Richard Forster
JANUARY 21 - MAY 12, 2012
Richard Forster,
Hesser nude with tape, 2011
Graphite, acrylic medium and watercolor on bristol board, 35 x 22.5 cm page size.
Photograph John McKenzie. Courtesy of the Artist / Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh.
Richard Forster,
Incoming sea’s edge on fourteen consecutive occasions at random time intervals, Saltburn-by-the Sea, Jan 5 2010; 11:30am-11:37am.
One of fourteen drawings in sequence, Graphite and acrylic medium on card, 45 x 30 cm page and image size each.
Richard Forster, Visit to Bauhaus archive January 6, 2010; film of construction site, Torten Estate. Dessau. 1926.
One of twenty-four drawings in sequence.
Installation view of Richard Forster at The FLAG Art Foundation, 2012.
Photography by Genevieve Hanson.
Installation view of Richard Forster at The FLAG Art Foundation, 2012.
Photography by Genevieve Hanson.
Richard Forster produces highly detailed graphite drawings presented in series, three of which are included in this exhibition: pastoral nudes, seascapes, and 24 drawings of an archival video documenting the construction of pioneering social housing in Dessau, Germany in 1926. The latter two groups travel to FLAG from his 2011 exhibition, Fast & Slow Time at The Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, United Kingdom, and the pastoral nudes, collectively titled American Pastoral, will be on view at FLAG for the first time .
At first glance, these three groups of drawings appear distinct from each other. But the shared experience offer the viewer a metaphorical triangle built from fragments of time and information. This triangle is a rich meditation on place; the Forster’s hometown of Saltburn-by-the Sea, the former German Democratic Republic, and an American pastoral of the 1920’s. The drawings depict a chronology of physical space as well as fragments of social and political history that are equally entwined within ‘place.’
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue including an essay by award-winning novelist Colm Tóibín.
About:
Richard Forster (b. 1970, Saltburn-by-the Sea, England) is an artist living and working in northern England. Recent solo exhibitions include Levittown, De la Warr Pavilion, United Kingdom (2016); Modern, Whitworth Gallery, Manchester, United Kingdom, (2015); Fast and Slow Time, Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art, Middlesbrough, United Kingdom (2011), which traveled to The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY (2012); among others. Forster’s works has been included in numerous group exhibitions, including Drawn Together Again, The FLAG Art Foundation, New York, NY (2019); Resistance and Persistence, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland (2015); personal, political, mysterious, Lora Reynolds Gallery, Austin, TX (2013); Drawn from Photography, The Drawing Center, New York, NY (2011); among others. His work is part of the permanent collections of include the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Tate Gallery, London.