The Drawings of Al Taylor
Maybe I can get a viewer to suspend a belief system if I can make it pleasurable for them with humor sometimes.
—Al Taylor
Although he began his career as a painter, American artist Al Taylor (1948–1999) was primarily a sculptor and draftsman, who found inspiration for his lyrical and playful compositions in unexpected objects and situations. Driven by his wit and curiosity, he explored the artistic potential of pet stains, imagined puddles hanging from wires, and turned tin cans into elegant still lifes. A painter at heart, he experimented freely with materials and techniques to produce drawings of great fluidity and sensuousness.
This exhibition of nearly one hundred drawings and sketchbooks is the first museum retrospective of Taylor’s draw- ings in the United States. Installed in chronological order, it highlights the combination of traditional skills, methodological innovation, and humor that characterizes Taylor’s singular contribution to drawing at the end of the twentieth century.
This online exhibition was created in conjunction with the exhibition The Drawings of Al Taylor, on view from February 21 through September 13, 2020.
The Drawings of Al Taylor is organized by the Morgan Library & Museum, New York. The exhibition is made possible by generous support from the Sherman Fairchild Fund for Exhibitions, the Ricciardi Family Exhibition Fund, Alyce Williams Toonk, the Robert Lehman Foundation, and David Zwirner.
The 1980s: Drawing and Sculpture
At best a drawing should function as a pure drawing first, and only as a conceptual springboard second. I’m using concepts only as a good excuse to make a better drawing— a thing of beauty which can hold on that level all by itself, as a desirable object.
During the 1970s, Taylor’s drawings consisted primarily of studies for abstract, geometric paintings. In 1980, a trip to Africa changed his outlook on art, introducing humor and a new approach to materials. “Africa taught me about making do with what you have at hand,” he said. Five years later, Taylor stopped painting and shifted to sculpture and drawing. He considered his three-dimensional constructions—made of broomsticks, scrap lumber, and wire—an extension of his drawings. “This isn’t sculpture,” he declared. “It’s more like a pile of drawings that you can walk around.” Although some drawings functioned as studies, most are independent works in which Taylor expanded a sculpture’s subject into painterly compositions, enhanced with modeling effects and shadows.
Untitled (McGrath)
When he traveled to Africa in 1980, Taylor became fascinated with the conception of time he encountered, more fluid than the twenty-four-hour cycle of the Western world. During the following years he con- ceived several series of works in which he tried “to visualize time.” “I would like my art to be like looking at a clock,” he explained, “a combination of choices, always chang- ing, effortless, and irreversible.” The motif in the present work evokes at once a clock and a wheel, also a symbol of time. The use of pages from the New York Times Magazine reflects Taylor’s desire to rely on materials at hand, another lesson rooted in his time in Africa. “There is no trash there,” he recalled. “They use everything.”
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Untitled (McGrath), 1982
Acrylic paint on printed magazine pages
Mounted on paper
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of Debbie Taylor; 2019.121
© 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
No title, 1985
Al Taylor (1948–1999),
No title, ca. 1985
Acrylic paint on printed magazine page
Collection Debbie Taylor
Photography by Glenn Steigelman. © 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
No title, 1985
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
No title, ca. 1985
Acrylic paint on printed magazine page
Private Collection
Photography Glenn Steigelman. © 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
No title, 1988
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
No title, 1988
Watercolor, colored ink, and graphite
Aaron and Barbara Levine
Photography by Ben Cohen. © 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
1988–92: Stains and Puddles
. . . Pet stains . . . hopefully that’s something that everyone has seen in common. They hold together in a visual memory bank. And I personally find them very—some of them— very sublime as drawings.
The stain as a source of inspiration has a long history going back to Leonardo da Vinci, who encouraged artists to find models of composition in old stains on walls. Victor Hugo and the Surrealists experimented with ink stains to stimulate their imagination. Around 1990, Taylor gave the concept a new twist by imitating the patterns of stains left by dogs on the sidewalk. In drawings at once refined and playful, he visualized stains moving from one plane to another and puddles hanging from wires. On some of the sheets he inscribed names next to the stains—as if to identify the perpetrators— combining visual and verbal puns to add another layer of humor and poetry.
Hanging & Folding Study
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Hanging & Folding Study, 1991
Graphite, gouache, and correction fluid
Collection Debbie Taylor
Photography by Glenn Steigelman. © 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
Hanging Puddles
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Hanging Puddles, 1992
Gouache and graphite
Private Collection
Photography by Glenn Steigelman. © 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
The Peabody Group #29
The Peabody Group, which includes forty- one sheets, marks the culmination of Taylor’s Pet Names/Pet Stains series. The names inscribed on them mix well-known personalities and fictional characterswith cities, foods, plants, and other items, creating a vast network of allusions that broadens the implications of the drawings. Fond of wordplay, Taylor often chose words with multiple meanings. The title Peabody, no doubt picked for its homophony with “pee-body,” may refer to Mr. Peabody, the dog in the popular 1960s television series The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, but also to prestigious scientific institutions such as the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard, lending an aura of authority to Taylor’s humorous classification of drips and blobs.
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
The Peabody Group #29, 1992
Watercolor, gouache, ink, coffee, graphite, colored pencil, and ballpoint pen
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of the Modern & Contemporary Collectors Committee; 2011.7
© 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
Drawings on pages of Florentine Art Treasures by Rosa Maria Letts (London: Roydon, 1970)
Taylor altered this used copy of a book on Italian Renaissance painting by drawing on its pages. He blacked out parts of the text to change its meaning and offered his interpretation of the paintings’ compositions through the addition of ink, gouache, and white correction fluid. The puddle-like motifs and wordplay relate to the Pet Stains and Pet Names drawings Taylor was making at the same time.
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Drawings on pages of Florentine Art Treasures by Rosa Maria Letts (London: Roydon, 1970), ca. 1990
Ink, gouache, marker, and correction fluid
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of Debbie Taylor; 2016.5
© The Estate of Al Taylor
The 1990s: Drawing Circles
A question seems to be how far can you see through things?
Throughout the 1990s, Taylor expanded his sources of inspiration, turning the most unexpected objects into series at once absurd and playful. Among these objects, circular forms dominate—coiling wire, wheels, hula hoops, rubber tubes, tin cans—because, Taylor explained, “round things don’t have a traditional edge; they look pretty much the same from a lot of different angles.” Curious as to how things appear from various vantage points, he often explored in his drawings the same subjects from several per- spectives. In contrast to the rudimentary materials of his sculptures, Taylor’s drawings display a rich and sensuous surface, enlivened by bold contrasts of light and dark.
Fish Parts (#1 and #2)
One day, Taylor retrieved from a trash bin a six-foot-long swordfish replica that had once decorated a bar. He sawed it into five sections and hung them on the wall. The drawings he made of these isolated fish parts, suspended simply with wire and nails, have an unusual poignancy. The fluid handling, especially where the solvent used to fix the toner ran down the lower part of the sheet, gives the impression that the fish has just been pulled out of water and is still dripping.
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Fish Parts (#1 and #2),
14–15 January 1992
Ink, xerographic toner fixed with solvent, and graphite
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of Debbie Taylor in Honor of Isabelle Dervaux; 2019.90a
© 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
Fish Parts (#3)
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Fish Parts (#3), 14–15 January 1992
Ink, xerographic toner fixed with solvent, and graphite
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of Debbie Taylor in Honor of Isabelle Dervaux; 2019.90b
© 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
Greek Puddles (with Fish Parts)
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Greek Puddles (with Fish Parts), 1992
Gouache and ink
Private Collection, London; Promised Gift, British Museum, Department of Prints & Drawings
Photography Glenn Steigelman. © 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
Pea Passing Device
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Pea Passing Device, 28 March 1992
Gouache, colored ink, and graphite with collage of a photographic print
Collection of Doug Woodham and Dalya Inhaber
Photography Glenn Steigelman. © 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
Untitled (Tide Tab)
The luscious colors and painterly handling of this drawing contrast with the banality of its subject. A typical example of Taylor’s aptitude for finding artistic motifs in the most insignificant details of everyday life, it was inspired by the tabs of Tide laundry detergent boxes, which curl when pulled to open the carton.
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Untitled (Tide Tab), ca. 1993
Grease pencil, wax crayon, graphite, and gouache
The Estate of Al Taylor
Photography by Glenn Steigelman. © 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
Untitled (100% Hawaiian)
This drawing relates to a sculpture that features two open cans suspended from wires between a pair of vertical wooden boards. Combining materials to heighten the rich contrasts of light and dark, Taylor made effective use of each medium’s properties. On the lid at bottom left, for instance, he drew in pencil over gouache, exploiting the characteristic sheen of graphite to render the metallic surface.
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Untitled (100% Hawaiian), April/May 1994
Gouache and graphite
The Morgan Library & Museum. Gift of Hamish Parker; 2019.53
© 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
1998–99: Hawaii
What I do is I measure things, literally. . . . There is measuring that is, in a way, the same as rhythm in music.
In February–March 1998, Taylor spent several weeks in Hawaii, a place that had fascinated him since he first visited a decade earlier. Upon his return to New York, he embarked on several new series of drawings inspired by Hawaiian natural scenery, everyday life, and culture. Rat guards on palm tree trunks became the subject of elegant compositions. Grids recording wave patterns generated unusual seascapes. And plastic fishing floats turned into duck heads in the humorous and moving Bondage Duck series.
Untitled (Plant Studies)
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Untitled (Plant Studies), 1998
Graphite, colored pencil, grease pencil, and spray fixative
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Gift of Debbie Taylor; 2002.3445
Photography by Glenn Steigelman. © 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
Bondage Duck Study
Al Taylor (1948–1999)
Bondage Duck Study, 1998
Graphite, ink, acrylic mica mortar, colored pencil, grease pencil, and wax crayon
Collection Debbie Taylor
Photography by Glenn Steigelman. © 2019 The Estate of Al Taylor
Al Taylor: A Chronology
Al Taylor in his East Nineteenth Street studio, New York, September 1993. Photography by David Britton. Estate of Al Taylor archives.
| 1948 | Born in Springfield, Missouri. Grows up in Wichita, Kansas. |
| 1966–70 | Studies at the Kansas City Art Institute; graduates with degrees in painting and printmaking. |
| 1970 | Moves to New York City. Takes day jobs as a truck driver and an art handler. |
| Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, creates abstract, geometric paintings. | |
| 1975–82 | Works as Robert Rauschenberg’s studio assistant. Develops close friendships with many artists, including Brice Marden, James Rosenquist, and Cy Twombly. |
| 1980 | Five-week trip to Africa (Uganda, Kenya, and Senegal) profoundly alters his thoughts about art, affecting his approach to materials and use of humor in his work. |
| 1984 | Designs sets for dance performances, which leads him to construct three-dimensional work. Creates his last paintings. |
| 1986 | First solo exhibition, at Alfred Kren Gallery, New York, includes sculptures and drawings. |
| 1987 | First trip to Hawaii, which will become an important source of inspiration. |
| 1988 | First published series of etchings initiates regular printmaking until 1997. |
| 1990 | Experiments with using photocopy toner to make drawings. |
| 1991 | Munich art dealer Fred Jahn buys sixty-eight drawings. His support allows Taylor to quit his day jobs and concentrate on his art. |
| Throughout the 1990s, exhibits regularly in galleries, in New York as well as in Germany, Denmark, and Switzerland. | |
| 1992 | First solo museum exhibition, at the Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland. |
| 1998 | One-month trip to Hawaii, to celebrate his fiftieth birthday, inspires new series of drawings and sculptures. |
| 1999 | Dies of lung cancer on 31 March. An exhibition of his work takes place in the summer at the Kunstmuseum in Lucerne, Switzerland. |