Art Encounters 2017 Exhibitions:
The Historical Avant-garde and the art of ping-pong

Channa Horwitz (1932-2013) produced drawings, paintings, and installations using a rigid formal vocabulary of her devising, built on a standardized grid (that of graph paper) and a system of notations based on the numbers 1 through 8, each assigned its own color. This system termed “Sonakinatography,” was developed as a way of marking and expressing time, movement, and rhythm. Many of her works were originally intended as scores—detailed yet open-ended notations for dancers, musicians, and performers.

Selected exhibitions: To the Top, Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles (2016, solo); Channa Horwitz, Raven Row, London (2016, solo); Drawing Dialogues: The Sol Lewitt Collection, The Drawing Center, New York (2016); Counting in Eight, Moving by Color (1932-2013, Los Angeles), Kunst-Werke, Berlin (2015, solo); Drawing in L.A.: The 1960s and 70s, LACMA, Los Angeles (2015); Orange Grid, François Ghebaly Gallery, Los Angeles (2013, solo); Anton Voyls Fortgang / A Void, Guy de Cointet / Channa Horwitz / Henri Chopin, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2013); Dopplereffekt. Bilder in Kunst und Wissenschaft, Kunsthalle zu Kiel (2010); Searching/Structures 1965-2007, Aanant & Zoo, Berlin, Germany (2009, solo).

Her works were exhibited in important international exhibitions such as Whitney Biennial (2014), 55th Venice Biennal (2013), Taipei Biennial (2012) and Los Angeles Biennial (2012).

She worked in isolation and anonymity. She made drawings, paintings and installations according to an organization built from the grid of graph paper, and a system in which the numbers 1 through 8 corresponded to a color. This system, called “Sonakinatography”, echoes time, movement and rhythm, like a musical score. One can thus easily observe the links with the conceptual and performative art of the 1960s and 1970s. At the end of her life, she was widely recognized for her works, which were then exhibited at major international events such as the Whitney Biennale (2014) or the 55th Venice Biennale (2013). Her presence in this museum will certainly recall the links she might have had with some of the historical figures of the region.

Images:

1. Channa Horwitz, Moiré (with Angles) (1984), Plaka on Mylar, frame 58 x 83,2 x 2,5 cm, without frame 51,2 x 76,2 cm, photo credits: Marc Domage, courtesy of: Air de Paris, Paris, Leonid Nevzlin Collection