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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.
Matt Niebuhr - Works ...examining the threshold at which ordinary visibility ends and perception begins... is a site featuring my work exclusively.
Intersecting Images : a "blog" with musings about art, photography and culture - begun in 2005
Matt Niebuhr - Drawings a visual journal ...
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Museo Soumaya
Mexico City/FREE
architect: Fernando Romero Enterprise (FREE)
nice shimmer!
untitled (shimmer)
2010_08_18
charcoal and graphite on polyester drafting film 18” x 24” (45.7 x 60.9)cm
Matt Niebuhr
Continuation of the shimmer series on drafting film. This is drawn on both sides creating more layering. The film allows for more finely detailed line work and holds much less material than paper and the shimmer effect is finer, closer. The smaller size is more intimate. Would be good to try this again at a larger sheet scale to compare results…
detail: untitled (shimmer)
2010_08_18
charcoal and graphite on polyester drafting film 18” x 24” (45.7 x 60.9)cm
Matt Niebuhr
Re-discovered another aspect of the drawing film which is the ability to place elements beneath the drawing surface while making the drawing that leave behind a trace - like making a rubbing over textured surface - an interesting potential…
untitled
2010_06_25
graphite, charcoal, wax pencil and house paint on canvas
30” x 40” (76.2 x 101.6)cm
Matt Niebuhr
Private Collection, M.R.H. Seabold, Iowa
Really excited about committing some effort onto canvas!
The texture is a nice change from paper - although working on a stretched canvas with graphite has some drawbacks - particularly the amount of pressure you can apply to draw with - it’s just not the same as working on the wall - but I like the effect.
(below) Work continues with the figure/ground drawings on paper…
untitled
2010_06_23
charcoal and graphite on paper
60” x 70” (152 x 178)cm
Matt Niebuhr
untitled
2010_06_21
charcoal and graphite on paper
60” x 70” (152 x 178)cm
Matt Niebuhr
First in a new series I’m working on that is related to the shimmer series in part after having put that aside for awhile. I want to explore the figure / ground relationship more - meaning that I want to become more economical in the lines that shimmer against the field (ground).
detail: untitled
2010_06_21
Matt Niebuhr
I think the proportions and shape of the ground will also develop further. The edges are becoming more important to the drawing also - rather than filling up the entire sheet perhaps something different.
detail: untitled
2010_06_21
Matt Niebuhr
More to come…
untitled (shimmer)
2010_05_19
graphite on paper
58” x 94” (147 x 238)cm
Matt Niebuhr
A much larger work on the idea of Shimmer.
Something happens to the “visual field” when drawing at this scale. Walking back and forth / to and fro - unable to reach across the paper in one arms length. The overlay of the grid helps me measure myself against that record of movement and suggests a visual rhythm.
detail: untitled (shimmer)
2010_05_19
graphite on paper
The beginnings of an appearance of an old friend the grid - a way finding device layered upon the field and a faint shimmer… An oblique view reveals a bit more of the shimmer, continuing the study of lighting and position as a key part of the experience offered by the drawing…
detail oblique view: untitled (shimmer)
2010_05_19
graphite on paper
I will push this again but at a larger scale - towards a more monumental size. I think the results will be interesting as one larger drawing where as one moves along the wall different aspects of the light will create a moving sense of the shimmer… Previous shimmer … More work to do!
Have been reading and looking at a lot of Richard Serra’s work - and would like to find out more about his drawings…
Much of my appreciation of what he has done with sculpture - moving away from the figure and representation - to creating the experience of moving through and around his work - it’s more about the immediate experience of the person interacting with the work - to feel and measure it with your body. Embracing texture and surface of weathering steel.
Can a drawing begin to do this at a large scale ?
untitled (shimmer)
2010_04_18
charcoal and graphite on paper
34” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
This version of shimmer is moving in the right direction and I want to go further with it to see what evolves.
Process and material is important and contributes to the outcome. These combined with “action” - meaning how far I can draw across the paper at 5 feet in width in either continuous or short hash type marks. It’s a record drawing of marks in a formal sense. Exploring the qualities of material - the sheen of graphite both in underlayment with charcoal overlay, blends, additive graphite marks and erasure.
The shimmer is modified by the dominate horizontal marks which tend to make the reflected light source seem more rectangular. Different than previous this version of shimmer.
detail from untitled (shimmer)
2010_04_18
charcoal and graphite on paper
Matt Niebuhr
The drawing from an oblique view introduces a sense of perspective in the reproduction…
detail from untitled (shimmer)
2010_04_18
charcoal and graphite on paper
Matt Niebuhr
untitled (shimmer)
2010_04_15
charcoal on paper
34” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
Working on density, layering, blending with additive marks and the subtractive quality of erasure. Achieving a more subtle shimmer with elements of ripple… and some near illusion to the quality of reflections.
detail: untitled (shimmer)
2010_04_15
charcoal on paper
Matt Niebuhr
I want to try this variation again with more visual vibration… layering the combinations of three elements: the mark, the blend, the erasure….
A few more images…
untitled (shimmer, formless)
2010_04_11
charcoal and graphite on red rosin paper
34” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
detail from untitled (shimmer, formless)
2010_04_11
charcoal and graphite on red rosin paper
Matt Niebuhr
untitled, shimmer (on red rosin)
2010_04_07
charcoal and graphite on red rosin paper
35” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
Why red rosin paper?
My architectural background - I’ve always liked the look and feel of this simple paper. This is the kind of paper that used as underlayment, protection of more precious surfaces and as a slip-sheet beneath and between materials. Red rosin paper has a certain tooth and weight - but not too heavy and no discernible surface texture. I have a roll, it’s an inexpensive and unpretentious paper and it seems to be a good substrate upon which to apply some shimmer….
detail: untitled, shimmer (on red rosin)
2010_04_07
charcoal and graphite on red rosin paper
Matt Niebuhr
Thinking about the material properties of the media - charcoal and graphite - and the figure/ground - the shimmer is a function of material, quality of the light, and the position of the viewer…
oblique view - detail: untitled, shimmer (on red rosin)
2010_04_07
charcoal and graphite on red rosin paper
Matt Niebuhr
The drawing is not about “figure” in formal terms - it is not a picture of an object nor is it the representation of a scene - rather - I am striving to create the circumstance of the phenomenon of “shimmer”. More work to do.
oblique view - detail: untitled, shimmer (on red rosin)
2010_04_07
charcoal and graphite on red rosin paper
Matt Niebuhr
First:
untitled (shimmer, Et sic in infinitum - And like this to infinity)
2010_04_02
charcoal and graphite on paper
34” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
Second and third:
detail: untitled (shimmer, Et sic in infinitum - And like this to infinity)
2010_04_02
charcoal and graphite on paper
Matt Niebuhr
Fourth:
untitled #2 (shimmer, Et sic in infinitum - And like this to infinity)
2010_04_02
photograph of charcoal and graphite on paper
Matt Niebuhr
Another drawing exploring the qualities of charcoal and graphite. The figure/ground - a phrase - the circumstances of infinite possibility in the phenomena of shimmer…
I want to get closer to the sense of shimmer as a verb. The drawing does this more so than the photographs - the photographs are shimmer as a noun. The drawings are shimmer as a verb - because the drawings change character given the circumstances of viewing them. The relative position of light sources, the position of the observer relative to the drawing, the ambient light level of surroundings - in this way the drawing is so much more alive in a way - filled with much more potential than the photograph - the photograph in this case, merely the illustration of one possibility out of an infinite number of possibilities - hence the parenthetical note, “Et sic in infinitum - And like this to infinity”…
untitled #2 (shimmer, Et sic in infinitum - And like this to infinity)
2010_04_02
photograph of charcoal and graphite on paper
34” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
Partly, this shimmer picture was inspired by a friends recent gift to me of a book about Cy Twombly; Cycles and Seasons…
What I find interesting in some of Twombly’s work is the incorporation of what resembles cursive handwriting - loops of lines that almost but not quite become the figure that when sufficiently distinguished from the ground are normally interpreted as written words on a page. The painted drawings seem to reach towards a desire to communicate - yet remain autonomous in a sense denying specific signification lacking that symbolic (formal) recognition - they remain simply what they are lines and loops in a vast field. I feel a bit closer to grasping some sense of infinity in the repetition of Twombly’s lines
untitled, shimmer (two point illumination)
2010_03_30
charcoal and graphite on paper
34” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
I’m intrigued with the elements of shimmer which depend entirely upon a given light source (or multiple sources), and a point of view. Much more left to be explored in the medium (matte charcoal /sheen of graphite) …
untitled, shimmer (single point illumination)
2010_03_30
charcoal and graphite on paper
34” x 60”
Matt Niebuhr
Detail below reveals a bit more of the depth that intrigues me - namely the visual quality of shimmer which is unique to the observer’s circumstances of view and the qualities of the medium - the drawing changes quite literally before your eyes…
detail: untitled, shimmer (two point illumination)
2010_03_30
charcoal and graphite on paper
Matt Niebuhr
Another detail - same drawing - singular point light source and different light position below….
detail: untitled, shimmer (single point illumination)
2010_03_30
charcoal and graphite on paper
Matt Niebuhr
untitled (shimmer)
2010_03_15
charcoal and graphite on paper
22” x 17”
Matt Niebuhr
small study… inspired by the possibility of matte charcoal over potential sheen of graphite on folded paper… no doubt also acknowledging inspiration after seeing some of the drawings of Emma McNally…
detail below begins to illustrate the quality of sheen….
detail: untitled (shimmer)
2010_03_15
charcoal and graphite on paper / Matt Niebuhr
