Everything is in the details

Graciela Kartofel is an art historian, curator, and art critic. Kartofel has contributed to the exhibition of artists from Mexico for the São Paolo Biennial, a traveling exhibition of Joseph Beuys, and edited the catalogue raisonné of prints by Octavio Bajonero Gil.

Dear colleagues and connoisseurs,

I will begin by sharing with you my dream as a child. I wanted to be a little cartoon character that was well known in Argentina around that time: Hormiguita Viajera, which can be translated as the Flying or Traveling Ant. If you are unfamiliar, picture this character dressed as if she belonged to Yayoi Kusama’s time. But my dream didn’t stop with appearances, since my transformation as a flying ant also meant that I would be traveling to a variety of places with a portable typewriter. This dream is even more of a fantasy in a time of quarantine, although part of this vision will ring true for those of you who know me. While I am not a flying ant, I have indeed spent a lot of time traveling with my computer at hand.

The plan for this year included moving forward with three major publications and four curatorial projects, in addition to my teaching responsibilities. As an independent art historian, critic, and curator, I was accustomed to being very organized and having a detailed calendar. January had me in New York, I was in Mexico City and three other states in Mexico during February and a couple of days of March, then to Boston for a bit and back to New York, where by the 11th of that month I began the quarantine. In the midst of all the tragic developments worldwide, the general uncertainty and concerns for health, I paced my home office trying to come up with a solution for the library research that I had planned to do in New York. Eventually, I was able to calm down and figure out how to proceed.

Some of my professional concerns resolved themselves. Educational responsibilities were postponed by the governments in each country where I had agreed to be a part of those projects. Something similar happened with curatorial work, as institutions and galleries closed. Nonetheless, I could still continue, however partially, with my research work for the following publications:

a.) Neo-Brutalism: a book on the young and celebrated architect Rafael Pardo, to be published in Mexico by Arquine.

b.) The catalogue raisonné of prints of the Oaxacan artist Maximino Javier, to be published by Black Coffee Foundation.

c.) A book and catalogue raisonné on the art of Pablo Edelstein.

I have since concentrated on organizing a new schedule for these responsibilities in the editorial field, and here are the updates:

a.) Neo-Brutalism is already in the printing process as everything was finished by the end of last year, we were just discussing some photography changes, and going over minor corrections. The plan to release it this year is up in the air, however, and the eventual timing of this will depend on the pandemic.

b.) The Maximino Javier catalogue raisonné of prints is an interesting project as the 72-year-old artist has worked in this discipline all his life. Javier was one of the founding members of the Rufino Tamayo workshop in Oaxaca. He is also a painter and sculptor, and both have been studied in a book—albeit not a catalogue raisonné—published five years ago by the Black Coffee Foundation.

At the Foundation, employees have been furloughed and only the director remains. We hope to keep things together, but cannot move ahead as there are no funds to pay for professional photography or other aspects of the project. As of now, the project will be moved to 2022, creating a hiatus of two years.

c.) As a catalogue raisonné scholar, I am working on a passion project to document the work of the Argentine artist Pablo Edelstein. He was a painter and sculptor, installed public sculptures in Buenos Aires and elsewhere, taught widely, participated in the foundation of artists’ associations, served as cultural advisor for the government, and received a number of important awards. Edelstein was also a student of Lucio Fontana, and the two became friends, with Fontana passing on his studio to the artist when he left Argentina.

When the Pablo Edelstein Foundation hired me last year to organize the catalogue raisonné, I also proposed an anniversary exhibition in 2020. I need to mention that although I have lived abroad for forty years, I knew Pablo Edelstein when I lived in Argentina, and we had several conversations in the ’70s. So I especially felt how important it was to mark the 10th anniversary of Edelstein’s passing. As 2019 was an election year in Argentina, it was almost impossible to secure an exhibition venue since museum directors normally change with a new government. By the beginning of this year I tried to make it happen and all was moving forward, when the pandemic threw us and everything else into a holding pattern. 

The research for the Edelstein catalogue raisonné is moving at a good pace but not at all ready to be published yet, as we all would expect. A catalogue raisonné takes much more than one year. Some may think that they can push it through, but then the end product would be neither a catalogue raisonné nor any sort of professional work. To help us move the project forward, the Foundation published an ad in the December 2019 issue of ArtNexus, the most important magazine on Latin American art. We are very slowly getting responses and there are a few professional photos that still need to be taken, but it has been very complicated to ask people for their focused participation during this time.

It would not be fair to let the death anniversary of Pablo Edelstein go by without bringing the work of this prolific artist back into public view. This is not only my wish, but that of his family. They had quickly accepted my proposal for an exhibition and are hoping for it still. We all want it to happen. As the situation has worsened, at this point nobody can confirm an exhibition date even for 2021.

In thinking about other ways to reach out to the art world and the general public, it occurred to me to post some of our works in progress on the Edelstein website. This would include the first version of the index and guide to entries for the future catalogue raisonné, its chronology, credits, the list of collections, and all those discoveries that enriched the work up to now, as well as drafts of the possible chapters. Sharing these resources would be an homage to the artist.

A catalogue raisonné is huge and complicated job. It requires much more than penciling in some notes and at the same time it is more than text in a book. Catalogues raisonnés need captions for each photo, footnotes for each quote, and so on. Everything is in the details. During this stretch, I am finding it difficult to choose some of the images since I have been unable to finish the research. Ultimately, I have to think of it almost as the draft of a draft, and remain confident that the artist’s name will ring a bell to collectors, aficionados, family, and become familiar to people who have never heard of him. This is what I am working on now, and it is helping to cope with this unprecedented pandemic.

Graciela Kartofel New York, August 5th 2020 www.gracielakartofel.com

Pressing on

Massimo Tonolli is a partner in Trifolio, a printing house in Verona, Italy. Trifolio has produced a number of catalogues raisonnés, and most recently on the work of artists Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Motherwell, Jasper Johns, and Luc Tuymans.

This has been a particularly complicated period of time at Trifolio. Prior to the outbreak of COVID-19, our schedule was operating with its usual precision and we were in production on a number of projects. COVID-19 created a sudden shift in our priorities, making us understand that our health and the health of our families are most important. We decided to close production, which was a simple decision since we don't produce basic necessities.

After 6 weeks of complete closure, we have slowly gone back to work. At first 30%, then 50%, and now 80% of our normal operating capacity. We kept in touch with the whole team each week during our closure, and have been relieved that nobody has had any particular health problems.

The production of catalogues raisonnés requires special precision. First of all, the amount of work must be taken into account immediately. After an initial overview, the first tests are made, keeping in mind all of the challenges inherent in the reproduction of works of art, but other practical concerns as well. Foremost in practicality is the ability to source all of the necessary production materials over time, most obviously including paper and then moving on to the canvas for binding. The wrong approach can lead to problems with costs and quality that are ultimately irresolvable. You need to have clear ideas immediately. The catalogues raisonnés that we have printed possess two common qualities: the length of preparation and also the many hours of printing.

In the initial installment of “The Catalogue Raisonné and the Ellipsis,” Stephen Mack discussed issues related to the inevitable gaps in provenance research and Tracee Ng explored the seemingly unenviable position of completing work on a catalogue raisonné at the onset of the pandemic.