TEXT:

The Steamboat Springs Arts Council is excited to present Patsy Krebs: Fugue, an unprecedented solo exhibition of print works by the California based artist. She is nationally known for abstract minimal paintings in watercolor and acrylic. In 2011 Krebs was a featured artist-in-residence at Oehme Graphics (OG) in Steamboat Springs, CO, where she worked with Master Printer Susan Oehme to create a series of aquatints and etchings.

The term fugue is used both in classical music composition as well as psychiatry. Krebs’ sequential, subtly varied prints within each suite are reminiscent of the fugue form in which tonal changes and repetition define each successive development while the original theme recurs frequently throughout the course of the composition. In psychiatry, fugue is referred to as a state of psychological amnesia during which a patient seems to behave in a conscious and rational way although upon return to normal consciousness, they cannot remember the duration of time nor what he did during it. The entrancing experience of her untitled suite can emanate fugue state, a temporary flight from reality.

While starkly minimal, her works in painting and print exude a contemplative intelligence and emotion. In her two-dimensional untitled color studies, the calculated rectangular layering of tone and opacity present a visual experience that is reminiscent to the meditative optical experience of light artists like Ann Veronica Janssens and Douglas Wheeler. Though initially appearing rigid and quiet her prints develop a profound reverberation and mystical energy; the way in which complete silence can swell into a roar of tones and patterns just beyond the grasp of definitive explanation. In the two series’ Since Brass and Redwing there is sense of timelessness communicated through her primer-like use of line, and formal structure. It is as though the works are surfacing from some academic antiquity and simultaneously presenting an advanced geometrical knowledge.

In the early stages of Krebs’ project at OG the artist arrived with a set of drawings in pencil and gouache. These were the stimulus of the collection of work produced. The level of exactitude that went into the creation of this work is a testament to the technical integrity of Krebs’ work and the printers at OG. Each print was formulated on copper plates with aquatint and etched hard ground lines. The aquatint etchings took place over a spread of time from 1 minute to around an hour producing the stratified variation of tonality that is vital to each of the works in this exhibition. During the printing, utilizing multiple layers of plates, the works go through a proofing process, a massive part of the production, in which finite testing, printing and editing culminates into the final selection. Two prints from the “Redwing” suite utilized the chine collé process in which a thin layer of paper is adhered to the print simultaneously during the printing process, in order to achieve a specific color tone and texture. Ultimately the entire process produced 3 suites and 2 individual prints.

Exhibition catalog published by the Steamboat Springs Arts Council in association with Oehme Graphics, with texts from Alyssa Haeusslein and Park Myers.

Patsy Krebs was born in Oakland and lives in works Inverness, California. She received her MFA from Claremont Graduate School. She has taught extensively at art institutions throughout California, most recently at Dominican University, San Rafael. She has exhibited extensively at Haines Gallery, San Francisco, CA. She was the subject of a 2018 solo exhibition at the Bolinas Museum, CA, and her works are included in the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA; San Jose Museum of Art, CA; Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive, CA; Norton Museum, West Palm Beach, FL; Denver Art Museum, CO; and the Brooklyn Museum, NY. Patsy Krebs: Painting, a monographic survey of her work, was published in 2017. She is a recipient of the Pollack-Krasner Award and The National Endowment for the Arts Grant.

PROGRAMS:

Fugue, A conversation with Ernest Richardson, conductor and composer of the Steamboat Symphony Orchestra and Park Myers, SSAC Curator

PRESS:

California minimalist artist displays Oehme Graphics prints at Steamboat’s Depot Art Center, Steamboat Pilot, 2013