Roland Flexner
American, born France, 1944
Untitled, 2001
Artwork Details
Materials
set of thirty ink on paper bubble drawings
Measurements
sheet (each): 6 3/4 x 5 1/2 inches (17.14 x 13.97 cm); framed (each): 12 3/4 x 11 5/8 x 1 1/4 inches (32.38 x 29.53 x 3.18 cm)
Collection Buffalo AKG Art Museum
Credit
Gift of Mrs. George A. Forman, by exchange, 2010
Accession ID
2010:45.1-30
Roland Flexner derives inspiration from the Japanese calligraphic tradition to create intricately detailed ink drawings that emerge via his breath. Gravity and chance play primary roles in generating his unique imagery, which balances on the periphery between abstraction and psychedelia. The works presented here hail from a series called “Bubble Drawings” that Flexner began in 1996. They are the result of the artist blowing a mixture of soapy water and sumi ink through a straw or hollowed-out stencil brush onto intimately sized pieces of paper. Flexner has described these works as “a total surprise.”
Label from Drawing: The Beginning of Everything, July 8–October 15, 2017