Channa Horwitz: Progressions and Rhythms in Eight

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Channa Horwitz, "8th Level Discovered," 1982

Courtesy the Estate of Channa Horwitz

The Contemporary Art Gallery presents the first exhibition in Canada of work by artist Channa Horwitz (1932 – 2013). Comprising an overview of her practice, the exhibition includes drawings, artist’s books and archival materials selected from major bodies of work spanning five decades.

Based in Los Angeles, Horwitz sought to focus her practice through a consideration of rules. Fundamental to the artist’s thinking is a relationship between numerical sequence, line and systems developed through intensive and exhaustive drawings. Using the grid as an underlying structure, complex and systematic compositions evolved over successive series based on the number eight.

Presented in a vitrine in the North Gallery is a collection of index cards from 1964, depicting the various permutations of eight pictograms composed of squares and rectangles. Groupings of these images in twos and threes create repetitive patterns determined by sequential numbering such as 1-2, 1-3, through to 1-8. This early work laid the foundation for her artistic inquiry as Horwitz quickly arrived upon a notation system to track movement and time visually which she termed “Sonakinatography” meaning sound - motion - notation. Through different permutations of a count of eight where eight colours are assigned to eight “entities” and given a corresponding duration of beats, works such as Sonakinatography Comp. 17, is one of a series of unique graphic forms that depict these linear progressions. These drawings were also open to performative or installation interpretation as can be seen in the associated archival documentation displayed alongside.

Also shown are a selection of drawings from series such as “Variations and Inversion on a Rhythm”, “Eight”, “Canon Series”, “Moiré”, “Rhythm of Lines” and “Design”, amongst others. These densely patterned and luminously colourful works display a playfulness that contrasts the meticulous process of their creation. Collectively, they demonstrate a lifetime of devotion to visually arresting, systematic and elaborate works, revealing the freedom and multiple levels of consciousness that Horwitz achieved through methodical and logical patterning.