GEORGE NAMA - Shepherd W & K Galleries · GEORGE NAMA It is often some quality of mystery, of not being able to say what its origins are, that is the sign of originality in a work

GEORGE NAMAGOUACHES & SCULPTURE

IN PREPARATION FOR

DRAWING THE BOW(DEN BOGEN SPANNEN)

POEMS BY ALFRED BRENDEL

October 22nd, 2010 – January 15th, 2011

Exhibition organized byRobert Kashey and David Wojciechowski

Catalogue by Jennifer S. Brown

SHEPHERD & DEROMGALLERIES

58 East 79th StreetNew York, NY 10075

Tel: 1 212 861 4050Fax: 1 212 772 1314

[email protected]

GOUACHES

All drawings are executed in gouache with black chalk on pages from 19th-century ledgers and notebooks. Eachdrawing is stamped with the artist’s stamp: N, and signed in graphite: NAMA.

Approximate size varies from: 8 1/4" x 6 3/4" (21 cm x 17.1) to 15 1/2" x 9 3/4" (39.4 x 24.8 cm)

ARTIST’S BOOK

Drawing the Bow / Den Bogen spannen (2011): The portfolio is a collaboration of eight etchings printed on ArchesVelin paper to accompany eight poems with the original German version and English translation. Text in BauerBodoni and Linotype Waverly types printed by Darrell Hyder, The Sun Hill Press, North Brookfield, Massachusetts.Bindings made by Jim DiMarcantonio, Hope Bindery, Providence, Rhode Island. All prints are signed and hand-col-ored by the artist in an edition of twenty copies number 1 – 20. Five additional sets are artist’s proofs numbered A.P.1 – A.P. 5. There are also five sets without hand coloring, numbered I – V. Publication date January 2011.

SCULPTURES

Untitled (2010), patinated bronze. Approximate height: 7” (17.8 cm)All sculptures are unique casts.

CREDITS

GRAPHIC DESIGN : Keith Stout

TRANSLATIONS: English versions by the author with Richard Stokes.

©Robert J. F. Kashey for Shepherd Gallery, Associates, 2010New York, NY 10075; (212) 861-4050

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INTRODUCTION

Drawing the Bow (Den Bogen spannen) celebrates a decade-long collaboration between poet-musicianAlfred Brendel and artist George Nama. Brendel first discovered Nama’s work in Vevey, where he saw anartist’s book by Yves Bonnefoy, for which Nama had created etchings. Soon after, Alfred Brendel andGeorge Nama were creating books of their own. 2001 saw the publication of Devil’s Pageant; it was fol-lowed in 2003 by Thirteen Angels; in 2006 and 2008 the American poet laureate of 2007, Charles Simic,joined Yves Bonnefoy and Alfred Brendel for Poems I and Poems II. All of these works have been shown atShepherd and Derom Galleries.

2010 has been a very productive year for both artists. Nama’s works have been on view at the PierpontMorgan Library in New York as well as in a major exhibition at the Boston Athenaeum. Alfred Brendel, afterhe withdrew from the concert stage, has lectured on musical subjects, has taught master classes and has heldrecitals of his poetry. His Collected Poems will be published bilingually by Phaidon Press this December.

The current exhibition documents the working process for a book-in-progress, Drawing the Bow, which willcontain Alfred Brendel’s love poems. As in previous collaborations, Nama prefers to draw his numeroussketches and gouaches in 19th century ledger books which stimulate his imagination. Ideas are passedback and forth between the two busy men during late night phone calls and intensive meetings in backstage areas or hotel rooms. Eventually Nama’s dream-like abstractions morph into appropriate escorts forBrendel’s poems.

The publication of Drawing the Bow in January 2011 will mark this special collaboration between two artists,two friends.

Robert KasheyDavid WojciechowskiOctober 2010

GEORGE NAMA

It is often some quality of mystery, of not being able to say what its origins are, that is the sign of originalityin a work of art. Looking at George Nama’s gouaches, I ask myself where I have seen this before? There issomething both archaic and modern about them with their repetitive, abbreviated and almost-stylized fig-ures. These headless male and female bodies, single or in pairs, either in motion or at rest, could be drawingbows, dancing, wrestling or contemplating their reflections in a mirror, although even there one is not sure,since these figures, at times joined together as if they were an extension of each other, combine an air ofanonymity with just a hint of the erotic. Nama’s subject is the naked human body and our infinite fascina-tion with it. The strange and illuminating power of variations on the same subject, the care he takes witheach nuance of color and each sharply-rendered or blurred detail, is what draws us to these works. He is likea symbolist poet. He thrives both on ambiguity and clarity, managing at the same time to both reveal andwithhold his intentions, so that one goes back to his images as one goes back to poems that our emotionsand our intellect do not seem to be able to exhaust. However he sets his traps for our eyes and our minds,Nama does it with the assurance of a master, an artist who has already made many beautiful and memorableworks of art over the years.

—Charles Simic.

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Draw the bowBravely aim at the hearta fine quivering heart

At the same timewhile staring at deathhesitantly surrender your own

Within the heart’s innermost chambersettle downpledging your life

Den Bogen spannenentschlossen aufs Herz zielenein schönes zuckendes Herz

Zugleich das eigenezögernd preisgebenden Tod im Auge

In der innersten Herzkammerals Pfand sich niederlassen

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Surrounded by all that noiselet us be silentNo chanceeven to hear one’s own voiceA few gestures will doarms flung above our headsmouth pulled down in comic despairWhen no one’s lookingwe hastily touch each otherWhat could be lovelierthan wordless touchingFrom your lipsI can read your tiny sighsyour inaudible scream

Schweigen wirder Lärmist schon gross genugOhnehinhört man die eigene Stimme nicht mehrGestikulierendgrüssen wir unswerfen die Arme in die Luftschürzenin komischer Verzweiflungdie LippenWenn niemand hinsiehtwagen wir eine Berührungdas ist immer noch das Schönsteeinander berührenohne zu sprechenVon Deinem Mundlese ich ihn abDeinen kleinen SeufzerDeinenunhörbarenSchrei

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GEORGE NAMASELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Bibliothèque municipale, Tours, FranceBibliothèque nationale, Paris, FranceBrooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New YorkButler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OhioCarnegie Institute Museum of Art, PittsburghHerzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel, GermanyLos Angeles County Museum of Art, Los AngelesMetropolitan Museum of Art, New YorkMorgan Library and Museum, New YorkMusée Jenisch, Vevey, SwitzerlandNational Academy Museum, New YorkPhiladelphia Museum of Art, PhiladelphiaSmithsonian Institution, National Collection of Arts, Washington, D.C.Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, ConnecticutPhiladelphia Museum of Art, PhiladelphiaSmithsonian Institution, National Collection of Arts, Washington, D.C.Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

2010 Shepherd & Derom Galleries, New York

2010 Boston Athenæum, Boston

2009 Galerie Claude Van Loock, Brussels, Belgium

2008 Galerie Chantal Grangé, Paris, France

2008 Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Munich, Germany

2008 Schleswig Holstein Music Festival at St.Petri, Lubeck, Germany

2008 Shepherd & Derom Galleries, New York

2007 Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Munich, Germany

2007 Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Inc., Los Angeles

2006 Galerie Patrick Derom, Brussels, Belgium

2006 Galerie Arnoldi-Livie, Munich, Germany

2006 Shepherd & Derom Galleries, New York

2005 “Yves Bonnefoy: poésie et peinture 1993-2005,” Tours, France

2004 Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Inc., Los Angeles

2003 Galerie Arts et Lettres, Vevey, Switzerland

2003 Shepherd & Derom Galleries, New York

2003 Galerie Artemisia, Paris, France

2003 Galerie Patrick Derom, Brussels, Belgium

2002 Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Inc., Los Angeles

2001 University of New Haven, New Haven,Connecticut

2001 Shepherd & Derom Galleries, New York

1983 “Landscapes: Work of the Early Sixties,”Zenith Gallery, Pittsburgh

1974 Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York

1970 Westmoreland Museum of American Art,Greensburg, Pennsylvania

1969 Associated American Artists Gallery, New York

1967 Galerie d’art, Brussels, Belgium

1965 Print Club, Philadelphia

1963 Carnegie Institute Museum of Art,Pittsburgh

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