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a history california history volume 90 number 2 2013 The Journal of the California Historical Society volume 90 / number

2

/ 2013

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Edited by James J. Rawls

STATE OF MIND: NEW CALIFORNIA ART CIRCA 1970 By Constance M. Lewallen and Karen Moss, with essays by Julia Bryan-Wilson and Anne Rorimer (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2012, 296 pp., $39.95 cloth)

tury. The success and significance of Conceptual Art and demonstrate that PHENOMENAL: the books is the degree to which they it foreshadowed much of the work CALIFORNIA LIGHT, enlighten readers about the collective being created by young artists today.” SPACE, AND SURFACE work and, even more important, the Contemporary art of the early years of Edited by Robin Clark with essays ways in which it can be seen as result- the twentieth century is unimaginable by Michael Auping, Robin Clark, ing from and contributing to not just without the rich history that goes back Stephanie Hanor, Adrian Kohn, California history but an expanded way to Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) and and Dawna Schuld (Berkeley: of looking at art itself. his best-known historic beneficiary, Andy Warhol (1928–1987). The single University of California Press The books are considered here together basis for the Conceptual “movement,” with the assistance of the Getty for several reasons. First, they come if one agrees to that unified descrip- Foundation, 2012, 240 pp., from the same publisher at the same tion, is Duchamp’s oft-quoted dictum $39.95 cloth) time, the occasion of the hugely ambi- that the idea and process involved in REVIEWED BY PAUL J. KARLSTROM, FORMER tious multivenue exhibition “Pacific WEST COAST REGIONAL DIRECTOR, art making is the art act itself, not Standard Time,” sponsored by the ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART, SMITHSONIAN the object that may or may not result. INSTITUTION, AND AUTHOR OF PETER SELZ: J. Paul Getty Museum, on the subject SKETCHES OF A LIFE IN ART Also, Duchamp held that the artwork of California art in and around 1970. is unfinished, incomplete, without This historic event recognized and These two books accompanied the viewer (or audience). These ideas celebrated the critical coming of age of art exhibitions now long gone. The inform virtually all avant-garde art of California as a major participant in late- first purpose of such publications is the twentieth century. modernist art. to throw further light on specific dis- Throughout this extraordinarily dense, plays of art and to serve as a document Perhaps the most important exhibi- layered, and detailed account—an when the actual exhibition is history. tions were those under consideration effort to bring together in a meaning- This, however, is a limited goal. These here. And that status carries a consid- ful way a plethora of disparate forms, books present two important California erable burden of responsibility. The content, and expressions—the four “movements”—Conceptual Art and the greatest challenge falls to the curators authors bring impressively informed more specific southern California ver- of State of Mind. In the introduction to and intelligent commentary to a sub- sions of minimalism grouped under her essay “A Larger Stage,” Constance ject that really cannot be forced into a the sobriquet Light and Space—that Lewallen states the authors’ approach single clarifying definition. The term could be viewed as dominant during to an almost unmanageable subject: Conceptualism, in this respect, is more a particularly fertile creative period in “I believe that a thematic approach a “branding” than a movement. This the second half of the twentieth cen- will afford a fresh look at this semi- book is a noble effort that, through no nal period [circa 1970] in California

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90_2_working pages.indd 78 6/18/13 11:24 AM fault of the authors, cannot entirely the innovations of minimal and pop The threat of danger and injury was succeed. But they have managed, art by turning away from “medium- reified. Burden later told curator Tom through impressive detail about art- specific” painting and sculpture. Garver that he wanted to create an ists and art projects, to provide guide- “instant and evanescent sculpture.” This guiding notion is put even more posts for an exciting and intellectually Smith was resolute in her determina- succinctly by artist Tom Marioni, rewarding roller-coaster ride. tion to remove any distinction between quoted by Moss, when he described public and private acts, including The truth is that the problem we con- his project as “idea oriented situations sexual intercourse. In Feed Me (per- front in thinking about Conceptualism not directed at the production of static formed at Marioni’s MOCA in 1973), is the concept itself. If, as some of us objects.” Less familiar than some of the she invited “visitors” one at a time ironically point out, Conceptualism can other leading California figures associ- to enter a small room where she sat, be anything at all as long as an artist ated with the movement—for example, naked and vulnerable, a tape repeating, declares it is art, then the term is all- Eleanor Antin, Michael Asher, John “Feed me, feed me.” With mostly male embracing and possibly worthless. If Baldessari, Chris Burden, Bruce Nau- participants, some of the potential everything is art, then why talk or write man, Allan Kaprow (Happenings), and consequences for her were foreseeable. about it? What impresses about the Ed Ruscha—Marioni’s name nonethe- The meaning of this openly trans- treatment of that difficulty by Lewallen less appears throughout these essays gressive performance, and its status and her colleague Karen Moss is that as a significant force—as curator at as art, inevitably would be debated, they understand that the phenomenon the Richmond Museum and founder especially among feminists. Appar- needs somehow to be communicated, of his own Museum of Conceptual Art ently Smith saw her role as passive, not just through definitions but in (MOCA) in San Francisco—in creat- with the audience being responsible for the experience of its great variety and ing a vital Conceptualist community what happened. According to Garver, serious goals. Definitions begin with in San Francisco. His provocative per- who saw the 1973 performance, there Lewallen’s big statement that the formances (e.g., “Piss Piece” of 1970, was a small peephole through which “movement” emerged in the 1960s in which he stood on a ladder and observers (voyeurs, of which there was among groups of young artists, in this urinated in a galvanized laundry tub) a long line) could observe Smith and country and abroad, who rejected “tra- partake of the body art branch of the whomever she was with. This served ditional modes of art making in the movement, in which the artist literally to “protect” her in her passivity, mak- context of enormous cultural and social becomes the work of art. In 1973, he ing her “visitor” subject to social and changes in the society at large.” There was handcuffed for seventy-two hours psychological consequences. This idea we have one definition. Moss tells us to Linda Mary Montano for one of of discovery through social interaction that through new ideas of place and her famous performances (ephemeral (artist and viewer/participant) goes to site, Conceptualism “redefined the idea except for photo documentation). Mari- the heart of much conceptual activity. of an art object and the notion of repre- oni and Montano saw art as a social And always in the background lies the sentation.” In her essay, Ann Rorimer experience, as did the influential Euro- key question: what are the limits of proposes that California Conceptualists pean Joseph Beuys. art? The cover of this richly illustrated “belong together . . . not solely by virtue This iteration of Conceptualism had volume (64 color and 123 black and of their geographical place of residence the potential to be the most unsettling, white) was an inspired choice in terms at the outset of their careers, but even as carried to extremes by artists such as of an introduction to the subject and more so by their shared pursuit of Burden and Barbara T. Smith. Burden the book’s contents. Robert Kinmont is a wide range of aesthetic strategies was notorious for Shoot (1973), a radi- depicted doing a handstand on the very devoted to reinvigorating worn-out cal piece in which he had himself shot edge of a sheer cliff. This is one photo practices of art making.” She goes on in the arm by a young artist friend in from a series entitled 8 Natural Hand- to remind us that these artists extended front of a small group of witnesses. stands (1969/2009) in which the artist

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is literally at the center of the artwork, of Los Angeles in the 1960s and 1970s, and many of which Smith saw in an his individual human presence domi- and several are art superstars. Though exhausting five-day visit, she wrote with nating nature. In a sense, it subverts the scope is smaller and the focus almost giddy admiration, “Pacific Stan- the long tradition of landscape art, but, much tighter, the approach is similar dard Time has been touted as rewriting more important, it introduces the ele- to that of State of Mind, with a team history. It seems equally plausible to ment of personal risk, imminent dan- of five highly qualified contributors say that it simply explodes it, revealing ger of bodily injury, and even death— examining different aspects of a south- the immensity of art before the nar- real world, real time. The image tells ern California art movement that now rowing and ordering of the historiciz- us that such ideas are among the stands on its own as a worthy counter- ing process.” Even more dramatic a contents of Conceptual Art’s deep and part to the heretofore more famous and reversal of New York’s familiar critical varied bag of tricks and surprises. celebrated New York version of mini- dismissal is her surprising statement malist sculpture. in another favorable review in which There are seventy artists listed as par- she actually suggests that New York ticipating in the exhibition, with many In his introduction, Museum of Con- “long ago accepted it [Los Angeles] as others brought into the essays to pro- temporary Art San Diego director an equal in the production of art, and vide history, context, and clarification Hugh M. Davies acknowledges that the that New Yorkers may even suspect of relationships between ideas and American art scene until recently has that on a per-capita basis, Los Angeles individuals. Admittedly, it is not always been, in his term, New York–centric, harbors more good artists than New easy for the nonspecialist to follow and serious artists, including those York does.” In the past, these would be the various lines of the developing in California, felt required to relocate fighting words, or just plain rubbish, theme or even the cast of characters. there. That pattern has changed. Davies in the acknowledged art capital of the Given this formidable task, the authors points out what has become obvious: world. And the artists discussed here, have produced mutually reinforcing the creative center of the art world has whether associated with Conceptualism accounts that build upon one another moved perceptively westward over the or Light and Space, are given credit for while offering a mass of detail that past twenty-five years, and with that this new paradigm, as Davies calls it. inevitably challenges even art-informed has come a historical self-confidence They have done nothing less than con- readers. Nonetheless, thoughtful and among those who write about past as tribute to a new art order. Schjeldahl, attentive study opens a window with a well as contemporary art in California. in a 2010 review of a California show clear view of a complex but nonetheless The contributors to the present vol- in New York, similarly compares the fascinating multifaceted art/cultural umes show none of the former defen- Los Angeles version of minimalism to landscape. sive, even apologetic, insecurity. Quite that of New York as entirely distinctive the opposite, they recognize and take The second book in this closely con- in forms and ideas, “as if the move- for granted the stature and influence nected pair, Phenomenal: California ment had been reborn to more indul- of their subject, not just regionally but Light, Space, Surface, discusses far gent parents. . . . In the 1960s, puritani- internationally. fewer artists and a more cohesive cal New Yorkers (me included) liked enterprise. The thirteen artists in Even a few New York critics, chief to deplore the air of lotus-eating chic” the exhibition are Peter Alexander, among them Roberta Smith of the New that California minimalists shared. But Larry Bell, Ron Cooper, Mary Corse, York Times and Peter Schjeldahl writ- following his “epiphany,” Schjeldahl Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, John ing for the New Yorker, acknowledge described both the sculpture and Light McCracken, Bruce Nauman, Eric Orr, the importance of the California art and Space installations as “increasingly Helen Pashgian, James Turrell, De scene—especially in Los Angeles—as a ethereal,” exhibiting a “sensuousness Wain Valentine, and Doug Wheeler— worthy rival to New York. Of the more that couldn’t have been more remote all well-known and respected veterans than thirty exhibitions for which the from New York’s principled asperity. In present books serve as partial records point of fact, they [the artists] advanced

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90_2_working pages.indd 80 6/18/13 11:24 AM a philosophical argument about the Movement.” He goes on to write that level. Among the chief offenses of the role of art in life which has aged well.” her “small but intense body of work is Californian minimalists was that their the epitome of what could be called a work was seen as superficial and seduc- In some ways, it seems that Light and choreography of light and space.” His tive, lacking gravitas. But as Smith and Space, narrowly defined as a move- description of three visits to her Pico many others wonder, what’s wrong ment in comparison to open-ended Boulevard storefront studio is evocative with sensuality and beauty? Conceptualism, is easier for the essay- and almost poetic, as is definitely her ists to describe and convey. The rigor The reaction to the work of Irwin, art and that of her loosely associated they bring to the subjects is informed James Turrell, Nordman, and others southern California colleagues. by knowledge and insight, and care- was, as Douglas Wheeler described his ful looking, enhanced by the historical Furthermore, it is no coincidence that own work, “sensate.” It was, without perspective provided by almost half several of the Light and Space people, apology or excuses, an effort through a century. The curators and writers Bruce Nauman in addition to Nordman perception and the medium of light to bring in the essential figures regard- and Asher, make critical and lengthy alter our understanding of the environ- less of whether they are included in crossover appearances in State of Mind. ment—natural and man-made—and the exhibition, thereby making clear Nauman, with his extraordinary free- even more our inherited ideas about their ambitions for historical com- ranging creative imagination, is among the very nature of art. Architect Frank prehensiveness, a further “coming those whose work defines the thrust of Gehry has said, “Light is something of age.” Two crucial artists, the late Conceptualism internationally. In fact, that every architect talks about but Michael Asher and Maria Nordman, these are among the most inventive seldom deals with well. Artists in L.A. are featured in the book with lengthy and, especially in the case of Asher, gave us a lesson in that.” A friend of discussions. Asher is described by cerebral artists. With the goal of alter- artists, Gehry recognized that this was exhibition curator Robin Clark in her ing space and dematerializing if not a very big project indeed, in which even useful introduction as the Reluctant eliminating the object, their art is Con- those who retained the art object (albeit Phenomenologist and in his Los Ange- ceptual at base. One absolutely critical transformed by refined surface treat- les Times obituary as a “dean of the point, and one fully explicated in these ment, vibrant colors, reflection, trans- Conceptual Art movement.” Although books, is that California art was as seri- lucence, and transparency) were full associated with Light and Space, espe- ous as any art elsewhere. However, it participants—among them De Wain cially in the 1960s, he preferred the wore different clothing and presented Valentine, Peter Alexander, Craig Kauff- term situation aesthetics to describe his itself in a variety of guises, from irony man, Helen Pashgian, and above all practice. Nordman, who declined to and deadpan humor to outrageousness Larry Bell. The goals are shared and the participate because she did not want and calculated shock. Roberta Smith, overlapping means used in the service to have her work shown in a group once again, came to the defense of Cali- of ideas constitutes the new art. The art context, is described by Michael Aup- fornia minimalism as equal to that of becomes the individual experience of ing in his marvelous chapter devoted New York, and in its way more coura- the work, leading to heightened aware- to light redefining space, as the creator geous in moving beyond more formal- ness of a reality altered by and viewed of “mind bending” interplay between ist painting and sculpture to explore freshly through art. The key point to walls and light. She denies being part new territory. She was refreshed by the remember is that for all the attention of the movement, insisting that her lightness and transparency, the color to new materials and process (plastic, work is about people and “situations.” and sensuality, of the L.A. sculpture- cast resin, vacuum-formed) of the well- Auping is not having it, arguing that based work that had been liberated known L.A. Finish Fetish reflecting if Nordman is “not part of the Light to pursue new horizons with light as custom car and surfing culture (for and Space Movement, then one could the medium. Robert Irwin and Don- years a critical means to marginal- argue that there is no Light and Space ald Judd, in their thinking and work, ize the work), and given the amazing define this contrast at the highest

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technical resources needed to cast much from the viewer in an unstated large-scale disks and cubes, the craft contract between the artists and those was directed to the same ends: sculp- who experience their art: “In one’s own tural forms that subvert the traditional engagement, picking words and testing qualities of solidity and permanence them helps you to look harder and see expected of them. more. While words may obscure art’s strangeness at first, their failings—if In one way or another, the works noticed—restore it.” These exemplary brought together in these complemen- studies deserve close reading, look- tary books are idea-based (conceptual) ing, and thinking to help us to “look and devoted to positioning the viewer harder” and “see more.” Both books in relationship to his/her environment. should be considered definitive and The traditional object displayed in art authoritative, and that was the clear gallery or museum space is rejected goal: interpretive studies that are not or at least seriously and thought- limited to the objects or artists in either fully modified. For a period of phe- exhibition. In some respects, they could no one better to team up with one of nomenally fruitful artistic endeavor, be a boxed set. the region’s most prolific urban and these concerns became the project of architectural historians, Greg Hise, to California art. assemble this magnificent collection. Like State of Mind, Phenomenal boasts A COMPANION TO Long gone are the days when the illustrations (100 color and 75 black LOS ANGELES southern California metropolis was and white) that not only document the Edited by William Deverell and simply a case study in suburban his- exhibition but also allow the words to Greg Hise (Malden, MA: Wiley- tory. Over the last fifteen years or so, carry specific meaning in relationship Blackwell, 2010, 536 pp., $228.95 historians of all fields and specialties to the art. The color plates are espe- cloth) have discovered Los Angeles as a place cially beautiful, given the gleaming that raises new questions and provides sensual aesthetic involved in most of REVIEWED BY VOLKER JANSSEN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, CALIFORNIA STATE some unexpected answers. The mul- the works. In the final chapter, Adrian UNIVERSITY, AND EDITOR OF WHERE MINDS AND MATTERS MEET: TECHNOLOGY IN tidisciplinary appeal of Los Angeles Kohn offers a brief but provocative CALIFORNIA AND THE WEST is apparent in the list of contributors. look at writing about art and the inad- Urban, cultural, film, public, and legal equacy of words to the task of convey- Anyone familiar with Blackwell historians have joined political scien- ing the essence of what is visual. She Companions knows why they come at tists, scholars of race and ethnicity, argues that the risk in experiencing art such a high price: They are expansive photographers, artists, and novelists in through language “may allow words essay collections, meant as a resource this project, and the contributions are and their logic to supplant the work and and reference rather than as volumes accordingly diverse. Case studies and its.” This is an unavoidable problem, to be read from beginning to end. And rich historiographies stand side by side one that has been of considerable inter- anyone familiar with William Deverell’s with Matt Gainer’s intriguing urban est to Robert Irwin, who warns histo- work as mentor and steward to new photography, Robbert Flick’s photo rians and critics of the serious loss or scholarship at the Huntington-USC assembly on the San Gabriel River, and forfeiture when transposing phenom- Institute for California and the West “contemporary voices” on Los Angeles ena into language. Kohn’s concluding and his work on Blackwell Companions that pull many of the historical ques- observation seems somehow perfect for to American History—A Companion tions and debates of this companion both these books dealing with unfamil- to the American West and A Companion into the present. iar, challenging artworks that demand to California History—knows there is

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