Caliornia APRIL/MAY 2011 Contemporary ART Mariine Contemporary Marine Contemporary Ricky Allman littlewhitehead 1733 — A Wendy Heldmann Bad News Abbot Kinney Blvd TTom Hunterer Venice, CA JoJoww Debut U.S. solo show 90291 Dennis Koch Littlewhitehead May 7 — T: +1 310 399 0294 Peter Lograsso June 18, 2011 Christopher Michlig Robert Minervini Christopher Pate Stephanie Pryor Debra Scacco marinecontemporary.com Axadra Wsfd, “Shp Trptyh”, 48 x 62", mxd mda papr, 2010 Axadra Wsfd occASSionAl beAST thrugh Apr 30, 2011 2903 Santa Monica Blvd. Santa Monica, CA 90404 310-828-1912 www.gallerykmLA.com Gallery Hours: TTue –Sat, 11am ––5pm or by appointment 30 12 25 16 29 S T Cover Image 28 N E 28 T 28 31 N 21 O 30 C 28 35 27 39 38 29 30 36 PUBLISHER Richard Kalisher EDITOR Donovan Stanley DESIGN Eric Kalisher CONTRIBUTORS 31 Roberta Carasso Jessie Kim Caliornia Contemporary ART www.caliorniacontemporaryart.net (323) 380-8916 | [email protected] 88 Apr/May 2011 EXHIBIIONS MICHAEL SALVATORE TIERNEY April 29th - May 2nd located at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart Visit us at Booth 11-B 5797 Washington Boulevard | Culver City, California 90232 | 323.272.3642 | [email protected] | blytheprojects.net EXHIBITIONS Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus by Hugo Anderson Bauhaus and our very sense o what is modern in twentieth century art and design are practically synonymous. WWe are surrounded in our everyday lives by the designs and theories put into practice by the Bauhaus. While the school o the Bauhaus existed only rom 1919 to 1933, its principals and inuence resonate today because o the achieve- ments o the artists and architects associated with it: Walter Gropius, Paul Klee, Vassily Kandinsky, Joseph Alpers, Lyonel Feininger, Laszlo Moholy- Nagy, Warner Drewes and Herbert Bayer. By denition Bauhaus means construction or architecture (bau) and house (haus) in German. ItIt was the creation o Walter Gropius, who in 1919 assumed control o the Weimar School o the Arts and Cras and the Weimar Academy o Fine Art. He combined the two into the Weimar Bauhaus School. It was Gropius’ intention to create a new generation o crasmen without the class distinc- tions between crasmen and artists. No doubt it “No institution has afected the course o twentieth century art and design so pro- oundly as the Bauhaus. Its impact is stag- gering. Bauhaus precedents provide sources or everything rom the appearance o our urban skylines to the modern dinnerware on our hard-edged, contemporary tables. They are ound in virtually every unctionally de- signed object and graphic today.” - Gwen Chanzit 12CuratorC|C|A, Herbert Apr/May Bayer Archive 2011 at the Denver Art Museum and Beyond was an attempt to build something new and positive out o the ashes o World War I when Gropius stated “Let us desire, conceive, and create the new building o the uture together.” Te central concept was that no one art orm was in- herently better than any other and that the ne arts and applied arts must be studied and used together. Trough good design the new artist/crasman would create a better world. Te very act that easel painting was replaced in the curriculum by mural painting showed Gropius’ commit- ment to integrate all the arts within architecture. O all o the artists associated with the Bauhaus during its brie 15 years, it is Herbert Bayer (1900-1985) who actu- ally devoted a lietime to a career which incorporated the ideal o total integration o the arts, in design, advertising, architecture, public sculpture and painting. Herbert Bayer was born April 5, 1900 in Haag am Hausruch, Austria. Because o a book he read by Vassily Kandinsky (Concerning the Spiritual in Art) he enrolled at Weimar Bauhaus at the age o 21. He actually arrived at the Bauhaus six months beore Kandinsky began teach- ing. Bayer studied at the Bauhaus or two years, taking a negatives and collage meshed well with Surrealist imagery, leave in 1923 to travel through Italy. He had arrived at the as in sel-portrait (1932), lonely metropolitan (1932), and Bauhaus with almost no prior background in art, and thus metamorphosis (1936). oered the perect “blank slate” upon which to create the Te later 1930’s were difcult times or ree expression. essential Bauhaus artist. Since the Bauhaus oered no art Artists were among the many groups who elt the need to history in its curriculum it made sense to expand his rst- nd exile outside Nazi Germany. Te Bauhaus had closed hand knowledge o art architecture and design by spending in 1933 and many o its artists/aculty had already emigrat- a year traveling in Italy, sketching and painting. o support ed to the United States, nding work teaching at Harvard himsel he painted houses and stage sets during his travels,, and at the New Bauhaus in Chicago. Bayer had traveled to thus applying the integration o crasman and artist at the the U.S. in 1937 and became involved in the design o an rst opportunity. exhibition on the Bauhaus at the newly created Museum o In 1925 he was oered a position on the aculty at the Modern Art. In 1938 he moved to New YYork City. Deposi- Bauhaus, as Master o ypography. It was then, in conjunc- tion (1939) while depicting the tools o Christ’s crucixion, tion with the ideas o Moholy-Nagy, that Bayer developed a also portends the dark uture o a Nazi victory in Europe, a “universal alphabet” using only lower case letters. Tis was victory that seemed quite possible in 1939. designed to be a practical typeace, which was large enough Te exhibition Bauhaus 1919-1928 opened at the Mu- to read and ree o distortions and curlicues, sans-seri type. seum o Modern Art and later traveled around the United Bayer applied this type design to ad copy, posters and books States. It provided an introduction to modernist design to throughout his career. a country slow to accept abstraction in painting, much less In 1928 Bayer le the Bauhaus to pursue a design ca- in advertising, which required client acceptance. During reer in Berlin. It was his desire to put the theories o the his tenure in New York, Bayer’s graphic work prospered, Bauhaus into practice in design and advertising. In 1933 but when the opportunity arose to move back to a moun- he produced a “bayer type”. During his Berlin years, in ad- tain environment he took it, moving to Aspen, Colorado in dition to his design work, Bayer ventured into photography, 1946. He accepted a position as design consultant or Wal-al- which he used in both commercial (ads and posters) and ter Paepcke and the Container Corporation o America, ne art production. With Maholy-Nagy, Hebert Bayer was whose headquarters were in Chicago. an early creator o photoplastic or photomontage. Te al- Te Aspen o 1946 was a small mountain town o less tering o photographic imagery through the use o multiple than 800 residents and only the beginnings o a ski town, Feature 13 EXHIBITIONS with two pre-war ski runs. Paepcke and Bayer were instru- just an art director, contributing in management decisions, mental in initiating the changes that would make Aspen a including the design o buildings and interiors. cultural oasis in the 1950’s and beyond. Te Aspen Institute Te Great Ideas o Western Man was a Herbert Bayer or Humanistic Studies was ounded by Paepcke in 1949, advertising campaign o the 1950’s and 60’s. Tese ads had with Herbert Bayer working as architect and design consul- no sales message, again working on the concept that a good tant. He designed a complex o buildings or the institute, corporate image was also good or business. Te ad con- integrated within the natural landscape o the mountain cept was an out- growth o discussions at the Aspen Insti- valley. In 1955 he created a work called grass mound, a or- tute or Humanistic Studies. ty oot grassy place or relaxation, years beore the concept Te Institute worked to bring business executives and o o ““earthworks” became popular. He also created marble managers together to discuss ideas in a relaxed setting and garden using discards rom an old marble quarry. In 1963- a cultural environment. Te Aspen Institute was as respon- 64 he designed a new tent or the Aspen Music Festival. sible or putting Aspen on the world map as was skiing. ItIt With his return to mountain living, mountains and was also a great concept or expanding the year past ski sea- contour map elements began to emerge in his artwork rom son, with many o its programs in the summer months. the late 1940’s on, as in his lithograph mountains and lakes It was through connections at the Aspen Institute that (1948). He designed a series o ski posters, including skiski Bayer met Robert O Anderson, ounder o Atlantic Rich- broadmoor (1959). In 1953 the Container Corporation eld Oil Company. In the early 1950’s they became riends;; published world atlas with graphics designed by Herbert Anderson bought Bayer’s house in town when Herbert Bayer. His goal was to put together an atlas with clean moved his studio onto Red Mountain, overlooking Aspen. graphics that was easy to read. Te interaction between nee Along with the house, Anderson also began to buy artwork art and commercial art again shows in Bayer’s paintings and by Bayer, providing the beginning o a relationship o pa- prints with continuing use o weather related symbols, such tron and riend that would last until the end o Bayer’s lie.