specific object / david platzker
presents
Stephen Kaltenbach : slantstep 2
May 9 through June 10, 2011
Specific Object / David Platzker is pleased to announce the opening of
the exhibition Stephen Kaltenbach : slantstep 2. The exhibition will be
on view at Specific Object from May 9 through June 10, 2011. This
exhibition celebrates slantstep 2, 1969, a multiple by Stephen
Kaltenbach designed by William Plumb.
The Slant Step, an object discovered in the Mount Carmel Salvage Shop
in Mill Valley, California in 1965 by William T. Wiley and Bruce
Nauman, became an iconic inspiration, a muse, for Bay Area artists
resulting in Slant Step themed artworks, exhibitions, books, and the
slantstep 2.
The slantstep 2 was one of the ultimate ends to my investigation of
conceptual minimalism. I believed I had attained an extreme simplicity
of form in the room constructions where the form was so united with the
space it existed in, that whether it was a form in space or a shaped
space became equally true. Looking to further my minimalist
investigation at this point led to a number of projects. One was the
William Plumb redesign of the original Slant Step. When Rosa Esman, was
interested in doing a multiple with me, I asked her to choose an
industrial designer to redesign the Slant Step to enhance its consumer
appeal. My artistic motive was to cause the existence of an object
which I had no part in its appearance, reducing to zero the artist's
aesthetic involvement. I kept this non-involvement as pure as possible.
I never met Bill Plumb and I never saw his design until the steps were
made. - Stephen Kaltenbach, 2011
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The story of slantstep 2 dates back to 1969. I was working with Stephen
Kaltenbach on his piece for the edition 7 Objects / 69 which I was
publishing under the aegis of Tanglewood Press. At that time, Stephen
proposed that I cooperate with him in the design of a contemporary
version of the original Slant Step, a worn found object discovered by
William T. Wiley in a salvage shop, which soon developed an iconic
significance and inspiration to a group of Marin County artists.
Stephen wanted to realize the worn Slant Step, a seemingly
non-functional item, as newly-designed by a contemporary industrial
designer of utilitarian objects. In some mysterious fashion which I do
not recall, I was fortunately directed to William Plumb, who directed
his own design studio, and who applied du jour design concepts with
sensitivity and artistry, producing a pristine, plastic molded,
brand-new slantstep 2 in three brightly colored variants. It was
intended to be published in an edition of 75 by Tanglewood Press, but
only 18 were produced - six in each of the three colors.
- Rosa Esman, 2011
-------------------------------------------
One day in 1969 I got a call from Rosa Esman who wanted to discuss a
design project. Though somewhat bizarre, the project interested me. I
had at the time a fully equipped model shop capable of making prototype
plastic parts such as I envisioned - that is, molded fiberglass. The
idea was a low quantity multiple series and I had vendors capable of
making such a short run once a prototype had been made. My shop could
make a highly finished prototype. My designers and I could design it.
My design background included a couple of years working in Italy with
people at the forefront of what is now called "mid-century modern
design." I was very active in creating products that answered a
functional and esthetic need. My recollection is that Bruce Nauman
brought the original item to my office then on 3rd Avenue and 17th
Street in New York City. I know I had it at one time to examine it. We
agreed that the new object should have all of the "functional"
characteristics of the original, what they actually were was a mystery,
of course - but one could figure out that it was a footrest of some
kind with a slanted "ramp" for resting one's feet. My designers and I
determined the rough dimensions of the object by measuring the original
and did preliminary sketches of how it might be made in a mold,
allowing for easy removal, and with an exterior configuration and
finish that would be pleasing to the eye. My shop made a solid plaster
model and from that we made a mold from fiberglass and from this we
made several prototypes until we had one that pleased all the
participants and that could be molded in enough copies to make the
desired series. - William Plumb, 2011
-------------------------------------------
The exhibition at Specific Object features the original Slant Step on
loan from The New York Society for the Preservation of the Slant Step,
Slant Step inspired drawings by Kaltenbach, the Slant Step Book by Phil
Weidman, an issue of Artforum from November 1969 featuring a full-page
advertisement announcing the publication of the slantstep 2, and a copy
of the slantstep 2 multiple.
Specific Object is grateful for the assistance of Stephen Kaltenbach;
William Plumb; Rosa Esman; David E. Stone / Another Year in LA;
Lawrence Markey / Lawrence Markey, Inc.; Frank Charles Owen / The New
York Society for the Preservation of the Slant Step; Eric Fertman, and
Kirk Rader for their generous help in making this exhibition possible.
References
"San Francisco," by Knute Stiles in Artforum, December 1966, pp. 65 -
66.
Slant Step Book, by Phil Weidman, with contributions by Bruce Nauman,
Steve Jongeward, Ron Peetz, Frank Owen, Dorothy Wiley, Bill Allan,
William Witherup, William T. Wiley, Jack Edwards, Robert Leach, Richard
C., Jack Ogden, Lawrence Dean Phillips, Peter Saul, Ray Johnson, Peetz,
Jack Fulton, Stephen Kaltenbach. The Art Co., 1969.
Stephen Kaltenbach : Room Alterations. Whitney Museum of American Art,
1969.
Advertisement for slantstep 2, in Artforum, November 1969, pp. 12.
Multiples : The First Decade, by John L. Tancock. Philadelphia Museum
of Art, 1971, unpaginated.
The Slant Step Revisited, by Cynthia Charters, and L. Price Amerson.
Richard L. Nelson Gallery, University of California at Davis, 1983.
Art in the San Francisco Bay Area : 1945 - 1980, by Thomas Albright.
Published by University of California Press, 1985, pp. 127 - 128.
A Rose Has No Teeth : Bruce Nauman In The 1960s, by Constance Lewallen,
Robert R. Riley, Robert Storr, Anne M. Wagner. University of California
Press, 2007, pp. 32 - 35.
Stephen Kaltenbach Pep Talk, by Stephen Kaltenbach, Sarah
Lehrer-Graiwer, Cindy Nemser, Peter Eleey, Lee Lozano. Pep Talk, 2009.
"A Certain Slant," in The UVM Connection, Vermont Quarterly, Summer
2010. Interview of Frank Owen by Tomas Weaver.
http://alumni.uvm.edu/vq/summer2010/slant.asp
Specific Object's hours are Monday - Friday 10 AM to 5 PM, or by
appointment.
Specific Object is located at 601 West 26th Street / Floor 2M / Room
M285, New York City. Telephone (212) 242-6253.
Specific Object's website is www.specificobject.com
For additional information regarding the exhibition or Specific Object
please email David Platzker at [log in to unmask]
This press release is archived at:
www.specificobject.com/projects/slantstep/slantstep.pdf
specific object / david platzker
601 west 26 street, room m285
new york, ny 10001
[log in to unmask]
212.242.6253 tel.
www.specificobject.com
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