Sophie Tottie – The Complaints of a Line
The ability to read abstract presentations relates to a reality that does not aspire to present a figurative picture but nevertheless describes an existing actuality. Since the 18th century, geological drawings, for instance, have radically changed our perception of the line, the marking, and what they express. Despite a predetermined concept and a strict implementation of the idea, Tottie's drawings generate images where idea, method, material and size together form an expression – an expression that is just as abstract as the sediments of earth but which are constantly shifted by the process beyond the reaches of the predictable.
Sophie Tottie (b. 1964) has an explorative approach to her works, which are based on drawing and painting. By experimenting with the tension between materials, processes, images and spaces, she visualises the encounter between the spectator and the work. She is represented in several collections, including those of MoMA in New York, Moderna Museet in Stockholm and Malmö Konstmuseum. Tottie was recently appointed a professor at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm. She has previously been a professor at Malmö Art Academy at Lund University and a visiting artist/lecturer at Harvard University, USA. Her works White Lines and Written Language (line drawings) have previously been shown at Andrae Kaufmann Gallery in Berlin, Konrad Fischer Galerie in Berlin, Malmö Konstmuseum in Malmö and MoMA in New York.
