Untitled (Davidson Print i) from the collection of Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College

Untitled (Davidson Print i), 2006

Hand-colored woodcut on Zerkall Book Smooth paper

13 x 10 in (33.02 x 25.4 cm)

Edition. 2/50

Inv: 2728

Location: Collection Storage Hanging Storage

Gallery Purchase

In the winter of 2006, several of Robert Lazzarini’s works on paper were displayed here at Davidson College. During his visit, Lazzarini digitally manipulated a 15th century woodcut entitled "A House Beleaguered by Devils," c. 1482, (Accession Number 2340) to make three new pieces, Untitled I-III. All four pieces, including the original, feature Old German text from Hieronymous’s Leben der Heiligen Altväter.

Lazzarini’s work reminds us that it’s important to challenge what constitutes our definition of a “text.” Who, historically, has been excluded from the canon and from academia writ large? Perhaps textual histories are not the only credible sources of knowledge.

Untitled I-III raises questions of textual accessibility through its use of Old German and dramatic distortion of the letters. It is simultaneously inaccessible to those are visually impaired, intellectually impaired, and those who have no disability at all. The act of looking at these woodcuts “crips” even those who conform to the normate, defamiliarizing the familiar. In addition, the three different distortions reflect the range of variation in ability. Because there are three distortions to the one original, here, the “normate” is in the minority––gesturing towards both the large disability community and the idea that we will all experience disability one day.

Even Lazzarini’s technique in creating these pieces represents a new, accessible kind of art. Since he used a computer to digitally distort the images with sine waves, it represents a methodology that can be used by anyone, regardless of physical or mental ability, to create art.

From Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum

Look Out, 2013

Watercolor, acrylic, and pencil on Rives BFK

30 x 24 in (76.2 x 60.96 cm)
Ralph Gibson

Untitled (Bottles, Glasses), Paris, 1988

Chromogenic print

14 x 11 in (35.56 x 27.94 cm)
William R. Ferris

Carroll Cloar, Memphis, Tenn., 1982

Gelatin silver print

9 x 13.5 in (22.86 x 34.29 cm)
Adrian Van Suchtelen

Totem, 1981

Etching on paper

15 x 11.125 in (38.1 x 28.26 cm)
William Eggleston

Untitled, from Jamaica Botanical Series, c. 1978

Chromogenic print

13.875 x 16.875 in (35.24 x 42.86 cm)
John Schlump

The Seat of Consciousness, 1972

Screenprint on paper mounted to board

8.25 x 25.75 in (20.96 x 65.41 cm)
John Hoyland

Red Block on Pink, 1971

Screenprint on paper

40.5 x 28.25 in (102.87 x 71.76 cm)
Robert Ernst Marx

Crime Trial, 1970

Etching on paper

14.75 x 10.25 in (37.47 x 26.04 cm)

View All Artworks

About the artist

Robert Lazzarini

American

b. 1965

American painter and sculptor. Lazzarini was born in New Jersey and currently resides in New York City. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in 1990, and has exhibited nationwide and overseas since 1995. His installations include the Sculpture Garden at the Hirshhorn Museum, “Skulls” at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He is known for creating disorienting works that confuse visual and haptic space through common objects. He is influenced by minimalism and phenomenology.

Additional Details

Additional Artworks

Look Out, 2013

Untitled (Bottles, Glasses), Paris, 1988

Carroll Cloar, Memphis, Tenn., 1982

Totem, 1981

Untitled, from Jamaica Botanical Series, c. 1978

The Seat of Consciousness, 1972

Red Block on Pink, 1971

Crime Trial, 1970

About the artist

Robert Lazzarini