"A Rainbow Tree" Revisited by Kyle Krebs

A Rainbow Tree, 1970

A Rainbow Tree has always caught my eye. I feel my uncle’s art and ideas come from an inner connection that never forgot.  

Never forgot that creation of any kind is not so much putting matter to light, but bringing light to matter.  

A Rainbow Tree at a glance and on the surface might be seen as another way to project light back to the viewer, but as I look deeper I realize that he might be attempting to once again project the viewer into the light.

Rockne Krebs’ artwork and creations have always used a hint of magic to show that the forefront is always the backdrop and vice versa.

A Rainbow Tree, 1970, detail

"...on paper he imagined vast, impossible structures such as a Sun Pyramid, and potentially fatal ones such as Lightning Sculpture, and brilliant, barely possible inventions such as A Rainbow Tree." 2* 

"...they involve water being sprayed into the air to create rainbows arcing over treetops;  Krebs' notes on A Rainbow Tree explain that 'it can only be seen when the viewer is in a specific position in relation to the piece + the sun. It makes looking at a work of art like looking at the sky and needs to be approached with the same expectancy.'" 1*

“Rockne makes his art mostly with his heart,” says Sam Gilliam. "Some
 of his works are the most sentimental things.  When Robert Rauschenberg saw the Rainbow Tree, he actually cried.  He said, ‘That’s something I wish
I had done.’ “ 3*

It's hard to understand that everything we see on a daily basis IS a sculpted piece of art, and made of light.  That's how I think my uncle saw things.  The only difference is how we choose to view it, that's how the world changes.  We are just witnessing the unfolding of truth in the reflection of a prism rainbow.

Moon Archer, 1974, drawing for a night rainbow

Moon Archer, 1974. Collection of the Georgia Museum of Art

As in A Rainbow Tree, Moon Archer also uses the knowledge of the sculptor, Rockne Krebs, that the observer will not find on the outside what they don't hold on the inside.  

The observer to any projection of light onto the backdrop of the palette of something as pure as water is seemingly impossible especially at night. 

Yet Rockne Krebs inherently knows the feeling of impossible to be the only logical direction to sail.  This direction is where any sculptor proves that the earth is not flat and the observed is never separate from the observer.  This is how he knows, no thought is impossible, only not yet sailed.

                                                                                                     - Kyle Krebs

ARTFORUM, 1971, ad for Krebs' Spectral Drawings

ARTFORUM 1971 (ad text) - Krebs’ Spectral Drawings
Signed edition of 50     A Rainbow Tree     Hand tinted print 17”x22”
A Film by Edward Kelley on Krebs’ Photon Structures (16mm; prints
available)  Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC

1*  Nathanson, Carol A. (Editor). Tracing Vision: Modern Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art.  Rockne Krebs, essay by Hillary Brown.  2011.
2*  Forgey,  Benjamin.  The Washington Post, Krebs, Crystal Clear, At the Corcoran: Brilliant Light, Brilliant Ideas, December 24, 1983.
3*  Allen, Jane Addams.  The Washington Times, Rockne Krebs, December, 23, 1983.