![]() ![]() Here, the square is sectioned into four of Bott’s sled-like shapes known as the DoV module. In its most basic form, the DoV consists of a square with two “S” shapes drawn inside, one from the top to the bottom and another from left to right or the inverse. This is how the concept is described in the monograph HJ Bott: Rhythm and Rhetoric: 40 Years of the DoVConcepts (2012): On March 7, 1972, Bott invented what he called the Displacement of Volume Concept (DoV), when he conceptualized the Archetype Series. While I wished it included more work from this period, largely to fill in the gap between the early “tape” drawings and the change that takes place in Bott’s work, starting in 1972, it is also clear that his sprawling oeuvre needs the kind of deep look that could be properly provided by a museum and a committed curator. (Because of a three-year stint in the army, from September 1953 to August 1956, he did not pursue the implications of this and the other drawings in the series.) HJ Bott, “Scotchline” (1952), graphite on masking tape & cellophane tape on paper, signed bottom right corner, image: 9.75 x 8.2 inchesīott’s interest in the relationship between surface and image, the visual and the physical, is one of the currents running through his two-dimensional work, starting with “Scotchline.” The exhibition jumps from that piece to the painting “Traceries” (1965), which was done on etched/scored MDF board. ![]() In “Scotchline” (1952), Bott used masking and cellophane tape, along with graphite, to horizontally bisect a piece of paper measuring 9 3/4 by 8 1/5 inches into a stack of modular bands. ![]() This smart, inventive series, in which the young artist incorporated tape, a found material, anticipates Frank Stella’s Black paintings. In 1952, Bott (who was not yet 20) made a number of drawings in which he used different kinds of tape (masking, cellophane, and electrical), in tandem with graphite and charcoal, to divide the rectangular support into various configurations of stripes (vertical, horizontal, nesting right angles, and diagonals), which can be further differentiated by the use of black or gray. The artist belongs to the group of intrepid individuals that dissolves the barriers between art and science, conceptual systems, and alternative models of reality. ![]() At least, this is the conclusion I reached when I went to the exhibition HJ Bott: A Baroque Minimalist, at Anya Tish Gallery (October 23–November 27, 2021) and saw a selection of the artist’s paintings, sculptures, and drawings dated between 19. Jones, Agnes Martin, Dorothea Rockburne, Robert Ryman, Frank Stella, and Merrill Wagner. This would be understandable if Bott were a regional artist, but his engagement with geometric abstraction, including support, processes, and materials, since 1952 is in dialogue with issues that have preoccupied postwar American artists as diverse as Jennie C. Although Bott has been making art for seven decades and has been showing regularly since 1977 in Texas and, especially, in Houston, where he lives and works, he is largely unknown in New York. HOUSTON - HJ Bott was born in 1933, the same year as Bruce Conner, Dan Flavin, Sam Gilliam, Yoko Ono, and James Rosenquist, but is seldom, if ever, mentioned in this varied company. ![]()
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