Giuseppe Penone, Leaves of Grass (2013), via Marian Goodman
Artist Giuseppe Penone returns to Marian Goodman this month, presenting a new body of works that draw on his long fascination with breath, meditative gesture and poetry, turning his attention here in earnest towards the work of Walt Whitman’ particularly the writer’s early editions and his physical connections to his work.
Giuseppe Penone, Terre (2015), via Marian Goodman
Initially inspired by images from the natural world, Penone found himself drawn to the verdant cover of Whitman’s first edition, which was printed, bound and set in type by the young poet in 1855 and has been in contact with Whitman’s hands. Penone finds meaning in the correlation of a leaf to a fingerprint; a fingerprint to the surface of a book; and the hue of the book to nature, perceiving green as an equilibrium between light and shadow. Scaling each canvas to a ratio echoing the first edition, he enlarges the work seven times in relation to its original object. Whitman’s verses, analogous to a single breath or gesture, create a natural correspondence for Penone, connecting speech to text, writing to breath, and unifying these concepts under his works.
Giuseppe Penone, Leaves of Grass (detail) (2013), via Marian Goodman
Giuseppe Penone, Avvolgere la terra – corteccia (2014), via Marian Goodman
The abstracted landscapes presented here are masses of fingerprints, each punctuated by a small terracotta sculpture formed from the gesture of clasping a handful of earth, from clay sourced from lands across the United States. Drawing not only on Whitman’s “hopeful green stuff woven” but earth itself as memory, these fired clay elements reinforce Penone’s sculptural intent and his principle that one needs to touch the earth to activate it. Exploring the idea of contact through touch, through grip, and through the earth, Penone’s lyrical interrogations of the linkages between landscape and language, both in his work and that of Whitman’s poetry, takes on a powerful tonality.
Giuseppe Penone, Leaves of Grass (2013), via Marian Goodman
These are echoed by Penone’s Foglie (Leaves) from 2014, reiterations of the notion of landscape as an expanse of imprints. Each work on paper traces indexical gestures, imprints in ink and pigment which carry the memory of an action, in dialogue with collaged leaves and vegetal forms. Once again emphasizing the body’s connection to material and space, the show drives home Penone’s fascinations with humanity in the wild, and the meanings we make of it.
The show closes April 17th.
Read more:
Giuseppe Penone [Exhibition Site]
