John LATHAM 1921-2006
Great Noit, 1962
Logs covered with canvas, books, wires, leather wallet, machine fragments, springs, plaster on canvas on hardboard
327 x 383.5 x 40.5 cm
This was only the fourth piece Latham created with books, his relationship with them having begun as a formal need for a flat and solid element within his work. However,...
This was only the fourth piece Latham created with books, his relationship with them having begun as a formal need for a flat and solid element within his work. However, he increasingly recognised their capacity to exist as symbols of the accumulation of human knowledge and exploited their use throughout his career, this being one of a number of renowned instances in which they were abused. In their destruction, Latham infers the removal of the very structure and form of language, something expanded to include the space- and object-based tradition in which we exist. In so doing, Great Noit does much to undo the control structures of this tradition, condemning it as inadequate for describing the universe he saw as time-based.
Provenance
Kasmin Gallery, London
Knoedler Gallery, London
Private Collection, Canada
Purchased from Miriam Shiell Jun 2007
Exhibitions
John Latham : Art after Physics, The Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 13 October 1991 - 5 January 1992.The Sixties Art Scene In London, Barbican Art Gallery, London 11 March - 13 June 1993.
John Latham : Time Base and The Roller, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York 29 October 2006 - 8 January 2007.
John Latham: La Triennale de Milano. Palazzo dell'Arte, Milano, Dec 10, 2014 - 22 Feb, 2015.
Literature
John Latham : Art after Physics, Edition Hansjörg Mayer, Stuttgart, London. no. 21