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  Artist:Lance Letscher |
A poet in scrap
paper By Jeanne Claire van
Ryzin It's quiet and calm in D. Berman Gallery on a recent morning, the day after the opening reception of Lance Letscher's current exhibit. And Letscher seems more comfortable with that. The night before, about 150 people filtered through the high-ceiling gallery. The 40-year-old artist shrugs when asked if the opening went well: "You have to do the openings; they're part of the deal. It went OK. . . . " The truth is, the opening did go well. Of Letscher's 15 colorful collages on display, five have already sold -- four, in fact, before the party even kicked off. (Letscher's collages range in price from less than $1,000 to upward of $6,000.) And after Letscher finishes talking with a reporter, a visiting British property developer will walk in off the street, take one look at Letscher's work and promptly commission two pieces. Perhaps it's the sheer visual poetry that people find irresistible -- the exquisite hues, the striking compositions and the spirited yet elusive details that emerge out of Letscher's carefully constructed collages made from worn vintage paper. After all, fortuitous episodes such as the commission from the visiting Brit have been happening recently for the native Austinite who has been working quietly and steadily since completing bachelor's and master's of fine arts degrees at the University of Texas in the 1980s. In June, Letscher had his first New York solo show at Howard Scott Gallery in Chelsea. The show sold out and garnered rave reviews from hard-to-please New York critics. In January, he'll have his second solo show at Conduit Gallery in Dallas. Then in April, Letscher is off to Munich, Germany, for a solo show at the noted Galerie Renate Bender. He's also got some work headed to Tokyo for an exhibit in spring. Letscher is diffident, almost critically shy -- not at all accustomed to being interviewed, perhaps not so comfortable with all the attention his career has been attracting lately. Success is a double-edged sword after all. "It's relieving," he says, noting that the now-steady income he has from his work lightens the financial burden of raising two teenage sons. But at the same time, there's a whole new kind of artistic anxiety that's fueling his insecurities. "I feel this pressure to push myself -- to take my work to the next level. Once people have seen the work I'm doing now, they'll perhaps won't want to see the exact same thing a year from now." Such is the nature of success in the art world. To stay on top you must, well, stay on top -- you must progress. By all accounts though, the powerfully visceral appeal of Letscher's work doesn't let up. "Lance's collages have a real way of grabbing people's attention," says gallery owner David Berman. "People walk into the gallery and just head straight for his work." Maybe that's because there's not a barrage of collage art gaining attention right now in contemporary art circles. Or maybe it's the expressive yet mysterious quality that resonates from Letscher's work. He builds his collages from old book covers and paper scraps, scouring junk shops and second-hand stores. But it's not just any old book or scrap of paper he's after. "I'm selective about the quality of wear and tear," he says. "And I like to look for odd colors and type faces and fonts that imply specific eras." Letscher collects handwritten documents as well -- ledgers, letters, recipes, lists -- always looking at the emotional quality of the script rather than the information contained. And he loves the out-of-control aspect of children's handwriting, the expressionistic quality it has. "I look for something that has a mysterious quality," he says. "Something you can't put your finger on." Like the pattern of the stonework in the fireplace at his grandparents' house. When he was young, Letscher was fascinated by how the mason had crafted the fireplace using a pattern of seven different size stones. Yet though he would stare at it for hours, Letscher could never decipher the structure of the pattern. Still he would gaze at the stone fireplace, mesmerized. "I'm attracted to art that has an endless quality to it," he says. "The sort of images that make you feel like you're falling into them until you're completely encompassed in a different world." And that really describes Letscher's current work. His collages evoke an incredible amount of depth, whether they're a pattern of leaves against an off-white background like "Small Green One" or a vigorous array of small rectangles like "Red Bar." Compositionally, Letscher works in an abstract, not representational mode. It matches his inner mood. "I see nature as perfect and elegant," he says. "And I feel like an awkward person." Most days find Letscher keeping daytime work hours in the light-filled studio he built attached to his tomato-red bungalow in Central Austin. Dogs bark out in the yard. Four of them -- Letscher's wife, Mary, can't resist a stray. He cuts the collected paper and book scraps with surgical precision, assembling them on Masonite, slathering them with brown-tinted book glue before letting them dry while compressed in a book press. It's not exactly a complex technique, yet it produces complex and compelling art. "Lance Letscher was one of the most sincere and earnest students that I have ever encountered," says Ken Hale, chair of the art department at UT, who taught Letscher when he was a graduate and undergraduate. "He made art as if it was an answer to an unanswerable question. Add to that a shyness and a humbleness, and you have a very complex, multilayered individual -- which describes his current work." Rich, mesmerizing and wondrous collages that are portals to another wholly developed world. jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699 |