Appreciation

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Appreciation : appreciation PETER ALEXANDER Inspired by water, the pioneering Light and Space artist journeyed both artistically and aesthetically, before rediscovering resin at the Centre Pompidou in 2006. By Steven Biller Anyone who has ever created anything will tell you that innovation is “[The Pompidou] offered to finance a complete reconstruction,” the pinnacle of problem solving. And so it was for Peter Alexander, a Alexander says of his piece, which was on loan from Franklin Parrasch pioneer of California’s resurgent Light and Space movement who af - Gallery in New York. The challenge of repairing the black bar—and the fixed his place in art history the same way he captured the essence worldwide media attention the situation garnered—would become the of the sun-kissed beaches where he grew up—in resin. catalyst for Alexander’s renewed interest in working in resin. Alexander’s “problem” presented itself in 2006. One of his translu - The road to Paris was something of a California dream come true for cent resin sculptures was showing in “Los Angeles 1955-1985: Alexander, now 71 years old and living in Santa Monica. Creative as The Birth of an Artistic Capital” at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. The a kid, he took to architecture and he even worked for a short time chronological survey of 350 works by 87 artists was the largest exhibi - in Richard Neutra’s office. As a visual artist, he parlayed his geometri - tion of postwar LA art ever assembled outside the United States. And cally precise architectural drawings and models into translucent poly - it was troubled even before the artwork began to arrive at the mu - ester resin boxes that looked like cubes of still water. His love of the seum. Several LA artists had publicly blasted the curator, Catherine ocean factored into the feeling of his light-infused sculptures and, to a Grenier, for excluding works by Charles Garabedian, Ed Kienholz and degree, surfing inspired his material of choice. “All of my work is Peter Voulkos. Others were concerned about the wholeness of the about water,” says Alexander, who started surfing when he was 13 city’s narrative. And the night before the exhibition opened, Alexander years old. “I grew up in Newport Beach, on the peninsula. Going in was alerted that his 8-foot-high and 5-inch-wide Untitled cast resin the ocean was a common occupation. Most of my work comes black bar had fallen from the gallery wall. Incidentally, another piece, from those days.” Craig Kauffman’s iconic 1967 Untitled Wall Relief , made of vacuum- formed Plexiglas, fell and was found “fatally damaged” on the floor by “1/10-13/12 (Large Red Diptych),” 2012, Urethane, 43" x 81" an employee two days before the exhibition closed. Photo: courtesy Brian Gross Fine Art “10/14/13 (Black Leaner),” 2013 Urethane, 89” x 4” x 2" Photo: courtesy Peter Blake Gallery “10/21/14 (Blue Box),” urethane, 8" x 8" x 6" Photo: courtesy Peter Blake Gallery Alexander recalls glazing his surfboard and casting little boxes from the Polyurethane resin also holds color better than its nefarious predecessor. clear material at the bottom of the Dixie cup. By the time he had elevated “It’s so much better than polyester resin,” he says. “The way polyester the idea into serious sculpture, he had begun carefully finishing the sur - cures affects the dyes; you never get the true color you want. With faces to avoid any marks. “The boxes are places you go,” he says. “If polyurethane, you get what you mix. Urethane enriches it. The color is ab - there’s a scratch on the surface, it affects the way you see the piece, and solutely gorgeous.” you will feel differently about it. You have to have a perfectly clear way in.” Paris was the starting point for Alexander’s resurgence, which has con - His “wedges”—tall, thin sculptures that are also inspired by the ocean— tinued since in lockstep with the Light and Space movement as a whole. are among Alexander’s best-known works. He recalls flying into Los An - A 2010 exhibition at David Zwirner in New York celebrated the LA artists geles and noticing how the water appeared lighter as it neared the who recast East Coast Minimalism as an optimistic movement inspired coastline. “I wanted to create objects that disappeared at the top the way by the ocean, sunshine, waxed surfboards, and shiny cars. In 2011—as the water does when it reaches the sand,” he says. part of Pacific Standard Time, the Getty Foundation-funded collaboration of more than 60 Southern California cultural institutions to tell the story By the late 1960s, Alexander was among a small group of artists who had of the birth of the Los Angeles art scene in the postwar era—the MCA turned away from traditional painting and sculpture to explore the percep - San Diego opened “Phenomenal: California Light, Space, Surface.” It tion of atmospheric experiences. He and James Turrell, Robert Irwin, Doug was the most comprehensive exhibition to tell the story of Light and Wheeler, De Wain Valentine, Larry Bell, Craig Kauffman, and Helen Pash - Space, and it renewed interest in the movement. “Pacific Standard Time gian became associated with Light and Space and the Finish Fetish move - was trying to show people everything,” Alexander says. “It really ment. Some artists, particularly Turrell and Irwin, created immersive, worked. And [‘Phenomenal’] was one of the best shows.” light-soaked environments, while others, including Alexander, created pre - cisely shaped and sensuously finished objects that capture and reflect In 2013, Nyehaus, a gallery in New York’s Chelsea district (which briefly light. But the toxic polyester resin took its toll on Alexander’s health. “It’s operated a sister gallery in Los Angeles), opened “Peter Alexander : New just an awful, sticky material,” he says. “I’d pour it from one container to Resin Works,” filling a restored four-story brownstone with contemporary another to avoid touching it, because you can’t get it off. I stopped working and historic resin work. Gallerist Tim Nye had curated the Zwirner show a with it altogether in 1972. I just didn’t want to be around it anymore.” few years earlier. Meanwhile, in 2011, Nye had also organized a dramatic and ambitious installation of California Light and Space artists in Venice, Alexander turned to painting, drawing and printmaking. His subjects were Italy, to coincide with the 2011 Venice Biennale, taking over an historic typically sunsets, palm trees and the twinkling lights of Los Angeles at villa and filling it with West Coast art. Alexander was among the promi - night. “They’re the stupidest pictures you can ever do, and they were also nently featured artists, his luminous sculptures finding new vitality as in - beautiful,” he says, adding that some (most notably, the velvet paintings stalled in their unlikely new architectural context, as well as a new had a measure of sarcasm. “The sunsets were a pictorial vision of the European audience. objects I was making.” In fall 2014, Laguna Art Museum honored Alexander with its third Califor - He steered clear of resin for almost 25 years, until faced with repairing nia Art Award (the first two were presented to Ruth Westphal in 2012 and the black resin bar damaged at Centre Pompidou. Then Alexander dis - Wayne Thiebaud in 2013, respectively). He continues to show frequently covered the less-toxic polyurethane resin and found an ally in a man - on the West Coast, at galleries such as Brian Gross Fine Art in San Fran - nequin maker who helped him make molds and master the material. cisco and Peter Blake in Laguna Beach. “[The Pompidou show] was badly curated and a lot of people were un - happy about it,” Alexander says. “But the exhibition was good for Alexander says Light and Space could have emerged only in Southern Cal - everybody in California art. For me it was a complete revival.” ifornia. He considers himself “a product of the enormous optimism that we had here in the ’60s.” “No one was looking over your shoulder, like they do Alexander has been creating thinner, more provocative pieces with in New York,” he says. “Many LA artists went to New York at the time be - polyurethane resin—including a new generation of cubes, wedges and bars, cause that’s where there was power, press and money. I never understood as well as a new series of “Drip” wall reliefs. “The material allows geomet - why they did this. [Being a California artist] is about a whole sensibility. The rics that I could never do in polyester,” he explains. “You can get a lot of impetus of what I do is about responding to this ambrosia of California.” drama. You’re attracted to the fact that it looks so delicate. I want the viewer to look at it and think it’s going to break, or think, ‘It’s going to cut me.’”.
Recommended publications
  • Helen Pashgianhelen Helen Pashgian L Acm a Delmonico • Prestel
    HELEN HELEN PASHGIAN ELIEL HELEN PASHGIAN LACMA DELMONICO • PRESTEL HELEN CAROL S. ELIEL PASHGIAN 9 This exhibition was organized by the Published in conjunction with the exhibition Helen Pashgian: Light Invisible Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Funding at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California is provided by the Director’s Circle, with additional support from Suzanne Deal Booth (March 30–June 29, 2014). and David G. Booth. EXHIBITION ITINERARY Published by the Los Angeles County All rights reserved. No part of this book may Museum of Art be reproduced or transmitted in any form Los Angeles County Museum of Art 5905 Wilshire Boulevard or by any means, electronic or mechanical, March 30–June 29, 2014 Los Angeles, California 90036 including photocopy, recording, or any other (323) 857-6000 information storage and retrieval system, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville www.lacma.org or otherwise without written permission from September 26, 2014–January 4, 2015 the publishers. Head of Publications: Lisa Gabrielle Mark Editor: Jennifer MacNair Stitt ISBN 978-3-7913-5385-2 Rights and Reproductions: Dawson Weber Creative Director: Lorraine Wild Designer: Xiaoqing Wang FRONT COVER, BACK COVER, Proofreader: Jane Hyun PAGES 3–6, 10, AND 11 Untitled, 2012–13, details and installation view Formed acrylic 1 Color Separator, Printer, and Binder: 12 parts, each approx. 96 17 ⁄2 20 inches PR1MARY COLOR In Helen Pashgian: Light Invisible, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2014 This book is typeset in Locator. PAGE 9 Helen Pashgian at work, Pasadena, 1970 Copyright ¦ 2014 Los Angeles County Museum of Art Printed and bound in Los Angeles, California Published in 2014 by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art In association with DelMonico Books • Prestel Prestel, a member of Verlagsgruppe Random House GmbH Prestel Verlag Neumarkter Strasse 28 81673 Munich Germany Tel.: +49 (0)89 41 36 0 Fax: +49 (0)89 41 36 23 35 Prestel Publishing Ltd.
    [Show full text]
  • Peter Alexander B
    parrasch heijnen gallery 1326 s. boyle avenue los angeles, ca, 90023 www.parraschheijnen.com 3 2 3 . 9 4 3 . 9 3 7 3 Peter Alexander b. 1939 in Los Angeles, California d. 2020 in Santa Monica, California Education 1965-66 University of California, Los Angeles, CA, M.F.A. 1964-65 University of California, Los Angeles, CA, B.A. 1963-64 University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 1962-63 University of California, Berkeley, CA 1960-62 Architectural Association, London, England 1957-60 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA Artist in Residence 2007 Pasadena City College, Pasadena, CA 1996 California State University Long Beach, Summer Arts Festival, Long Beach, CA 1983 Sarabhai Foundation, Ahmedabad, India 1982 Centrum Foundation, Port Townsend, WA 1981 University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 1976 California State University, Long Beach, CA 1970-71 California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA Select Solo Exhibitions 2020 Peter Alexander, Parrasch Heijnen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2018 Peter Alexander: Recent Work, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY Thomas Zander Gallery, Cologne, Germany 2017 Peter Alexander: Pre-Dawn L.A., Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY 2016 Peter Alexander Sculpture 1966 – 2016: A Career Survey, Parrasch Heijnen Gallery, Los Angeles, CA 2015 Los Angeles Riots, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, NY 2014 Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA The Color of Light, Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, CA Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, CA 2013 Nyehaus, New York, NY Quint Contemporary Art, La Jolla,
    [Show full text]
  • Gisela Colón Glo-Pods
    FOR IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE QUINT CONTEMPORARY ART 7547 GIRARD AVENUE, LA JOLLA, CA 92037 www.quintgallery.com T. 858.454.3409 [email protected] F. 858.454.3421 GALLERY HOURS: Tue - Sat 10AM – 5:30PM and by appointment GISELA COLÓN GLO-PODS NOVEMBER 2, 2013 – JANUARY 4, 2014 ARTIST WALK-THROUGH AND DIALOGUE: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, FROM 5:30 TO 6PM OPENING RECEPTION: SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, FROM 6 TO 8PM “Colon’s rapid evolution in the context of Perceptualismi, however, has been a process not of mere emulation, but of considered exploration. And it has yielded artworks that, no matter how rigorously they illumine Perceptualist principles, do not look as if any other Perceptualist made them.” – Peter Frank, June 2013 Quint Contemporary Art (QCA) is pleased to present GISELA COLÓN: GLO-PODS, a solo exhibition of sculptural wall-mounted work by Gisela Colón. This is the first solo exhibition at QCA for the artist. The exhibition opens on Saturday, November 2nd with an artist led walk- through and dialogue from 5:30 to 6PM, followed by a public reception from 6 to 8PM. Colón’s sculptures investigate the properties of light in solid form and luminescent color through the use of industrial plastic materials. The Glo-Pods body of work, meticulously created through a proprietary fabrication process of blow-molding and layering acrylic, mark Colón as part of the next generation of Southern Californian artists using light as an exploratory medium. The light appearing to emanate from the objects is only an illusion based on color and form. Colón's use of amorphous and organic shapes, along with asymmetrical lines, and light-reflecting/radiating media make her objects appear to pulsate with energy.
    [Show full text]
  • Light and Space” and “Finish Fetish” Artists
    RARE OPPORTUNITY ON THE EAST COAST TO VIEW COMPREHENSIVE EXHIBIT OF WORK FROM SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA-BASED “LIGHT AND SPACE” AND “FINISH FETISH” ARTISTS Light, Space, Surface Opens at the Addison Gallery of American Art on November 23, 2021 Features Artists Including Mary Corse, Bruce Nauman, Helen Pashgian, and James Turrell Andover, MA (August 12, 2021) – Light, Space, Surface: Works from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will offer museumgoers the opportunity to experience a distinctly West Coast style of art on the East Coast, presenting the art of Light and Space and related “finish fetish” works with highly polished surfaces. The exhibition, which opens at the Addison Gallery of American Art on November 23, 2021, is one of the most comprehensive ever assembled of these artists and highlights works that explore perceptual phenomena via interactions with light and space. Drawn from the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Light, Space, Surface features a wide range of media, from painting and sculpture to immersive environments. “It’s a privilege to be able to present this important period of American artistic innovation—often thought of as Minimalism with a uniquely Californian twist—here on the East Coast,” said Allison Kemmerer, the interim director of the Addison Gallery of American Art, Mead Curator of Photography, and senior curator of contemporary art. “Transforming the viewer from passive observer to active participant, the reflective surfaces, glossy finishes, and shimmering colors of these works demand
    [Show full text]
  • Peter Alexander
    PETER ALEXANDER Born in Los Angeles, CA, 1939 EDUCATION 1965-66 University of California, Los Angeles, M.F.A. 1964-65 University of California, Los Angeles, B.A. 1963-64 University of Southern California, Los Angeles 1962-63 University of California, Berkeley 1960-62 Architectural Association, London, England 1957-60 University of Pennsylvania SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2015 Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, California 2014 Peter Blake Gallery, Laguna Beach, California Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, California Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California 2013 Nyehaus, New York, New York Quint Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California 2012 Nye+Brown, Los Angeles 212 Gallery, Aspen, Colorado 2011 Franklin Parrasch Gallery with Zach Feuer, New York, New York Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, California 2010 Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, New York 2008 Fine Art, San Francisco, California 2007 Pasadena City College, College Art Gallery, Pasadena, California Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, California Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York, New York 2006 Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, California 2005 Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, California 2004 Franklin Parrasach Gallery, New York, New York Patrick Olson Gallery, Plymouth Michigan Brian Gross Fine Art, San Francisco, California Godt-Cleary Gallery, Las Vegas, Nevada Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, California 2003 Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, California 2002 Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, California Peter Blake gallery, Laguna Beach, California Imago Galleries, Palm Desert,
    [Show full text]
  • Eric Orr Documentary Photographs and Papers, 1959-2012, Undated
    http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8xs62g6 No online items Finding aid for the Eric Orr documentary photographs and papers, 1959-2012, undated Sarah Mackenzie Wade Finding aid for the Eric Orr 2017.M.13 1 documentary photographs and papers, 1959-2012, undated Descriptive Summary Title: Eric Orr documentary photographs and papers Date (inclusive): 1959-2012, undated Number: 2017.M.13 Creator/Collector: Orr, Eric, 1939-1998 Physical Description: 24.06 Linear Feet(37 boxes, 2 boxed-rolls, 19 flatfile folders. Computer media: 10.90 GB [195 files]) Repository: The Getty Research Institute Special Collections 1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100 Los Angeles 90049-1688 [email protected] URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref (310) 440-7390 Abstract: The Eric Orr papers consist primarily of photographic prints, slides, transparencies, and negatives that document the Light and Space movement artist's paintings, sculptures, and public fountains. Also present are schematic drawings and plans for Orr's public works and ephemera, clippings, and administrative files that detail Orr's life and practice. Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy . Language: Collection material is in English Biographical / Historical Eric Orr was a key figure in the Light and Space movement in Southern California. Born in 1939 in Covington, Kentucky, Orr graduated from the Kentucky Military Institute in 1958 and spent his early years traveling across the United States and Cuba. He briefly attended the University of Cincinnati in the early 1960s, where he produced his first sculpture, Colt .45, a work later known as Saturday Night Special.
    [Show full text]
  • "Peter Alexander, Who Created Ethereal
    Peter Alexander, who created ethereal worlds out of resin, dies at 81 Artist Peter Alexander in his studio in Santa Monica in 2014. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times) By Carolina Miranda, Staff Writer May 28, 2020 11:05am For Peter Alexander, the moment that helped change the direction of his art arrived after a mundane session of ding repair on his surfboard in the 1960s. He had poured some resin into a paper cup to seal his board, and over the course of several hours, the resin hardened into a translucent puck. "I remember at the bottom of the Dixie Cup, this clear material," he told a documentary team from the Getty Conservation Institute in 2014. "And I was doing a project and I thought, 'I bet this could be done in polyester, in this resin.' So I started casting it in little things - like little boxes." Those experiments with industrial materials, begun when he was a student at UCLA, led to the creation of ethereal sculptures that evoked the quietly shifting nature of light, color and environment. And they put Alexander among the vanguard of Southern California's Light and Space artists, a movement that brought buoyancy and perceptual play to Minimalism, which until then had been dominated by the more austere forms emerging from the East Coast. ”Cloud Box,” 1966, by Peter Alexander, on view at the Getty Museum in 2011 as part of Pacific Standard Time. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times) One of his early pieces, "Cloud Box," from 1966, consisted of a resin cube that within its modest dimensions (it's only 10 inches tall), seems to harbor an entire atmosphere of billowing clouds over an open plan.
    [Show full text]
  • Light Years Ahead: Interview with Robert Irwin Robert Irwin Shapes
    Griffin, Jonathan. “Light Years Ahead: Interview with Robert Irwin.” Apollo. 1 November 2015. Web. Light Years Ahead: Interview with Robert Irwin Robert Irwin (b. 1928) photographed in his studio in San Diego, August 2015. Portrait by Ye Rin Mok Robert Irwin shapes environments through his use of light and space. The quintessentially Californian artist talks to Apollo about making beautiful pieces and why he thinks art should have nothing to do with politics In 2007, Robert Irwin (b. 1928) had a retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Held in the city in which Irwin has lived since the early 1980s and curated by the museum’s director, his old friend Hugh M. Davies, the exhibition was something of a homecoming tribute for the artist. He did not know it at the time, but a chance meeting during the installation of the exhibition would open the door to an unexpected new chapter in his career, one that this year has come to fruition with exhibitions at Pace, New York, in the spring, and at White Cube, London (until 15 November). Irwin, now a spry 86 years old, has shaped the history of art in Southern California more significantly, over a longer period, than any other living artist. The influence of his thinking is pervasive – through his years as a teacher to artists including Chris Burden, Vija Celmins, Joe Goode and Ed Ruscha – but his presence in the world’s museums is limited, because for years he made nothing that one could buy or transport. Griffin, Jonathan. “Light Years Ahead: Interview with Robert Irwin.” Apollo.
    [Show full text]
  • Light-Based Art & the Making of Space
    LIGHTS ON! Light-based Art & the Making of Space MASTER THESIS ROSKILDE UNIVERSITY Lights On! Light-based Art & The Making of Space Gala Castells Puig Spatial Designs and Society, INT, Roskilde University Thesis Advisor: Prof. David Pinder September 28th, 2016 Characters: 171.040 Self-made Photographs: 15 Pages: 78,5 Pages in Total: 106 !2 ABSTRACT In the recent years the increase of artworks made by artists who investigate the relationship between light and space has changed the aesthetic language and consideration of light in contemporary art. The use of light in artistic practices has contributed to a profound experiment that re-maps the boundaries of art while at the same time provokes us to reflect upon the qualities and limits of our perception. How we experience and physiologically respond to illumination and colour has been one of the most researched topics, which has arisen a significant amount of discussion about to what extent light participates in the making of space that directly calls into play our individual perceptual responses. One of the main issues that has not been sufficiently addressed yet is to what extend artistic uses of light may reveal the diverse potentialities of light in the making of space and human understanding of the world. The thesis provides an analysis of the embodied experiences in three immersive installations made by contemporary artists James Turrell, Anthony McCall and Olafur Eliasson. The empirical material was experienced in 2011 and during the summer of 2016. The study explores how engagement and interaction with a light-based work may influence the making of space and the viewer’s surroundings.
    [Show full text]
  • Art Los Angeles Contemporary
    ART LOS ANGELES CONTEMPORARY 13 – 16 FEBRUARY 2020 | PETER BLAKE GALLERY | LAGUNA BEACH CA | [email protected] | (949) 584-1224 | LITA ALBUQUERQUE “Light carries information” – Lita Albuquerque Since the early 1970s, Lita Albuquerque (b. 1946, Santa Monica, CA) has created an expansive body of work, ranging from sculpture, poetry, painting and multi-media performance to ambitious site- specific ephemeral projects in remote locations around the globe. Often associated with the Light and Space and Land Art movements, Albuquerque has developed a unique visual and conceptual vocabulary using the earth, color, the body, motion and time to illuminate identity as part of the universal. She represented the United States at the Sixth International Cairo Biennale, where she was awarded the Biennale’s top prize. Albuquerque has also been the recipient of the National Science Foundation Artist Grant Program for the artwork, Stellar Axis: Antarctica, which culminated in the first and largest ephemeral artwork created on that continent, three NEA Art in Public Places awards, an NEA Individual Fellowship grant, a fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation and MOCA’s Distinguished Women in the Arts award. Her work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Getty Trust, the Whitney Museum of American Art, LACMA and MOCA, among others. She is on the core faculty of the Fine Art Graduate Program at Art Center College of Design and currently lives and works in Santa Monica, California. LITA ALBUQUERQUE UNTITLED 2019 24K Gold Leaf on Resin, Pigment on Panel 60 x 60 x 4 inches PETER BLAKE GALLERY “Stephanie belongs to a younger generation of STEPHANIE BACHIERO artists who, looking back at the 1960s and ’70s, are inspired by minimalism and the Finish Fetish movement.
    [Show full text]
  • The L.A. Look from Start to Finish
    RACHEL RIVENC* Getty Conservation Institute Los Angeles, CA, USA [email protected] EMMA RICHARDSON Getty Conservation Institute Los Angeles, CA, USA MODERN MATERIALS MODERN MATERIALS [email protected] THE LA LOOK FROM START TOM LEARNER TO FINISH: MATERIALS, AND CONTEMPORARY ART AND CONTEMPORARY Getty Conservation Institute Los Angeles, CA, USA PROCESSES AND [email protected] CONSERVATION OF WORKS *Author for correspondence BY THE FINISH FETISH ARTISTS Keywords: Finish Fetish, Los Angeles, INTRODUCTION plastics, resins, automotive lacquers While American art in the 1950s was mostly dominated by artists working in New York, the early 1960s saw the birth of a rapidly burgeoning art ABSTRACT scene specific to Los Angeles.1 A group of artists, associated with the In the 1960s, Los Angeles saw the birth and bloom of an art scene specific to Southern Cali- Ferus Gallery on La Cienega Boulevard, including Craig Kauffman, fornia, distinct from art being produced else- Billy Al Bengston, and Larry Bell, was soon to be joined by others like where in the United States, in particular New John McCracken, Helen Pashgian and De Wain Valentine, creating a York, the main artistic center at the time. Often distinctive “LA Look” throughout the decade. The sensuous colors and referred to as the “Finish Fetish” or “LA Look” artists, they produced art inspired by California beautiful, pristine surfaces that were often painstakingly achieved by these culture, using a wide range of innovative mate- artists also earned them the label “Finish Fetish”.2 They used new resins, rials and fabrication processes often borrowed paints and plastics, and adopted highly innovative fabrication processes from the industrial world.
    [Show full text]
  • Another Minimalism: Art After California Light and Space Curated by Melissa E
    Another Minimalism: Art after California Light and Space Curated by Melissa E. Feldman Exhibition 13 November 2015 – 21 February 2016 Uta Barth (Germany), Larry Bell (US), Carol Bove (Switzerland), Sarah Braman (US), Tacita Dean (UK), Olafur Eliasson (Denmark), Sam Falls (US), Jeppe Hein (Denmark), Robert Irwin (US), Ann Veronica Janssens (UK), Spencer Finch (US), James Welling (US) Bringing the work of a select group of well-known current-generation artists together with that of two pioneers of West Coast American minimalism, this exhibition examines the impact of California Light and Space art on artists working today. Robert Irwin and Larry Bell are two of California’s best-known artists. Robert Irwin is renowned for his pursuit of an immaterial and experiential art through a new genre of installation work, and Larry Bell for the fabrication of ethereal geometric objects from optical, colour-bearing new plastics. In this exhibition, two of their signature objects – one of Irwin’s iconic discs and a Larry Bell cube – signal the radical and groundbreaking art made in California in the 1960s and 70s. The importance of this art has tended to be overshadowed by the impact of East Coast American art of the same vintage, and Another Minimalism is among the few exhibitions to recognize and examine the influence of this regional subset of minimalism on leading contemporary artists. Artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Spencer Finch, Carol Bove and Ann Veronica Janssens explore the perceptual and psychological aspects of seeing through stripped down, incidental or optical forms, structures and spaces. Their works can cause profound shifts in our perception by the simplest and most transparent of means – coloured light gels, fog, the subtle deployment of after images.
    [Show full text]