About

Matt Niebuhr is an artist living and working in West Branch, Iowa.

.../miscellaneous - is a personal journal, self educational in nature, containing notes and images that inspire me, or that I wish to learn more about - as such, it includes works by other people as noted with full acknowledgment and credit to authors and sources where possible.

I also share content of my own making that I think is worth sharing with a larger audience. If there is any work by others who object to having their work posted here, I will remove the content if so requested.

Visit Matt Niebuhr - Works a site featuring my work exclusively. I established my studio practice in the summer of 2012 named "West Branch Studio".

Matt Niebuhr - Drawings a visual journal of my work.

If you are interested in work(s) for purchase please see this or simply email me: niebuhr.matt [at] gmail.com.

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Richard Serra on challenging artistic tradition (referring to developing a practice of drawing)

This is a struggle.  

Tools: graphite (lead holder + grades of lead from 9H to 6B), various straight edges to assist in drawing straight lines (triangles - 30/60 - adjustable, metal rulers, and parallel drafting bar / table top, pink pearl, masking tape, drafting dots, kneaded eraser, makeup brushes, paint brushes, paper stumps, tissue - for blending 

Drawing / Drafting conventions (poche, crosshatch, stipple, gradient shading) - axonometric, one point perspective / two point perspective / three point perspective / elevation / section / plan…. scale

Subject matter / Composition

Execution (Craft) - demonstration of control / use of the tools / a steady hand (or not)

Support medium (papers / films / wood / canvas) - GRAIN and TOOTH.


(via blackv)
rblackwell:

Richard Serra at Dia:Beacon

rblackwell:

Richard Serra at Dia:Beacon


(via rblackwell)
nervousgnosis:

One of the machines that created Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipses. Only two remain in existence. They were built by Hugh Smith & Co. tool manufacturers of Glasgow, Scotland sometime around the Second World War and were used to bend or “joggle” iron and steel with enormous amounts of pressure to form battleship hulls.

nervousgnosis:

One of the machines that created Richard Serra’s Torqued Ellipses. Only two remain in existence. They were built by Hugh Smith & Co. tool manufacturers of Glasgow, Scotland sometime around the Second World War and were used to bend or “joggle” iron and steel with enormous amounts of pressure to form battleship hulls.


(via hyperbody)

annentthings:

Richard Serra answers: why make art?


(via annentthings)
dont-trip:

richard serra : Sculpture - Wake - Seattle, WA.

photo attribution:  Matt Niebuhr 2010

dont-trip:

richard serra : Sculpture - Wake - Seattle, WA.

photo attribution:  Matt Niebuhr 2010


(via dont-trip)
Wake, Richard Serra on Flickr.Richard Serra, Wake 2003 weatherproof steel, 14 x 75 x 46 feet
Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, Washington
Photographs: Matt Niebuhr, 2010
One aspect that I really appreciate about Serra’s work with weathering steel, is the material responding to environmental conditions, (developing a unique skin appearance over time) It is this aspect of understanding how materials age, that creates the opportunity for something unique to become relative to place / shape.

Wake, Richard Serra on Flickr.

Richard Serra, Wake 2003 weatherproof steel, 14 x 75 x 46 feet

Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, Washington

Photographs: Matt Niebuhr, 2010

One aspect that I really appreciate about Serra’s work with weathering steel, is the material responding to environmental conditions, (developing a unique skin appearance over time) It is this aspect of understanding how materials age, that creates the opportunity for something unique to become relative to place / shape.

RICHARD SERRADouble Rift #3, 2011Paintstick on handmade paper105 1/8 x 199 1/8 inches framed (267 x 505.8 cm)

DRAWINGSNOVEMBER 23, 2011 - JANUARY 7, 2012 Gagosian gallery: Paris

RICHARD SERRA
Double Rift #3, 2011
Paintstick on handmade paper
105 1/8 x 199 1/8 inches framed (267 x 505.8 cm)

DRAWINGS
NOVEMBER 23, 2011 - JANUARY 7, 2012
 Gagosian gallery: Paris

"His drawings “are not about something, they are something,” … (well maybe, given that Serra’s particular drawings are more materialistic than most drawings, what’s fair to say is that we’re asked to believe their function is to not depict illusions….)"

Richard Serra (American, b. 1939)Untitled, 1972–1973Paintstick on paper; 37 13/16 x 50 in.Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase with funds from Susan Morse Hilles, 74.10© Richard SerraPhoto: Sheldan C. Collins
Exhibition info @ http://www.metmuseum.org

Richard Serra (American, b. 1939)
Untitled, 1972–1973
Paintstick on paper; 37 13/16 x 50 in.
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Purchase with funds from Susan Morse Hilles, 74.10
© Richard Serra
Photo: Sheldan C. Collins

Exhibition info @ http://www.metmuseum.org

Richard Serra “Verb List”

Richard Serra, “Verb List Compilation: Actions to Relate to Oneself” 
[1967-1968]



to roll
to crease
to fold
to store
to bend
to shorten
to twist
to dapple
to crumple
to shave
to tear
to chip
to split
to cut
to sever
to drop
to remove
to simplify
to differ
to disarrange
to open
to mix
to splash
to knot
to spill
to droop
to flow

to curve
to lift
to inlay
to impress
to fire
to flood
to smear
to rotate
to swirl
to support
to hook
to suspend
to spread
to hang
to collect
of tension
of gravity
of entropy
of nature
of grouping
of layering
of felting
to grasp
to tighten
to bundle
to heap
to gather

to scatter
to arrange
to repair
to discard
to pair
to distribute
to surfeit
to compliment
to enclose
to surround
to encircle
to hole
to cover
to wrap
to dig
to tie
to bind
to weave
to join
to match
to laminate
to bond
to hinge
to mark
to expand
to dilute
to light

to modulate
to distill
of waves
of electromagnetic
of inertia
of ionization
of polarization
of refraction
of tides
of reflection
of equilibrium
of symmetry
of friction
to stretch
to bounce
to erase
to spray
to systematize
to refer
to force
of mapping
of location
of context
of time
of cabonization
to continue
 
Richard Serra, “Wake” 2003 weatherproof steel, 14 x 75 x 46 feet
Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, Washington
Photograph: Matt Niebuhr, 2010
“One of my earliest recollections… I remember walking the arc of the hull with my father, looking at the huge  brass propeller, peering through the stays.  Then, in a sudden flurry of activity, the shoring props, beams, planks, poles, bars, keel blocks, all the dunnage, was removed, the cables released, shackles dismantled, the come-alongs unlocked. There was a total incongruity between the displacement of the  enormous tonnage and the quickness and agility with which the task was carried out. ” Richard Serra, 1988.   - Serra’s parables of gravity and architecture by  Dave Hickey - page 6 - Weight and Measure Drawings.

Richard Serra, “Wake” 2003 weatherproof steel, 14 x 75 x 46 feet

Olympic Sculpture Park, Seattle, Washington

Photograph: Matt Niebuhr, 2010

“One of my earliest recollections… I remember walking the arc of the hull with my father, looking at the huge  brass propeller, peering through the stays.  Then, in a sudden flurry of activity, the shoring props, beams, planks, poles, bars, keel blocks, all the dunnage, was removed, the cables released, shackles dismantled, the come-alongs unlocked. There was a total incongruity between the displacement of the  enormous tonnage and the quickness and agility with which the task was carried out. ” Richard Serra, 1988.   - Serra’s parables of gravity and architecture by  Dave Hickey - page 6 - Weight and Measure Drawings.