Brice Marden

Matthew Marks Gallery, New York
Douglas S. Cramer Collection
Sale: Sotheby's, New York, Contemporary Art from the Douglas S. Cramer Collection, 14 November 2001, Lot 5
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner 

New York, Matthew Marks Gallery, Brice Marden, Richard Serra, Cy Twombly, 1992

The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the brown tones of the central area tend more towards grey in the original. This work is in very good condition. The sheet is hinged with un-adhesive tape along the top edge and in two places to each side edge, and the right edge of the sheet is deckled. Close inspection reveals a pin-sized spot of foxing towards the centre of the lower edge and another towards the bottom right corner.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Brice Marden's Conjunction drawings were executed during an intense period of creativity for the artist between 1988 and 1992. There are only three of these wonderfully fluid and sinuous works on paper, and they seem to encapsulate all of the dynamic shifts that took place in Marden's technique and oeuvre during these four crucial years. This is a period that saw Marden complete his Couplet, Diagrammed Couplet and, most famously of all, his Cold Mountain series.
Marden had been asked by the art journal Conjunctions, to create a work for the magazine (hence the title of the drawings). These drawings fully embrace Marden's new-found fascination with a lyrical surface that still remained firmly rooted to the rigorous and ordered geometry of the canvas. The internal architecture of the sheet is here breathtaking. Each loop or 'glyph' feeds into and out of corresponding forms, so that the energy running throughout the surface is never-ending. The delightful graphic qualities are also heightened through Marden's use of heavy areas of gouache, creating passages that are more visually intense than others, lending the work a musical quality even. One goes from the largo of certain, more spatially elastic areas that include gouache, to the adagio of the more intensely graphic and condensed passages. The homogenity of the sheet, however, is always maintained through the sheer synergy of ink and gouache; of mark and sheet; of forms evolving and dissolving, that he is able to capture.
Of course, like the major paintings he made during this period, celebrated in museum exhibtions all over the world, his drawings are also inspired by shells, Japanese and Chinese calligraphy and the sinuous, free-flowing forms of artists as various as de Kooning and Tobey. Being an artist who continues to draw, however, Marden's Drawing for Conjunctions III stands out as a particularly impressive sheet, given its highly defined and 'worked' qualities. Indeed, the artist worked on the present sheet, intermittently, for four years. It appears much more 'finished' than other drawings of this period, yet still retains that dazzingly innovative and experimental feel one finds in his very best graphic works.