SAM: Art in Seattle - Fun But Boggling

I went to Seattle for a week's vacation, and that means of course visiting any and all museums and galleries there!!  I look for art displays, works, lectures, prints, and fellow artists EVERYWHERE I go.  This museum, was the Seattle Art museum.  This is the one I will be writing about in this particular paper.

Where to start...

Well, when my partner Kayla and I walked in, we were expecting extraordinary works of art, like this painting I saw soon after walking in:

Big Blonde in the Weeds, 2001
Oil on linen
Lisa Yuskavage
American, born 1962

Or we were looking forward to seeing more amazing and interesting sculptures such as this one we saw:

Woman on a Bed, 1963
Plaster and metal
George Segal
American, 1924-2000
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bagley Wright, 77.42

Or even a cool display like we saw wen we first walked in:

Well, we did see all those cool works and all, but the further we walked inside, we both had to start thinking more with our brains than with our eyes.  We did see a really cool painting that Kayla kept telling me she wanted me to buy for her.  I walked over to it, and I loved it too!  The only problem was, she does not know who the artist was: a Mr. Jackson Pollock.  She couldn't figure out why I laughed and walked away without trying to purchase this painting.

Sea Change, 1947
Artist and commercial oil paint, with gravel, on canvas
Jackson Pollock
American, 1912-1956
Gift of Signora Peggy Guggenheim, 58.55

We kept walking on and found a ton of minimalist and conceptual art, which neither of us have ever learned to appreciate or understand.  We both struggled a lot with a particular gallery's work, in the Theater of The Absurd Exhibition.  That is mainly what I will speak about in this paper.  It represents the absurdity of human existence from the 50's and the 60's, and they deal with violence, trauma, or anxiety.  The works span five decades and alternate from psychological states of mind and depictions of violence that serve as universal metaphors for personal and interpersonal tensions.  The earliest work in the gallery, painted during World War II, is Willem de Kooning's Woman, who appears in a state of high agitation, while George Segal's solitary seated woman conveys passive introspection.  Reactions to racism and violence permeate the work of Glenn Ligon, Philip Guston, and Leon Golub, while Katharina Fritsch captures fear and noise in a nightmare-like sculptural vision.  I chose this particular exhibit because it was the most confusing, and made me offended (which meant I was reacting to the work).  

I would like to start by discussing the first of these works that really caught my eye- and not in a good way.  Woman, by Willem de Kooning, shows a woman with frizzled hair and an extremely ugly face that looks terrified.  It was painted with only red and green it looked like, and it was very unimpressive and displeasing to the eye.  What in the heck is so special about this piece of art that could have been painted by a child?  

Woman, 1943
Oil on board
Willem de Kooning
American (born the Netherlands),
1904-1997
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Bagley Wright, 76.46

Well, as I stood there looking at it, I figured something out.  I figured out that this artist has other works like charcoal drawings and paintings, and probably went to school and/or studied art in daily life, just like me.  Also, he could probably create photorealistic paintings and drawings if he chose to, just like me.  Among several more of these compelling thoughts, was one: He had an idea, a voice to be spoken, just like me.  Well, he expressed not only his voice in this painting, but other people's voices who were experiencing the terrors of living around this time, and expresses a psychological state of mind, if not many.  In this painting I could tell how the Woman was feeling, and de Kooning completely ignored the idea of creating any sort of resemblance to the actual woman, (if she really existed).  This means all of these works succeeded in telling their stories, of how people feel and deal with violence, trauma, anxiety, personal and interpersonal tensions- the list goes on and on.  Now, it is usually very hard for me to be so open-minded and understand or interpret conceptual art, and art that is displeasing to the eye and does not appeal right away.  But although I prefer attractive art, this appealed to other senses- I felt a certain shock and relief when I began understanding this series.  A series I hated at first glance and giggled at in my head.  Now, I connected with it, and reacted to it.  I even wrote about it.

I walked into a separate exhibition, in the Barney A. Ebsworth Gallery.  I found a bunch of minimalist artwork, all paintings.  They were titled things like, "Yellow X" and "White Curve V".  Well, the paintings were of exactly that!  Pretty much, they were nothing more.  They had no deeper meaning to me and served no function.  I stood and sat there for a LONG time trying to figure out what was the purpose of these works, and I gave them a lot of thought- but got nothing back.

The Yellow X, 1965
Acrylic on canvas
Al Held
American, 1928-2005

This yellow X painting, along with the others below, were very confusing to me.  I understand that minimalist art exists, but I have to have it explained to me by the artists for each individual painting to make sense, otherwise I simply do not get it.  Are these just supposed to look pretty?  Did the artist perhaps zoom in very closely to some object and paint it large scale and that is the abstract shapes we see here?  I do not know, but that was the only idea I had to explain them.

White Curve V, 1973
Oil on canvas
Ellsworth Kelly
American, born 1923

Sabra I, 1967
Acrylic on shaped canvas
Frank Stella
American, born 1936

Now Sabra I made a little bit of sense, because although I still did not understand its reason for existing, I could see that the process of making this piece was significant.  The artist either had the canvas made specially for him and perfectly sized and shaped to what he wanted, or he created the shape either before or after the paint fell into place.  I could see this painting going two different ways: One way, would be that the canvas shape was random and he just painted shapes that corresponded;  The second way, would be that he either sketched it out or had a set and specific idea of the painting, and made the canvas to fit it.  I suppose I will never know for sure, but it is interesting to think about.

Me sitting in front of Hold, ca. 1974
Acrylic on canvas, by Helen Frankenthaler
American, 1928-2011
and
Wolfeboro III,  1966
Fluorescent alkyd paint on canvas
Frank Stella

Wolfeboro III,  1966
Fluorescent alkyd paint on canvas
Frank Stella
American, born 1936

The above images are all works I did not understand or connect with at all.  I honestly do not see what is impressive about them.  They are simple-looking and there is little to no level of painting skill shown.  The aspect I thought was interesting, however, is how the canvases are shaped so spontaneously.  I am used to seeing canvases that are squares and rectangles- I do not think I have ever even seen a circular one.  These are interesting to me in that aspect and that aspect only.  I do not see any significance or skill otherwise.  This work would require an artist's description for me to understand their explanation for why it exists and why it is hung in a museum.  This trip to this museum taught me that I am very quickly becoming aware of different types of artwork, and that I am slowly but surely becoming more and more of an understanding for different types of artwork- which is the big challenge for me.  But if I want people to respect my work one day, I need to do the same for them and be as open-minded as humanly possible, in today's art world.

Exhibition Project: The Possible at Berkeley Art Museum

The exhibition “The Possible” at the Berkeley Art Museum was an experimental exhibition, and was guest-curated by David Wilson.  It is a series of artistic events instead of a traditional display of artwork, full of creativity and exploration.   The exhibition becomes a facilitator of popular artists’ events.  Lawrence Rinder is the director of the museum, and fascinatingly, wanted to use this exhibition to re-create the experience of art camp.  I was pretty confused when I realized that the museum was full of what looked like children’s artwork, but there were no signs or labels telling me who created what.  This whole exhibition was very open to interpretation.  It emphasized people interacting, a range of audiences intersecting, and people interested in different things coming together, all at the museum for the same reasons but with different interests; this makes it very exciting!

Walking into this museum, it looked like a large, messy studio.  Everywhere I looked was what looked like a work area.  There was an area to do ceramics, and there was an artist there making pottery in this area, along with a large random-looking display of pottery sitting on several shelves.  I walked further and saw a large, growing circular rug by Fritz Haeg that looked at first glance to be just a rug.  I asked someone who worked there for more information about it, and she told me that it is a rug that travels all over the world, growing bigger as more and more people of the public braid the donated fabric together, adding onto the size and color, even aesthetic, of the rug. 

Fritz Haeg, U.S. born 1969
Domestic Integrities Rug, 2012-present
Donated clothes, towels, sheets, and textiles lent by the artist

 This was very interesting to me, and it was the first time I had come to appreciate something that I once disrespected,  before I understood it.  All I had to do was understand that this is a wonderfully different art show- one that the public engages in physically and literally.  I had to be welcoming to not understanding everything, but respect that people like me had a privilege to create and have it showcased together as a community.  Lawrence Rinder said, in reference to the museum’s move to a new building in downtown Berkeley in 2016, “We see this (exhibit) as a grand experiment which we will learn from as we move into a new space.  We welcome the unknown and trust the creative spirit to let itself go.”  (website source: http://www.sfgate.com/art/article/The-Possible-Berkeley-Art-Museum-offers-5166017.php)

I walked upstairs to find a room with a video playing, which did not engage me very much, but little did I know it would be the start to a very confusing experience.  I walked further upstairs to find a massive display of tiny ceramics, mixed with very large ceramics.  I was wondering how old the artist was because this seemed to be the work of a child, and I also wondered why each piece was so different from one another- I wondered where and how they connected.  

 

I started to notice as I got closer to these pieces, that some of them required a lot of attention, even skill, and were rather impressive. 

Then I noticed that most of them were very unimpressive and I was very offended that myself, who I consider to create real artwork, would take years to get my work shown in a museum this reputable, but children’s level work was being shown.  I was very confused about what was going on here.   

I continued wandering the museum and the next part of the exhibition I saw was MOST interesting of all.  I was still confused about what it was, and not being aware that this show was an experiment that the public was creating, myself included, I kept a distance from everything thinking it was not to be touched.  This was a room full of guitars on the floor, boxes, cables, amplifiers, recording equipment, microphones, duct tape, electrical tape, aluminum foil, broken mirrors, fabric, paper, and even a wall with a projected image on a blue screen. 

            

I walked carefully around everything thinking it was premeditated and intentionally placed there by an artist.  I wanted to pick up the electric Fender Stratocasters to play them so badly!  I finally came to the conclusion that this room was designed by an artist to represent chaos, and the sounds that come from music and guitars, even singing.  Of course later I would find out that I could have played that guitar the whole time.  Nevertheless, I think my theory about the room may be accurate.

I kept walking around and started to find some pretty impressive traditional drawings and sculptures that caught my eye.  It appealed to me because I love drawing with charcoal and this series resembled what I usually do.  After looking at them for a while, these relatively small 18x24’’ or so framed drawings on paper, seemed to exhibit images in them of figures, and horizons, almost landscape-like but very abstract, in an architectural way with the use of so many lines.  This set of works was all part of an untitled series, of the Mott-Warsh Collection of Flint, Michigan.

Untitled, 1973 Graphite on paper
Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, Michigan

Untitled, 1973 Graphite on paper
Mott-Warsh Collection, Flint, Michigan

These drawings completely fascinated me!  From a distance they look like photographs of floating objects like paper bags and human hair or rocks.  I love how clear it was visually that there was some type of matter physically taking up space in these, but also they were so open to interpretation at the same time.  I love the high values of dark and light and how their juxtapositions contrast.  I love the well thought-out compositions- there was something attractive about the way one is able to center the subject on the paper, and it does not make the drawing less interesting.  It is almost like this artist is too talented, and makes me want to go home and draw until I can do this type of work.  This is a very powerful device, getting the viewer to connect emotionally like that, as well as psychologically.

Barbara Chase-Riboud, The Malcolm-X Series.
Charcoal and ink on paper

I was attracted to another series of drawings, that all had a straight horizontal line going across, and they each seemed to depict a small, messy landscape that was quickly sketched, but over time very eloquently revised.  It turns out, they were a Monument Drawing series done by Barbara Chase-Riboud in the late 90’s that proposes imagined memorials to individuals and events from history and literature.  They were charcoal-and-ink drawings created on top of an identical etching of a simple horizontal line that they all shared.  It had many landscape elements and structures that read as rocks and towering post-and-lintels.  I usually am not a fan of landscapery or architectural drawings, but I was fond of these.  I was interested each time I found myself spending quite a while staring at certain pieces, and trying to figure out why.  I was beginning to be fascinated in this exhibition.

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Back downstairs, since I saw everything to be seen upstairs, I noticed something I hadn’t noticed before: there was a HUGE drawing on the wall next to the growing rug, and I could not figure out its purpose, although I noticed the graphite was revealing the texture on the wall it was displayed on.  It’s sheer size intrigued me slightly.  The technique used was obviously rubbing graphite sticks along the paper, but for what?  To show the wall behind it, was my guess.  

After that, I walked further, my partner and I about ready to leave, having seen it all already, and we noticed the Kid’s Club.  

 

 

We talked to some employees there at the museum and they told us that these long tables full of oil- based clay that never dries, was for kids or adults or both, to create and mold and sculpt, and put them on display on the wall.  The wall was full of pieces that we could take down and play with and change, and add our pieces to or completely destroy or replace with our own.  This was fun!

(Video): William Kentridge: Drawing The Passing

William erases and redraws so each sheet has a history of drawings in that sequence.  There is no storyboard, the film is made with a key idea, like the process of drawing.  The process of drawing throws new ideas out at us while we draw; it releases a new way of thinking.  Working quickly is essential for William since the majority of his art is the film, so the drawing process becomes less important.  This really inspired me because I never erase, unless I am using the eraser as a marking tool itself- but never to remove a "mistake"- because those do not exist.  He, like I, respect the eraser and its technique, not using it to remove mistakes, but purposely letting it show what was left behind because what we initially put down on the paper is ALWAYS so important, and should not ever be hidden or concealed, for the wrong reasons.  I love how he subtracts but continues to add all the time.

Recent Paintings by Fred Ontiveros: R.W. Witt Gallery Show, CSUS, Feb. 24 - 28, 2014

WOW.  This painter is amazing.  I have had Fred in two classes and we speak outside class sometimes, and he is a truly incredible artist.  I went to see this show and his paintings are even more spectacular than the little experimentations he does in class.  He uses the brightest colors he can find, and somehow his paintings still look completely realistic!  The paintings all look one way when you stand close, then different from mid-room, then even more different from a far distance!

Untitled, Fred Ontiveros, Oil on paper

Fred has a great gift for brush stroke and can eliminate most detail while yet having great attention to it.  He articulates space very well and gives it good sense of form and even distance.  He has a creative mind that does not need imagery or references.  He loves to paint from life, he told me at the show, especially figures.  Figure drawing and life painting are two of his favorite things to do.  He is very gestural when he starts a drawing and very informative when he blocks in shapes while painting.  I learn very much from him, maybe more from him than watching a large variety of other peers.

Untitled, Fred Ontiveros, Oil paint on textured Gessoed paper

Fred is influeced by nature and women figures.  He loves to quickly sketch or paint nude women or even just people on a subway while he is going somewhere.  He will whip out his sketch book and china markers anywhere, anytime in substitution for taking generic photographs.  He traveled Europe and other countries with his sketchbook and ended up selling 40% of those little quick sketches, for quite a bit of money which is remarkable since they are each only about 4x3"!

I really enjoyed looking at his work because it took my imagination somewhere it had not been in a long time- I think since the last time I read a Harry Potter book.  But most of my learning from him comes from our discussions we have on our one-on-one time, either on campus, off campus, or at a show.  He is exactly who I want to be when I graduate, or even before.  It is remarkable that he still is so modest even being a retired artist who has accomplished so many great things.  I am beyond grateful and privileged to have him as a peer, and a mentor.  In fact, earlier

today he gave me one of his new sketch books, the small ones he sold 40% of,  and the same pencils he uses so that I can practice these studies as well.

Student Awards Show (In My Opinion), 2014

I do not have any photos from this show, but I went to see it several times so I thought I would describe it to you.  Honestly, there were only a few pieces that I found appeal to personally.  There was a large painting of a man with a little boy both on the floor, that was done by a graduate student that was amazing!  Then I got closer and saw a few things I would have done differently, but it was still great just the same.  Then there was another oil painted 3x4' or so piece that was done by Faith Sponsler that was great, it was a landscape that was a little ambiguous which allowed my imagination to really wander, which I loved!  There was another piece by someone named Sean that was taped off in several areas and repainted with acrylic over it.  This one was  very interesting as well.  There were others that caught my eye and captured my interest.

Having said that, this exhibition showed me how much I disrespect a lot of work.  I must be very closed-minded because most of what was displayed, could have been recreated by my nine-year-old nephew on his sickest day.  I don't understand it!  One piece consisted of a wooden board with a few wires attached to it.  I don't see what the concept is behind that, and it probably took a few minutes to make.  Some other work was created in ten minutes or less, and was just laying around, and people submitted it because their teacher told them they had to submit something.

I guess I just don't understand contemporary art enough yet.  I do not mean any disrespect to my major or to my peers, so I hope I do not offend anyone with my honesty.  My opinion does not matter too much anyway, but I just thought I would write a blog about the experience to see how much I change by the end of this class.  Hopefully, I will be more open-minded and know what questions to ask myself.  A good question to start with is: "what should I post online versus keeping to myself?"

Video From 2/25/14: Nancy Spero and Kiki Smith

Nancy Spero and Kiki Smith are both feminists, and together they make two generations of feminist art.

Kiki Smith has a mindset like my own.  She does not want to have to explain what or why she makes work.  She does most if not all of her thinking by doing, and creating.  She thinks that ideas have limits and that you can let go of them any time you want.  She tells us to trust our artwork and believe in it, and then it will guide us.  She creates work that will hopefully give young women the sense of entitlement that many famous older women have had the opportunity to feel.  She believes that materials have  histories, and that what materials you use should contribute to what you are making, and that the material and the work of art will both be a whole together.  She is interested in decorative art and historic art.  She says that her imagination is sparked by mythology stories, so she creates images and figures from these stories.

Nancy Spero works differently.  She has images in her head that she will figure out first, then create later.  She creates work based off the subject of women's positions in the world politically.  Her art reflects the ideas she has because there are only images of women in her work, and they are usually prisoners treated horribly and being raped.  She symbolizes war and women.  She uses helicopter symbols a lot of the time to symbolize the Viet Nam war.  She uses the same images often, using cross-historical figures.  She was inspired to do all this when she joined several anti-war groups.  This was her introduction to New York, and her art has been political ever since.

For these two artists, they take you into another world with their work.  They take you physically into their imaginations.  They make us feel like we can either live here or there.  In other words, they are showing us constructing images in another way of existing.

Artist Lecture: Remembering TB-9: Steve Kaltenbach, Peter Vandenberge & Jerry Walburg in Conversation

Robert Arneson started what is known as the "Ceramic Funk Movement", it is Neo-Dada Pop Art, or Funk Art.  He started this ceramic revolution that took place at TB-9.  It is Neo-Avant-Garde.  TB-9 is the first historically significant art studio by a university.  The men I met at this lecture all were students of this same man known as "Bob".  

The first student of his that I had the pleasure of hearing speak and meeting, is named Gerald Walburg.  He does mostly metal sculpture and did a lot of the metal sculpture on Sacramento State University's campus, and also did some Downtown Sacramento sculpture and even the tilted arch at the entrance to Downtown.  He is the reason we have the Art Sculpture Lab on campus, because he transformed it from a storage space into a studio for all in 1969.

The second student that spoke is named Stephen Kaltenbach.  He did a lot of university work as well, and even created the MOMA's Time Capsule, along with his series of time capsules.  He creates a lot of conceptual pieces, and even created my favorite painting of all time, since I was young.  It is called "Portrait of My Father", and is held at the Crocker Museum.  He even created the sculpture in the fountains in Downtown Sacramento.

The third speaker I met is named Peter Vandenberge.  He created sculpture out of clay mostly, but then decided he wanted to try other mediums.  Bob encouraged this, but told him to go back to clay in the end because he had many strongsuits there.  His sculptures are very important and the longated figures he creates resemble the well-known "heads" from Easter Island.  His work has made it into several exhibitions pretty much everywhere well-known in California such as the MOMA, Crocker, Smithsonian Institute, just to name a few.  

Listening To Liszt, Ceramic 2007, 28 1/2" x 20"x14"

Professor Bob would make them all create work and break it, just to put it back together again, so that the students were making for the sake of making.  He would not want them to get too attached to their precious pieces.  He taught them to defend and stand behind their work.  To quote Steven Kaltenbach's recollection of Bob, "Moving strongly in a direction means you're moving away from another".  I learned very many important lessons from these artists.  They told me, "Use who and what you know, what's valuable to you."  They told me that creating art is self-driven, self-discipline.  One of my favorite quotes from this lecture came from Jerry Walburg, and it is "The things you know can really damage your imagination".

Stephen agrees with this statement, and I know this because after the lecture ended, I approached him and spoke with him for a few minutes.  I told him that in 2008 I went to the Crocker Art Museum with my class for a lower division requirement.  I was a Business Administration Major with an emphasis in Criminal justice.  I stood in front of a wall that had a huge picture on it of a man's face.  I thought it was a photograph.  Then I got closer to this colossal picture, to realize there are a million little shapes in different colors that were almost invisible from my previous distance.  I then realized that each individual hair of the glowing white beard were so well defined.  I then noticed that there was a breath or a light behind this man's lips, almost in his throat, that was coming out of his mouth.  I realized that this was his dying breath, and that this man was the photographer's father.  Then my final realization was that this is a PAINTING.  Ever since that moment, I have wanted to be a painter.  

Standing in front of this man realizing that he is the artist, was like meeting my hero.  He was touched by my story, and the fact that he inspired me to be an Art Studio Major like I am now.  I asked him, "If there is one lesson you learned from Bob that was the most valuable, that I should know moving forward as an artist, what would it be?"  and he said, "Don't let your skills limit your imagination.  Part of that could be easily you deciding to switch mediums... I think most of the work you do should be experimental."  Well, Stephen Kaltenbach, you just rescued me from any ruts I may have fallen into in the future!

Left to Right: Elaine O'brien, Peter Vandenberge, Stephen Kaltenbach, Gerald Walberg

These men are all exactly who I want to be when I graduate, so I cannot emphasize what a pleasure it was to have met them.  I know I have the drive that many people do not possess, and know that I will work hard enough and make art my life, in order to pursue a career in art like they have.