#Historical Precedents 07 Text and Letterforms

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Jan van Eyck (1422-1441). Portrait of Giovanni(?) Arnolfini and His Wife 1434. Oil on oak, 32 3/4 x 23 1/2 inches. National Gallery, London.

“Johannes van Eyck was here 1434.” Artists have been including bits of text in paintings for a very long time. Signatures, speech, explanatory notes, and labels appear in paintings throughout history.

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Georges Braque (French 1882-1963). The cubists began incorporating text into their compositions around 1911; Braque’s painting The Portuguese is likely the earliest example. I noticed that the stenciled letters in this painting resemble Jane’s French stencils.

Fruit Dish and Glass 1912. Papier collé and charcoal on paper, 24.75 x 18 inches. Source.

The Portuguese (The Emigrant) 1911-1912. Oil on linen, 46 x 32 inches. Source.

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Francis Picabia (French 1879-1953). L’oeil cacodylate 1921. Oil on canvas, 58.5 x 46.25 inches. Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris.

Joan Miró (Spanish 1893-1983). Photo: This Is the Color of My Dreams 1925. Oil on canvas, 38 x 51 inches. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Artists of both the Dada and Surrealist movements incorporated words and phrases in their works. In Dadaist Picabia’s example, signatures and messages written by studio visitors cover the canvas, creating a radical work that challenges our notions about authorship, painting, and even art itself. Miró’s Surrealist canvas typifies his more poetic approach.

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Paul Klee (Switzerland 1879-1940). Einst dem Grau der Nacht enttaucht 1918. Watercolor, ink, and pencil on paper, cut and recombined with silver paper, bordered with ink on cardboard; 8 7/8 x 6 1/4 inches. Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland. Source.

This gorgeous, small Klee uses a block-printed text as a framework upon which to hang color. The same text is handwritten at the top; a Dutch composer apparently set it to music in the 1960s, but I haven’t been able to find a recording to link to. 

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Kurt Schwitters (German, 1887-1948). The Dada collages of Schwitters contained found scraps of cloth, wood, and paper, including printed matter. Words are truncated and obscured, defeating our efforts to read meaning into his selections. The printed papers seem to have been chosen for their visual texture as much as anything else.

Blauer Vogel c. 1922. Collage, 8 x 7 inches. Private collection. Source.

Mz 231. Miss Blanche 1923. Collage, 6 1/4 x 5 inches. Private collection. Source.

doremifasolasido c. 1930. Collage on paper on the artist’s mount, 11 1/2 x 9 1/8 inches. Private collection. Source.

Merz Picture 32 A. The Cherry Picture (Merzbild 32 A. Das Kirschbild) 1921. Cut-and-pasted colored and printed paper, cloth, wood, metal, cork, oil, pencil, and ink on paperboard; 36 1/8 x 27 3/4 inches. Museum of Modern Art, New York City.

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Robert Indiana (American 1928-2018). Indiana’s death this week prompted me to consider his use of text in works that contain elements of both graphic design and geometric abstraction. The words he chose to paint had personal or political relevance.

A majority of the paintings I used in my slideshow contain letters, words, or parts of words chosen for their visual qualities and not necessarily for their meanings; in a few cases the meanings are important but deliberately obscured. In the case of Indiana’s work (and that of many other text artists), the graphic elements are a vehicle for the words and not the other way around.

A New York Times article about the origins of Indiana’s famous Love image includes mention of small, informal collaborative works Indiana made in the late-1950s with his then-partner Ellsworth Kelly, in which Indiana would paint words on top of Kelly’s painted shapes. The other artist had mixed feelings about the project, according to art historian Susan Elizabeth Ryan: “For Ellsworth it was like a joke... [he] was horrified by the idea of having words in a painting. And the more he got like that, the more Robert wanted to take it seriously. During the era of post painterly abstraction, just the fact that it was a word—any word—was subversive.” 

The Figure 5 1963. Oil on canvas, 60 x 50 inches. National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

New Castle 1969. Oil on canvas, 60 x 50 inches.

Decade Autoportrait 1962 (24 in.) 1971. Oil on canvas, 24 x 24 inches.

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Al Held (American 1928-2005). Better known for his enormous, hard-edge renderings of fantastic geometric spaces, Held’s earlier works made use of fanciful letters enlarged to the point of near-unrecognizability.

Ivan the Terrible 1961. Acrylic on canvas, 144 x 114 inches. Source.

The Big N 1964. Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 108 3/8 x 108 inches. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

H-60-2 1960. India ink on paper, 14 x 17 inches. Source.

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Louise Fishman (American b. 1939). Again in contrast to most of the paintings I’ve shown here, the words in Fishman’s feminist works are intended to be read and not simply appreciated for their geometric qualities or as references to language. Seen in this context, one is perhaps inclined to view the rough scrapings and slashing brushwork of Fishman’s abstract expressionist paintings in a different light. 

Angry Hillary 2008. Acrylic on paper, 26 x 40 inches.

Angry Marilyn 1973. Acrylic on paper, 26 x 40 inches.

Angry Louise 1973. Acrylic on paper, 26 x 40 inches.

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Tauba Auerbach (American b. 1981). We’ve looked at Auerbach’s illusionistic Fold series in the past; here we see a completely different element of her artistic output, letterforms rendered, in ink on large sheets paper, in an absurdly over-the-top decorative style.

A 2005. Ink on paper, 50 x 38 inches.

F 2004. Ink on paper, 50 x 38 inches.

I 2005. Ink on paper, 50 x 38 inches.

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Udomsak Krisanamis (Thailand b. 1966). This work received quite a bit of attention in the late 1990s, in part due to their interesting background story: after moving from Thailand to New York City, Krisanamis read newspapers while learning to speak English. Holding a marker while he read, he habitually filled in the zeroes and letter “o”s on the page, later saving strips of text and converting the newspaper into dot-pattern collage material. Obsessive abstraction was very of-the-moment, as was art dealing with language, so these paintings found a ready audience.

How Deep is the Ocean? 1998. Ink and printed paper collage on fabric, 72 x 48 inches. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Followed by detail.) Source.

Walkie Talkie 2002. Acrylic, paper collage, found noodles on found fabric; 71 7/8 x 60 3/8 inches. Source.

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Adam Pendleton (American b. 1984). Pendleton’s rearrangements of graffiti-like letters and words take on political and social meaning when placed in the context of his text-heavy installations.

Untitled (A Victim of American Democracy) 2017. Silkscreen ink and spray paint on canvas, 84 x 60 inches. Source.

Untitled (A Victim of American Democracy) 2016. Silkscreen ink and spray paint on canvas, 107 x 59 inches. Source.

OK DADA OK Black DADA OK 2018. Silkscreen ink and spray paint on canvas, 84 x 60 inches. Installation view of “what a day was this,” Lever House, New York City, 2018. Source.

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Suzanne McClelland (American b. 1959). I like the boldness of McClelland’s work as well as her freedom with materials. In the first two paintings, nonsensical math problems become a framework for paint, not unlike the way Paul Klee used his written text in an earlier work.

2 2013. Charcoal, acrylic, and oil on linen; 59 x 49 inches.

Solutions Double 2013. Charcoal, polymer, and oil on linen; 84 x 72 inches.

Expert 2013. Charcoal, mica, confetti, gesso, porcelain, polymer on wood; 18 x 14 inches.

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Richard Tuttle (American b. 1941). Letters (The Twenty-Six Series) 1966. Galvanized iron, twenty-six parts; each approximately 6 x 9 x 5/8 inches, overall dimensions variable. Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Tuttle’s title tells us that we are looking at the alphabet, but for the most part he defeats our expectations by replacing recognizable letters with shapes that are almost, but not quite, correct.

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Robert Yoder (American b. 1962). Yoder is a Seattle artist and galleries whose deconstructed street signs and invented typography have long indicated a fascination with the tools of language.

Littlelot 2001. Painted wood, 39.75 x 31.75 x 2 inches. Source.

Hauer 2003. Painted wood, 21 x 20.75 inches. Source.

Mink 2003. Painted wood, 12 x 12 inches. Source.

Alkit 2016. Oil on tee shirt material, 46 x 37 inches. Source.

Teenage Donna (Turning Heads) 2012. Enamel, acrylic, graphite, and marker on paper, 22 x 26 inches. Source.

Rotsee 2016. Oil on tee shirt material, 32 x 42 inches. Source.

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Pat Boas (American). Boas, an artist from Portland, OR, would seem to perfectly illustrate the sort of nonspecific use of text I have been focusing on here: her works are deep weavings of letterforms, but we aren’t given much guidance as to how to read them. Perhaps the mysterious, poetic titles are a clue.

So slow she (EW) 2015. Sumi ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper, 30 x 22 inches.

Black Rooms Mercy Drills Calcites Kiss (CC) 2015. Sumi ink, watercolor, and gouache on paper, 30 x 22 inches.

since to speak (LG) 2014. Gouache, watercolor, and sumi ink in paper, 22 x 15 inches.

sad birds (LG) 2014. Gouache, watercolor, and ink on paper, size unknown.

Titles (Blue Spiral Drawing) 2015. Sumi ink on paper, 30 x 22 inches.

Logo # 4 (Edition of 18) 2015. Gouache on paper, 14 x 11 inches. Source.

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I had already planned to devote one class to the subject of text in abstract painting, but rediscovering an old drawing tool got me thinking about the subject from a technical perspective. There are a number of obsolete drafting tools that were designed to create perfect, legible letters in architectural drawings and engineering diagrams. I recently bought two sets on eBay, similar to the first one shown here, thinking I might someday be able to use them in my own work. 

In the LEROY set, the pinpoint stylus follows letters engraved into a plastic template, guiding an offset ink pen. Pictures make the device look more complicated than it really is. At bottom, an earlier version of the same idea—the user must use a stylus to find and follow the individual letters on the brass guide. It is a pantograph: an ink pen is attached to the parallelogram inside the open window. The paper would be placed underneath. 

Keuffel & Esser LEROY Lettering Set, c. 1950s. Source.

Polynorm lettering device, c. 1920. Source.