Ian Tyson - page 2
Tyson saw the grid as “a symbol of infinite possibilities of order.” [1] It was a view that defied the assessments of art historians and critics, like Rosalind Krauss who pronounced that the grid was “impervious to change” and that “development is precisely what the grid resists.”[2] Tyson, nevertheless, explored its “infinite possibilities” in a language of forms that evolved over time. Referring to another article, Tyson commented, “I remember reading an article in Artforum whose conclusion was that the grid was a very restrictive structure. I really think it’s limitless. It’s not simply a structure made up of squares … my essential interest in it lies in the kind of metaphorical use of the paint itself. The surface and the way the paint is used becomes a metaphor for other kinds of emotion.”[3] Tyson developed discrete visual vocabularies whose full potential he explored in both two- and three-dimensional forms. In Tyson’s sculptural tribute to his friend Klaus Mollenhauer, the vertical rectangles supported by horizonal squares appear to manifest the flat colors of the printed tribute In Memory of Paul Celan: Three Death Poems. In later works, printed and sculptural forms demonstrate movement, extending out of our field of vision, forcing us to follow them by turning a page or circling a sculpture to see where they go next. Some of his last works compose intricate structures of delicate intersecting rectangles, including Scrivo in Vento: After Elliot Carter (to a Poem by Petrarch) and the aforementioned A Tribute to Jerome Rothenberg. Yet, even this view of Tyson’s work is incomplete, seeing that he sometimes engaged in curvilinear forms in painting, sculpture, and—perhaps most notably—visual music scores, creating his own musical notation system comprising short curved lines and dots of varying size. Bridwell Library holds a number of Tyson’s visual music scores, supplemented by such preparatory materials as sketches, collages, and acetate negatives used in printing.
[1] Kevin Power. “A Conversation with Ian Tyson,” in Open Letter (Fourth Series) nos. 1 & 2 (summer 1978), p. 70.
[2] Rosalind Krauss. “Grids,” in October vol. 9 (summer 1979), p. 50.
[3] Power, pp. 70-71.
