My Birthday Puzzle

I

When brought together,

These two bodies of work*

Will transform space.

The rules of one** are

Longitudinal, which we

Read on a vertical, the

Other***, the opposite.

They also engage depth

Perceptions, one, through

Layering, brings us in**;

The other, out***. You

Could give each group

its separate room (place-

in-space). Now, it seems,

mixing them will erase

space, helping to see

each for what it is.

The exhibition, then,

Is a chance to see what

Will happen-- though

Each work’s needs

Are paramount. We

May try both ways to

Show, it doesn’t matter!

II

The three, 17th c., Dutch

Masters are Vermeer,

Rembrandt and Hals.

The first two paint you

Looking at the glass.

Hals paints the glass

Looking at you. Hals

Uses art to put you

Solidly in the world,

Giving you power,

Making you the subject,

Or, perhaps, more cor-

Rectly, your Psyche.

His paintings often

Leave one uncom-

Fortable, for they rely

On the truth of the

Viewer, who is divided

In the act of seeing a

Painting. The laughing

In Hals comes from

Seeing, the light in light

And darkness, is the

Same light, as the viewer

Is left pondering Hals’s

Genius as a painter,

Revealed—where did

It come from?

III

Coming home from a

Long walk in New Mexico,

Natural wilderness, I

Thought the painting I

Wanted was not depen-

Dent or independent

On its means of record-

Ing. We are composite

Creatures, not neces-

Sarily accessed planerly,

Or not, so one could

Produce a painting that

Was first, a statement,

Then, creatively edited

And finally, presented

Using its own “call to

Form” as a solution—

The whole would unify

As painting is supposed

To do, and make a pic-

Ture closer to love, truth,

Freedom. I worked like

This for some time, both

In New Mexico and New

York. Where as the results

Bore looking, something

Was wrong… Like music,

The purely visual has

An ability to express uni-

Que to itself. Thus, be-

Lieving the picture was

Good, justifiable, proven,

But not available, I went

On, seeking an explanation.

The two groups at Stuart

Shave’s**** are the result,

If we have the eyes to

See them? No matter.

If valuable an advance,

We will develop the eyes.

If not, is it just one more

Try on humanity’s stage

left to the offices of wor-

thy tries and discarded?

*”Pressing: Hole in the Head”

“Releasing: Biologically Poor

Endings”

**”Pressing: Hole in the Head”

***”Releasing: Biologically

Poor Endings”

****Modern Art

Richard Tuttle, NYC, 2017

My Birthday Puzzle is Richard Tuttle’s fourth solo exhibition with Modern Art, for which he has made two new bodies of work. Richard Tuttle’s work has been the subject of more than two hundred solo exhibitions over the past fifty years. He held his first solo show in New York at Betty Parsons Gallery in 1965, and in 1975 was granted a ten-year survey exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Richard Tuttle’s work was included in the Venice Biennale in 1976, 1997 and 2001, Documenta in 1972, 1977 and 1982, and the Whitney Biennial of American Art in 1977, 1987 and 2000. In London in 2014, Richard Tuttle undertook the Turbine Hall commission for Tate Modern, I Don’t Know . The Weave of Textile Language, which coincided with the retrospective solo exhibition The Weave of Textile Language at the Whitechapel Gallery. The survey exhibition The Art of Richard Tuttle was organised by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, usa, in 2005, from where it travelled to the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, usa, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa, usa, Dallas Museum of Art, usa, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, usa, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, usa, through 2007. Recent solo exhibitions include al Cielo de Noche de Lima / to The Night Sky of Lima, Proyecto amil and Museo de Arte de Lima (mali), Lima, Peru (2016); The Critical Edge, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ny, usa (2016); Καλλίρροος kallirroos schön-fliessend, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland (2016); Richard Tuttle: Wire Pieces, Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St Louis, mo, usa (2015); Both/​And Richard Tuttle Print and Cloth, Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, usa (2015); Slide, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2012); Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, Germany (2012); Hello, The Roses, with Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Kunstverein Munich, Germany (2012); Triumphs, Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, Ireland (2010 – 2011); The Use of Time, Kunsthaus Zug, Switzerland (2008); Wire Pieces, capc Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France (2005); It’s a Room for 3 People, Drawing Center, New York, usa, travelled to Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, usa (2004 – 2006); Perceived Obstacles, Stiftung Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen, Schloss Gottorf, Schleswig, Germany, travelled to Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, Munster, Germany, and Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany (2000 – 2001). My Birthday Puzzle will coincide with an exhibition of Richard Tuttle’s recent work entitled The Critical Edge at Pace London, which will run from 13 April until 13 May. Tuttle’s work is currently the subject of a solo exhibition at De Hallen Haarlem, Haarlem, Netherlands, until 7 May 2017, and the forthcoming solo exhibition Richard Tuttle, James Ensor’s ​‘real’ color at Mu.zee, Kunstmuseum aan zee, Ostend, Belgium, 1 July — 5 November 2017. For further information, please contact Modern Art