Home Studio | Department of Lettering
“cedar wax,” Timothy Kane, Paul Scher, David Scher. Recorded in 2007
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.
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
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
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—
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.