I love copper

When I look at a piece of art I always pay special attention to its materiality. I like impasto which means a thick coat of colors applied as a relief on the painting surface. I like color which was put on long time ago and which even after decades still looks as if it had not dried yet. When it comes to sculptures my favorite material is copper. In contrast to pompous gold copper looks rather modest. I love the red multi-faceted shimmer of this semiprecious metal. Depending on the lighting conditions copper always looks different. Artists often choose copper because as a soft metal cooper it is relatively easy to shape.

In New York cooper already came across me several times. On a visit to a friend who works at a restoration studio I saw a work by Donald Judd: one of his “wall pieces” grouping cubes and cuboids. For these kinds of work the minimalist artist Judd has become famous. The sculpture at the restoration studio consists predominantly of copper. Perfectly contoured, soft edges, high gloss polished, flawless. Well almost flawless. The patient's problem is: he was handled wrong. Someone had left traces on it because of not working with gloves. My friend is now trying to mend this again and to let the traces disappear in order to re-establish the perfect face.

Work of Donald Judd, Photo: private

A day later at Petzel Gallery I saw the exact opposite of a pristine copper surface: the artist Walead Beshty has investigated how copper modifies by use and the exhibited works demonstrate this in many ways. Using the preexisting design of the gallery tables and desktops as a readymade, Beshty created polished raw copper tables and installed them at the gallery´s working surfaces. The “Copper Surrogates” were then left in place for Beshty`s curated summer exhibition. As the gallery staff resumed their normal everyday work activities, their movements tarnished a patina of transaction on to the highly reflective copper surfaces. In September, the copper surrogates have been removed from their original function as working surfaces and Walead Beshty installed them in the gallery as pieces of art. The traces we see are manifold: imprints of coffee cups, dents, sometimes more and sometimes less abrasion.

Walead Beshty, Reception 2, 2014, Photo: Petzel Gallery

In the end I cannot decide which appearance of cooper I like most. I love cooper in any condition. And I am looking Forward to the next sculpture made of this unique material crossing my way.