: Drawing ONECITY and the Abstract /Buildings/, a solo show of work on paper by Will Insley (1929-2011). On view in the gallery’s lower level are four drawings of ONECITY completed in the early 1980s and fourteen drawings of the abstract /buildings/ from the late 1960s. The artworks on view represent only a fraction of the numerous intricate drawings created over the artist’s lifetime. This exhibition is one of a series of rediscovered artist estates, as part of the gallery core program, and takes its title from a concept Insley often mused upon in his writings.For 50 years, Insley devoted his creativity to the investigation of a theoretical civilization and focus on its single metropolis, ONECITY, a labyrinthine structure buried in the central North American plains.  At its heart, the discovery of ONECITY involved the location and connection of points on a grid, in turn revealing the information of form. For Will, the art-architecture hybrid (otherwise defined as abstract architecture) provided a way for him to challenge the role of the artist during the Minimalist, Conceptual, and Earth Art movements of the 20th century by presenting fragmentary information as a part of the whole. In Insley’s essay concerning his practice, he writes: “The artist must think as an architect and measure whatever spaces are sensed lurking in the intuitive crevices of observation, and this information should be presented in such a manner as to suggest human participation in real 3 dimensional architectural space as a parallel to the mind wandering as a ‘character’ in a drama of numerical (real) and philosophical (unreal) theories.”  In the four drawings of ONECITY on view, Insley pulls diagrammatic language from his school years studying formal architecture, while incorporating the mythological visions seen in the abstract /buildings/ outside of the city center. The slash marks between the word /building/, indicates the work as an abstract building. In addition, each drawing is titled with two years denoted between a slash, the first date is the initial discovery and inception of the idea, and the second date is the completion of the drawing; in rare cases, some ink drawings would take him over 15 years to complete.In the fourteen drawings on view of the abstract /buildings/, Insley laid groundwork for his architectural explorations of ONECITY. Many of the drawings carry titles to present the complex formal vocabulary Insley defined for their categorization, such as Channel Space, Volume Space, and Passage Space. Channel Space, for example, grows through pyramid-forming stages from the center of the square base with inclined sides marking a grid in two- and three-dimensional spaces. Insley defines Channel Space as a “flat diagram extended to depth, wandering in the passage flow in hexagonal wave toward space unknown.”In Insley’s diaries, he writes that the /buildings/ exist buried in the wilderness far outside the metropolis of ONECITY, and have no practical function of any kind. “[The /buildings/] only reason for existence is to contain spatial situations sympathetic to the religious beliefs of the civilization of ONECITY. This focuses on a worship of the horizon line and of a passing through a space in that line between the earth and sky and of then embarking on travel into and return from the future with future information.” In both sets of drawings, Insley points his compass towards the future role of the artist, as the hybridization of traditional forms and methodology in art and architecture lend direction to presenting abstraction. ABOUT THE ARTISTWill Insley (1929 - 2011) was an American abstract artist who dedicated 50 years to creating paintings, drawings, writing, models and photomontages based on his concept for a visionary city, entitled, ONECITY. His artwork has been exhibited in numerous museums in the United States and Europe, including a solo exhibition at Guggenheim Museum, 1984 and Museum of Modern Art, 1971 in New York City, as well as inclusion in Documenta 5, 1972 and 6, 1977. Insley’s artwork is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Smithsonian Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and many others.

For 50 years, Insley devoted his creativity to the investigation of a theoretical civilization and focus on its single metropolis, ONECITY, a labyrinthine structure buried in the central North American plains. At its heart, the discovery of ONECITY involved the location and connection of points on a grid, in turn revealing the information of form. For Will, the art-architecture hybrid (otherwise defined as abstract architecture) provided a way for him to challenge the role of the artist during the Minimalist, Conceptual, and Earth Art movements of the 20th century by presenting fragmentary information as a part of the whole. In Insley’s essay concerning his practice, he writes:

“The artist must think as an architect and measure whatever spaces are sensed lurking in the intuitive crevices of observation, and this information should be presented in such a manner as to suggest human participation in real 3 dimensional architectural space as a parallel to the mind wandering as a ‘character’ in a drama of numerical (real) and philosophical (unreal) theories.”

In the four drawings of ONECITY on view, Insley pulls diagrammatic language from his school years studying formal architecture, while incorporating the mythological visions seen in the abstract /buildings/ outside of the city center. The slash marks between the word /building/, indicates the work as an abstract building. In addition, each drawing is titled with two years denoted between a slash, the first date is the initial discovery and inception of the idea, and the second date is the completion of the drawing; in rare cases, some ink drawings would take him over 15 years to complete.

In the fourteen drawings on view of the abstract /buildings/, Insley laid groundwork for his architectural explorations of ONECITY. Many of the drawings carry titles to present the complex formal vocabulary Insley defined for their categorization, such as Channel Space, Volume Space, and Passage Space. Channel Space, for example, grows through pyramid-forming stages from the center of the square base with inclined sides marking a grid in two- and three-dimensional spaces. Insley defines Channel Space as a “flat diagram extended to depth, wandering in the passage flow in hexagonal wave toward space unknown.”

In Insley’s diaries, he writes that the /buildings/ exist buried in the wilderness far outside the metropolis of ONECITY, and have no practical function of any kind. “[The /buildings/] only reason for existence is to contain spatial situations sympathetic to the religious beliefs of the civilization of ONECITY. This focuses on a worship of the horizon line and of a passing through a space in that line between the earth and sky and of then embarking on travel into and return from the future with future information.”

In both sets of drawings, Insley points his compass towards the future role of the artist, as the hybridization of traditional forms and methodology in art and architecture lend direction to presenting abstraction.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Will Insley (1929 - 2011) was an American abstract artist who dedicated 50 years to creating paintings, drawings, writing, models and photomontages based on his concept for a visionary city, entitled, ONECITY. His artwork has been exhibited in numerous museums in the United States and Europe, including a solo exhibition at Guggenheim Museum, 1984 and Museum of Modern Art, 1971 in New York City, as well as inclusion in Documenta 5, 1972 and 6, 1977. Insley’s artwork is in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Smithsonian Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, North Carolina Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and many others.

Accepted 2020-03-16 18:13

*This program is subject to change by the Organizer's reasons, so please refer to the website or the Organizer's notice for more information.
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