David Scher

Home Studio | Department of Lettering

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“cedar wax,” Timothy Kane, Paul Scher, David Scher. Recorded in 2007

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David Scher has described his polyvalent practice—ranging from detailed line work describing humorous and improbable scenes, calligraphic, and musical notations, to vigorous, painterly brushstrokes—as “akin to seeking a unified field theory of sorts,” where his various tendencies co-exist on equal terms. These tendencies inform one another across time, continuously developing in multiple relationships to one another, in web-like evolutions as opposed to serial ones. “A line drawn with a fine instrument is amplified when made with a house painting brush but is still of the same hand and eye.”

Scher is also a gifted musician and member of the improvisational ensemble O.N.E.M. since 1969. His music and visual works are integrally linked.
Take a listen to the recording above.

 

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Above right:
“Department of Lettering (Blue)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
30 x 41 inches

Right:
“Department of Lettering (G)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
22 x 30 inches

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Right:
“Department of Lettering (P)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
21 x 32 inches
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Right:
“Department of Lettering (T)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
21 x 32 inches
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Right:
“Department of Lettering (C)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
17 x 20 inches
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Left:
“Department of Lettering (B)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
17 x 20 inches
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Right:
“Department of Lettering (Panama Letter)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
23 x 31 inches
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Right:
Detail: “Department of Lettering (Panama Letter)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
23 x 31 inches

 

 

 

 

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Right:
“Department of Lettering (March)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
27.5 x 39 inches
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Right:
“Department of Lettering (April)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
27.5 x 39 inches
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Right:
“Untitled (bird cage)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
27 x 39.5 inches
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Right:
Detail: “Untitled (bird cage)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
27 x 39.5 inches
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Right:
“Untitled (table)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
27 x 39.5 inches
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Right:
“Untitled (teapot)”
2020
Mixed media on paper
27 x 39.5 inches
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From the sketch books—

 

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b. 1952 St. Louis, MO, USA

David Scher is a self-taught artist who grew up in Minneapolis where he had Siah Armajani as mentor. “Scher never attended art school, though his work is not in the tradition of self-taught artists who operate apart from the cultural mainstream. Filtered through his images are allusions to earlier art and techniques: Watteau’s figure studies in chalk, van Gogh’s cake-frosting-thick strokes, R. Crumb’s funky portraiture or Picasso’s bravura use of a single line to convey all the strength of a bull or emotion of a face.” (Edward M. Gomez, Art In America)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, presented an evening of Scher’s commissioned film and animated drawing projections. The Drawing Center | The Lab, NY, also hosted “David Scher, Does It Fold?” a multi-media performance alongside a presentation of Scher’s “Score” drawings, a selection from among his 1,200 sketchbooks, and his camera drawing boxes. His work has been included in exhibitions at The Wattis Institute, CA; The New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY; The Brooklyn Museum, NY; The Orange County Museum of Art, CA; and The Swiss Institute, NY. His work is included in notable permanent collections including: The Museum of Modern Art, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Musée de la Chasse, Paris; Orange County Museum of Art, CA; and others. He is the recipient of a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant and an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant. He currently lives and works in New York City.