Drawings, Studies and Prints
Rockne Krebs was a fellow at the MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies (CAVS) under founder György Kepes. His practice included laser, light, sculpture, and sky art. Fellow 1973 – 1974. Photo taken in his studio at MIT. Photographer unknown, photo from the MIT CAVS Archives. "The collection features groundbreaking projects from pioneers working at the intersection of art, science, and technology." Center for Advanced Visual Studies Archives and Special Collection.
Rockne Krebs: A Retrospective of Drawings, 1965-1982, Baxter Art Gallery, the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 1983
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. Jay Belloli, Rockne Krebs: A Retrospective of Drawings, 1965-1982, 1983
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
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.” Nina Felshin, 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 / Carol A. Nathanson, (Editor), Hillary Brown (essay), Tracing Vision: Modern Drawings from the Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 2011.
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.
Benjamin Forgey, Krebs: Crystal Clear - At the Corcoran: Brilliant Light, Brilliant Ideas, The Washington Post, December 24, 1983.
Irrespective of their intended utility for a future project that was never realized, today, Krebs’ works on paper communicate projects that never needed to be materialized in real space and time to mesmerize the viewer.
Dan Cameron, The Ghost in the Machine, The Technological Sublime: Works by Three Artists, Pazo Fine Art, 2022.
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
Perhaps the most unusual works of paper from this period are the smoke drawings, works in which cloud-like areas of light and shade created with candle smoke are frequently combined with color penciled and airbrush images. Jay Belloli, Director, The Baxter Art Gallery, CalTech, Rockne Krebs: A Retrospective of Drawings, 1965-1982
Lasers and Candles
Public Art Works on Paper High Tech Low Tech Sci Art Art and Technology
In his drawings, Krebs often expresses his concern for the need of some particulate matter (dust, water vapor, water droplets) in space to reflect light and render light beams visible to the naked eye. Indeed, critic Paul Richard referred to one of Krebs’ earlier works as an “Electric Fog-Filled Happening.” This need for a reflective atmosphere may explain the smoke drawings he created in 1973. The smoke drawings, which he executed by holding a smoky candle under a piece of paper, resulted in forms that resemble vaporous clouds. In one of these drawings, Krebs has erased areas of smoke to create the impression of parallel beams of sunlight that pass through prisms, spreading the refracted light into the colors of a rainbow. Stephen Goddard, Associate Director, Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas University, 2013. Rockne Krebs: Drawings for Sculpture You Can Walk Through, 2013-2014.