THE WORLD OF ÉCLAT A French word meaning “dazzling brilliance,” ÉCLAT will be a window to the world of the finest — universal and local, popular and obscure. We will cover fine art, past and contemporary, and design, from the classical to the eclectic. Readers will have an opportunity to discover and learn about the finest jewelry, art, wines, and all the markers of a refined lifestyle. Nothing will be deemed outside of our realm, as long as its design, palette, mechanics, or workmanship place it amongst the elite. Emphasis will be placed on the optimum use of design and/or technical resources rather than price. Not only do we intend to be a beacon to items that please the eye, we will thoroughly address the key reasons why they also please the mind. Artists will explain the intricacies of the creative process and give insight into the challenges they face. Galleries, museums, auction houses, boutiques, and the people who lead them will be profiled. In every issue, our readers will gain new insight into the most exquisite elements of the world around them. For collectors or curators, connoisseurs or the merely curious, ÉCLAT will offer an inside track to time-honored classics and new twists for future designs. We plan to make ÉCLAT an exciting and information magazine, and we are pleased that you are accompanying us on our initial excursion. Prepare to be launched into the world of ÉCLAT.
CONTENTS Picasso at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Henry Moore at the Denver Botanic Gardens Porsche Ice-Force: Driving on a Frozen Lake African Contemporary Art in Los Angeles An Encaustic Journey with Maria O’Malley
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by Bertram Kalisher & Stuart Leuthner
uring the evening of May 4, the bidding was spirited in the overflowing salesroom at Christie’s New York auction. After almost eight minutes, five art lovers were still in the game at $80 million; but a few moments later, an unidentified buyer on the phone took home Pablo Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust for $106.5 million, a record for the most expensive work of art ever sold at auction. The New York Times reported, “When the canvas last changed hands, in 1951, it sold for $19,800.” The five-foot-by-four-foot painting depicts the reclining nude figure of Picasso’s mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, with an image of Picasso’s profile watching over her in the background. The painting is considered to be an exceptional example of the artist’s work created during a high point in his career. It is apropos that the Picasso painting caused such a stir in the art world at the same time a landmark exhibition, Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, provides an unprecedented opportunity to see one of the most important collections in the world of the artist’s work. On view through August 1, 2010, the 300 works focus exclusively on the remarkable array of works by Picasso in the Met’s collection. The exhibition reveals the Museum’s complete holdings of the artist’s paintings, drawings, sculptures and ceramics — never before seen in their entirety — as well as a significant number of his prints.
A LIFE FORCE!
Picasso at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Top, Head of a Woman, 1909, (Vollard edition, cast date unknown), bronze, incised on reverse: Picasso, Bequest of Florence M. Schoenborn, 1995, © Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Right, Man Ray, Picasso, 1933, gelatin silver print, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ford Motor Comapany Collection, Gift of Ford Motor Company and John C. Wadell, 1987, © 2010 Man Ray Trust/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Opposite page, Woman in Profile, 1901, oil on paper board mounted on particle board, signed, lower left: Picasso, Jacques and Natasha Gelman Collection, 1998, © Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. 24 CHRONOS • SPRING/SUMMER 2010
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A LIFE FORCE!
Picasso at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
riod that Picasso’s work was discovered by art collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein. Gertrude Stein became Picasso’s principal patron, purchasing his paintings and drawings and displaying them in her Paris informal Salon. uring the early 20th century, European galleries were beginning to display African art. Captivated by the “primitive” artifacts, especially masks, Picasso was soon exploring forms inspired by African sculpture, a style that would lead to Cubism. Developed by Picasso and his friend Georges Braque, Cubism fragments three-dimensional subjects into basic geometrical shapes and patterns of color. A later version, synthetic cubism, creates the illusion of viewing an object or person simultaneously from a different perspective in one picture. Artists in Europe and America were soon exploring Cubism, and the style caused a sensation when it was introduced at New York’s legendary Armory Show in 1913. Picasso was also producing sets and costumes for the Ballet Russe. Shortly after the Spanish Civil War broke out, Picasso was asked to paint a mural for the 1937 World Exposition in Paris. The result, the monumental Guernica, captures the horrors of war and the grief suffered by helpless civil-
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Self-Portrait “Yo,” 1900, ink and essence on paper, inscribed in ink, upper left: Yo, Gift of Raymonde Paul, in memory of her brother C. Michael Paul, 1982, © Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Born in Malaga, Spain on October 25, 1881, Pablo Picasso demonstrated an affinity for drawing as a child. His father, a painter who also taught art, persuaded the officials at Barcelona’s School of Fine arts to admit his son when he was thirteen. Three years later he was accepted at Madrid’s prestigious Royal Academy or San Fernando. Unhappy with the school’s formal instruction, he quit and moved to Paris. When he was not painting, the young artist could be found in the cafes frequented by fellow intellectuals and artists. hen he was a young man, Picasso worked in a wide variety of styles. These included explorations of realism and modernism, followed by his Blue and Rose periods. Dating between 1901 and 1904, Picasso’s Blue Period features a predominantly blue palette and subjects we would characterize today as “street people”. It was also during this period Picasso produced his first sculptures. In 1904, the artist replaced his blues and blue-greens with pinks and oranges, and prostitutes and beggars with cheerful circus performers and harlequins. Picasso was also beginning to paint figures seen head-on or in profile, a style influenced by early Greek art and the work of Henri Matisse and Henry Rousseau. It was during his Rose Pe-
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Seated Harlequin, 1901, oil on canvas, lined and mounted to a sheet of pressed cork, signed and dated in red paint, lower left: Picasso/1901, purchase, Mr. and Mrs. John L. Loeb Gift, 1960, © Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
A LIFE FORCE!
Picasso at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
see that Picasso had already discovered neo-expressionism and was, as so often before, ahead of his time.” Pablo Picasso died in Mougins, France on April 8, 1973. It has been estimated Picasso produced 50,000 pieces of artwork during his lifetime. Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art encompasses the key subjects for which the artist is so well known: the pensive harlequins of his Rose Period, the faceted figures and tabletop still lifes of his Cubist years, the monumental heads and bathers of the 1920s, the raging bulls and dreaming nudes of the 1930s and the rakish musketeers of his final years. On display are thirty-four paintings, fifty-eight drawings, a dozen sculptures and ceramics, an extensive selection of prints, and many works on paper that have rarely, if ever, been exhibited before at the Metropolitan Museum.
Gertrude Stein, 1905-1906, oil on canvas, Bequest of Gertrude Stein, 1946, © Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
ians caught in the middle of events they have no control over. When asked to explain the symbolism, Picasso stated, “It isn’t up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words! The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them.” While World War raged, Picasso lived in Paris. Unable to show his work — the Nazis were not fans of modern art — his paintings turned gloomy and macabre. After the war ended, he joined the Communist party and his interests turned to sculpture, pottery and print making. Picasso also made a series of paintings based on works by Velazquez, Goya, Poussin, Manet, Courbet and Delacroix. Now in his eighties, Picasso continued producing an amazing deluge of paintings, ceramics and etching. One writer summed up the artist’s final years, “At the time these works were dismissed by most as pornographic fantasies of an impotent old man or the slapdash works of an artist who was past his prime. Only later, after Picasso’s death, when the rest of the world had moved on from abstract expressionism, did the critical community come to 28 CHRONOS • SPRING/SUMMER 2010
Standing Nude and Seated Musketeer, 1967, oil on canvas, signed right: Picasso, dated on reverse in orange paint upper left: 30.11.68, Gift of A.L. and Blanche Levine, 1981, © Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
In her Sponsor’s Statement, Iris Cantor, president and chairman of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, wrote, “Picasso! A life force, an artist who changed the world, a creator of artworks that remain endlessly fascinating.” For additional information about Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art can be reached at 212-535-7710 or at www.metmuseum.org
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42 CHRONOS • SPRING/SUMMER 2010
MOORE IN THE GARDENS By Stuart Leuthner / Photography by William Taylor
Sculpture is an art of the open air. Daylight, sunlight, is necessary to it, and for me its best setting and complement is nature. I would rather have a piece of my sculpture put in a landscape, almost any landscape, than in, or on, the most beautiful building I know. — Henry Moore Reclining Figure: Angles, 1979, bronze, edition of 9 + 1, cast: Noack Berlin, stamped Moore 0/9, The Henry Moore Foundation: acquired 1986.
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Signed in steel, the signature of Henry Moore.
lthough Henry Moore did not begin to create sculpture intended to be displayed outdoors until he was fifty years old, he had worked in the open air throughout his career. During the 1930s, Moore owned a country cottage near the English Channel in Kent. There, surrounded by the area’s gentle hills and valleys, he worked almost exclusively outdoors. It was shortly after the end of World War Two when Moore began his first experiments with outdoor locations in the moors of Scotland. Today, sculpture parks can be found in countless cities worldwide, thanks mainly to Moore and his concepts. If he were alive today, Henry Moore certainly would enjoy a stroll through the exhibition of his work at the Denver Botanic Gardens. Running through January 31, 2011, Moore in the Gardens presents twenty of the sculptor’s works set against the background of the natural beauty found in this twenty-three-acre oasis in the heart of the city. The exhibition was first shown in London’s Royal Botanic Gardens in 2007. A year later, it moved to The New York Botanical Garden, before journeying on to the Atlanta Botanical Garden in 2009. Denver is the last stop of the exhibition’s triumphant American tour. The largescale bronzes (and one fiberglass piece), created over a forty-year period of the artist’s life, demonstrate how Moore was constantly refining his vision of the way in which his work would relate to the surrounding open landscape. Born in Castleford, Yorkshire, England on July 30, 1898, Henry Spencer Moore was the seventh child of Mary and Raymond Moore. Raymond, a mining engineer who did not want his sons to work in the mines, impressed upon them the need for a formal education. As a child, Henry displayed an interest in art, fashioning sculptures Hill Arches, 1973, bronze, edition of 3 + 1, cast: Noack, Berlin, stamped Moore 0/3, The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist, 1977. 44 CHRONOS • SPRING/SUMMER 2010
in wood and clay. When one of his teachers noticed his talent, he was awarded a scholarship to Castleford Secondary School. By 1916, Moore was teaching in the same elementary school he had attended in his boyhood. With the outbreak of World War One, Moore joined the Civil Service Rifles. Gassed during the Battle of Cambrai in 1917, he spent the rest of the war as a physical training instructor. When the war ended, Moore returned to teaching, but soon left to attend Leeds School of Art on an ex-serviceman’s grant. While he was there, he met fellow student Barbara Hepworth. Hepworth would also become a wellknown sculptor, and the two artists remained friends throughout their lives. In 1921, Moore won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London. Arriving in London, he wrote, “I was in a dream of excitement. When I rode on the open top of a bus I felt that I was travelling in Heaven almost.” Unhappy with the study of romantic Victorian sculpture, Moore began to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum and the British Museum where he acquired an interest in primitive art — particularly pre-Columbian sculpture. Moore would also often visit Paris, where he was introduced to the work of Constantin Brancusi, Jacob Epstein and Frank Dobson. After a six-month trip to Italy in 1925, he was offered a post as Assistant in the Sculpture
Large Reclining Figure, 1984, fiberglass, cast: Edward Lawrence Studios, Midhurst, The Henry Moore Foundation: acquired 1987.
Department at the Royal College of Art. Since he was only required to work two days a week, Moore had ample time to pursue his own work. He was now obsessed with direct carving, a style in which the marks left by the tools and imperfections of the material become part of the finished piece. In 1926, Moore held his first one man show. Two years later, he was commissioned to provide a sculpture for the new headquarters of the London Underground. His work, West Wind, carved from Portland stone, was one of eight “winds” created by contemporary sculptors between 1928 and 1929. Moore married Irina Radetsky, a Russian student studying painting at the Royal College, in July, 1929. They moved into a studio in Hempstead, joining a small colony of avant-garde artists. Moore’s work came to the attention of the art critic Herbert Read as well as many refugee European architects and designers headed for America. These connections proved to be important — Read publicized Moore’s work and many of the architects and designers would later commission works by Moore. After Moore’s second one man show received scathing reviews in a number of newspapers, he was sacked by the Royal College. Hired as the Head of the Department of Sculpture at the Chelsea School of Art, Moore joined The Seven and Five Society, a group of artists, including Hepworth, who were moving towards more abstract work. His work was included in the International Exhibition of Surrealist Art held in London in 1936, the same year his work was first seen in the United States in a show at the
Oval with Points, 1968-70, bronze, edition of 6 + 1, cast: Morris Singer, Basing stoke, stamped Moore 0/6, The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist, 1977. SPRING/SUMMER 2010 • CHRONOS 45
cast in bronze. Although this was a technique he originally despised, there were several reasons for this decision. In 1960, he said, “The difference between modelling and carving is that modelling is a quicker thing, and so it becomes a chance to get rid of one’s ideas.” He was also being offered commissions for an increasing number of massive pieces. In 1952, Moore built the first foundry on his property and in later years the expanding outbuildings began to resemble a small factory as the production of the sculptures was now assigned to assistants. At his home, Moore had a wonderful collection of objects gathered during his travels including skulls, driftwood, rocks and shells he would use for inspiration. For his larger works, he would often produce a half-scale model. These would be scaled up for the final molding and casting at the foundry. y the end of the 1970s, there were more than forty exhibitions a year featuring Moore’s work. He was the recipient of numerous honors, but turned down a knighthood because “such a title might tend to cut me off from fellow artists whose work has aims similar to mine.”Although a new generation of artists was determined to challenge Moore, now considered a member of the “establishment,” many of these same artists acknowledged the influence he had on their work. These include Sir Anthony Caro, Phillip King and Isaac Witkin (all assistants at Perry Green), Lynn Chadwick, Reg Butler, William Turnbull and Kenneth Armitage. Henry Moore died on August 31, 1986. Before his death, he, along with his daughter Mary, established the Henry Moore Foundation. The Foundation holds the largest collection of the Moore’s work and maintains the artist’s home, grounds and studios; open to the public from April to October. In his introduction to the catalog for Moore in the Gardens, Denver Botanic Gardens’ chief executive officer Brian Vogt, stated, “Like all artists who have a new vision, Henry Moore inspired conversation in his day and continues to do so today...Times have shifted and change is now woven into our cultural consciousness...No wonder that Moore is now mainstream, seen in almost every major city in the world. But something is quite timeless about his work. I recently visited a sculpture garden that featured works by many abstract artists, including a couple by Moore. His pieces were instantly recognizable and had that certain something that makes the art of a genius singular and compelling. Reading about his life, I suspect it has something to do with a sense of dignity. These pieces evoke completion and maturity.” If you would like more information about Moore in the Gardens, the Denver Botanic Gardens can be reached at 720-865-3500 or www.botanicgardens.org
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Upright Motive No. 7, 1955-56, bronze, edition of 5 + 1, cast: Martyn, Cheltenham, The Henry Moore Foundation: gift of the artist, 1977.
Museum of Modern Art in New York. With the outbreak of World War Two, Moore resigned his teaching post and applied for training as a munitions toolmaker. The course was oversubscribed so he began making drawings of people seeking shelter in the London Underground during the Blitz. When his drawings came to the attention of the War Artists Advisory Committee, he was commissioned to make larger and more finished works. The powerful drawings, shown in 1940 and 1941, depicting London’s citizens’ resolve during a terrifying ordeal, helped boost his international reputation, especially in America. Moore’s Hempstead studio was hit by a bomb during the Blitz, but, luckily, he and Irina were staying at their cottage in Kent. They moved to a farm in the hamlet of Perry Green near Much Hadham, Hertfordshire. In spite of Moore’s later fame and wealth, the farm, relatively unchanged, would be the artist’s final home and workshop. The couple’s daughter, Mary, was born in March, 1946. Mary’s arrival was the inspiration for Moore’s post-war theme of “mother-and-child” compositions. The sculptor now began to shift from direct carving to modeling maquettes in clay or plaster which were then 46 CHRONOS • SPRING/SUMMER 2010
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PORSCHE ICE-FORCE S
ince 1974, the Porsche Sport Driving School has been offering automotive enthusiasts the opportunity to hone their driving schools both on and off road. The courses are held yearround at race courses around the world, including a number of international circuits and the FIA-compliant test track at the Porsche facility in Leipzig. Subject to availability, students can choose from a Boxter, Cayman, Panamera or Cayenne. This not only provides an opportunity for drivers who have always wanted to drive a Porsche to discover what the legend is
20 CHRONOS • SPRING/SUMMER 2010
By Stuart Leuthner
all about; it allows those who already own a Porsche, or are thinking of purchasing one, to try out a new model. Students are assigned a personal instructor. These Porsche specialists — expert drivers who have turned their passion into a profession — are able to share valuable insider knowledge acquired over many years spent testing and fine-tuning new models. During a session, the instructors are sitting next to a driver in the passenger seat, observing the student from track side or following in a chase car. This not only guarantees the student driver’s safety, it also optimizes the learning experience. Under the guidance of these highly trained professionals, participants master techniques lifting their driving skills to another level. The Porsche Sport Driving School consists of several training levels. The Warm-up course, lasting one day,
teaches the basics of driving safety. Students learn how to respond correctly to situations that occur in everyday road traffic — emergency stops, taking evasive action and maintaining control in any situation. The next level, Precision training, is a two-day program designed to allow the driver to explore the potential of the vehicle. Since students can choose this as their introductory course, it covers the basics, similar to the Warm-up training program, but also teaches students the basics of precision steering, braking and acceleration. The program’s climax is an unforgettable experience where drivers complete full laps on the circuit. Once a student has completed the two-day Precision training program, they are ready to challenge the advanced courses — Precision, Performance and Master. Each level builds on what has already been learned, while
Rudy Albers, wearing the red hat, takes a break between driving sessions on Finland’s Lake Pasasjarvi. Sitting next to Albers is his assigned co-driver, Dr. Joachim Leineiver, who drove 3,000 from Berlin to Ivalo in his personal Porsche.
SPRING/SUMMER 2010 • CHRONOS 21
PORSCHE ICE-FORCE
Brrrrr! The temperature display on the Porsche’s dashboard reads a frosty -31.5° C.
The drivers and instructors discussing their upcoming circuit around the frozen lake. The aim of the Ice-Force program is to teach drivers how to optimize vehicle control and find the ideal line, even on slick surfaces.
22 CHRONOS • SPRING/SUMMER 2010
also concentrating on all aspects of motorsports. These include identifying the ideal line on a circuit, performing “standing” and “flying” starts, safely overtaking and passing other vehicles, and proper race etiquette. For those who love winter sports, or simply want to improve their driving on ice and snow, the Ice-Force Precision course is the answer. Offered at three facilities — one in Austria, and two in Finland — the hands-on sessions are designed to prepare a driver for the special challenges presented by driving in the winter. The Ice-Force Pro-Driving Experience is held at Camp 4S, a frozen lake located near Ivalo, a village in northern Finland. Earlier this year, Rudy Albers, president of Wempe Jewelers’ Manhattan store, headed north to challenge the elements. “The course is not for beginners,” Albers explains. “Porsche asked me for proof to show I knew how to drive, so I lined up a few of my racing awards on my Porsche’s hood and sent them a photograph.” When Porsche discovered Albers was not only an experienced competition driver, but had a serious bias for their automobiles, he was given the green light. After arriving in Helsinki, Albers boarded another plane for the one-hour flight to Ivalo. “It is a very small village,” Albers says, “but there are a lot of hotel rooms because tourists come to see the Northern Lights.” Breakfast was served at eight o’clock. After a halfhour bus ride, the students arrived at a huge garage located adjacent to the lake. Inside, they discovered a line-up of forty shiny Porsches. During the three days on the lake, drivers could experience driving the Cayman S, the 911 S (two-wheel drive), the 911 4S (four-wheel drive), the Turbo, and the Panamera, (Porsche’s new 4-door sports sedan). The car’s tires are fitted with 4-mm studs to pro-
vide additional traction, and Cayenne SUVs are available to pull drivers who stray off the track and end up in the snow. “You know it’s bad,” Albers says, “when the Cayenne drivers know you by name.” “The point of the school is not only learn how to drive on ice,” Albers says. “It also allows you to experience the different machines from four-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive and the Turbo.” Although he describes the Turbo as a “real animal,” Albers’ favorite ride was the 911 S. “I own a 2009 911 S with standard shift and it is an exciting and exceptional-handling car.” Testing your driving limits on a frozen lake has benefits. “You can’t get hurt or damage the car,” Albers says. “You just end up ‘crashing’ into deep snow. And it’s a sport driving school, so you’re most likely covered under your life insurance.” When asked to describe the experience, Albers laughs. “It was thrilling. Maybe even better than thrilling. I added to my driving skills, met some interesting racing people from all over the world and drove some great automobiles.” And, he adds, “The scenery was amazing. It’s as if somebody took nature and put it in a deep freezer.”
Follow the leader. Rudy Albers describes the opportunity to drive a Porsche on the frozen lake as, “Thrilling. Maybe even better than thrilling.”
TIME ON ICE
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ixing business with pleasure, Albers decided to pack four high-end sport watches and see how they would perform in Finland’s punishing -31°C temperatures. One evening, he left a stainless steel Rolex Deepsea, a Wempe Zeitmeister Ceramic Chronograph, a stainless steel Panerai Luminor 1950 Submersible with depth gauge, and a stainless steel Audemars Piguet Offshore outside on his balcony. “In the morning,” Albers says, “I brought them inside and slowly defrosted them in the sauna in my room.” Despite their night in the frigid snow, the watches performed as advertised. “I wasn’t surprised that they were running a few seconds slower,” he says, smiling, “nor that they were still there. But I surely wouldn’t have tried this ‘stunt’ at home.” SPRING/SUMMER 2010 • CHRONOS 23
Christian Faur The Land Surveyors June 17 - July 17, 2010
.....The Land Surveyors.... 20,000 hand cast encaustic crayons..... 30 x 60 inches..... 18 panels..... 2010.....
Kim Foster Gallery
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MUSEUMS
(clockwise from bottom left) Lee Bontecou: detail - Untitled, 1976, pencil and colored pencil on prepared paper. 15”x11”. MoMA, the Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection Gift; detail of Untitled, 1980-1998, welded steel, porcelain, wire mesh, canvas, and wire. 7’x8’x6’. MoMA, gift of Philip Johnson (by exchange) and the Nina & Gordon Bunshaft Bequest Fund; Marilyn Minter: Orange Crush, 2009, enamel on metal, 108”x180”. Courtesy of John and Amy Phelan; Gimme, 2008, cprint, 70” x 97.25” AP. Courtesy of the artist & Regen Projects, Los Angeles. All work © respective artists.
Lee Bontecou MoMA New York [through Aug 30]
Lee Bontecou first exhibited her steeland-canvas sculptures at New York’s prominent Leo Castelli Gallery in the 1960s. Although they bear little resemblance to the Minimalist and Pop art dominant at the time, these wall-mounted sculptures—made in New York between 1959 and 1967—elicited both critical acclaim and curiosity. Writing about one of them, a reviewer asked, “Is it apterodactyl? A spaceship? An outsize artichoke or a monstrous whorl of giant flower corollas?” Bontecou’s imaginative vision encompasses all of these possibilities. For decades she has left her work untitled, preferring not to restrict the ways in which it may be understood. Bontecou’s excitement about the Space Age and her memories of the Second World War are fundamental to
her visual language. While her art defies easy classification, suggestions of infinite expanse, anxiety, and threat are pervasive, expressed, for example, in the black circular forms that have been insistent motifs in her work. The cavernous black voids of her steel-and-canvas sculptures and the deep black circles of her drawings conjure associations as varied as volcanic craters, jet engines, eye sockets, and cosmic black holes, invoking what the artist has described as “the visual wonders and horrors” of the natural and man-made worlds. In 1971 Bontecou left New York City. Since then she has worked primarily in rural Pennsylvania, where her engagement with the natural world has become more pronounced. The sculpture suspended at the center of this installation— a slowly whirling galaxy of forms she worked on for eighteen years—represents a fulfillment of her longstanding desire to create art that celebrates “no barriers, no boundaries, all freedom in every sense.”
Marilyn Minter MOCA Cleveland [through Aug 15]
One of the most adventurous and accomplished artists working today, Marilyn Minter uses bold, luscious colors and glossy surfaces to depict extreme closeups of women – often fashion models – to examine beauty and decadence while exposing the pleasures and dangers of glamour. Minter’s world, though steeped in fashion and glitz, is one in which beauty has gone awry. She says that her art is invested “in the moment when everything goes wrong. . . when the model sweats.” This exhibition presents a focused selection of Minter’s work centered on one of her most recent major paintings, Orange Crush, 2009, a 9 x 15 foot triptych. Accompanying the painting are five related large scale photographs and an acclaimed video, Green Pink Caviar, 2009, originally featured on a billboard in Times Square.
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Nadine Rovner, One at a Time Archival Digital Pigment Print , 2009
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GALLERY NEWS ART SCENE
Bringing Contemporary African Art to Los Angeles by Gloria Huwiler Contemporary African art is something few international collectors have access to in the States, mainly because few galleries exist that carry the work. Yet both continental and diasporic African Artists abound and their rare and innovative work is testimony to the creativity and insight that exists. Actress and gallery cofounder Gloria Huwiler speaks about discovering her interest in the field and the creation of Anajuwa Gallery. In 2006 I had recently graduated from Brown University and moved to New York to pursue acting. I also took up a part time job in a contemporary art gallery in the Time Warner Center, Millenia Fine Art. My mother has always been a collector of African Art, and I grew up with a keen appreciation and love of the field. Coming from this background, a part time job in a gallery was an ideal creative day job while I immersed myself in New York’s acting scene. Carlene Soumas, the gallery director at Millenia Fine Art asked her new assistants to put together ideas for prospective exhibitions by researching emerging artists, offering the possibility of an exhibition at Millenia Fine Art, New York, if she approved of the concept. I immediately turned to the plethora of contemporary African Artists I’d been exposed to at home and put together a presentation for a group exhibition of Zambian painters and sculptures entitled “Realizing an African Renaissance.” With the help of Carlene Soumas and various people on the ground in Zambia, the exhibition took place within the next six months and featured nine Zambian painters and one sculptor. The exhibition at Millenia Fine Art was well received by collectors, and several of the artists' work sold out quickly, showing a strong demand for this new, unseen work. In the course of preparing for the exhibition, I realized just how underde-
(above) An Opening at Anajuwa with actress Sydney Tamiia Poitier, writer/director/producer Oz Scott, Anajuwa founder Gloria Huwiler; (below) Vincentio Phiri, Chibede, 48” x 36.8”.
ART SCENE
African artists in Los Angeles. In my time here, I have found the the exposure of contemporary African art to be lacking, as in New York. Apart from the superbly curated exhibits at the Fowler, few commercial galleries carry contemporary African art and none specialize in it. While few generalizations can be made on so broad a field, contemporary African art is a fusion of traditional influences with modern and contemporary styles and forms. Debate often abounds on the nature of the work and the question of authenticity is a commonly held concern of intellectual art critiques. How “African” does contemporary African Art has to be, in order to be considered authentic? The question seems utterly inane when one considers that art is an expression of an artist’s experience, his vision – a projection of himself on reality. Contemporary African art is precisely that, an expression of modern Africa through the eyes of its artists, and the result is the rich, hybrid, combination of influences that post modernism has wrought on African itself. Sydney Tamiia Poitier and Sir Sidney Poitier at an Anajuwa opening.
veloped and underexposed the field of contemporary African art in the United States was. Only one contemporary African artist, Yinka Shonibare, has been sold at auction in Sotheby’s Contemporary Section. No auction at present is dedicated exclusively to the field, despite the fact that contemporary African art of superb quality continues to be produced, and auctions in contemporary Chinese, Latin, Indian, and European work take place regularly. Rather, the mainstream representation of African art that exists in New York is dedicated solely to antiques and tribal artifacts. Yet, with the proposed Museum for African Art currently under construction on Museum Mile on the Upper East Side, contemporary African
art is slowly entering mainstream consciousness and getting the necessary exposition and exposure it deserves. Having seen the success of the work at the Time Warner center, I was confident of the interest in contemporary African art – if well curated and exhibited in a central and well exposed venue – and have been committed to continuing to provide access and exposure to contemporary African Artists since. In following my acting ambitions by moving to Los Angeles, I met a business partner keen on opening a contemporary African art gallery. Anajuwa Gallery was borne out of our mutual interest in the field, and is dedicated to showcasing emerging and established contemporary
Anajuwa’s inaugural exhibition, Integration, was displayed at Anajuwa Gallery’s Melrose. The opening reception was hosted by Sydney Tamiia Poitier, and attended by Sir Sidney Poitier, Bernie Casey, Gina Ravera, and various members of the African American and entertainment community in Los Angeles. The exhibition features the work of artists William Bwalya Miko, Mwamba Mulangala, Geophrey Phiri, Vincentio Phiri, Rikki Lungu, Baba Jakheh, Lutanda Mwamba, the Zata Brothers and Stary Mwaba. The work will be on display at the 8360 Melrose Avenue gallery till the end of May and then relocated to the Fairmount Miramar Hotel in Santa Monica.
EXHIBITIONS ART: IN DEPTH
An Encaustic Journey
by Roberta Carasso
tics do not deteriorate, yellow, or darken; and do not have to be placed under glass. In fact, the Greeks used encaustic and resin to weatherproof their ships. While the process is laborious, a work of art has a permanency rarely seen in other materials. Also important is health hazards are reduced or eliminated making the process environmentally sound.
Maria O’Malley, Cosmic Landscape, encaustic and graphite on panel, 36”x48”.
F
or three consecutive nights, Maria O’Malley, an accomplished figurative oil painter, dreamed of bees. Her ancient Greek ancestry taught her to be sensitive to the interconnectedness of life and that dreams can convey messages. Because of these dreams and their repetitive nature, O’Malley paid attention. Her subconscious thoughts and ensuing research about bees led her to determine what the dreams meant. She discovered that beeswax, also known as encaustics, is an ancient art form. Except for Jasper Johns’ encaustic resurgence, the medium was not popular at the time of O’Malley’s dreams. With no knowledge of working in encaustics, O’Malley learned all she could about using beeswax in her art. While the artist investigated and studied new art supplies, she continued to paint in oils. O’Malley’s figurative oils won several first place prizes and were part of a
long list of fine exhibitions. These include the Laguna Art Museum and Chapman University. Working in familiar oils and less familiar encaustics, the artist realized she was at home using the beeswax process. Following every lead, she sought to know more about her life’s new direction. Eventually, an unknown, elderly artist in New York City graciously taught her much of what she needed to know. O’Malley never anticipated that her Greek ancestry would come to her aid in the 20th century. Almost 3,000 years ago, Greek artists, were accomplished in encaustic portraits and mythological scenes on panels which still exist today. Homer, the epic Greek poet, sited the use of encaustics in describing the battle of Troy. Increasingly O’Malley was drawn to beeswax when she realized its durability over other art materials. It has no toxic fumes and requires no solvents. Encaus-
Requiring a heat of 180 to 200 degrees, molten beeswax is like scalding thick syrup. It does not unite with water or many other materials and requires significant experience to know when it is ready to use. Like a neophyte chemist, O’Malley made her studio into a laboratory, finding her way in unexplored territory. Many experiments were disasters and dangerous, however, perseverance prevailed. Not only has she gained expertise, O’Malley has tailored the encaustic process to suit the materials she loves and her particular artistic style. Today she blends drawing materials into wax; invents her own equipment, and incorporates disparate supplies bought at lumber yards. O’Malley’s unique process integrates natural resins, and fuses drawing, painting, and relief sculpture. When O’Malley went from oils to encaustics, her style and subject matter altered, yet certain key signature features remain. Her encaustic landscapes, as her oil-based figurative paintings, engage the viewer with large open negative spaces and linear configurations. A lone tree or a few trees in a solitary open white field are haunting images. Or, graceful trees, with elegant branches may cover the entire surface. Painted in grays and blacks from graphite pencil shavings, or reds of melted Conte crayons, O’Malley’s landscapes are painted more from imagination than observation. Their enigmatic quality comes from a fusion of layers that
ART: IN DEPTH
may appear deceptively flat or texturally thick, but always painterly as O’Malley builds layer upon layer, up to 30 layers of encaustics and resins varying the density of each area. This arduous process requires continuously adding and removing materials by abrasion and application; includes various drawing methods - thick and thin brushstrokes and mark making; and sculptural methods - the carving and building up of tactile surfaces. The result of this rich process of constructing and deconstructing, is a luminous and matte surface that reflects light in varying degrees throughout the composition. In addition, an interplay of layers, with edges of one process meeting layers of a former process, gives the surface an other worldly appearance as if one can see and feel different time periods simultaneously. Viewing an O’Malley painting is like being in the moment yet going back in time, peeling through stratum of the past that are either covered over or seem to juxtapose past with present. Using thick leather welding gloves, sculpting tools, torches, hot air wallpaper guns, and working with molten materials, it is impossible to have preconceived notions or be formulaic. Rather encaustics demand discovery. Consequently, trained in a representational style, O’Malley now works conceptually, becoming a partner
Maria O’Malley: (above) Red Dune, encaustic and conte on panel, 32”x38”; (below) White Lake, encaustic and graphite on panel, 6”x24”.
with the process as she finds sacred places and spaces that are intuitive and organic. With each step, each abrasion, each overlay of placing natural resins and beeswax on the panel, surprises continuously occur. Like a symphony conductor, O’Malley guides each element to fruition, keenly overseeing the many dynamics simultaneous at play. Thus, like her Greek ances-
try, O’Malley creates timeless and luminous encaustic imagery that will endure. Roberta Carasso, Ph.D., is an elected member of the International Art Critics Association, curator, and art writer. Her website is carasso.com/roberta. For more information about Maria O'Malley visit mariaomalley.com.
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