For its debut at the Art on Paper Fair, dieFirma is pleased to present the drawings of Nadia Gould, an under recognized 20th century artist who worked primarily in New York City. She left behind a body of work that reveals a joyful obsession with geometric abstraction and a trend-defying leap into representation. Revealing a singular lyricism, the artist channeled her own inspirations, unconcerned with a single style or trend.
Nadia Gould, who fled Nazi occupied France in 1943 as a teenager, was a working artist for six decades. Throughout, Gould's work on paper recorded a visual vocabulary uniquely her own. From charcoals that assert the heroic landscape of the female form, to pen and inks that fold and bloom, drawing was a constant in Gould's practice, and her practice was constant.
Outside of art history and outside of the storage units, where her work went unseen, there is Nadia Gould herself. In her work, and in her journals, there are hints of an undeterred rapture. Gould wrote that her art "tells my powers." The drawings are brimming with her authentic spirit and leave the viewer wanting to see and know more.
While a student at NYU, Gould made her first visit to the Museum of Modern Art. Soon afterward, she started painting in her family's apartment, a few blocks east of the museum. This is where she discovers the "miracle of art."
Gould's approach to art making was humble, but her ambitions were high. Meaningful work that fostered "contemplation” was her singular pursuit. She rebuffed the ego: "Nothing in art can come from the will. The artist has to watch carefully for their lifelines and work with them, but not from the outside or his head. It is difficult, it is magic that has to be picked up and manipulated, it is like fishing, you have to keep staying with it until it takes."
Along with her journals, notes and sketches for future works, dress patterns, dinner recipes, palmistry diagrams, and theories on color and child rearing, Gould bequeathed us a long trail of art-world correspondence. The considerate form-letter rejections from galleries and museums are evidence of the undertow churning beneath the artist's determined practice by which she endured.
The “miracle of art” remained her salvation from the frustrations of the wider world. Gould noted that when she worked on her paintings whether on an easel, or on the floor, it was "her world" and she entered easily – as does the viewer.
Spending time with Gould’s work, we can imagine an infinite curiosity at work and at play, the puzzle pieces falling into place. Infused with rigor and their own formal inner workings, each of Gould’s drawings serves up a complete and wholly satisfying universe. We come to know that at the end of the labyrinth is a body of work that is both mesmerizing and rewarding.
Included in dieFirma's Art on Paper presentation are three distinct series. Large scale charcoals with agitated lines that proclaim the heroics and the heaviness of the female form; black pen sketches on small white notebook paper revealing humorous character studies of men, women, animals and every-day objects -- a social commentary on people in her world; and Gould's many drawings made with bursting colonies of lines, abstract and biomorphic. Through them all, Gould speaks to us clearly and succinctly in a Morse code of the artist's own imagination.
dieFirma will be at booth F15
About Art on Paper Fair
Art on Paper, New York City’s celebrated, medium-driven fair, returns to downtown Manhattan’s Pier 36 during September 2023’s Armory Art Week with 100 galleries featuring top modern and contemporary paper-based art. The fair’s ninth edition will showcase unique and powerful projects curated by Artistic Director Nato Thompson, with a focus on can’t-miss performances highlighting the creative potential of paper.
Tickets & Hours
Fair Pass: $65
Single Day Ticket: $35
Opening Evening: Thursday, September 7: 6—9pm
All Public Days:
Friday, September 8: 11am—7pm
Saturday, September 9: 11am—7pm
Sunday, September 10: 11am—6pm
The Fair Pass allows access for one person starting at 6pm on Thursday, September 7 and all fair hours on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, September 8—10.
The Single Day Admission Ticket allows access for one person on Friday, September 8, Saturday, September 9, OR Sunday, September 10 during open hours.
Tickets to the fair can be purchased here
Location
Pier 36, Downtown Manhattan
299 South Street
New York, 10002