Richard Bottwin's Wall Sculptures

Richard Bottwin

Parallel #1, 2006, 14" x  8.5" x  9"
Macassar Ebony on Birch Plywood, Acrylic Paint
from richardbottwin.com

I recently read the article A few highlights from the 2012 DUMBO Arts Festival on Two Coats of Paint which introduced me to the art of Richard Bottwin.  His wall sculptures are fresh takes on motifs from modernist painting/reductive abstraction.  His works are strictly non-objective, emphasizing color and form but lacking the dogmatic Greenbergian trait of flatness which suspiciously speaks to the essence of the business aspect of art rather than the "essence of a painting" (A flat painting can be mass produced as a commodity).  Also, rather than the pieces being strictly autonomous and fixed from any vantage point, the perspective of the viewer plays a key role in experiencing the piece.

Profile #2, 2008 16" x 13.5" x 13"
Acrylic Color and Zebrawood Veneer on Birch Plywood
Vantage Point #1, from richardbottwin.com

"The surfaces, laminated with wood veneers or painted with acrylic colors, are configured to reveal surprising shapes and patterns with shifts in the viewer's perspective.  A sense of disorientation, implied weightlessness and the element of surprise are created by the reductive forms and subvert the modernist vocabulary of the simple constructions." - Richard Bottwin

Profile #2, 2008 16" x 13.5" x 13"
Acrylic Color and Zebrawood Veneer on Birch Plywood
Vantage Point #2, from richardbottwin.com