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Rupert Deese’s “Array 500” is a suite of five circular woodcuts printed on Fabriano Artistico paper, using inks hand‑mixed from pure powdered pigments and plate oil. The five prints in this series are titled “Array 500/Tan,” “Array 500/Orange,” “Array 500/Gray,” “Array 500/Brown,” and “Array 500/Blue.”
This series forms part of Deese’s larger “Array” project, comprised of 20 circular woodcuts, which began with “Array 700” in 2005, followed by “Array 350” and “Array 500” in 2006, and concluding with “Array 1000” in 2012. The number in each title corresponds to the diameter of the circular image. In every “Array” print, Deese divides the circle into unique tiling patterns based on nine equal radial divisions, then further subdivides these wedge‑shaped sections with additional radial lines and inscribed circles to create intricate geometric structures.
While firmly abstract, the Array images maintain a tangential relationship to the landscape and watersheds of California’s upper Merced and Tuolumne Rivers, a region that has profoundly shaped the artist’s work. An earlier sequence of monochrome painted objects that precisely model the topography of this terrain provided the initial source for the tiling patterns. The Array project can thus be understood as an ongoing meditation on the form and structure of this specific geography, translated into rigorous yet lyrical geometric printmaking.
