Cutting Tool
Pencil, coloured pencils, oil wash, oil pastel and glitter on paper depicting an incredible construction consisting in an electric drill aimed in two plastic masks through a table, and on which is a saw blade. Even though it was never executed, the drawing for this project, which is part of the ‘Electric Tool’ series, shows the artist’s fantastic and extravagant universe.
Signed and dated on the right: ‘Dennis Oppenheim 1989’
Inscribed at the bottom: ELECTRIC DRILL SAWBLADE – PLASTIC MASKS
Dimensions :
Sight : Height: 50 in. Width: 37 ¾ in.
With frame: Height: 57 ¾ in. Width: 45 ¾ in.
Certificate:
Work referenced in the Dennis Oppenheim Estate Archives under its complete title ‘Study for Cutting Tool’
Remarks:
Dennis Oppenheim took on the impersonal style of engineer’s plans for his drawings, matching his activities in conceptual art and land art. From 1979, he starts using colours and mixed techniques, which give a more and more pictorial aspect to his drawings, which keep getting larger. Rapidly, his compositions on paper become autonomous works, as it is the case here. One must emphasise the fact that Oppenheim’s drawings are not work notes or instruction manuals but offer to the viewer fully materialized pictures. His technical ease does not show the trial and error of doubt, but the artist’s self-confidence, whose creations are already entirely determined. This graphic piece destined for exhibition achieves a documentary purpose. It is a part of the project development. For Dennis Oppenheim, the creative process that leads to the installation is as important as the installation itself, his drawing thus becoming a work of art entirely, as it is also the case with Christo.
Bibliography:
ROSE B., Réalités parallèles : les dessins de Dennis Oppenheim, Paris, éditions La Différence, 1992, p. 61 (for a drawing from the same series).
