off-white sheet with single line-drawn image in bottom center; long, thin looped shape with curving parallel line attached, forming a simple, abstract hill, rendered in black crayon; lines are simple and thin, with top looping shape darkened with thicker black lines in center

%C2%A9 Jan Groth

Untitled, 1980

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Jan Groth is best known as a maker of tapestries with abstract designs that explore the relationship between form and field, line and picture plane. But he also works in other media, including crayon drawings and metal sculpture. Groth has said that his work is about “the balance between almost something and almost nothing.” The present drawing, a quick crayon scrawl on paper, literally embodies that philosophy.

Though his drawings are closely connected to his tapestries, in many ways the two are the antithesis of one another. In 1968, his weaving practice switched from white backgrounds to black. The drawings retain a black-on-white sensibility. His weaving is laborious and performed as a collaborative process. The drawings are quickly made as a solo act. The tapestries are as monumental as the drawings are intimate. As such, Groth’s drawings present a whole other side to his creativity.

Details
Title
Untitled
Artist Life
born 1938
Role
Artist
Accession Number
2018.95.1
Provenance
A gift from the artist Jan Groth (Oslo Norway, b. 1938) to Mia, 2018
Curator Approved

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off-white sheet with single line-drawn image in bottom center; long, thin looped shape with curving parallel line attached, forming a simple, abstract hill, rendered in black crayon; lines are simple and thin, with top looping shape darkened with thicker black lines in center

© Jan Groth

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