511 west 25th street, new york, ny 10001

www.cueartfoundation.org

2006–2007 r o b e rt s e y d e l

CUE Art Foundation

March 15 - April 21, 2007

CuratedbyPeterGizzi

robErt sEyd E l

lEAd sPoNsor oF 2006-07 sEAsoN oF EXHIbItIoN CAtAloGUEs:

KYESUNG PAPER GROUP (SOUTH KOREA)

AddItIoNAl sUPPort ProVIdEd by

ELIZABETH FIRESTONE GRAHAM FOUNDATION

Making proceeds for me by serial invention, from piece to piece and across time. the means are

collage and drawing, picture as writing, scaled intimate and to the hand. Essentially I want to

write an art, to make of the visual a kind of text, and have it be as well a poor art, assembled from

scraps. Material is essential; scuffings carry history, which wanders throughout. In one of

her journal pages from The Book of Saul, ruth Greisman, both eponymous and real aunt and the

artist of the Book, wrote: “Art an ongoing limit, open to wind. I make it thru me, draughty r.”

Her formulation holds throughout the Book and also across the wider field. but the Book defines

the territory. It is composed of fragments and encompasses a rotation of styles, is a biography of

her (our) making and consists of a pile of pictures in and across time. Artifacts of a life, both hers

and mine; the refuse and rejecta of days, “open to wind.”

other figures besides ruth run through the work. Her brother saul, for example

(the two together make up my initials, and also carry my mother’s), and the recurring droon, a

maker of drawings (“droon is to draw as draw is to Coleslaw”), and previously Welch, a professor,

and Eckstein-sousa, and others. Personas, altar egos, others, not myself. Every figure reveals

aspects of the total form, which is open and green. Art, as creation and as sign of primary

Imagination, is not objects but a state, a kind of fluid. It is revelation of a sort that both objects

and figures are the excess of. Nor is it happenstance that the face, the portrait, the animal,

fantastic or otherwise, is central. Everything starts from there. Children always begin with it: two

eyes, a mouth, animal or human – a round, split and trussed and multiplied and confused. the

portrait is also artifact, collage of time, a token and remnant. In her work ruth is always speaking

to herself: “to collage night, against and for stays.” the wind is what comes through, barely glued

down, sign of what maker here.

Artists' statement RobertSeydel

We are honored to host this exhibition generously curated by Peter Gizzi. Mr. Gizzi, a writer

and poet, has chosen robert seydel, an artist who resides in Amherst, MA. Mr. Gizzi’s appreciation

of Mr. seydel’s work demonstrates how the Foundation’s discretionary selection process allows

for a natural cross-pollination between differing forms of expression.

CUE appreciates that geographic location can sometimes limit an artists

exhibition possibilities elsewhere, thus CUE is pleased to offer Mr. seydel the opportunity for his

first solo exhibition in New york. Mr. seydel and we, together, wish him a future of fulfillment

and success.

Foreward CUEArtFoundation

Ruth Greisman, Untitled [A.S. Wolfe. Photographer], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Mixed media on card, 4" x 2 1/2"

robert seydel’s compositions are saturated with visual pleasures but they also invite one to read,

to enter, to be undone by them. Who knew such light could come from torn paper, or that the

occult processes of time could be revealed by bricolage, wrack, spitball wads, wrappers, and

bottle caps. He works almost exclusively in notebooks. He calls them “knotbooks”; that is to say,

he works not on paper but on pages. And so many of his tools are a writer’s: whiteout, pencil and

pen, erasers, tape, type, and newsprint which he uses to capture light and color, the movement

between what is lasting and fleeting, conducting acts of salvage rather than consumption. In this

way he makes something gorgeously animated out of raw material that is, on one hand, familiar

and, on another, alien and even unwanted.

seydel’s work, viewed collectively, has a voice as much as a vision whether its

tone is elegiac, monumental, or whimsical. In the past decade or so, he has produced hundreds

of works in multiple ongoing and interrelated series that move freely between lyric and narrative

modes. samuel beckett once said the task of the artist is to find a form to accommodate the

mess, a statement that describes well the openness and flexibility of seydel’s art and its crucial

link to the materials of everyday life. He is a strong believer in art-making as a process not just

of representing but of uncovering a world that would otherwise remain hidden. the uncanny

likenesses rendered in his various portraits show a love of metamorphic intensity and of mysteries

on the verge of being revealed. so often what he is unveiling is the face. blake’s notion that “the

most sublime act is to set another before you” perfectly captures seydel’s sense of the sacred in

relation to the face, the image, and the made thing. Ultimately, his works convey perception itself

as a devotional act.

Curators' statement PeterGizzi

Ruth Greisman, Untitled Postcard, from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Oil and ink on postcard, 3 1/2" x 5 1/4"

Ole? Boen, from A Fauna, 2005Mixed media on card, 6 1/2" x 4"

Ruth Greisman, Untitled [to Joseph C.], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Paper, ink, and found photograp

Uncle Ole, from A Fauna, 2005Oil, ink, watercolor, and white-out on card, 6 1/2" x 4 1/2"

Robert Creeley, from Series Homages, 2005Collage and mixed media on paper, 6 3/4" x 4 1/4"

Untitled, from New Droon Works, 2002-2004Graphite, sumi and ink on paper, 4 1/4" x 4"

Turkish Air (T21), from Siselnamés (or, Mixed Melodies), 2000Collage and mixed media on paper, 8 1/4"

Ruth Greisman, Untitled [Woman and Bird], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Collage and mixed media on found photograph, 6 1/2" x 4 1/4"

Ruth Greisman, Untitled [Precipitation], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Collage and mixed media on found photograph, 6 1/4" x 4 1/2"

Ols!, 2005Collage on paper, 4" x 6 3/4"

Old fig., 2003Collage and mixed media on card, 4" x 2 1/2"

Ruth Greisman, Untitled [Orn Du], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Collage on card, 6 3/4" x 5 1/2"

biography RobertSeydel

robert seydel, born in New york, Ny, lives in Amherst, MA, where he is Assistant Professor of

Photography at Hampshire College. He received a bFA in English and Photography from New

york University and an MFA from the rhode Island school of design. He has taught on the faculty

of the University of Massachusetts, dartmouth, and the University of Connecticut at storrs, and

served for a number of years as director of Exhibitions at the Photographic resource Center at

boston University.

seydel received a regional fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts

for his serial work, A Short History of Portraiture. A selection from his ongoing Book of Saul was

published in 2005 in 1913: A Journal of Forms, issue 2. In 2006 work from the series Eckstein-

Sousa was exhibited in Five Contemporary Visual Poets at the Wright Exhibition space in seattle,

WA. this exhibition at CUE Art Foundation marks his first solo exhibition in New york City.

PeterGizzi

Peter Gizzi grew up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His books of poetry include The Outernationale

(2007), Some Values of Landscape and Weather (2003), Artificial Heart (1998), and Periplum

(1992). He has also published limited-edition chapbooks, folios, and artist books. His honors

include the lavan younger Poet Award from the Academy of American Poets (1994) and fellow-

ships in poetry from the Howard Foundation (1998), the Foundation for Contemporary Arts

(1999), and the John simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (2005). His work has been trans-

lated into numerous languages. He currently works for the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Ruth Greisman, Untitled [Fine Hig], from The Book of Saul, 2000-2006Collage on found photograph, 6 1/2" x 4 1/4"

All artwork © robert seydel

Catalog design by Elizabeth Ellis

Printed on triPine paper of Kyesung Paper Group (south Korea)

Cover: triPine Art Nouveau 209gsm (78lb), text: triPine silk 157gsm (106lb)

Printer: yon Art Printing (south Korea)

IsbN-13: 978-0-9776417-9-6

IsbN-10: 0-9776417-9-1

Mission statement CUEArtFoundation

CUE Art Foundation, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit arts organization,

is dedicated to providing a comprehensive creative forum for

contemporary art by supporting under-recognized artists via a

multi-faceted mission spanning the realms of gallery exhibitions,

public programming, professional development programs and

arts-in-education. the Foundation was established in June of 2002

with the aim of providing educational programs for young artists

and aspiring art professionals in New york and from around the

country. these programs draw on the unique community of artists,

critics, and educators brought together by the Foundation’s

season of exhibitions, public lectures, workshops, and its studio

residency program: all are designed to be of lasting practical

benefit to aspiring and under-recognized artists. the entire CUE

identity is characterized by artistic quality, independent judg-

ment and the discovery of genuine talent, and provides long-term

benefits both for creative individuals associated with CUE and

the larger art marketplace. located in New york’s Chelsea gallery

district, CUE’s 4,500 square feet of gallery, studio and office space

serves as the nexus for educational programs and exhibitions

conducted by CUE.

BoARdoFdiRECtoRS

Gregory Amenoff

theodore s. berger

Patricia Caesar

thomas G. devine

thomas K. y. Hsu

brian d. starer

AdviSoRyCoUnCil

Gregory Amenoff

William Corbett

Vernon Fisher

Malik Gaines

deborah Kass

Kris Kuramitsu

Jonathan lethem

Irving sandler

ExECUtivEdiRECtoR

Jeremy Adams

diRECtoRoF

dEvEloPmEnt

Elaine bowen

PRoGRAmS

CooRdinAtoR

beatrice Wolert-Weese

PRoGRAmSASSiStAnt

Kara smith