RHINEBECK, NY.- ‘T’ Space presents the woodland premiere of Brice Marden's Cold Mountain Studies. These 35 drawings echo the poetry and calligraphy of Han Shan, a 9th century Chinese poet whose name translates to "Cold Mountain." Bill Porter, who writes under the pen name Red Pine, will read definitive translations of Han Shan’s poetry from his book, The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain, at the opening on June 2. ‘T’ Space’s show celebrates the Cold Mountain series’ connection to poetry and nature.

In a 1991 interview with Pat Steir, Brice Marden discussed the genesis of his Cold Mountain breakthrough. In the late 1980s, he happened upon Red Pine’s Han Shan poetry collection, which includes Chinese calligraphy. “It was [Han Shan’s] form that I picked up on—four couplets, and five or ten characters per couplet,” Brice said. During that time, he became “more and more interested in the ideas of Tao and of Zen. The Cold Mountain poems are very much about that.”1

Brice Marden has voiced enthusiasm for ‘T’ Space’s exhibition because of its sensitivity to Cold Mountain’s inspiration in poetry and nature. Red Pine’s reading will be the first co-presentation of Cold Mountain Studies with their inspiration, Han Shan’s poetry. Held in Rhinebeck, NY, the show will be a unique opportunity to view works from Brice’s acclaimed Cold Mountain series in a natural setting. Never before shown outside of a metropolitan area, ‘T’ Space’s exhibition will also be the studies’ premiere in the Hudson River Valley, where the artist lives and works.

The 35 Cold Mountain Studies (1988–1991) mark a departure from Brice Marden’s previous monochrome panel paintings. Drawing with sticks in black ink and gouache, he embraced the intimacy, directness and fluidity of the new method. “I wanted to be able to make something more like fugues, more complicated, back-and-forth renderings of feelings,” the artist has said.2

Author Heiner Bastian has written: “One of the most beautiful experiences these drawings reveal is Brice Marden’s closeness to nature, his real point of bearing, a transparent diction which also defines the boundlessness of these works.”3

Cold Mountain Studies opens at ‘T’ Space on Sunday, June 2 from 3 – 6pm, with a reading by Bill Porter and a performance of Sounding the Space for singing bowls by composer Raphael Mostel. Following the opening, the exhibition will be open Sundays from June 9th to August 11th, 12 – 5pm.

1, 2 Pat Steir, interview with Brice Marden, Brice Marden: Cold Mountain (New York: Dia Center for the Arts, 1991).

3 Heiner Bastian, Brice Marden: Cold Mountain Studies (Munich: Schirmer/Mosel, 1991) 4.