Judith Laister (curator), Die Kunst der Linie: Möglichkeiten des
Graphischen, Museum of Upper Austria, Linz, 1999, catalog, p326
(translation).
“…the American artist Robert Schatz is not concerned with the
depiction of recognizable subject matter or theme. Instead, his
primary interest is experimentation with a process rooted in
spontaneity and feeling, seemingly chaotic and arbitrary... While
paralleling the attempt of Surrealism to surrender artistic control
and introduce accident as an essential creative factor, this work
also manages to remind us of the puritan aspects of early
Minimalism. For all that, the fine shifting lines also belies the
influence of Asian philosophy, which has served Robert Schatz as a
source of inspiration for his creative work.”
Jonathan Frederick Walz (Curator of American Art, Sheldon Museum
of Art), "A New Line of Thinking: Recent Sculpture by Robert
Schatz", exhibition essay, Sheldon Museum, Lincoln, 2015.
"Known for his lyrical drawings informed by physical movement,
artist Robert Schatz has, in his latest body of work, begun to
explore the third dimension. Using humble materials, such as twine
and found pieces of wood, Schatz crafts intriguing objects that
index his decision-making process. Beginning with no preconceived
idea for form, the artist manipulates his materials intuitively,
allowing their natural inclinations to manifest. In this way the
complex, self-contained 'lines' he creates could be interpreted as
abstract narratives...dictated by the stuff at hand rather than
imposed by the artist. A range of analogous structures exist within
the sphere of human cultural production: Melanesian navigation
charts, the so-called coconut fiber string "spirit catchers" of
Danger Island, and quipu, that ancient record-keeping system of
loops and links form the Andes. The artist readily admits to a
childhood fascination with scale-model ship building (including the
intricate rigging) - and certainly the masculine-engendered
activity of knot-tying pertains here too. These constructions seem
to convey - through length and 'event' - not only the accounts of
various messages, but also a miniaturized reproduction of the path
the messenger took - in time and space - to arrive at delivery.
These mysterious forms, which trade equally in contours and
negative spaces, fit comfortably within the ongoing dialogue of
modern and post-modern sculpture. Any artist engaging with
suspended forms in motion must contend with the long shadow of
Alexander Calder. The artist's utilization of simple, everyday
items acknowledges post-minimalist Richard Tuttle and his seemingly
innocuous production. Like the mature oeuvre of Fred Sandback, with
acrylic yarn stretched in and around the viewer's space, Schatz's
pieces employ three-dimensional line to heighten bodily experience.
Philosophically they also correlate to David Smith's abstract
expressionist sculpture, welded together according to chance and
the 'inner necessity' of the forms, an unplanned irrational
arrangement facilitated by the artist. Capitalizing on the
similarity of his forms to the snarl of string in the back of the
odd kitchen drawer, the artist aims to 'entangle' the viewer,
evoking curiosity and mental attempts to 'unravel' the literal -
and figurative - conundrum at hand. Given the artist's interest in
Eastern thought, the very present 'thing'-ness of specific objects
of contemplation, like the scholar stones of Chinese tradition,
also seems applicable here."
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Thomas Sokolowski (director, Zimmerli Museum), "Sprezzatura: The
Art of Robert Schatz", exhibition essay, Nicholas Davies Gallery,
New York, October 1996.
“Somehow I was not surprised when I first saw one of Robert
Schatz’s preliminary sketches drawn on a yellow post-it note stuck
to the spine of a Jasper Johns catalogue. It hovered there and
seemed perfectly fitting and succinct and, most of all, proper.
What better an admixture for an artist creating lush skeins of
finely measured and almost mathematically paced staves of pure
feeling. I cannot view his work without thinking of those quirky
proofreader’s marks, perfectly clear if you have the key, and
almost absurdly foreign if you do not. These paintings and drawings
almost presuppose what the viewer is thinking even before the
thought has occurred. Maybe they are magic, and then again maybe
they are just well thought-out metaphors. Isn’t that what good art
is supposed to do anyway? A well-executed piece doesn’t show off,
it just is. Sixteenth century art theorists had a term for this:
sprezzatura, the art of making the difficult appear effortless.
That just about sums up Robert Schatz.”
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Nicholas Davies (director), Nicholas Davies Gallery, press release,
Geometries of Chance, 1998.
"In spite of some surface kinship, Schatz's work is not informed
with the loose, self-conscious expressionism of early American
abstraction, as it prefers to seduce not with bangs and braggadocio
but with a somber, quiet, rather diffident presence, like a Zen
rock garden. Indeed Schatz acknowledges the sympathetic influence
of Asian philosophies in his work."
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Nina Zivancevic (poet), "Letter From Paris", NY Arts, April 1999,
p79.
“The delicate and dreamy drawing of Robert Schatz…attests to the
futility of our attempts at taming the wild and unpredictable.”
Nina Zivancevic (poet), "Letter From Paris", NY Arts, April 1999,
p79
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Sally Lelong (director, The Phatory LLC), press release, Paesaggio,
New York, March 2007.
“Schatz’s imagery shares kinship with the arabesque lettering of
graffiti artists who scrawl their names across the urban landscape.
However, unlike those sprayed-painted arrangements, Schatz’s trails
of squiggled lines gather into orgiastic panoramas rather than
exaggerated tags. And, while these two styles of painting share
similarities, Schatz’s images are not intended to disrupt one’s
line of sight. Rather, the interactions between his free-flowing
lines and the faintly visible ones of the music paper underneath
suggests an orderly conversation between opposing dynamics....As
one begins to feel animated by these cartooned landscapes, one also
feels a desire to linger a while and take in everything these
scenic wonderlands offer.”
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Brent Burket, review excerpt, Paesaggio, The Phatory LLC, New York,
NY Arts, March 2007, p70.
“The paintings are done on the temple of order that is staff paper.
By making the choice to apply paint – his own form of notation – on
top of the staff paper, Schatz seems to be making the point that
there is another order at work here. It’s not as logical, as
mathematical, but more natural and intuitive.”