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A TRIBUTE TO KLAUS KERTESS’ BYKERT GALLERY 1966-75, PART II
June 9, 2022 - July 29, 2022
David Nolan Gallery is pleased to present the second iteration of our homage to Klaus Kertess’ Bykert Gallery, which runs from June 9 through July 29. Bykert Gallery, which existed in the same building as the current David Nolan Gallery, operated from 1966 to 1975. The gallery’s program and exhibitions were led by the formidable curatorial eye of Klaus Kertess, who went on to hold positions at the Parrish Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Though the gallery’s doors remained open less than a decade, its impact on the New York art scene was vast, showcasing the then emerging talents of Lynda Benglis, Chuck Close, Brice Marden, Barry Le Va and Dorothea Rockburne. Evidenced by the decorated careers and accomplishments of these artists, Kertess had an uncanny ability to spot and nurture talent, even though the work was considered radical and risky at the time.
The second installation of this show intends to shed light on other artists in the Bykert stable, with an emphasis on the work of Bill Bollinger. Bollinger’s sculpture activates the readymade tradition using a variety of materials like water, stone, wood, pipe and containers to directly express force – particularly gravity – and process. Given their extemporaneous nature, much of Bollinger’s sculpture pieces are reconstructed for the purpose of this exhibition. Thus, the artist’s drawings remain the most enduring and direct exposition of his ideas. In addition to a group of untitled “horizon line drawings,” two never shown stencil drawings are exhibited: Bollinger’s thesis drawing I Am Gravity, and Gravity’s Grey Eminence Among the Councils of the Living Stone, quoting from Thomas Pynchon’s novel Gravity’s Rainbow.
One sculpture centers the exhibition. Isa’s Flower, first exhibited in Water is life and like art it finds its own level, Bollinger’s 1970 solo exhibition at Galleria Sperone, is installed in the gallery alongside the certificate drawing for the barrel/water pieces in the early Sperone show. Bill Bollinger’s investigations of materiality, temporality and commodity were challenging, daring, and largely influential. The presentation and selection of Bollinger’s work is curated with the assistance of Mitchell Algus. The exhibition will also display the conceptual symbiosis that links Bill Bollinger and Barry Le Va, creating a formal and aesthetic through line.