one line marks the night

1996

Dark blue dry pastel on paper
25,5 x 27,5 cm

Collection

Babette Welters

Expositions

Galerie Parade, Amsterdam
One Line Drawing
October 13 - November 9, 1996

UBU Gallery, New York USA
the one line drawing
July 8 - July 31, 1997

timeline expositions

1996 One Line Drawing | Galerie Parade, Amsterdam

Invitation for the opening of the exposition in Amsterdam | Design Bert Jansen | Text in Dutch | English translation below

Odysseus could have said immediately to his wife Penelope that it was him, that old man in beggar's clothes at the threshold of their house. However, the question is whether he would distinguish himself with that from the boyfriends who all pretended being able to replace the lost husband. He had been away for twenty years and Penelope did not recognise him when he suddenly appeared. Although, it is of course very coincidental that she, at the moment the beggar appeared, decided to remarry the man who would be able to string the bow of Odysseus and, as he was able in the past, to shoot the arrow through the stem holes of twelve axes in a row, him she would choose.
To the boyfriends it was a way to pass the time. For Penelope and Odysseus it was a shared remembrance by which communication was always possible. She asked him to give her once again the coordinates with which she could determine the position of his love. The line of his arrow through the twelve stem holes is the X-axis that indicates length of time, the Y-axis is formed by the tension of the bowstring which stands for intensity. By now love can be depicted in a graph , as a function of intensity and duration of time. Graph derives from the Greek “grafein” which means to write. At the time of this story script was still pictorial writing. The form of communication with which Penelope invited Odysseus has been the first attempt in history to replace icons of pictorial writing by an abstract form of writing.

   
1997 the one line drawing | UBU Gallery, New York, USA

Amongst others:. Carl André, Sol LeWitt, Yoko Ono, Louise Bourgeois, Maria van Elk & Reinier Lucassen.

Letter from Lou Meulenberg from Galerie Parade in which he invites the participating artists to send in the exposed works for the exhibition in the UBU Galery in New York | March 4, 1997 | Text in Dutch

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

One-Line Drawing

July 8 - July 31, 1997

Carl André, Arman, Jac Bisschops, Ansuya Blom, Louise Bourgeois, Mel Bochner, Buster Cleveland, Lisa Couwenbergh, Maria van Elk, Alphons Freijmuth, Helen Frik, Gladys, Andy Goldsworthy, Klass Gubbels, Geoffrey Hendricks, Hans Hellingwerf, Herman van der Hoff, Jenny Holzer, Servie Janssen, Rik van Lersel, Rolf Julius, Richard Long, Sol LeWitt, Reinier Lucassen, Helmut Löhr, Robert Mangold, Vik Muniz, Ronald Noorman, Walter van Oel, Mai van Oers, Yoko Ono, Reidnoud Oudshoorn, Coby Prins, Thomas Rajlich, Andrei Roiter, Tom Sachs, Fred Sandback, Dov Shlein, Joseph Semah, Serge Spitzer, Danielle Vidal, Joe Zito, Tom Zwerver

One-Line Drawing, a group exhibition, will open at Ubu Gallery on July 8th and run through July 31st. Each of the 40 artists in the exhibition has created an artwork based on a directive from the gallery limiting the finished work to one uninterrupted action in the medium of the artist’s choice. About half of the exhibition, which originally consisted of Dutch and German artists, was installed earlier this year at Parade Gallery in Amsterdam. Ubu Gallery has added the work of numerous American artists to complete the show.

The exhibition emphasizes the innate heterogeneity of contemporary artists. It posits the notion that artists, when challenged by rigid and specific pre-determined boundaries, will be inspired to produce works of art differing significantly from one another, thereby reinforcing our awareness of their individual visions and varied aesthetics.

Jenny Holzer, for instance, participates with a one-line LED text. Mel Bochner paints a single line on a canvas, Fred Sandback carves a one-line diptych in wood, and Carl André has mailed a one-line postcard addressed to Ubu Gallery. Joe Zito provides a rubbing from a cookie jar. Andy Goldsworthy has documented a line in the snow, Vik Muniz photographs an ambiguous one-line wire sculpture, and Helmut Löhr has painted a single, wide brushstroke over a Polaroid photograph taken from the window of his loft on the day he moved out.

Some of the other Americans participating in the show are: Arman, Louise Bourgeois, Buster Cleveland, Sol LeWitt, Richard Long, Robert Mangold, Tom Sachs, and Yoko Ono. Among the Dutch artists are Maria van Elk, Alphons Freijmuth, Reinier Lucassen, Mai van Oers, and Andre Roiter.

Press release UBU Gallery New York | July 1997

 

Admission ticket UBU Gallery | front & back
Click on the links stated above to enlarge the pictures

 

Postcard from Alice and Walter Hekster as a result of a visit to the UBU Gallery (text in Dutch | English translation below)

Dear Maria and Sieb, We are back well after 3 months, and we have had a swell time.The “UBU” show was fantastic – many people and food too. Your drawing was left on the wall and was clearly visible . There was a lot of interest.

Press

1997 NRC-Handelsblad, Amsterdam NL | Agenda - Selectie Buitenland | July 10, 1997


Text in Dutch | English translation below

Agenda – Selection abroad

NEW YORK
A line, Forty Dutch and German artists and a number of American artists were commissioned to create a work consisting of just one line. The result can be seen in the exhibition 'One-Line Drawing' at the Ubu Gallery in New York. Including work by Louise Bourgeois, Yoko Ono, Maria van Elk and Reinier Lucassen. 16 East 78th Street. Until July 31. Inc. 00-121279-44444.
   
  The New York Times | Weekend - Art in review | July 11, 1997
Robert Smith - One line drawing

ArtNews | New York, USA - Warsaw, Poland | October 1997
   
 

Copy page ArtNews with note from Alice and Walter Hekster
 Maria, we thought you would like this.

HOLDING THE LINE

While peeling an apple at an art fair, Jack Banning of New York’s Ubu Gallery and Lou Meulenberg of Amsterdam’s Parade Gallery were suddenly seized by inspiration. Captivated by the uninterrupted line of the pared skin, they decided to look for some one-line answers to the eternal question, What is art?
About 40 contemporary artists offered proposals, at Ubu and Parade. It could be a measurement (Mel Bochner’s Measurement 28, shown above), a sentence (Jenny Holzer’s mini-LED sign Survival), or simply a gesture (as Helmut Lohr made with a spoon across a Polaroid)
Maria van Elk found her answer in a night sky, Andy Goldsworthy in a tree on which he drew with snow. Some lines rambled (Buster Cleveland’s baroque constellation of string, sequins, and beads); others were direct (Yoko Ono’s Have You Seen a Horizon Lately?). Carl Andre dropped his line on a postcard.
There was the loopy line  ̶  Vik Muniz’s 6,000 yards of thread resembling a lighthouse on a rocky inlet  ̶  and the reverberating one: Rolf Julius’s speaker-punctuated wire wall-work did so literally.
“What art is about is seeing life differently” offered Ubu’s Rosa Esman in a segment featuring the show on World News Tonight. As Peter Jennings put it: “Not a bad closing line.”

DEIDRE STEIN GREBEN