Daniel Brush: Red Breathing (Non-mint)

Hardcover in slipcase | 22.2 x 2 x 32.2 cm | 130 pp

Steidl | 2009 | 9783865217462

Signed and numbered edition - Copy number 697 of 800

Rare and collectable artist's book

This copy has a creased and marked dust jacket. The book itself is in excellent condition.

Red Breathing represents reclusive American artist Daniel Brush's 13-year engagement with the Woman plays of the Noh theatre, resulting in 117 large-scale pen and ink drawings resembling brushstrokes. All drawings are reproduced in sequence.

In 1991, after a long separation from painting (I worked exclusively on steel and gold for years) I started a drawing in early March - a red line drawing. The technique was the same I had used since 1972. I held my grandfather's spring-leaf drafting pen, dipped for one drop of ink, took a breath, tried to remove fear, planted the pen on
paper, and then pulled the pen down: one gesture, one breath, one drop of ink. Repeatedly across the paper I wrote the drawing line by line while thinking about my studies, the 'women plays'. The work had a different touch. It looked older than drawings from earlier years. I was older. As I became more and more aware of the rhythmic and arrhythmic breathing, the gravitas, for me, of the 'writing', I worked on sculpture and jewels as a release. After thirteen years the momentum stopped with 117 red drawings. The title of the work revealed itself - Koald 107: Red Breathing, Cantos for the Women Plays. DANIEL BRUSH

In the age of celebrity, anonymity acquires power. In the age of speed, slowness. In the age of the work of art in digital reproduction, the unique object, the hand-made inscription, the line drawn by hand that is responsive to the rhythm of breathing, the pulse of ink flowing from the calligrapher's brush onto paper, or the live tremor of the inscriber's chisel making delicate marks on steel.  HUGH HAUGHTON

PLEASE NOTE: This book is a NON-MINT item. NON-MINT books are new but are either ex-display copies or warehouse marked. This copy has a creased and marked dust jacket. The book itself is in excellent condition.