Art 21 Segment: Robert Mangold

Robert Mangold in “Balance”

Art 21 Segment

Painting, Sculpture. Interest in culture rather than the nature around him that he depicts or tries to represent. Circular images with negative space in the center, and the circles themselves have squares formed from geometric lines and swirled lines going either horizontally or vertically.  His work is so simplistic that you almost think to yourself at first glance, “I could do this in my sleep.  Why is he so successful?”  Well, the first obvious answer is, I could do it, but I didn’t.  He did.  The second reason is that there is much more behind it.  He has notebooks filled with sketched ideas and blueprints of these magnificent circles before he creates them.  

He starts with an idea, then sketches it quickly.  After the quick sketches, sort of like thumbnails, he chooses his favorite, or several favorites.  He makes a larger scale drawing of the favorite thumbnail(s), and keeps adding to the image, whether it be just a line or an internal circle or filling a shape in with white chalk.  Then he hangs it on the wall ruling out more aspects that he likes and dislikes, critiquing himself.  Once he finishes that, he makes a three-dimensional sculpture out of wood and paints over it, and draws on it mimicking what was in the thumbnail.  The best part of this process is after he finishes, he hangs them up a certain way to where the light hits it best at a certain time of day and on what wall he thinks will look best.

Mangold basically makes me look like a very lazy artist who just spontaneously creates work and does not make nearly as many decisions about hanging them up or showing them.  Most of my work I just pile up and leave in a corner.  But what we do have in common is the decisions we make during the process of creating the artwork.  I, like Mangold, sit and observe many times before my brush even touches the canvas again.  

He likes to create shapes that reflect what he sees in nature.  He likes to think about how buildings in his environment take up so much space, but also are a huge amount of space themselves.  This gives him the idea of negative space.  He takes the focal point of the work and completely removes it, so that we are forced to look at other aspects that are obviously more important to him, so should be to us.  

The fact that his works are mostly broken circles make your eye travel around, but also stop at the breaking point and think.  We think about why these pieces are so intentionally simple, and why the circle itself, usually just one solid color, is in fact so important.  We wonder also what would have been in that center that is removed, because since it is there it makes you want to know more.  It is almost like he is creating a puzzle that is missing a key piece, yet all the pieces are there and it is up to us to find it.