Mark Manders: Room with Several Drawings and One Reduced Night Scene

MARK MAND ER S Room rith several one reduced night I fragment

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MARK MANDERS night Room with several night sce n e on e reduced I fr a g ment from self-port ra it

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Drawing with eyes (fragment from self'portrait as a building) 1993 Privatecollection

Room with several night drawings and one reduced night scene I fragment

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Since l986 Mark Mandershas beenworkingon a partiallyrealand partiallyimaginaryselfportraitfrom which he regularyexhibitsfragmentsor reconstructions.

MM 9-4-2000 22:08 "l see the 'self-portrait as a building'as somethingthat standsoutsidemyself.The Mark Manderswho livesin this buildingand the Mark Manderswho coincideswith the buildingare for me fictitiouscharacters.They are figuresfrom a novel,a novelof which everyaspect is constructedin reality.I do indeedfeel closelylinkedwith everydetailof the self-portrait; I havedevisedand constructedeverypart of it, but the residentof this buildingremains clearlyimaginary.

The drawingswithinmy'self-portrait as a building'can be subdivided into threegroups: provisional floor plansof the self-portrait-drawings that end up in a pile,and havetheirfunction as a pile-and autonomousdrawingsthat I use in certaincontextsin a room.

At this time I'm workingon a roomwithinmy self-portrait with the working-title: 'roomwith severalnightdrawingsand one reducednightsceneiThis roomis a smallode to simultaneity.

The drawingsare all madeat night.In this roomthere is also a smalllandscapein a glass vitrine.Landscapemightnot be the rightword;it's morea smallgardenscene,with a very precisearrangementof smallobjectsthat seem to be left behind.A rope has been laid down as a drawing-line overthis scenelike a victimof gravity.

Thiswholescenehas been reduced to 880/oand is coveredby a thin black layerof night.I find it fascinatinghow the night lays overall thingslike a fleece,The title is 'reducedsummergardennightscene(reducedto 880/o)iDespitethe reduction, the originalgardenscenehas not been lost and is slowlydilapidated by rain and wind,The reducedlandscapeis a hybridbetweena drawingand a photograph," MM 9-4-2OOO 22:5L "For me, drawingis researchinto thinkingratherthan an investigationof perception.

Before I have drawnthe drawingsthey are often as terse and compactas thought.lt is interestingto look at yourselfas if from outsidewhileyou draw,how the thoughtsthat you reproduce are partiallyvisualand partiallylinguistic.

The beautyof a drawingis that you can pick it up as an image in thought,but as soon as you seek to graspthe imagein thinking,the drawingbecomessphericaland thoughtcan no longerthrow lighton it from all sidesat the sametime, I would like to see my drawingsas a viewerdoes. lt seemsto me it wouldbe interesting as a viewerto try to again recoverthe mentalimagethat the makerof the drawinghad.A drawing is a transparentsheet that hangs,for comparison,betweenthe maker and the viewer."

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Provisional floor plan of self-portrait as a building (fragment from self-portrait as a building) 1997 Private collection, NewYork

Right: Drawing with lines (fragmentfrom self-portraitas a building) New York 1998 Prlvatecollection,

page: Previous Drawing with vanishingpoint (fragmentfrom self-portraitas a building) 'I

de Bruin,Holland 998 Collection

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The DrawingCenteris the only not-for-profitinstitutionin the countryto focussolelyon the exhibitionof for emergingand in 1976to provideopportunities and historic.lt was established drawings,both contemporary and diversityof drawingsthroughouthistory;and to the significance artists;to demonstrate under-recognized stimulatepublicdialogueon issuesof art and culture.

The DrawingCenter'sexhibitions documenting Thisis number9 of the Drawing Papers,a seriesof publications seriesis and publicprogramsand providinga forumfor the studyof drawing.The Drawing Paperspublication printedon MonadnockDulcet I00# SmoothTextand 80# DulcetSmoothCover.

contributed of the Drawing Papershas beengenerously and presentation Majorsupportfor the development

by FrancisDittmer. of for the advancement Additionalsupportfor this exhibitionhas beenprovidedby the MondriaanFoundation Amsterdam. the visualarts,designand museums, B oar d of

D i re c to rs

Dita Amory GeorgeNegroponte Co-Chairmen

FrancesBeattyAdler James M. Clark,Jr. FrancesDittmer ColinEisler BruceW. Ferguson Michaellovenko WernerH. Kramarsky Abby Leigh WilliamS. Lieberman MichaelLynne ElizabethRohatyn' EricC, Rudin Dr,Allen Lee Sessoms JeanneC. Thayef EdwardH. Tuck ElizabethWeir AndreaWoodner Catherinede Zegher Executive Dircctor *Emerita

The Drawing Center Street 35 Wooster NewYork,NY 10013 Tel:212-219-2166 Fax:212-966-2976

O 2000 The DrawingCenter Designer:Luc Derycke Book cover (fragmentfrom self-portraitas a building) Antwerp ZenoX Gallery, 1998 Courtesy

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