Ewan Gibbs
16 Jan - 20 Jun 2010
© Ewan Gibbs
San Francisco, 2009
graphite on paper
commissioned by SFMOMA
photo: courtesy the artist and Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
San Francisco, 2009
graphite on paper
commissioned by SFMOMA
photo: courtesy the artist and Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
EWAN GIBBS
"San Francisco"
January 16 - June 20, 2010
In celebration of the museum's 75th anniversary, the Department of Architecture and Design has commissioned artist Ewan Gibbs to create a suite of 18 drawings of San Francisco. The drawings are inspired by photographs the artist took with a digital camera while visiting San Francisco in the spring of 2008. Gibbs depicts city landmarks, streetscapes, and everyday events in his work. He begins with a recognizable image then reduces the image to a grid of pencil marks. Using knitting pattern symbols — slashes and circles — on graph paper, he produces an image that is almost recognizable from a distance and significantly more abstract at close range. His way of working appears, on the surface, to be a kind of pointillism or impressionism while, in fact, his interests and the work’s visual effects owe more to the legacy of minimalism, conceptualism, and process art.
"San Francisco"
January 16 - June 20, 2010
In celebration of the museum's 75th anniversary, the Department of Architecture and Design has commissioned artist Ewan Gibbs to create a suite of 18 drawings of San Francisco. The drawings are inspired by photographs the artist took with a digital camera while visiting San Francisco in the spring of 2008. Gibbs depicts city landmarks, streetscapes, and everyday events in his work. He begins with a recognizable image then reduces the image to a grid of pencil marks. Using knitting pattern symbols — slashes and circles — on graph paper, he produces an image that is almost recognizable from a distance and significantly more abstract at close range. His way of working appears, on the surface, to be a kind of pointillism or impressionism while, in fact, his interests and the work’s visual effects owe more to the legacy of minimalism, conceptualism, and process art.