His daily rhythm

Sketchbooks offer a window into an artist’s process – capturing their surroundings, impressions  and ideas that may or may not lead to finished works of art. But what if they are also a record of the artist’s inner life? For Ben Woolfitt, sketchbooks fulfill such a function. Inspired by the works of Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann and Antoni Tapiès, Woolfitt began drawing in earnest in the late 1970s. Onto the pages of his uniquely designed books, he pours his psychologically charged drawings. On view now at the AGO in the Nicholas Fodor Gallery and Gallery 141 on Level 1, the new exhibition Ben Woolfitt: Rhythms and Series features 37 works on paper, four drawing books and one painting. 

Since 1965, Woolfitt has lived, for at least part of the year, in Toronto. And everyday, no matter where the artist may be -- or how busy -- he begins the day by drawing. “I usually start drawing between 6 and 6:30 am, sometimes 5:30 am.…One of the reasons I like to work early in the morning is because a range of emotions is very available to me,” says Woolfitt. “Once you go through the day and people have banged on your door enough times, it is very hard to return to these emotions.”

The basis for Woolfitt’s drawings are rubbings, made using a technique known as frottage. Working with various found objects, including pieces of bamboo, wire grates and fragments of window screen, Woolfitt rubs an impression of an object onto the page in graphite. To this, he adds silver or metal leaf. Through this process, Woolfitt probes his mind and his reactions to events past and present, public and personal. Each drawing is dated, appearing randomly throughout his sketchbooks, defying linear progression. From this daily rhythm, over the past two decades Woolfitt has generated 15 distinct but overlapping series of drawings. 

Ben Woolfitt. crinkled sitting here thinking …, May 5 2020. metal leaf on paper, Overall: 35.6 × 55.9 cm (14 × 22 in.). Property of the artist.  © Ben Woolfit.

“At this point,” recounts Woolffit, “I have what I would call a vocabulary. Part of my vocabulary, I would say, is the number of series that I work from, and the various screens and different templates that I work from. There are roughly 15 distinct series across the last 20—for example, the fallen angels series is in black and silver, or pure silver, so it gives me enough of a vocabulary to pull from. I write my dreams into the books, as well. I usually do that after I complete a drawing. Then different series will emerge as I go through [that process].”

After the death of his father in 1999, Woolfitt began a new series he would later title Crinkle. A few days after his father’s passing, the artist crumpled a sheet of paper with his hands. As time passed, he noticed similar folds and tears in drawings he was making. For Woolfitt, the emergence of such a pattern indicated the birth of a new series. 

Ben Woolfitt: Rhythms and Series is on view through February 21, 2022. For more stories about contemporary art in Toronto and from around the world, subscribe to the AGOinsider.