Leo Castelli Gallery is pleased to announce the exhibition, GRID, on view from January 10 – February 25, 2012. The exhibition focuses on drawings on graph paper from the 1960’s and includes the artists Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Larry Poons, Keith Sonnier, Frank Stella, and Lawrence Weiner.

Graph paper’s use as a support material is at once an aesthetic and a technical consideration. It is a practical method that conveys a specific sensibility. Before any mark making takes place, the paper is already filled with the familiar forms of the grid. In its material charm, graph paper has the ability to delineate scale, perception, and process for both the artist and the viewer.

Before the advent of computer technology, artists used graph paper to prepare their three dimensional works. This “shop construction” method allowed for a simple scale model process where, for instance, one length of a square on paper might connote a meter in three-dimensional space. In addition to these static implications, drawings on graph paper often conveyed sequential processes. In the words of Keith Sonnier, the drawings were “musical scores.” They depict and dictate the inception and development of sculptures. They are simultaneously works in their own right.

In addition to these practical and visual benefits that graph paper had to offer, the material also relates to the history of drawing. In particular, the material’s relationship to architecture calls to mind the Greek Golden Ratio. Akin to the Golden Ratio’s system of proportion, graph paper renders overt the importance of relationships in drawing and how they play a part in visual pleasure.

The works in the exhibition include projects for sculptures, drawings for paintings, as well as drawings. All of the works share a common sensibility given their material considerations. These “musical scores” give us a better understanding of these artists’ unique processes, as well as the more private side of their practice.