Richard Deutsch
Small Works
Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe: July 22, 2005

Leaves and pods, birds in flock, people bustling to work, an architectural skyline moving through clouds, river rocks cascading from a torrent of water, or even a still forest all speak to how forms and shapes interrelate. It is this type of dialogue that fascinates me and occupies most of my artistic inquiry. How do shapes change simply by their position or relation to one another? What happens to the lines that are created when these forms touch?

As people walk through a space, their perspectives change with every step in relation to what inhabits the environment. I try to freeze-frame this observation and study the objects -- their lines, mass, light and shadow -- and through this study of talking forms, I develop my own visual interpretation and documentation. For example, when two cars approach each other as they travel fast, they will soon speed away in opposite directions. Yet for a few seconds, as they approach, they have a powerful dialogue, which is soon lost as they quickly separate. Leaves too illuminate this type of conversation as they fall in motion. This collective action results in a mysterious interchange of spatial complexity. To me this exchange forms the basis of my sculpture.

Touch, Rest, Lounge, Stack, Lean, Lie, Hold, Nudge, Rub, Polk, Push, Clasp, Bend, Rain, Flock, Pile and Float are all words that imply or describe an action or a "form or forms." Similarly, the sculptures in this show convey this nuance. While they do not move, their dialogue with one another sets up friction, gravity or attraction and reflects a moment in time.

Scale plays an important role in my work. Small maquettes surround my studio, serving as three-dimensional sketches, which help me further explore my ideas. In many cases, these loose studies reveal the raw birth of a concept. The conversations between sculptural ideas with these models of various sizes and proportions keep a fluid vocabulary at hand, which becomes difficult once a work is selected to make large.
Stone, terrazzo, bronze, and plaster are all materials I have used to create the works in this show. Each material has its own inherent qualities, surfaces, textures, and color. I treat material as a conductor views a musician and their instruments. The string section can bring out the most perfect melodic harmony, while the French Horns might produce just the right crescendo for another piece of music. Materials are selected based on how I think I can most effectively communicate an idea.

My day-to-day efforts as a sculptor are perhaps similar to those of an inventor and documenter. Through this system of discovery, I interpret and record my response to what I witness as I search to understand and make order of the physicality of form.


Richard Deutsch

March 2005