Artist Richard Tuttle pays homage to American art giants Jackson Pollock and Louis Comfort Tiffany, placing his work in an aesthetic tradition that spans abstraction and craft, expressionism and pragmatism. Interviewed outside his home New Mexico, Tuttle’s dialogue on being the “brush of society” versus “using society as your paintbrush” is paired with a retrospective of his works installed at The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Richard Tuttle commonly refers to his art as drawing rather than sculpture, emphasizing the diminutive scale and idea-based nature of his work. He subverts the conventions of modernist sculptural practice by creating small, eccentrically playful objects in decidedly humble materials. Influences on his work include calligraphy, architecture, and poetry.
VIDEO | Producer: Wesley Miller & Nick Ravich. Interview: Susan Sollins. Camera: Bob Elfstrom & Sam Henriques. Sound: Ray Day & Merce Williams. Editor: Jenny Chiurco. Artwork Courtesy: Richard Tuttle. Special Thanks: The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.