Fatima Freeman

May 30, 2014

LSP 111
Christopher Wool
I had the privilege of visiting the Art Institute of Chicago to view the different
exhibitions for a writing assignment and then I noticed that there was a special exhibition.
Christopher Wool, 58, a native of Chicago, works of abstract paintings was exhibited at the Art
Institute Chicago in mid-May. Wools abstract paintings were very different because the use of
different mediums and different techniques. A phrase looms large midway through the Art
Institute of Chicago's Christopher Wool retrospective: THE HARDER YOU LOOK THE
HARDER YOU LOOK (Waxman). And with his stencil painting of letters to create a phrase was
truly a treat.
The pieces that were exhibited at the Art Institute Chicago were very untraditional
and interesting. The Art Institute Chicago is known for exhibited classical artist and not so much
of contemporary artist as Christopher Wool. And the thought of what is behind his work is very
complex. Spelled out in the artist's signature style, bold black letters stenciled across a glossy
white aluminum rectangle, this can be a startling message for viewers to receive in the middle of
a great museum, amid a grand exhibition devoted to one of the country's most pre-eminent
painters (Waxman).
Wools pieces are complex and hard to understand. But his work is very
complaining because of the different techniques that he uses that he combines to create his
pieces. The paintings and works on paper for which he is best known accrue their raucous
authority from an interrogative approach to technique and process and from their cool refusal to
abandon the lingering possibilities of authentic expression through language, mediate gesture,
and abstraction (Art Institute of Chicago). Wools work is hard to place in the contextual
explanation. But his work is breaking a social ground that takes the audience on a trip that
expects us to question society.
Wool has emerged as one of the most important abstract painters of his generation
(Art Institute of Chicago). The majority of his paintings were on an aluminum canvas with
combination of spray paint, printed patterns and traditional paint. His combinations are seen as
just splatters of paint but when standing at a distance it reveals an object. Like many of his
predecessors, Mr. Wool, flirted with extinction at the beginning of his career, initially making
thin-skinned paintings using rubber stamps and house-painting rollers, following the hands-off
tradition initiated by Jackson Pollacks dripped canvases and Andy Warhols silk screen images
(Smith).
Take it as a warning from Wool, who was born in Chicago in the mid-1950s but
who cut his teeth in the punk and No Wave scenes that rampaged angrily through a bankrupt
Lower Manhattan in the 1970s (Waxman). He now divides his time between New York City and
Marfa, Texas. Wool rose to prominence with his experimentations in painting in New York in
the 1980s, a time and place where the medium was with largely seen as irreverent to avant-garde
practice. At the heart of his creative project, which now spans more than three decades, is the
question of how a picture can conceive, realized, and experience today (Art Institute of Chicago).
With the space been open for the public to move very freely throughout the
exhibition gave the feel of tranquility and that the paintings were there to be viewed. The
paintings were large in contrast with some of the paintings that were of medium size that
appeared to be grouped together to create an appearance with stenciled lettering. To decipher the
phrase THE HARDER YOU LOOK THE HARDER YOU LOOK which actually has no
spaces between its words demands a certain amount of hard looking, enough to harden a soft
viewer (Waxman). Wool is perhaps best known for his paintings of large stenciled letters, which
he uses to form words or phrases, often abbreviated or arranged in run-on configurations that
disrupt ordinary patterns of perception and speech (Art Institute Chicago).
Wools abstract painting involves many techniques that are not of any type of
traditions of painting. For example, his canvases are aluminum and his pieces are untitled but the
medium that he uses that catches the eye are interesting and intriguing. Just like the canvases that
he uses for his work are untraditional and with the bold colors that are against white makes his
work pop out to the audience for further investigation. The pieces become a question of what is
he portraying to the audience.
Why Wools work is so interesting is because of his use of color and techniques
that he uses in every piece. That draws the audience attention to a certain point in each piece.
With splatters of paint and touches of print screening makes the audiences take a quick glance.
But the audiences thought of looking deeper does not occur unless the viewers look at a
distance. For an example, an untitled, 2000, flash and enamel, the painting involved some leaves
on branches with a white background. The objects were position and vertically lined in a way to
show movement. The painting displayed proportion and the colors seem to have a mixture of
green and yellow. The mixtures of colors made it difficult to determine the temperature of the
painting. But the painting seems to represent some calmness. The painting displayed darkness in
the coloring but it was more on the lighter side with high contrast. The paintings canvas is very
large against the wall of the Art Institute of Chicago. With a skinny width and long length that
seems to be boring for the boldness of this piece.
At the exhibition of Christopher Wools work their were 72 photographs on
display that were black and white. Wool also often now uses photographs of his own paintings,
taking images of particular passages or gestures-best understood as outtakes or samples-and
transmitting them onto aluminum or linen grounds anew through silkscreen, either alone on a
surface or in combination with enamel (Art Institute of Chicago). The photographs made the
exhibitions more interesting because they were unexpected and the contrast of the photographs
were dark. And it was hard to analysis the photographs but they had a lightness to them that
made the photographs soft.
Unlike, Andy Warhol, Wool doesnt use bright colors and pop culture images in
any of his pieces. They strip it of familiar attribute like imagery, brushwork or flatness, often
ending up with some kind of monochrome that suggest the last painting that could possibly be
made (Smith). Wools work doesnt reflect pop culture but the social climate that we live. Such
as the 72 photographs that were black and white but the semi darkness gives the subject a
reflection of not having hope. But with the light that shines through the darkness it gives a little
hope that something good will come out of the darkness. But the more the audience looks at the
72 photographs just gives a feeling of moving on because there is a sense of sadness.
Wools pieces seem to dive deep into the heart and souls of the audience to have
us burst into a sense of lost emotional state. Just viewing his piece there is a sense of not
understanding how or what we are supposed to feel. And the sense to love but our emotions
become mixed with a strange sense of unknown. The complexity of our emotions over takes us
and we step out of the exhibition and we feel lost. It is a sense of displacement as if everything is
not what it seems.
That circumscribed expansion is basically the plotline of Mr. Wools handsome,
challenging survey of paintings, works on paper and photographs at the Guggenheim Museum
(Smith). Unlike, most contemporary pieces, Wools work dives into the complexity of his work
by adding different techniques to each piece. And each technique has it purpose that sets Wools
work aside from the traditional contemporary artist that dive into abstract painting. Another
example of this technique is his painting inscribes TRBL to mean "trouble," while a third splits
the letters that make up TERRORIST into a three-by-three grid (Waxman). Many people would
probably be offended by this but with the letters been clustered together and making an
abbreviation it is hard to form the letters into words.
Wool does a great job of taking the audience to a place of offending but to the
point where it is almost amusing. Wools pieces can probably be placed in the controversy genre
because of his choice to add letters to his paintings that are clustered together. The letters are
hard to read at first glance and the audience may feel offended. But the stencil letters are a light
touch of getting the audience to realize that Wool may be trying to tell the world something
through his art work. And the stencil letters that he decides to cluster together that makes it an
impossible mission for the audience to read the letters is not him saying that we are illiterate. But
him saying that we are not always expected to understand.

Art Institute of Chicago, Christopher Wool.
Smith, Roberta. Paintings Endgame, Rendered Graphically, New York Times. October 24,
2013.
Waxman, Lori. Christopher Wool: The nihilist's artist Christopher Wool retrospective at the Art
Institute, Chicago Tribune. April 23, 2014.