Gander's series of black rectangles is a playful interpretation of modernist themes such as the grid and the monochrome. The uneasy and incomplete geometries of his black outlines, which also suggest makeshift frames for the otherwise blank sheets, are based on duct-tape "drawings" the artist made on the walls of his studio. The everyday frustrations of making straight lines with heavy tape—the tape sticks to itself, a piece is cut too short or too long— were preserved in meticulous detail as the artist transformed his studio experiment into prints. The title, a cheeky inversion of the 1950s country song “If You’ve Got the Money I’ve Got the Time,” suggests the beginning of a dialogue, perhaps a provocation addressed to the viewer or an ironic statement about the commodification of art (and artists).
Gallery label from Abstract Generation: Now in Print, March 15–September 2, 2013.
