Light Pink Octagons

A newsletter/art show dedicated to Richard Tuttle's Light Pink Octagon (1967)

Introduction (2023):

floating on the wall

thrown on the floor like a rug

light pink octagon

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Scan of a Photocopy of the Artsy Page for Richard Tuttle’s Light Pink Octagon by Adelaide Blair 2021

Eight Attempts at a Freehand Octagon by Adelaide Blair (2021)

The Richard Tuttle Joke Book: Seven Pink Octagons by Adelaide Blair (2021) Photo by Sarah Meadows

Light Pink Octagon Escapes This Conversation By Adelaide Blair (2021)

Photo of Richard Tuttle in his studio with cloth octagonals, ca 1967, digitally altered to suit my needs by Adelaide Blair (2023) (Photo taken from The Art of Richard Tuttle, SFMOMA, 2005)

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Artist Statement:

While I appreciate Richard Tuttle in the abstract and understand his place in art history, I often find his work to be visually underwhelming. He makes non-flashy objects out of quotidian materials as a revolt against the idea of art on a grand and heroic scale. But because Tuttle has become part of the canon, his work commands high prices and is now precious in a way that tends to subvert his intentions. I don’t think Light Pink Octagon is beautiful. I think it is funny and charming and has the magic that a great piece of art is imbued with. It is clumsy and real and full of ideas about materiality and the nature of art. It makes me laugh out loud that such a silly thing has a place in art history by virtue of its maker’s reputation.

But actually, I’m not in love with Light Pink Octagon at all. I am enamored of an image that has been uploaded to the internet. The real item is in the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, and I have never been there. (Although I really want to go because they have a GREAT print collection.) I am in love with a copy of a copy that is as real to me in my mind as anything I have ever held in my hand. The actual Light Pink Octagon has texture, three-dimensionality, smell, probably a (nasty) taste, and weight. How can I know this digital thing that is little more than an idea? How can I bring myself to it if it just exists on my screen? (2021 - 2023)

(Most of this text has been cannibalized from a 2021 zine, Light Pink Octagons.)

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IF YOU ARE IN PORTLAND, OR ON AUGUST 3rd, I will be giving a performance lecture at the Pacific Northwest College of Art (511 Broadway) at 4:00 pm. It is called Global Network: Circles of Corruption in the Art Market. It is related to my thesis project, Welcome to Business School, and there will be jokes!