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Indepth Arts News:
"Gordon Newton: Selections from the James F. Duffy, Jr. Gift"
2001-07-15 until 2001-11-04
Detroit Institute of Art
Detroit, MI,
USA
Gordon Newton is one of Detroit’s best known artists. Although often
considered primarily as a sculptor, he has created a vast body of
drawings over the last thirty years. His works on paper explore a wide
array of subjects and experiment with unconventional combinations of
materials and techniques. The 150 drawings in this exhibition reflect the
scope of Newton’s vision.
Beginning with his highly abstract early work and continuing with
themes related to recognizable subjects, Newton’s drawings invite
viewers to let their imaginations run free. The works are not a
straightforward presentation of the visible world. They hint at attitudes,
ideas, and objects in broad, general terms and are open to
interpretation. Strong references to Newton’s interest in the structure of
things underlie most of his drawings. This concern is expressed in many
forms. Sometimes this interest appears as a clear architectural element
which becomes the subject of the work. Frequently, it is the actual
manner in which materials are combined to physically build an image, or
it can be an allusion to a principle or idea on which a composition is
based.
As a young artist central to the city’s Cass Corridor art movement in the
1970s, Newton’s work ranged from highly controlled elegant gestures to
muscular, almost violent combinations of mediums. He made solid, dark
circular shapes on plain white paper by tying a piece of graphite to a
stick and drawing continuous arcs. For other works, he literally used his
fingers—and on occasion his feet—as his drawing tools. Torn-up old
drawings, discarded papers, sheets of plastic, and various kinds of tape
became the compositional elements of an untitled series of paper
constructions.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Newton began to use varnish and wax
extensively in his works on paper. He also concentrated on themes with
a clear connection to people. He explored the notion of human
depiction in an extensive series of “head studies” and the structural
dynamics of interpersonal relationships in the descending lines of a
family tree. Another series depicting the floor and ground plans for an
imaginary English cottage was inspired by thoughts of building a
perfect living space. Objects like the tail of an airplane, the parts of a
tractor, and a military tank served as the springboards for images
dealing indirectly with issues such as the role and influence of
technology on modern life and society’s relationship to nature.
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