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Houston-HJ Bott was born in 1933, the same year as Bruce Conner, Dan Flavin, Sam Gilliam, Yoko Ono and James Rosenquist, but it is rarely mentioned in this diversified company. Although Bott has been engaged in artistic creation for seven years and has been exhibiting regularly in Texas since 1977, especially in Houston where he lives and works, he is almost unknown in New York. If Bott is a regional artist, this is understandable, but his involvement in geometric abstraction since 1952, including support, process, and materials, is in collaboration with post-war American artists such as Jeanne C. Jones and Agnes Martin. , Dorothea Rockburn, Robert Lehmann, Frank Stella, and Merrill Wagner. At least, this is the conclusion I came to when I went to the exhibition HJ Bott: A Baroque Minimalist at Anya Tish Gallery (October 23 to November 27, 2021) and saw the artist in 1952 and 2017.

This artist belongs to a group of brave people who remove the barriers between art and science, conceptual systems and alternative models of reality. In 1952, Bott (less than 20 years old at the time) drew many pictures in which he used different types of tape (masking tape, cellophane, and electrical tape), with graphite and charcoal, to divide the rectangular frame into various striped structures ( Vertical, horizontal, nested right-angle and diagonal) can be further distinguished by using black or gray. This clever and creative series, in which young artists combine tape, a discovered material, look forward to Frank's black paintings. In "Scotchline" (1952), Bott used masking tape, cellophane tape, and graphite to divide a 9 3/4 x 8 1/5 inch piece of paper horizontally into a stack of modular tapes. (Because he served in the army for three years from September 1953 to August 1956, he did not pursue the meaning of this painting and the other paintings in the series.) 

Bott's interest in the relationship between surface and image, vision and physics is one of the trends that run through his two-dimensional works, starting with "Scotchline". The exhibition jumped from that work to the painting "Traceries" (1965), which was done on an etched/scored MDF board. Although I hope it contains more works from this period, mainly to fill the gap between the early "tape" paintings and the changes in Bot's work from 1972, it is clear that his huge works need that. Such museums and loyal curators can appropriately provide insightful observations. 

On March 7, 1972, when Bott conceptualized the prototype series, he invented what he called the volume displacement concept (DoV). This is the concept described in the monograph HJ Bott: Rhythm and Rhetoric: 40 Years of the DoVConcepts (2012):

In the most basic form, DoV consists of a square with two "S" shapes drawn inside, one from top to bottom, the other from left to right or vice versa. Here, the square is divided into four Bott sled shapes, called DoV modules. […] In the largest range of space division, DoV consists of a square filled with a grid, two diagonal lines drawn from corner to corner, a circle inside the square, and finally two "S" shapes dividing the circle into One repeats four basic paisleys. From the complete form and arrangement, one can find many [...] shapes, such as arrows, lilies, paisley, yin and yang, four-pointed stars, and cross variants, as well as basic prototypes.

The introduction of two S shapes adds a twist to the way Bott breaks the rectangular support. Instead of using edges to generate what happens inside the rectangle, he designed an overlapping partition system that expands outward and interrupts other static partitions. 

By processing the S shape inside the rectangle, Bott developed something that looks like a truncated sled that can interact with other shapes and partitions in different ways. In "Nom De Plume (Gritch LXIII)" (1972), he used a polymer to adhere flawless black and white skin to an etched press plate, which was made of square ridges marked by X and vertical and horizontal lines Meshing, such as and larger circular ridges. The interaction between the white sled shape within the black ground and the ridged surface of the lines is fascinating, because the physical surface and the form of painting and the black ground do not dominate; they maintain a controversial deadlock or coexistence on all sides. 

Thirty years later, in "Damndazzled Generalizing Speciality" (2003), Bott used glazed vinyl and acrylic polymers on polylinen to achieve an absolutely smooth and hard surface, which seemed to exude an extraordinary Light. The paint extends beyond the support of the painting, forming jagged ridges on all four sides, as if we were looking at a polished unknown mineral. 

An X marks a vertical rectangle consisting of two criss-cross bands extending from corner to corner. Near the top and bottom of the picture are two sled-like shapes, where the curved shape covers the criss-crossing strips to form a luminous semicircle. Although the interior of the translucent sled is mottled, the wavy lines are straightened where they overlap the straps. 

In addition to translucency, Bott's innovative use of cross-sections derived from the S zone complicates the formalistic geometry that dominates New York. Instead of accepting rectangular or square boundaries and turning to tangible painting, Bot seems to have found a way to challenge the edge without denying it. His interest in different kinds of paints and polymers and etched surfaces conveys a temperament of restlessness, openness and experimentation, which is a dialogue with celebrities of his contemporaries. He found a way to repeat without becoming static, or worse, not being bored. 

In addition to these paintings, the exhibition also includes three sculptures placed on the floor, made of industrial mesh and wire, some of which are painted with rust stone or acrylic. Their forms are both porous and fixed. These sculptures are the definite objects and things we see, which are difficult to grasp in our minds. Resistance to fear is a quality of sculpture that caught my attention. They seem to reveal and hide themselves at the same time. I remembered that Bott found a way to elaborate and complicate the Möbius strip.

I think this exhibition is an introduction to an artist, and I want to learn more about his works and methods. His work requires strict academic review. 

HJ Bott: A Baroque minimalist will be exhibited at Anya Tish Gallery (4411 Montrose Boulevard, Suite A, Houston, Texas) until November 27.

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