“I am a sign post,” the artist Alfred Jensen said. This phrase suggests the role of some artists as a guide or a beacon, pointing the way. It also refers to the visual languages of their work, in which symbols can efficiently distill complex ideas. This gallery brings together a diverse group of international, midcentury artists whose practices access individual intuitions and propose personal systems of signs, from diagrams and glyphs, to glossaries and games.
Across these paintings and works on paper, imagery ranging from densely expressive icons to spare, idiosyncratic geometries reveals a host of intricate, often arcane preoccupations. Spiritualities are invoked, geopolitical connections are traced, and mathematical concepts are given form. Illuminating obscure realms of experience and knowledge, the resulting works convey, in the words of the artist Forrest Bess, “something seen otherwise than by ordinary sight.”
Organized by Samantha Friedman, Curator, Department of Drawings and Prints, with Rachel Rosin, Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints and Department of Curatorial Affairs.
