Ronald Feldman Gallery

Arakawa Aspects of Blank and Early Works April 11 – May 23, 1981
Uptown Gallery
Study for Blank, 1980 acrylic, colored pencil, graphite, watercolor 37 ½ x 65 inches	Study for Blank, 1980 acrylic, colored pencil, graphite, watercolor 37 ½ x 64 ½ inches
Study for Blank, 1980 acrylic, colored pencil, graphite, watercolor 42 x 59 ½ inches	Study for the "I", 1978-79 acrylic, colored pencil, graphite, watercolor, mat medium 41 x 59 inches
Downtown Gallery
Installation view north gallery into south gallery	Installation view south gallery
Stretchable Labyrinth, 1963 pencil, acrylic, magic marker, color pencil 48 x 72 inches	Name's Birthday (a Couple), 1967 oil, acrylic, ball point pen, pencil 96 x 120 inches
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 1, 1981 ' ARAKAWA UPTOWN: ASPECTS OF BLANK 33 EAST 74th STREET NEW YORK CITY OPENING APRIL 11 DOWNTOWN: EARLY WORKS 31-33 MERCER STREET NEW YORK CITY OPENING APRIL 11 At the gallery downtown the first paintings Arakawa made in New York (starting from about twenty years ago) are being shown. The diagrammatic nature of his work was what shocked some viewers and critics at the time. It is predicted that these painted formulations will still, fifteen to twenty years later, look extreme to most viewers. Some of the work included in the show had been rolled up and put away, never to be shown until now, because Arakawa, himself, was somewhat shocked by the severity, the implications. The drawings which are being shown uptown are Arakawa's most recent work. They form in a way a bridge between the revised second edition of The Mechanism of Meaning (New York, Abrams, 1980) and the large-scale utopian construction which he and Madeline Gins are going to be building based largely on that book. In order to build this grand work, Arakawa suggests that it is necessary first to establish a time-space suitable for housing this. This he has named blank. Here are two of the paragraphs which he incorporated into his "Drawing of the Blank." "Part of doing is always blank. Even those energies which lead us move blankly. What are commonly called feeling and thinking are such energies. As well as providing a place for "forming blank," these configurations of energy move through blank, sometimes to remain in it, completely blank." "As the coordination of the senses takes place within a blank, whatever it is that orders this coordination must also remain blank to us. Therefore, how can we knowingly speak of the coordination of the senses except in terms of blank. DOWNTOWN The public is invited to the opening on Wednesday, April 15th. The downtown gallery is located at 31-33 Mercer Street (between Grand and Canal). Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 to 6 PM. A reception for the artist will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. For further information & photographs contact Lynn Cassaniti 212-249-4050
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