Alan Saret: Gang Drawings

ALAN SARET

GANG D R A W IN GS f he Dra wing Cen ter's

TheDrawlngcenter Bo.rdof Dll.cb|t FrancesBeattyAdler Co-Chairman EricC.Rudin Co-Chairman DitaAmory MetvaBucksbaum SuzanneCochran AnitaF.Contini FrancesDittmer BruceW.Ferguson BarryM.Fox Jam6sR.Hedges, lV MichaelLynne lris Mardon G€orgeNegropont€ Catherine Orentreich LisaPevaroff-Cohn EtizabethRohatyn* JaneDresnerSadaka AttenLeeSessoms JeanneC.Thal|€r* Brett Littman Ex€cutivoDirector *Emeriti

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AdamLehner ExecutiveEditor JoannaBermanAhtberg ManagingEditor KaviorMoon R blicationsAssistant Photographyby CathyCarver

ALAN SARET

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GANG DRAWINGS DrawlngFapereT3 November9,2007 2008 - FebruaryZ Curated byJo6oRibas Essays byKtausKertess andJohanna Burton

Thisis number73ofthe Drawing Pap€rs,a ssri€sof publications documentingTheDrawingCenter's ofiibitionsandpublicprograms andproridingaforum furthestudy ofdrawin& TheDrawingCenbrb 2$7-2008 o(hibitionsandpublicprograms aremadepGsibte,in part,bythe genoroussupportof the Carnegie Corporetion,HoracsW.Gotdsmith Foundation, andrvithpublic fundsfromthe NewYorkState Councitonthe Arts,a StateaSency.

Speciatthanksto theJames CohanGatteryior its suppportof this Dubtication.

@2007TheDrawingCenter Atl imageoO AlanSaret

Edrnd HallamTuckPubllcadon hogram

Ensoulmentof the Kings of Earth in AII Ages,1970 C ol o redpenc iIon p a p e r 24 x 3 6 inc hes

and revel in liquidity (he seldom employed pencil in his drawings), whereas Saret's freeflowing gestures are regimented by repetition.They seem on the verge of take off into immateriality; not water but air is his lines'element.

Or is it ether?The"Gang Drawings"are, at the very least, formally noteworthy in their breathtaking grace and clarity of process.

Like his sculptural works, Saret's"Gang Drawings"approach closure but always remain open.

Changes of pressure on the pencils, the number of pencils employ-ed,the choice and order of the color, and, of course, the variety of gestures made possible a remarkable number of drawing solutions. In one of the earliest

of these drawings, Three Circles Ruled & Free Sweep (1967), the title names literally what the ganged pencils have enacted; the process is utterly clear. However, the lightness of touch, as well as the apparent speedimplied by the ruled and by the freely swept trails of the circles push the clarity toward immateriality-maybe drawing air, maybe other possibilities.Drawing possibilities.

In a later drawing, ValclqsmEnsoulment (1989), a still lighter touch activates the pencils into the construction of near phantoms. Gossamer puffs of linear regiments arch, entwine, twirl, and more, as they aspire upwards to the top of the paper plane.Their delicacy at first veils the plentiful variety of markmaking and causes the drawing