: 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.’”