Roland Flexner

American, born France, 1944

Untitled, 2001

set of thirty ink on paper bubble drawings

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

Gift of Mrs. George A. Forman, by exchange, 2010

2010:45.1-30

Provenance:

D'Amelio Terras, New York;
October 5, 2010, purchased by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo

Object Classifications:

Drawings

Drawing (visual work)

Portfolio (group of works)

Information may change due to ongoing research. Glossary of Terms

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