What is this? A sculpture for ants? It needs to be at least three times bigger than this.

Tuttle himself claimed that, “[his] work has always tended to make people say stupid things, unfortunately,” that Zoolander quote being one of them.

This sculpture, or "drawing" as Tuttle refers to sculpture, is made of paper, plastic, cardboard and wire. You may be fooled into thinking that the small yellow cylinders are uncooked pasta but you would definitely be wrong and feel stupid...especially after Googling “Richard Tuttle, pasta art?” But I digress. The materials Tuttle uses are pretty unusual for sculptors. Richard Tuttle DGAFs about the longevity of his materials in a way that only Eva Hesse had before him, which is impressive. One critic even questioned whether or not the art would last until the end of one of Tuttle’s exhibitions, which seems a little dramatic. I mean it’s paper and plastic, not cotton candy.

But anyways, his materials and scale also suggest a comfort in his masculinity that Picasso, Richard Serra and Jeff Koons would scoff at with their monumental art and unwavering machismo. But in contemporary art, big is out and thin is in. There must be something in the water in  New Mexico, where Tuttle lives, that makes artists paint/create delicately. I mean look at Agnes Martin. She went to the desert and all of a sudden she’s a Zen master and her art is all about tiny, pencil-drawn grids. And then Tuttle goes and now he’s the resident tiny sculpture guy. Then again, Tuttle and Martin were friends so it could have been a “them” thing rather than a New Mexico thing. What I would give to be a part of that club....