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Table (Two) and Window, a lithograph printed in black, depicts a room interior done in one-point perspective, with a rectangular table covered with a long cloth directly in front of a low window. Both table and window are centered in the composition and nearly fill up the picture plane, emphasizing the flatness of the image despite the use of perspective to establish recessional space. There is a diamond grid pattern on the floor, which suggests a patterned rug or floor tiles, and the baseboards simulate wood. The implied texture of a painted wall—created by rubbing the ink stick on the surface of the lithograph stone—resembles the textured surfaces of the artist’s paintings on Celotex.
The “Two” in the title presumably refers to the ovals at each end of the rectangle, suggestive of place settings for two people at the head and foot of the table. The artist positions the viewer above, looking down at the table’s surface. It does not seem as if there is space between table and window for a chair. In a nod to the artist’s consistency throughout his career, his notes from a decade earlier point out: “The table can be set next to or manipulated in some other fashion. The way it is arranged, however, it is more a sequence of four pictures (the sides) identified and also symmetrical on a center vertical axis.” [1]
The subject is quintessentially Artschwager’s, referring to his earlier career as a furniture manufacturer and his work in sculpture and painting from the 1960s onward. The lithograph also relates to an important series of ink drawings done by the artist in 1975 called Basket Table Door Window Mirror Rug. As one critic noted, “His interest lay in the interior design and trappings that are the boards and lights of the stage on which the spectacle of the everyday is enacted.” [2]
The image is visually and intellectually accessible while at the same time incongruent and incomplete, thus resisting any desire to make this more significant than a cartoon or sketch. It was drawn on the lithograph stone using a tusche crayon and rubbing stick. It may have had only one press run per print, since it is a black and white image. It is similar to another lithograph by the artist in the Reynolda House collection Dinner (Two), also from 1982, which shares a similar theme and has the same sense of absence.
Notes:
[1] Steve Henry Madoff, “Richard Artschwager: Sleight of Mind,” Art News87 (January 1988), 116.
[2] Jörg Heiser, “Elevator: Richard Artschwager in the Context of Minimal, Pop and Concept Art,” in Richard Artschwager: The Hydraulic Door Check (Vienna, Austria: Verlag der Buckhandlung Walter König in association with MAK, 2002), 54.
ProvenanceTo 2002
Robert C. Hobbs (born 1946) and Jean Crutchfield, Richmond, VA [1]
From 2002
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Robert C. Hobbs and Jean Crutchfield on December 27, 2002. [2]
Notes:
[1] Letter, December 9, 2001, object file.
[2] Letter, December 27, 2002, object file.
Exhibition History2008
New World Views: Gifts from Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (5/20/2008-8/31/2008)
2020
Private Life: Domestic and Interior Spaces in 20th Century Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (2/4/2020-9/27/2020)
Published References
DepartmentAmerican Art
Table (Two) and Window
Artist
Richard Artschwager
(1923 - 2013)
Date1982
Mediumlithograph printed in black on rag paper
DimensionsFrame: 37 3/8 x 29 3/4 in. (94.9 x 75.6 cm)
Paper: 30 x 22 1/2 in. (76.2 x 57.2 cm)
Image (approximate): 23 x 16 3/4 in. (58.4 x 42.5 cm)
SignedArtschwager '82
Credit LineGift of Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs
Copyright© 2021 Richard Artschwager / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Object number2002.6.2
DescriptionOne of Richard Artschwager’s main preoccupations has been perception and the devices used to convey the illusion of space. He was an accomplished furniture designer, and worked with wood and Formica in addition to painting on Celotex fiberboard, a rough industrial material.Table (Two) and Window, a lithograph printed in black, depicts a room interior done in one-point perspective, with a rectangular table covered with a long cloth directly in front of a low window. Both table and window are centered in the composition and nearly fill up the picture plane, emphasizing the flatness of the image despite the use of perspective to establish recessional space. There is a diamond grid pattern on the floor, which suggests a patterned rug or floor tiles, and the baseboards simulate wood. The implied texture of a painted wall—created by rubbing the ink stick on the surface of the lithograph stone—resembles the textured surfaces of the artist’s paintings on Celotex.
The “Two” in the title presumably refers to the ovals at each end of the rectangle, suggestive of place settings for two people at the head and foot of the table. The artist positions the viewer above, looking down at the table’s surface. It does not seem as if there is space between table and window for a chair. In a nod to the artist’s consistency throughout his career, his notes from a decade earlier point out: “The table can be set next to or manipulated in some other fashion. The way it is arranged, however, it is more a sequence of four pictures (the sides) identified and also symmetrical on a center vertical axis.” [1]
The subject is quintessentially Artschwager’s, referring to his earlier career as a furniture manufacturer and his work in sculpture and painting from the 1960s onward. The lithograph also relates to an important series of ink drawings done by the artist in 1975 called Basket Table Door Window Mirror Rug. As one critic noted, “His interest lay in the interior design and trappings that are the boards and lights of the stage on which the spectacle of the everyday is enacted.” [2]
The image is visually and intellectually accessible while at the same time incongruent and incomplete, thus resisting any desire to make this more significant than a cartoon or sketch. It was drawn on the lithograph stone using a tusche crayon and rubbing stick. It may have had only one press run per print, since it is a black and white image. It is similar to another lithograph by the artist in the Reynolda House collection Dinner (Two), also from 1982, which shares a similar theme and has the same sense of absence.
Notes:
[1] Steve Henry Madoff, “Richard Artschwager: Sleight of Mind,” Art News87 (January 1988), 116.
[2] Jörg Heiser, “Elevator: Richard Artschwager in the Context of Minimal, Pop and Concept Art,” in Richard Artschwager: The Hydraulic Door Check (Vienna, Austria: Verlag der Buckhandlung Walter König in association with MAK, 2002), 54.
ProvenanceTo 2002
Robert C. Hobbs (born 1946) and Jean Crutchfield, Richmond, VA [1]
From 2002
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC, given by Robert C. Hobbs and Jean Crutchfield on December 27, 2002. [2]
Notes:
[1] Letter, December 9, 2001, object file.
[2] Letter, December 27, 2002, object file.
Exhibition History2008
New World Views: Gifts from Jean Crutchfield and Robert Hobbs
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (5/20/2008-8/31/2008)
2020
Private Life: Domestic and Interior Spaces in 20th Century Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (2/4/2020-9/27/2020)
Published References
Status
Not on view