Title: Bunub, Ove, and Liboc
Artist: Tim Hawkinson
Year: 2022
Materials: Polymer photogravure
Dimensions: 34.5 x 25.5 inches (Bunab), 34.5 x 24.125 inches (Ove), 34.5 x 24.18
Edition size: 24
Publisher: Benefit Print Project
Estimated Value: $7,500

Bunub, Ove, and Liboc appear to seemingly call forth, at first glance, the graphic masterpieces of Bridget Riley and other luminaries of the Op Art movement. In reality, however, unlike the lines that compose Riley’s Horizonal Vibration from 1961, for instance, or the hard-edge, precise bands that make up the geometric prints of Donald Judd, Hawkinson’s lines are not really lines, or bands, at all; rather, they are drips. And because of this, there are irregularities, tonal variations, and shifts in value. Subsequently, the drip drawings on which the artist has based his project have a greater affinity with Agnes Martin’s hand-drawn lines and grids and Pat Steir’s series of “Waterfall” paintings.

About the Artist

Tim Hawkinson’s (b. 1960) idiosyncratic creations are meditations on nature, machines, mortality, the body and human consciousness. Since the 1980s, he has used common, found, and store-bought materials, as well as handcrafted objects and machines, to shift familiar subject matter into an unfamiliar place with off-kilter visual conundrums and conceits imbued with deeper meaning. His inventive works range in size from monumental kinetic and sound-producing sculptures to almost microscopic pieces created from such unassuming materials as fingernail clippings and eggshells. Driven by ideas, materials, and an interest in transformation, Hawkinson continues to create unlikely and thought-provoking associations by transforming common materials into works of art.

Hawkinson’s work has been covered and published on Art21.org, Artforum, Art in America, Artnet.com, Art News, The Art Newspaper, The Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, and W Magazine.