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Born 1943 Toronto, Ontario Canada
Drawing from 'Fluid Sheet Constructions', 1964
(click image for larger view) |
Anyone who has experienced the hushed, meditative environments of David Rabinowitch can readily grasp their profoundly philosophical resonances. A devoted reader of Spinoza, Einstein, Kant, Plato and Hume, Rabinowitch has engaged the art of sculpture as a philosopher would construct a critique of axiomatic precepts. Early in his career, Rabinowitch stripped sculpture down to its basics of form, space and light. From there he began to restructure it, as he has stated,
“in a program of construction that was fundamental, that would expose and work directly with reality.” Starting with the Box Trough Assemblages and Fluid Sheet Constructions (1963-1964), he explored the relationship of planes and space, culminating in such room-sized works as the Tyndale Constructions (1982-1989), in which every experiential aspect of the environment, including the light filtering through the windows, is molded as a sculptural material.
Rabinowitch's work has been seen in New York at the Peter Blum Gallery, Flynn, Oil & Steel Gallery, P.S. 1 and the Clocktower. It has also been shown at the Kunstmuseum der Stadt Weis, Austria; Galerie Jeu de Paume, Paris; the Galerie Rudolfinum, Prague; the Foundation “La Caixa,” Barcelona; the Kunsthalle Baden-Baden; the Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg; the Muzeum Historii Miasta Lista, Lodz; Documenta VII, Kassell; and elsewhere.
A true polymath, Rabinowitch is also a writer, composer and printmaker. All of his activities, however, are permeated with references to the written word. He thinks of his drawings as “little experiments,” that — like the conceptual notes he often makes about his work — help clarify the properties and connections of his physical objects.
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