Andrew Topolski, S. O. I, 1993

In the vein of his earlier art, Andrew Topolski’s S.O. I suggests a cryptic meditation on military and political themes, presented in highly abstract terms. A mixed-media work combining stenciled letters, Mylar, sculpted metal, and pigment, its composition is heavily weighted toward one side of the picture plane, as is that of Topolski’s Overground I.

A square of brilliant blue, the dominant focus of the work, occupies the upper left side of the image. Barely perceptible through this dense blue ground are the slightly raised, stenciled characters “2E” and “23,” which have a metallic sheen.

Mechanical and scientific motifs common to Topolski’s art are found in the white Mylar square and the ruler directly below the blue area, and in the sculptural element in front of its lower edge. The square evokes a diagram or chart from a scientific text, though its numbers and letters are scattered. The top of the metallic object recalls a bullet or missile.

Although Topolski’s work undoubtedly draws on the formal principles of early modernism, notably constructivism, the presence of flags and text conveys a more current political reading. By including the American, British, and French flags in his composition, Topolski seems to allude to strategies shared by Western military forces.

Citation:
Text by Pamela M. Lee, from "Drawing is another kind of language": Recent American Drawings from a New York Private Collection (Harvard University Art Museums, in association with Daco-Verlag Gunter Bläse, 1997; reprinted 1998). ©1997 President and Fellows of Harvard College.