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"The more I see of men, the more I admire dogs."
-Marie-Jeanne Roland 1754-1793
Schroeder Romero Gallery is pleased to present The More I See of Men,
the gallery’s third solo show by Michael Waugh – with work that bridges
the gap between two great American events, the inauguration of a new
president in January and the Westminster Dog Show in February.
The drawings that comprise this show continue Waugh’s exploration of
the drawing technique called micrography, through which tiny
hand-written words are used to build up visual images. As Waugh’s work
continues to evolve, the drawings have become denser and more
expressive; yet they remain deeply engaged in politics and the rhetoric
of official history.
The work presented in The More I See of Men,
uses the text of reports commissioned by U.S presidents as its starting
point. These reports, which often serve the purposes of political
propaganda, present research on issues as diverse as the attacks of
9/11, the assassination of President Kennedy, and the privatization of
social security. Waugh uses these texts to create a dizzying filigree
of bureaucratic documents that coalesce into the form of dogs – waiting
to serve their masters. Rich with allegory and dark humor, these
drawings subvert the obvious, optically shifting between image and
text, figure and ground. These are drawings that transcend their source
by reminding us that viewing is not passive.
Dogs are a common subject in popular art; and, after portraits of
people, portraits of pets are the second most commissioned subject.
Part of the critique inherent in this series of drawings is a
comparison between the banality of such artistic commissions and the
banality of commissioned propaganda. The knowledge that dogs have been
bred to serve us, to listen and do our bidding unquestioningly makes
the critique more biting. The centerpiece of the show, entitled The Commission for a National Agenda for the Eighties,
is over eight feet tall and almost ten feet wide; it contains over 300
pages of handwritten text; it took six months to complete. Such vast
amounts of labor given over in service to such specious propaganda
cannot be felt easily. Like the history of the country into which this
work delves, this show overflows with generosity, with a contradictory,
heartbreaking beauty.
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The Election Reform Commission, part II. 2008, 36" x 40" ink on Mylar.
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Michael
Waugh received his MFA from Texas State University. His work has been
shown at Ronald Feldman Gallery, NY; OKOK Gallery, Seattle; The Morris
Museum, NJ; and at The University of Connecticut, among others. New
work will be included in Solution, a group show curated by Janet Phelps
at DiverseWorks, Houston, TX in March. He received a residency from the
Brodsky Center for Innovative Editions at Rutgers University in 2008
and is a Joan Mitchell fellowship recipient at the Vermont Studio
Center for 2009. The Artist would like to thank Argosy Books for its
support of this project.
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