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6 PRESS IMAGES R. H. Quaytman: + x, Chapter 34 October 12, April 23, 2019 Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Online Photo Service for Press Images Images for current exhibitions may be downloaded free of charge through our website Visit guggenheim.org/pressimages Enter the following password: presspass Select the desired exhibition All images are accompanied by full caption and copyright information. The publication of images is permitted only for press purposes and with the corresponding credit lines. Images may not be cropped, detailed, overprinted, or altered. pressoffice@guggenheim.org with any questions. R. H. Quaytman +, Chapter 34, Indigo distemper, acrylic, and watercolor on wood, 94.1 x 94.1 cm Photo: David Heald R. H. Quaytman +, Chapter 34, Gouache, oil, textile, and gesso on wood, x 94.1 cm Photo: David Heald 1 R. H. Quaytman: + x, Chapter 34

7 R. H. Quaytman +, Chapter 34, Oil, textile, and gesso on wood, x 94.1 cm Photo: David Heald R. H. Quaytman +, Chapter 34, Oil, acrylic, snakeskin, and gesso on wood, 50.8 x 50.8 cm Photo: David Heald R. H. Quaytman + (Force in General Terms Lights Liberation), Chapter 34, Oil on wood, 50.8 x 31.4 cm Photo: David Heald 2 R. H. Quaytman: + x, Chapter 34

8 To obey intuition and understand only in part were two commands that Hilma af Klint received and I chose to follow. This group of paintings is the result of studying and thinking about af Klint s work for almost thirty years now. To obey intuition and not fully understand is, after all, for better or worse, what artists do. And intuition is often to blame when that work is judged harshly or invalidated what makes it childish, vain, fleeting, and subject to bad aging. Af Klint s own palpable visual intuitions and their pull against explanation proved a difficult painting lesson, for me, at least, whose overriding tendency is toward thought and legibility. I read a quote a few years ago by Gershom Scholem, historian of Jewish mysticism. He wrote, The image escapes in every direction. I believe that to be true. It doesn t take much for metaphysical thought to escape from the image of a circle inside a square. And what then escapes from af Klint s images, to be received by you, by me? Through this visual abundance af Klint s paintings give the distinct impression of something corresponding to reality, and what escapes, to my eyes, is a process of emancipation or liberation from the constraints that had, during her lifetime, effectively silenced not only women and the invisible realities of their reproductive bodies, but also painting itself. She was able to deploy visual ideas by asserting that they were not her own. I, too, occasionally use this technique of finding a way to paint through another artist s authority when that other artist s work has in some way changed my thinking about what a painting can do or be. The idea of uniting my individual paintings through the metaphor of books and chapters came directly from af Klint s simple but unheard-of notion that all her work was one. Af Klint also had the tenacity of spirit to hitch a ride on the back of science and math. She understood the paradigm-shifting effects of their discoveries and understood how those discoveries were explained through images. In the notebook that I began to focus most intently on, number 1179, we see thirty-eight paintings photographed in black and white, and illustrated carefully in watercolor the specimens, the evidence, the paintings. They seem like notations made by a mad scientist who in vain tries to unite astronomy and biology, copying down images seen in his microscope or his telescope. Who can deny these invisible facts? No one. From the downgraded professional status as female it was not hard for af Klint to dispense with the weight of authorship and collaborate, ventriloquize, and invent so incredibly much. One can find somewhere in her vast output a parallel to almost all subsequent artistic advances of modernist thinking, from Kandinsky, Mondrian, Munch, and Malevich to Martin, Pollock, Duchamp, and Thek, just to name a few. And how would you or I go about making a painting if she were our teacher now, in, when the world seems so small and answerless? All I could do was follow dumbly and sometimes simply copy, as best I could, her evidence. But in what direction? Toward magical thinking? no. Religious faith? have none. Geometric diagrams? always. Process? it happened. Architecture? unavoidably. Trigonometry? if I could. Sexuality? it s obvious. Romance? yes. Drama? there seems to be a beginning and an end. There turned out to be so many ways to escape what people say her work is about and not leave it behind in the process. The following three concepts are taken as a starting point: Hilma af Klint R. H. Quaytman, September 13,

9 R. H. Quaytman s +, Chapter 34 is a new body of work created to be shown in conjunction with Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future, the first exhibition devoted to Hilma af Klint in the United States since Quaytman organized a survey of her work at New York s P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in This chapter, as Quaytman s focused groups of paintings are called, continues the artist s ongoing investigation of the factors that enable a painting to generate meaning including its content, its production, and the physical and social context of its presentation. Taking into account the dedication of the Guggenheim s founders to spiritually oriented abstraction, these new works offer a reconsideration of the relationship between af Klint and that movement by using the innovative abstract painter s Blue Books as source material. Made by af Klint during a late phase of her artistic practice, these ten unique books feature black-and-white photographs of many of her paintings alongside delicately executed watercolor reproductions. The book format, with its fixed series of pages, enabled the artist to make explicit the sequential structure of her work, in which each painting relates directly to the last. As af Klint re-created her earlier compositions in these books, she was also able to draw further attention to her methodical symbolism. 317 #RHQuaytman In order to examine the analytic qualities of af Klint s paintings, Quaytman has focused on Blue Book IX, which features the Swedish artist s SUW/UW Series ( ). Working with screenprinted and hand-painted imagery on consistently sized wood panels, Quaytman has distilled af Klint s groundbreaking formal strategies and reconfigured her systematized imagery, thereby illuminating the ties between af Klint s radical divergence from artistic conventions and her incorporation of scientific discoveries and visual styles, most notably the diagram. Quaytman simultaneously elaborates upon other underrecognized aspects of af Klint s work through references to gender, landscape painting, violence, and the body. The installation that Quaytman has devised situates these themes within the Guggenheim s distinctive architecture. Each bay is anchored by a painting featuring the chapter s central motif, a deep indigo square punctuated by a white circle. These works are hung along a horizontal line, in contrast to the rising slope of the museum s ramp. The title of Quaytman s new chapter evokes the centrality of logic and empiricism in af Klint s thinking. The characters + regularly appear on the first page of af Klint s numerous notebooks, including the Blue Books. Though she viewed these symbols as more than arithmetical notations, they remain inseparable from their mathematical use. Quaytman sees this rationalism as an important counter to the intuitive qualities that are frequently associated with the spiritual and, by extension, af Klint s work and legacy. Tracey Bashkoff, Director of Collections and Senior Curator, and David Horowitz, Curatorial Assistant R. H. Quaytman: +, Chapter 34 is supported in part by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum s International Director s Council. The Leadership Committee for this exhibition, chaired by Maire Ehrnrooth and Carl Gustaf Ehrnrooth, Trustee, is gratefully acknowledged for its support, with special thanks to Fotene Demoulas and Tom Coté; Rafaela and Kaj Forsblom; Helena and Per Skarstedt; Johannes Falk; Miguel Abreu Gallery; Galerie Buchholz, Berlin/Cologne/New York; Katherine Farley and Jerry I. Speyer; Barbara Gladstone; Gilberto and Rosa Sandretto; and Candace King Weir. The Guggenheim app is supported by

10 Oil, graphite distemper, and gesso on wood

11 + (Trigonometry), Chapter 34 Oil, paper collage, gouache, graphite, and gesso on wood

12 Oil, silkscreen ink, and gesso on wood

13 + (Force in General Terms Lights Liberation), Chapter 34 Oil on wood

14 Silkscreen ink, acrylic, and gouache on wood

15 Oil, acrylic, snakeskin, and gesso on wood

16 + (Blue Book), Chapter 34 Oil, silkscreen ink, gouache, and gesso on wood

17 Oil, watercolor, gouache, and acrylic on wood

18 Silkscreen ink, silver glitter, gouache, and acrylic on wood

19 Indigo and graphite distemper, acrylic, and watercolor on wood

20 Indigo distemper, acrylic, silkscreen ink, and watercolor on wood

21 Indigo and graphite distemper and acrylic on wood

22 Indigo distemper, acrylic, and watercolor on wood

23 Indigo distemper, acrylic, and watercolor on wood

24 Indigo distemper, acrylic, and watercolor on wood

25 Indigo distemper and acrylic on wood

26 Indigo distemper, silkscreen ink, and acrylic on wood

27 Indigo and graphite distemper, Singularity Black, graphite, and gesso on wood

28 Gouache, oil, textile, and gesso on wood

29 Indigo and graphite distemper, oil, graphite, and gesso on wood

30 Indigo and graphite distemper, Singularity Black, and gesso on wood

31 Silkscreen ink, oil, and gesso on wood

32 Oil, textile, and gesso on wood

33 Silkscreen ink, textile, gouache, graphite, oil, and gesso on wood

34 Acrylic and gesso on wood

35 Indigo and graphite distemper, acrylic, and watercolor on wood

36 Silkscreen ink, oil, and acrylic on wood

37 Acrylic on wood

38 Ramp 6, Bay 69 R. H. Quaytman: +, Chapter 34 10/12/ - 4/23/2019 +, Chapter 34, Indigo and graphite distemper, Singularity Black, and gesso on wood 32 3/8 x 32 3/8 inches (82.2 x 82.2 cm) X , Chapter 34, Indigo distemper, acrylic, and watercolor on wood 37 1/16 x 37 1/16 inches (94.1 x 94.1 cm) X , Chapter 34, Oil, textile, and gesso on wood 60 x 37 1/16 inches (152.4 x 94.1 cm) X Ramp 6, Bay 68 +, Chapter 34, Acrylic on wood 37 1/16 x 60 inches (94.1 x cm) X , Chapter 34, Indigo and graphite distemper and acrylic on wood 37 1/16 x 37 1/16 inches (94.1 x 94.1 cm) X /9/ 1

39 Ramp 6, Bay 68 R. H. Quaytman: +, Chapter 34 10/12/ - 4/23/2019 +, Chapter 34, Acrylic and gesso on wood 20 x 20 inches (50.8 x 50.8 cm) X Ramp 6, Bay 67 +, Chapter 34, Silkscreen ink, oil, and acrylic on wood 52 3/8 x 32 3/8 inches (133 x 82.2 cm) X , Chapter 34, Silkscreen ink, acrylic, and gouache on wood 32 3/8 x 52 3/8 inches (82.2 x 133 cm) X , Chapter 34, Indigo and graphite distemper, acrylic, and watercolor on wood 37 1/16 x 37 1/16 inches (94.1 x 94.1 cm) X Ramp 6, Bay 66 +, Chapter 34, Silkscreen ink, silver glitter, gouache, and acrylic on wood 52 3/8 x 32 3/8 inches (133 x 82.2 cm) X /9/ 2

40 Ramp 6, Bay 66 R. H. Quaytman: +, Chapter 34 10/12/ - 4/23/2019 +, Chapter 34, Indigo distemper, acrylic, silkscreen ink, and watercolor on wood 37 1/16 x 37 1/16 inches (94.1 x 94.1 cm) X , Chapter 34, Acrylic and gesso on wood 24 3/4 x 24 3/4 inches (62.9 x 62.9 cm) X Ramp 6, Bay 65 +, Chapter 34, Silkscreen ink, oil, and gesso on wood 20 x 20 inches (50.8 x 50.8 cm) X , Chapter 34, Indigo distemper and acrylic on wood 37 1/16 x 37 1/16 inches (94.1 x 94.1 cm) X , Chapter 34, Oil, acrylic, snakeskin, and gesso on wood 20 x 20 inches (50.8 x 50.8 cm) X /9/ 3

41 Ramp 6, Bay 65 R. H. Quaytman: +, Chapter 34 10/12/ - 4/23/ (Trigonometry), Chapter 34, Oil, paper collage, gouache, graphite pencil, and gesso on wood 12 3/8 x 12 3/8 inches (31.4 x 31.4 cm) X , Chapter 34, Silkscreen ink, textile, gouache, graphite pencil, oil, and gesso on wood 32 3/8 x 32 3/8 inches (82.2 x 82.2 cm) X Ramp 6, Bay 64 +, Chapter 34, Indigo and graphite distemper, Singularity Black, graphite pencil, and gesso on wood 24 3/4 x 24 3/4 inches (62.9 x 62.9 cm) X , Chapter 34, Indigo distemper, acrylic, and watercolor on wood 37 1/16 x 37 1/16 inches (94.1 x 94.1 cm) X , Chapter 34, Indigo and graphite distemper, oil, graphite pencil, and gesso on wood 24 3/4 x 24 3/4 inches (62.9 x 62.9 cm) X Ramp 6, Bay 63 10/9/ 4

42 Ramp 6, Bay 63 R. H. Quaytman: +, Chapter 34 10/12/ - 4/23/2019 +, Chapter 34, Indigo distemper, silkscreen ink, and acrylic on wood 32 3/8 x 32 3/8 inches (82.2 x 82.2 cm) X , Chapter 34, Oil, watercolor, gouache, and acrylic on wood 32 3/8 x 20 inches (82.2 x 50.8 cm) X , Chapter 34, Indigo and graphite distemper, acrylic, and watercolor on wood 37 1/16 x 37 1/16 inches (94.1 x 94.1 cm) X (Force in General Terms Lights Liberation), Chapter 34, Oil on wood 20 x 12 3/8 inches (50.8 x 31.4 cm) X Ramp 6, Bay 62 +, Chapter 34, Gouache, oil, textile, and gesso on wood 60 x 37 1/16 inches (152.4 x 94.1 cm) X /9/ 5

43 Ramp 6, Bay 62 R. H. Quaytman: +, Chapter 34 10/12/ - 4/23/2019 +, Chapter 34, Indigo distemper, acrylic, and watercolor on wood 37 1/16 x 37 1/16 inches (94.1 x 94.1 cm) X , Chapter 34, Oil, graphite distemper, and gesso on wood 12 3/8 x 20 inches (31.4 x 50.8 cm) X Ramp 6, Bay 61 + (Blue Book), Chapter 34, Oil, silkscreen ink, gouache, and gesso on wood 12 3/8 x 20 inches (31.4 x 50.8 cm) X /9/ 6