Decree 1988
Calligraphic 1982-1994
In 1982, after many years of grinding painterly marks into metal surfaces, David Jacobs began to premise most of his sculptures on calligraphy. Typically starting with ink drawings, Jacobs would enlarge individual brushstrokes and translate them into aluminum. For over a decade these units functioned as building blocks for dozens of freestanding and wall-mounted sculptures. Jacobs often welded the aluminum strokes into vertical forms that are somewhat figurative, though the enlarged calligraphic marks seem to trace the quicksilver movements of an absent body. Other works organize the strokes around a central aperture, effectively splitting the difference between a frame and an image.
Some of these sculptures betray a renewed interest in Julio Gonzalez, whose elegant assemblages were surveyed at the Guggenheim Museum in 1983. But this extended examination of calligraphy is more deeply rooted in Jacobs’ biography. Though he was exposed to spoken and written Syriac as a child, he never learned the language and was left to intuit its meaning through essentially abstract sounds and strokes. This experience certainly resonates through calligraphic sculptures that know no alphabet, but nonetheless communicate by way of painterly forms, fluid movements, and reflected light.
Glyph – 1982
Stub 2 – 1982
2-4-T – 1983
Jake – 1983
Best – 1983
Buddah Boogie Maquette – 1983
Buddah Boogie – 1983
Paolo – 1983
Flair – 1984
Chuck – 1984
Rez – 1984
Bunch – 1984
Fall – 1984
Marc – 1984
On – 1984
Rogers 25Th – 1984
Her – 1984
Chink – 1984
Bolt – 1984
Big – 1984
Blue – 1984
Don – 1984
No Slide – 1984
Pruett – 1984
Dex – 1984
Drag – 1984
Flip – 1984
Ban – 1984
Not – 1984
Antipasto – 1985
Sum – 1985
Art – 1985
Value – 1985
Rich Possibilities – 1985
Dragon – 1985
Grace – 1985
Still – 1985
Palm – 1985
August – 1985
September – 1985
Gabriel – 1985
John – 1985
Master – 1985
Speedball I – 1986
Speedball II – 1986
Academic – 1986
Written – 1986
Lake – 1986
Frame – 1986
Dream Frame – 1986
Feast – 1986
Jacobs Pillow – 1986
Tomark – 1986
Sound Sailor – 1986
Chart Maquette – 1986
Chardonnay – 1987
Bazaar Lot 2 – 1987
Bazaar Lot 3 – 1987
Bazaar Lot for Jason – 1987
Blot: Shonda – 1987
Blot: Gimp – 1987
Blot: Sugar – 1987
Big Dipper – 1987
Rolling On – 1987
Xchange – 1987
Decree Frame – 1988
Chowder – 1989
Chart House – 1989
Schooner – 1989
Block – 1989
Kathy – 1989
Aligned Isles – 1990
Blue Lagoon X – 1990
Blue Lagoon III Maquette – 1990
Blue Lagoon III – 1990
Blue Lagoon II – 1990
Blue Lagoon V – 1990
Blue Lagoon IV Maquette – 1991
Nur Maquette II – 1992
Nur – 1992
Drawing
Kick – 1982
