Art & Art History
Per se: Collages and Other Works by Irwin Kremen
Per se: Collages and Other Works is an exhibition of the collages of Irwin Kremen from 1975 to 1987. Kremen, a professor emeritus of psychology at Duke University, was never trained formally in art making, but, despite that fact, the small, unassuming collages in the exhibition are evidence of a deep patience, prodigious skill and a passion for the overlooked detritus of the everyday. Over several decades he developed a unique and personal style and a vocabulary that reverberates with meaning while remaining truly non-representational. A Kremen collage, with its geometric forms, intricate textures and delicate colors, can hint here of architectural forms, there of older cultural artifacts and hieroglyphs, while yet remaining perfectly abstract pictorially. No matter how small the collage elements are, Kremen attaches each one to the rest of the piece with tiny paper hinges in order to avoid any chemicals that might deteriorate the material. The bits of paper, which are weather-beaten and faded, exude an aura of imminent disintegration that lends a tense fragility to the pieces. Exquisitely composed of scraps of posters, letters, and advertisements, Kremen ’s works are exceptional examples of collage-making, transforming the rough edges of torn scraps into a delicate lace and weaving what seems to be decomposing refuse into meticulously considered arrangements.
At a time when largeness dominated the art world, it was intriguing to encounter these intimate, enigmatic configurations. Kremen’s is a world of minute detail, often of rich surfaces, dense levels, and tactile physicality. Paradoxically, the collages can also project a sense of heroic monumentality and grandeur. In his practice of collage as compared, say, to the Cubist or Dadaists, the mundane loses its real-world identity and his “experienced papers,” as he calls his preferred materials, become transformed into the fresh aesthetic wholeness that is a new work of art.
The elegance and subtlety of Kremen ’s color choices and handling of materials condense the emotional power of his works, a quality that serves him well in his series “Re ’eh,” a group of eleven collages relating to the holocaust. These works were displayed separately from the other Kremen pieces at Gallery 400, in their own room in the gallery. Kremen wrought these as a remembrance, and their power derives as much from their abstract vocabulary as from what they allude to. The series has justifiably gained national attention and the showing of it at Gallery 400 was its first in the Midwest. The iron works that were exhibited here also for the very first time stood together as in a field, icons of another kind, “a cry,” in Kremen’s own words, “against the muteness of man finally before the rush of time.”
EXHIBITION SUPPORT
Per se: Collages and Other Works by Irwin Kremen is supported by the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Art and Design’s College of Architecture, Art and Urban Planning.
MEDIA COVERAGE
Review: “Irwin Kremen” Buzz Spector, Artforum, Summer 1988.
Review: “Works are studies in Elegant Refinement” Alan G. Artner, Chicago Tribune, March 4, 1988, section 7, p. 49.
per se: Collages & Other Works
Irwin Kremen
Gallery 400, School of Art and Design,
University of Illinois at Chicago, 1988
20 pp., 8 x 9 in., with black and white reproductions
This catalogue can be purchased for $XX.00 plus shipping by calling Gallery 400 at 312 996 6114.
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST
Irwin Kremen
The 5th of Tammuz, 1986
Paper, 14 9/10 x 11 1/5 cm.
The 7th of Tammuz, 1986
Paper, 10 1/5 x 24 7/10 cm.
101, 1976/80
Paper, 19 3/5 x 15 4/5 cm.
181S, 1987
Canvas, paper and acrylic, 15 7/10 x 12 7/10 cm.
A Finding, 1982
Paper, 9 9/10 x 23 cm.
A Greening II, 1987
Paper, 12 x 10 1/5 cm.
America Deserta III, 1982
Paper, 20 2/5 x 13 3/10 cm.
America Deserta III, 1982
Paper, 20 2/5 x 13 3/10 cm.
America Deserta IVa, 1984
Paper, 16 4/5 x 14 cm.
America Deserta IVb, 1984
Paper, 16 4/5 x 12 9/10 cm.
Arkhe, 1980
Paper, 15 x 12 7/10 cm.
Before Durenque, 1980
Iron on wooden base.
Before Tammuz, 1986
Paper, 15 1/5 x 13 1/10 cm.
Black Canto, 1981-82/87
Paper, gold leaf, film, canvas, rubber and library mending tape, 31 3/5 x 18 1/10 cm.
Black Telos II: Terminano, 1980
Paper, 29 4/5 x 20 7/10 cm.
Blues for Adam, 1975/79-80
Paper and paint, 5 2/5 x 3 1/8 in.
Broken, 1987
Paper, 14 4/5 x 12 3/10 cm.
Camonica, 1977/87
Iron and wood, 27 x 39 1/10 x 5 9/10 cm.
Canal 6671, 1986
Paper, 12 1/5 x 27 7/10 cm.
Catch As Catch Can, No. 4, 1982
Paper, 17 4/5 x 12 1/5 cm.
Catch As Can, No. 5, 1986
Paper, 19 1/5 x 10 cm.
Centricities, 1969-70/80
Sandpaper, Tramsite, plexiglass, wood, 18 x 14 in.
Change II, 1987
Paper and fragment from an Yvonne Muller cropping (canvas and acrylic),
36 1/2 x 18 1/10 cm.
Dalle Mura di Roma I, 1977
Paper, 20 3/10 x 14 1/5 cm.
Dalle Mura di Roma III, 1977
Paper, 8 9/10 x 15 9/10 cm.
Dalle Mura di Roma IV, 1977
15 9/10 x 13 1/5 cm.
Describe Her!, 1986
Paper, 17 7/10 x 12 1/5 cm.
Eidi Goodbye, 1986
Paper, 15 1/2 x 10 7/10 cm.
Face It, 1987
Paper.
F & J, 1986-87
Metal, plastic, straw, twigs and wood on wooden base, 38 2/5 x 15 3/5 x 5 7/10 cm.
Focus, 1986
Paper, 11 1/10 x 10 7/10 cm.
Greenscape, 1980/85-86
Paper, 13 4/5 x 9 9/10 cm.
Hey, Jackson, These Drippy Poles for You, 1976
Paper, 12 4/5 x 28 3/5 cm.
Imix, 1980
Paper, 22 2/5 x 6 9/10 cm.
In Plain View, 1981
Paper and packing tape, 20 1/2 x 11 4/5 cm.
In the Round, 1982
Iron on wooden base.
Into It, 1984
Paper, 33 x 117 3/10 cm.
Ironicon I, 1980
Iron on wooden base, 60 3/10 x 6 7/10 x 8 3/5 cm.
Ironicon II, 1982
Iron on iron base, 58 2/5 x 20 x 4 4/5 cm.
I Will, 1984/86
Paper, 16 3/5 x 11 3/10 cm.
i(x), 1980
Paper, 15 3/5 x 10 cm.
La Bruyere III, 1976
Paper, 13 1/2 x 101 cm.
Courtesy Claire Kremen, Durham, North Carolina.
Largely Untitled, 1977
Paper, 12 7/10 x 28 4/5 cm.
La Villerna I, 1983
Paper, 15 7/10 x 10 1/10 cm.
Courtesy Barbara H. Kremen, Durham, North Carolina.
La Villerna II, 1983
Paper and paint, 18 4/5 x 13 3/5 cm.
The Lessons of May, 1983
Paper, 11 3/10 x 26 4/5 cm.
Lungarno, 1977
Paper and paint, 19 1/10 x 15 9/10 cm.
The Men of Torrelavega, 1977
Iron, 20 3/10 x 30 1/2 x 19 7/10 cm.
Naamon, 1980
Iron on wooden base and support, 23 3/10 x 29 4/5 x 5 1/10 cm.
No-name, 1982
Paper, 22 3/5 x 16 3/5 cm.
Nowhere Else, 1983
Paper, 20 3/10 x 16 7/10 cm.
Once, 1987
Paper, 13 1/2 x 11 3/5 cm.
Past Telling, 1987
Paper, 9 3/10 x 15 1/2 cm.
Per Se, 1984
Paper, 11 1/10 x 8 9/10 cm.
Re eh: …and by Gun, 1983
Paper and photomechanical transfer paper, 9 4/5 x 32 3/5 cm.
Re eh: Alle!, 1981-82/84
Paper, 14 4/5 x 15 cm.
Re eh: Broken Words, 1981
Paper, 9 1/5 x 29 3/10 cm.
Re eh: Im Lager, 1980
Paper, 9 3/5 x 8 cm.
Re eh: Panathenaic 807985, 1983
Paper, 8 9/10 x 50 1/5 cm.
Re eh: Ten is One, 1983-84
Paper, 28 1/10 x 12 2/5 cm.
Re eh: The Inconsolable, 1980
Paper and mimeograph master, 32 1/10 x 12 3/5 cm.
Re eh: The Three Graces, 1982/1984
Paper, 8 9/10 x 50 1/5 cm.
Re eh: Transport, 1983
Paper and fragments of organic matter, 18 2/5 x 47 4/5 cm.
Re eh: Unto Dust, 1985
Tar and paper fragments, blotting paper, 30 1/2 x 13 cm.
Re eh: Without a Name, 1982
Paper, 14 4/5 x 15 cm.
Retinal Splash, 1977
Paper, 13 2/5 x 30 3/10 cm.
Seek, 1975
Paper, 4 x 3 9/10 in.
Stem and Stone, 1987
Paper and paint, 18 1/5 x 12 1/5 cm.
still i(x), 1986
Paper, 13 1/5 x 12 cm.
Tanti Azzurri II, 1986
Paper, 14 9/10 x 11 1/5 cm.
Tell Me, 1984
Paper and paint, 13 2/5 x 8 3/5 cm.
Tohu va-Vohu, 1984
Paper.
The Unsaid, 1986
Paper and acrylic, 16 9/10 x 15 1/10 cm.
Verso I, 1979
Paper, 8 1/10 x 7 cm.
Vin Gris, 1984
Paper, 17 1/5 x 12 1/5 cm.
Washington Run, 1976
Paper, paint and fabric, 17 4/5 x 11 4/5 cm.
West by West, 1987
Paper, 11 7/10 x 19 1/5 cm.
White Passage, 1980
Paper, 35 4/5 x 12 1/2 cm.
Whole Number II, 1986
Paper, 11 4/5 x 9 1/2 cm.
Within, Without, 1986
Paper, 10 x 25 2/5 cm.
Postcard: Per Se: Collages and Other Works by Irwin Kremen
PRESS RELEASE
Irwin Kremen
Per se: Collage and Other Works by Irwin Kremen
Gallery 400
Chicago, IL
February 17 – March 19, 1988
Opening Reception: Wednesday, February 17, 1988, 4-7pm
The exhibit will feature approximately 80 works made by Kremen from 1975 to 1987. Collages, small iron sculptures–icons of another kind, according to the artist–and works from the “Re’eh Series,” a highly-acclaimed series on the Holocaust will be included.
Kremen’s collages are composed of scraps of paper–weathered, unduplicable and “experienced”–most of them gleaned from European and American metropolitan areas. To maintain the integrity of their edges, the fragments are not glued but hinged together by tiny bits of Japanese paper, a painstaking method that requires special tools.
“Kremen’s show of collages, fragments from the real world assembled into a new ‘aesthetic context’ are more like paintings…without losing their specific identity as collages,” according to the Washington Star. The director of Gallery 400, Karen Indeck, describes the work as hinting at “architectureal forms, older cultural artifacts and hieroglyphs, while remaining perfectly abstract pictorially.”
A Chicago native, Kremen is on the Duke University psychology faculty and is a senior fellow in Duke University’s Institute of the Arts. A graduate of Northwestern University, he earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1961. His work has been exhibited throughout the U.S. including the Smithsonian Institution and the Brooklyn Museum.
Irwin Kremen (born 1925) is an artist and professor emeritus at Duke University. His work consists of abstract collages composed from pieces of weathered paper gathered during his travels. His collage pieces are typically small, usually no larger than his hand. He invented his own method of attaching the pieces with paper hinges rather than glue. Kremen also produces sculptures composed of iron, saw blades and steel, among other materials. Kremen ’s work has been shown in numerous museums nationally and abroad such as the Chicago Cultural Center; the Telfair Museum of Art, Georgia; the City Art Gallery, Japan; the Brooklyn Museum, New York; and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Kremen attended Northwestern University and Black Mountain College. He received a BA from the New School for Social Research and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Harvard University.