David Reed: Rock, Paper, Scissors

Rock Paper Scissors contains 24 Working Drawings that document the process involved in the New York artist’s large-format paintings. They arise like drawings in diary format and accompany each individual painting, with color charts as well as trains of thought and decisions often recorded over a number of years. The idea for these unusual works can be traced back to a conversation with Dorothy and Herbert Vogel at the beginning of the 1990s, in which they asked David Reed for drawings and he showed them his notes, diagrams, and plans in his studio. Thus we glean information in the artist’s work itself; for example, how he arrives at his special all-over style–that sea of repeated loops and swirls, the waves of brush strokes and spots seemingly hurled at the surface of the painting with gestural flourish. These very unusual sketches illustrate beautifully how David Reed arrived at his engagement with color and abstraction and how he came to follow Baroque painting, abstract expressionism, or minimal art consciously.