Drawings, Studies and Prints

"In addition, notational works on paper provide glimpses into other levels of expression hinted
at in larger pieces. The mystic vision that Krebs delineated was spectacular and private,
exalted and hermetic, dazzling and still."
​
Mike Zahn, Considering the Technological Sublime,
 The Technological Sublime, Pazo Fine Art, 2022

Krebs regards drawing as more than the mere record of a concept. In his words, it is “a whole thing in itself.” He goes on to describe it as “the place where I thrash around for at least 100 hours. I am making very serious decisions about the piece but the image of the drawing is ultimately the only thing I am interested in for this piece of paper.”

Felshin, Nina.  “The Lock (Home on the Range, Part III): The Evolution of a Work by Rockne Krebs.” Projected Images, exhibition catalogue. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, 1974.
Nathanson, Carol A. (Editor). Tracing Vision: Modern Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 2011.


​​Rockne Krebs: Lasers and Candle Smoke
 
Public Art   Works on Paper   SciArt   HighTech   LowTech   Art and Technology 

Smoke Drawings Twitter thread

​








​
​The Smoke Drawings

In 1972, Krebs received a Guggenheim Foundation grant. He realized that his numerous ideas for artworks exceeded his immediate ability to
fabricate them; the grant afforded him the time to create graphic works describing the designs for
future sculptures. At the same time, Krebs sought
to create drawings expressing the atmospheric
and ephemeral qualities of his light works. 
Pushing beyond the traditional means of rendering, Krebs mastered a process for controlling and capturing smoke as a means of drawing.

Hemphill Artworks, Washington, DC. 
​Rockne Krebs: The Smoke Drawings, 2016

Picture
Lightning Sculpture,1973


"The personal elements were expressed mainly in drawings and in three-dimensional pieces he titled (from his boyhood in Missouri) the 'Home on the Range' series. Fantasy was one way out – 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.'

Forgey, Benjamin. The Washington Post, December 24, 1983, Krebs, Crystal Clear, At the Corcoran: Brilliant Light, Brilliant Ideas.

Moon Archer, 1974

“It seems I catch my dreams in an endless stream that only life can know what they mean.
​Although I can never find it, I never lose the arrow.” Rockne Krebs, 2010, artist writings

Picture
Rockne Krebs and Philip M. Smith viewing
Anonymous with 3-D glasses.

A love affair is a correct description of how I have dealt with making drawings. - Rockne Krebs
Belloli, Jay. Rockne Krebs: A Retrospective of Drawings, 1965-1982, 1983.
​


Picture
Anonymous, 1974
Anonymous, 1974
Collage, colored ink, colored pencil, and tempera on paper with 3-D glasses.

"In the drawing Anonymous, Krebs examines cursive writing as a combination of anonymous origin and individual expression. This graphic work has four visually distinct layers and can be totally understood only with 3-D glasses. One part can be seen with normal vision, one with the glasses’ red lens, one with the green lens, and one using both lenses at once. The sculpture Anonymous  that results from this drawing made use of a scanning device (which Krebs developed with Bart Johnson, an engineer) that created a memory for a laser beam. The piece spelled Krebs’ signature in laser light."

Belloli, Jay. Rockne Krebs: A Retrospective of Drawings, 1965-1982, 1983.


​Rockne Krebs: A Retrospective of Drawings, 1965-1982, Baxter Art Gallery,
the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA,  1983
​

Picture
"Krebs clearly loves to draw, and his works on paper, at the very least, should be considered an important part of his achievement. The drawings often serve, as one might expect, to examine ideas or  details for his usually transitory sculpture, or explore new concepts in general, and there are often areas of writing which discuss the visual proposal shown on the same page. But frequently, at the same time, these pieces can be drawings in the full sense of the word, works on paper that delight in their qualities of line, composition, and color as they convey information for the development of Krebs’ three-dimensional art.  Often interaction occurs between the sculptures and the drawings: a drawing and its accompanying text might lead to a piece, and, following the sculpture’s creation, Krebs might come back to do other drawings about what worked in it and what didn’t, leading to other sculptures, and so forth. A number of pieces proposed graphically have obviously not been made, and given the generally transitory nature of his art imposed by artistic and real-world considerations, the drawings are (other than the beautiful slides he takes) often the only documents that exist of his completed work."

Belloli, Jay.  Rockne Krebs: A Retrospective of Drawings, 1965-1982, 1983.