{"data":{"id":"1352","type":"artist","attributes":{"id":1352,"topgoose_id":473,"tms_id":1352,"display_name":"Richard Tuttle","sort_name":"Tuttle Richard","display_date":"1941–","begin_date":"1941","end_date":"0","biography":"\u003cp\u003eRichard Tuttle’s first solo exhibition,\nat the prestigious Betty Parsons Gallery in\n1965, consisted of painted constructions\nsuch as \u003ca href=\"/collection/works/3081\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eDrift III\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/a\u003e, a conjoined pair of plywood\nforms whose wobbly contours attest to\nthe inexact hand-drawn lines of their paper\ntemplates. The work hovers between\nimage and object, organic and geometric,\nand seems to be adrift on the wall, the\npale green and mauve units weightlessly\nlingering like grace notes. Although\nTuttle usually avoids identifying the sources\nfor his work, he has explained that the\u003cem\u003e\nDrift\u003c/em\u003e series reminds him of the colored\ncloud formations he observed while briefly\nserving in the United States Air Force.\nThe title evokes not the clouds themselves\nbut their wandering movements as they\nrespond to natural forces.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTuttle’s ten-year survey exhibition at\nthe Whitney in 1975 garnered a host of\nnegative reviews from the conservative art\nestablishment, whose vituperation focused\non the works’ minuteness and offhanded\npresentation; one critic complained that\nafter seeing the exhibition he was compelled\nto examine the hairline cracks in the gallery\nwall. But Tuttle’s art is driven by such dramas\nas hairline cracks, creases in fabric, or a\nwavering graphite trace precisely because\nthey sensitize the viewer’s eye.\n\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSince then Tuttle has gained a\nreputation as an artist of poetry and quietude,\neven of disappearance, because his work is\nslight in scale if not always small in size,\nand made from humble, ephemeral materials\nsuch as rope, cardboard, twigs, and florist’s\nwire. The artist has said that he considers\nthe installation of delicate objects like \u003cem\u003eDrift III\u003c/em\u003e,\nwhich often lie in the middle of the gallery\nfloor or hang awkwardly high or low on the\nwall, to be “the other half of the work.”\u003c/p\u003e","on_view":false,"artport":false,"biennial":true,"collection":true,"ulan_id":"500116277","wikidata_id":"Q836743","created_at":"2017-08-30T15:41:15.000-04:00","updated_at":"2026-04-23T01:33:34.969-04:00","links":{"artworks":"/api/artists/1352/artworks","exhibitions":"/api/artists/1352/exhibitions"}}}}