"Delicate Balance" by Nancy Wolf, (American, b. 1942), conte carbon original drawing, signed and dated 1989 (30" X 22 1/2").
Wolf's works, as packed with information as a Bosch painting and as precise as old anatomical illustrations are a commentary on contemporary urban landscapes. Wolf's pictures are both barometers of the latest architectural developments and cautionary tales about the urban landscape. The precision of this original drawing is quite amazing. That the drawing is executed in conte carbon (a media that is somewhere between a pencil and charcoal) and is a very large image is remarkable.
She juxtaposes versions of contemporary and historical buildings to create desolate uber-cities populated by hordes of tiny figures recognizable from Renaissance painting, commedia dell'arte and Voque. Wolf's pictures are both barometers of the latest architectural developments and cautionary tales about the urban landscape. She juxtaposes versions of contemporary and historical buildings to create desolate uber-cities populated by hordes of tiny figures recognizable from Renaissance painting, commedia dell'arte and Voque.
Her mix of familiar faces and forms forces the eye to roam again and again across her pictures, picking up new details every time. Culture vultures, especially aficionados who have tracked New York's recent architectural developments, can scan Wolf's drawings and find quotations of the latest in design.
Biography
Born: 1942 Easton, Pennsylvania
Education: 1964 BFA, Rhode Island School of Design
( European Honors Program, 1963 - 64 )
Selected Public Collections:
National Museum of American Art, Washington, DC
Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida
Sallie Mae Student Loan Marketing Association, Wash. DC
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin Texas
Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington, DC
Selected Reviews:
Weil, Rex. "Nancy Wolf", Marsha Mateyka, Washington, DC, Artnews, Summer 2008
Lawrence, Sidney. "Nancy Wolf at Marsha Mateyka", Art in America, May 2008
Barbiero, Daniel. "Nancy Wolf", The New Art Examiner, May. 1988
Blake, Peter. "No Need for Words", Interior Design pp. 228-29, November. 1988
Danikian, Caron le Brun. "Painter Printmaker Looks at Future Space", The Christian
Science Monitor, August 4. 1973
Forgey, Benjamin. "Demolition Job: Artist Nancy Wolf's Dynamite Views of Modernist
Architecture", The Washington Post, Sept.21, pp. C1,C7. 1996
Forgey, Benjamin. "Wolf's Building Sense of Anger", The Washington Post, C2,
March 19. 1988
Lewis, Jo Ann. "The Art of Building", The Washington Post, G3, July. 1974
Lewis, Jo Ann. "Creating a New City with the Oddball Help of 16 Washington Artists",
The Washington Magazine, p.106, Nov. 1975
Lewis, Jo Ann. "Scaling Modern Architecture", The Washington Post, B7, December
31. 1981
Lewis, Jo Ann. "Wolf, Moving On", The Washington Post, Galleries, C2, April 20. 1985
Long, Andrew. "Openings", Art & Antiques, March 1999, p.36,38 1999
McCoy, Mary. "Wolf's Ominous Building Blocks", The Washington Post, Galleries, C2,
March 30. 1991
McWilliams, Martha. Washington City Paper, p.72, Oct. 14. 1994
Mulbetsch, Marilyn. "Nancy Wolf Paints Her Case", Boston Globe, p.71, July 29.1973
Power, Mark. "Works on Paper at Mateyka", The Washington Post, Galleries, C2,
November 27 1986
Sherman, Harvey E."Nancy Wolf: An Art of the Emotional Landscape", Utopian
Studies, 9,1, pp. 173-83 1998
Tucker, Patrick. "Deconstruction Sites", Museum and Arts Washington p. 73,
March/April 1991
Tucker, Patrick. "Soho Suite: A Response to Postmodern Architecture", Pulpsmith
p.26, vol. 8. 1989
Catalogues and Publications:
1996Franck, Karen, “Nancy Wolf, Hidden Cities Hidden
Longings”,monograph, published by Academy Editions,
London.
1994essay, "An Artist's Perspective on Type", Ordering Space
Types in Architecture, edited by Karen C. Franck and Lynda
Schneekloth, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York.
1988“Nancy Wolf, Soho Suite: A Response to Postmodern
Architecture”, introduction by Wolf Von Eckardt, catalogue
published by Marsha Mateyka Gallery, Washington, DC.
Lectures:
1996“Architecture Revealed”, American Institute of Architects, Washington, DC
1993-92"Utopia; Dystopia", New Jersey Institute of Technology
