--- title: "071 - Aspects of Blank: Early Work, Arakawa 4/15-5/23 1981" date: 2017-08-11T15:11:00-04:00 author: Graham Murray canonical_url: "https://feldmangallery.com/exhibition/071-aspects-of-blank-early-work-arakawa-4-15-5-23-1981" section: Exhibition --- [![Ronald Feldman Gallery logo](/src/images/rff_logo.svg)](/) ![](/src/images/search.svg) View Artists Search Artists [Exhibitions](/feature_exhibitions) [Past Exhibitions](/past_exhibitions/) [Artists](/artist_overview) [News & Press](/news_overview) [Inventory](https://www.artsy.net/ronald-feldman-gallery/artists) [Publications](/feature_publications) [Gallery Info](/about) [Contact](/contact) [![Facebook](/src/images/fb.svg)](https://www.facebook.com/RonaldFeldmanGallery/) [![Instagram](/src/images/ig.svg)](https://www.instagram.com/feldmangallery/) [![Twitter](/src/images/tw.svg)](https://twitter.com/feldmangallery?lang=en) [Artsy](https://www.artsy.net/ronald-feldman-gallery) [Artnet](http://www.artnet.com/galleries/ronald-feldman-fine-arts/) ![](/src/images/close_btn.svg) ![](/src/images/close_btn.svg)Artists [ View With Images ](/artist_overview) Jump to: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A [ Arakawa ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/arakawa-) [ Conrad Atkinson ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/conrad-atkinson) [ Eleanor Antin ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/eleanor-antin) [ Ida Applebroog ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/ida-applebroog-) [ Jim Anderson ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/jim-anderson-) B [ Alexander Brodsky ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/alexander-brodsky) [ Brandon Ballengée ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/brandon-balleng%C3%A9e) [ Brodsky & Utkin ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/brodsky-utkin) [ Chris Burden ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/chris-burden-) [ Joseph Beuys ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/joseph-beuys) C [ Cassils ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/cassils) [ Keith Cottingham ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/keith-cottingham) [ Nancy Chunn ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/nancy-chun) D [ Eric Dyer ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/eric-dyer) [ Milena Dopitová ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/milena-dopitova) F [ Carl Fudge ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/carl-fudge) [ Terry Fox ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/terry-fox) G [ Leon Golub ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/leon-golub-) [ Rico Gatson ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/rico-gatson) [ Yishay Garbasz ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/yishay-garbasz) H [ Cameron Hayes ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/cameron-hayes) [ Christine Hill ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/christine-hill) [ Helen Mayer & Newton Harrison ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/helen-mayer-harrison-newton-harrison) [ Kelly Heaton ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/kelly-heaton) [ Margaret Harrison ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/margaret-harrison) [ Shih Chieh Huang ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/shih-chieh-huang) J [ Simone Jones ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/simone-jones) K [ Brian Knep ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/brian-knep) [ Komar & Melamid ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/komar-melamid) [ Peggy Jarrell Kaplan ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/peggy-jarrell-kaplan) [ Vitaly Komar ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/vitaly-komar) L [ Kim Levin ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/kim-levin-) M [ McCarren/Fine ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/mccarren-fine) O [ Pepón Osorio ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/pep%C3%B3n-osorio) [ The Oakes Twins ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/the-oakes-twins) P [ Bruce Pearson ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/bruce-pearson) [ Panamarenko ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/panamarenko) R [ Fredric Riskin ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/fredric-riskin-1) [ Richard Ross ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/richard-ross) S [ Diemut Strebe ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/diemut-strebe) [ Edwin Schlossberg ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/edwin-schlossberg) [ Federico Solmi ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/federico-solmi-) [ Jason Salavon ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/jason-salavon) [ Todd Siler ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/todd-siler) U [ Mierle Laderman Ukeles ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/mierle-laderman-ukeles) V [ Sam Van Aken ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/sam-van-aken) W [ Allan Wexler ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/allan-wexler) [ Andy Warhol ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/andy-warhol) [ Clemens Weiss ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/clemens-weiss) [ Hannah Wilke ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/hannah-wilke) Y [ Gil Yefman ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/gil-yefman) [ ![Ronald Feldman Gallery logo](/src/images/rff_logo.svg) ](/) Aspects of Blank: Early Work [Arakawa](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/arakawa-) Apr 14 – May 30, 1981 ![Arakawa A Diagram Of Imagination 1965 Hero Image](/assets/hero_images/_1600x800_crop_top-center_75_none/Arakawa-A-Diagram-of-Imagination-1965-Hero-Image_181206_155708.jpg) Arakawa A Diagram of Imagination Description At the gallery downtown the first paintings Arakawa made in New York (starting from about twenty years ago) are being shown. The diagrammatic nature of his work was what shocked some viewers and critics at the time. It is predicted that these painted formulations will still, fifteen to twenty years later, look extreme to most viewers. Some of the work included in the show had been rolled up and put away, never to be shown until now, because Arakawa, himself, was somewhat shocked by the severity, the implications. The drawings which are being shown uptown are Arakawa's most recent work. They form in a way a bridge between the revised second edition of *The Mechanism of Meaning* (New York, Abrams, 1980) and the large-scale utopian construction which he and Madeline Gins are going to be building based largely on that book. In order to build this grand work, Arakawa suggests that it is necessary first to establish a time-space suitable for housing this. This he has named blank. Here are two of the paragraphs which he incorporated into his "Drawing of the Blank." "Part of doing is always blank. Even those energies which lead us move blankly. What are commonly called feeling and thinking are such energies. As well as providing a place for "forming blank," these configurations of energy move through blank, sometimes to remain in it, completely blank." "As the coordination of the senses takes place within a blank, whatever it is that orders this coordination must also remain blank to us. Therefore, how can we knowingly speak of the coordination of the senses except in terms of blank. **DOWNTOWN** The public is invited to the opening on Wednesday, April 15th. The downtown gallery is located at 31-33 Mercer Street (between Grand and Canal). Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10:30 to 6 PM. A reception for the artist will be held from 5:30 to 7:30 PM. [ ![](/src/images/down-arrow.svg) View Press Release ](https://feldmangallery.com/assets/pdfs/artistCV/Arakawa-81.pdf) [ ![](/src/images/redirect.svg) View Artist ](https://feldmangallery.com/artist-home/arakawa-) ![Arakawa Untitled 1964 1](/assets/exhibition_images/Arakawa-Untitled-1964_1.JPG) Arakawa Untitled, 1964 View Gallery ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/close_btn.svg) ![Arakawa Untitled 1964 1]() ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) Arakawa Untitled, 1964 ![Arakawa To Be 1963 64 1]() ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) Arakawa TO Be, 1963 ![Arakawa Untitled Voice Inoculations 1964 65]() ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) Arakawa Untitled (Voice Inoculations), 1964-65 ![Arakawa The Re Assembling Of What 1964 1]() ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) Arakawa The Re-assembling of What, 1964 ![Arakawa Stretching Labyrinth 1965 1]() ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) Arakawa Stretching Labyrinth, 1965 ![Arakawa Splitting The Field 1962 1]() ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) Arakawa Splitting the Field, 1962 ![Arakawa Shifted Inserted Sculpture 1963 1]() ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) Arakawa Shifted Inserted Sculpture, 1963 ![Arakawa Numbers 1963]() ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) Arakawa Numbers, 1963 ![Arakawa Bottomless 1963 1]() ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) Arakawa Bottomless, 1963 ![Arakawa A Diagram Of Imagination 1965]() ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ![](https://feldmangallery.com//src/images/arrow-right.svg) Arakawa A Diagram of Imagination, 1965 Ronald Feldman Gallery has been at the frontier of contemporary art since 1971. The gallery is located in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City and exhibits performance, photography, new media, film, painting, drawing and sculpture. 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