About the work

Damian was renowned for his exploration of very few themes in extraordinary depth. Thomas Messer, the Director of the Guggenheim, wrote that Damian’s work is concerned with the intuition of an extra-terrestrial spatial order. Messer’s description may be difficult to understand, but Damian’s work can be enjoyed precisely because it does not require understanding. His detailed, crisp drawing forming a sensuous image is a joy to view.

The year after the pencil image was drawn, it was published in an edition of 125, of which this is number 63, by Denise Rene Editeur. Rene was a French gallerist who was the godmother of geometric abstraction and kinetic art. She presented the first solo exhibition of Piet Mondrian in Paris and put together shows for the luminaries of modern art in the 1950s through 1970s.

In recognition of the importance of this work, it was beautifully framed in a hand-made aluminum frame with forged, seamless corners using a technique popularized by Robert Kulicke in the late 1950s.

Damian has had a consistent series of solo exhibitions from the 1950s to the present at leading venues, including the Guggenheim, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, MOMA, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Leo Castelli gallery. His work was featured in the Romanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1993.