This installation borrows its title from a series of drawings by Donald Moffett (born San Antonio, 1955) rendered in fudge on paper pierced with a bullet shot by his friend, Robert Beck (born Towson, Maryland, 1959). As a young artist who arrived in New York in the late 1970s, Moffett was inspired by more-established colleagues, including Alice Aycock, Lynda Benglis, and Elizabeth Murray, whose post-Minimalist work resonated with what he calls his "fractured formalist impulses." Taking this intergenerational artistic milieu as its point of departure, this exhibition brings together works by artists whose output subverts a rigorous formalism through references to subjectivity, narrative, and process.
Donald Moffett (American, b. 1955) and Robert Beck (American, b. 1959). Range (detail), 1997. Graphite, gunpowder, and fudge on paper, 12 x 9 in. (30.5 x 22.9 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, The Cowles Charitable Trust Gift and Van Day Truex Fund, 2013 (2013.585.16). © 1997 Robert Beck and Donald Moffett