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10/21/13

art | david hockney

do you dream in technicolor or in black & white?

if you are like artist david hockney, then the answer is both.

david hockney: a bigger exhibition, is showing at the de young museum in san francisco CA from 26 october 2013-20 january 2014.

the exhibition is enormous. it features over 300 works, shown in 18,000 square feet of gallery space, making it the biggest exhibition in the history of the de young museum.

even bigger than david hockney RA: a bigger picture, where i first saw hockney's technicolor landscape paintings at the royal academy of arts in london, united kingdom during 2012. the san francisco show includes many of the paintings from a bigger picture.

photo credit the royal academy of arts | (c) david hockney

but, the san francisco show also includes new work, which has never been exhibited or published before.

since a bigger picture, hockney suffered a stroke, lost a studio assistant, and relocated to his los angeles CA studio.

during his recovery, he began drawing with charcoal on paper. during this period, hockney revisited many of the locations from the arrival of spring in woldgate, east yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven), a series of 52 iPad drawings. the arrival of spring in 2013, a series of 25 charcoal drawings, will be showcased in one gallery of the de young museum during the exhibition.

hockney's charcoal drawings have been described as more detailed, and more defined than his previous work.

'i'm very proud of them, actually, very proud. i think it's one of my great works, this, the 25 drawings.'
-david hockney

david hockney | woldgate, 6-7 february | from the arrival of spring in 2013 (twenty thirteen) | charcoal on paper | 2013

david hockney: a bigger exhibition | 26 oct 2013-20 jan 2014 | de young museum | san francisco CA

during his recovery, hockney also began drawing charcoal portraits of colleagues, friends, and family members. hockney prefers drawing people that he knows.

'if you know them well, you've got different memories of them...we all see with memory, don't we?'

-david hockney

his most recent portraits are painted with acrylic paint in swimming pool colors. since hockney has not worked in acrylic paint for over 20 years, to him, it seems like a new medium. in addition to approximately 40 recent charcoal drawings, the de young exhibition also features 14 recent acrylic portraits.

david hockney in his los angeles CA studio with works from his upcoming exhibition at the de young museum in san francisco CA

photo credit financial times

during 2012-2013, david hockney RA: a bigger picture attracted over 600,000 visitors in london, and a total of 1.2 million visitors at the royal academy in london, the guggenheim museum in bilbao, spain, and the museum ludwig in cologne, germany.

could the san francisco show be a bigger exhibition?

click here or here or here to read more about david hockney's recent work.

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originally posted on 2/25/12

art | david hockney

when you think of david hockney, you might think of his pop art paintings of california swimming pools.

david hockney | a bigger splash | acrylic on canvas | 1967
tate collection | london, united kingdom
photo credit tate

and, david hockney RA: a bigger picture, a blockbuster exhibition at the royal academy of arts (RA) in london from 21 january-9 april 2012, includes a painting with a swimming pool.

david hockney | mulholland drive: the road to the studio | acrylic on canvas | 1980
reproduction | david hockney RA: the bigger picture | 21 jan-9 apr 2012 | royal academy of arts | london, united kingdom
original | los angeles county museum of art (lacma) | los angeles, CA
photo credit lacma

but, david hockney is also a landscape artist.

after showing bigger trees near warter, a 50 canvas painting, at the summer exhibition 2007, the RA offered hockney all of the main floor galleries for a landscape painting exhibition.

david hockney | bigger trees near warter | oil on 50 canvases + two collages of 50 color photographs | 2007
tate collection | london, united kingdom
photo credits (c) david hockney and tate

the exhibition features over 150 works, most created between 2004 and 2011.

although it is an exhibition, instead of a retrospective, a bigger picture includes a survey of earlier landscapes, painted from 1956-1998, that offer an opportunity to reconsider hockney as a landscape artist, instead of a pop artist.

hockney's work reflects the influences of past artistic movements, such as cubism, impressionism, or fauvism.

hockney also uses optical tools to experiment with the representation of space, the manipulation of perspective, the use of color, and the variation of technique.

the camera is one of hockney's favorite optical tools. he photographed the grand canyon in 1982, but didn't use the photographs to create grand canyon with ledge, arizona, 1982, collage #2, a 60 photograph collage, until 1986.

david hockney | grand canyon with ledge, arizona, 1982 | collage of 60 color photographs | 1986
david hockney RA: a bigger picture | 21 jan-9 apr 2012 | royal academy of arts | london, united kingdom
photo credit (c) david hockney

he described the process of making collages from the grand canyon photographs as a ‘cubist idea.'

'when you put one piece of paper on top of another...
you put two pieces of time together...
therefore, make[ing] a space.

i thought i was making time.
then, you realize you’re making space.
then, you realize time and space are the same thing.'

in 1998, hockney painted a bigger grand canyon from the collages and other studies, and a closer grand canyon from memory. the multiple viewpoint perspective in both paintings again references cubism.

the grand canyon paintings also reference cubism by translating the grid pattern from the photo collages into a multiple canvas format. this becomes the standard format for hockney's large scale works.

david hockney | a bigger grand canyon | oil on 60 canvases | 1998

national gallery of australia (nga) | canberra, ACT, australia

photo credit nga

david hockney | a closer grand canyon | oil on 60 canvases | 1998

david hockney RA: a bigger picture | 21 jan-9 apr 2012 | royal academy of arts | london, united kingdom
louisiana museum of modern art | humlebaek, denmark

photo credit (c) david hockney

secret knowledge: rediscovering the lost techniques of the old masters, a book by hockney published in 2001, explores how optical tools, such as the camera, influenced painting composition for over six centuries.

photo credit amazon.com

but, hockney rejects the use of optical tools when he decides to paint the yorkshire landscapes in the exhibition from direct observation.

hockney's landscapes could define yorkshire like impressionist landscapes defined the south of france.

like monet's paintings, hockney's yorkshire landscapes are studies of changing seasonal and light conditions. sometimes, he paints the same location, such as the thixendale trees, at different times of the year.

david hockney | three trees near thixendale, spring 2008 | oil on 8 canvases | 2008

david hockney RA: a bigger picture | 21 jan-9 apr 2012 | royal academy of arts | london, united kingdom

photo credit (c) david hockney

david hockney | three trees near thixendale, summer 2007 | oil on 8 canvases | 2007

david hockney RA: a bigger picture | 21 jan-9 apr 2012 | royal academy of arts | london, united kingdom

photo credit (c) david hockney

david hockney | three trees near thixendale, autumn 2008 | oil on 8 canvases | 2008

david hockney RA: a bigger picture | 21 jan-9 apr 2012 | royal academy of arts | london, united kingdom

photo credit (c) david hockney

david hockney | three trees near thixendale, winter 2007 | oil on 8 canvases | 2007

david hockney RA: a bigger picture | 21 jan-9 apr 2012 | royal academy of arts | london, united kingdom

photo credit (c) david hockney

other times, he paints the same subject, such as blossoming hawthorne trees, in different locations at the same time of the year.

david hockney | hawthorne blossom near rudston | oil on two canvases | 2008

david hockney RA: a bigger picture | 21 jan-9 apr 2012 | royal academy of arts | london, united kingdom
photo credit (c) david hockney

david hockney | may blossom on the roman road | oil on 8 canvases | 2009

david hockney RA: a bigger picture | 21 jan-9 apr 2012 | royal academy of arts | london, united kingdom
photo credit (c) david hockney

hockney's yorkshire landscapes are also technical studies. he experiments with impressionist or fauvist painting techniques, such as pointellist seurat dots, swirling van gogh brushstrokes, or colorful matisse stripes.

and, hockney also experiments with technological tools.

the arrival of spring in woldgate, east yorkshire in 2011 includes a series of 52 prints, drawn on an iPad, that capture the transition from winter to spring along a country road near his home.

as he was drawing, hockney adjusted the color and his technique so that the drawings could be enlarged and printed.

david hockney | the arrival of spring (untitled iPad drawing, 12 april 2011, no. 1) | iPad drawing printed on paper | 2011

david hockney RA: a bigger picture | 21 jan-9 apr 2012 | royal academy of arts | london, united kingdom

photo credit (c) david hockney

the series also includes a 32 canvas oil painting. the brighter colors, simpler brushstrokes, and bolder composition reflect hockney's iPad drawing techniques.

david hockney | the arrival of spring in woldgate, east yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) | oil on 32 canvases | 2011

david hockney RA: a bigger picture | 21 jan-9 apr 2012 | royal academy of arts | london, united kingdom

photo credit (c) david hockney

if you are in london, david hockney RA: a bigger picture is a 'must see' exhibition!
click here or here or here or here to read reviews of the exhibition.

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6/26/13

art | richard diebenkorn: the berkeley years

richard diebenkorn may be best known for his ocean park paintings and drawings...

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | ocean park #140 | oil on canvas | 1985
the last large scale painting in the ocean park cycle
deibenkorn created the ocean park cycle in santa monica CA from 1967-1988
photo credit art in the studio

or, for his cityscapes...

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | cityscape, landscape 1 | oil on canvas | 1963

san francisco museum of modern art (sfmoma) | san francisco CA

along with joan mitchell and helen frankenthaler, he is one of my favorite post-war american artists.

so, of course we attended the preview of richard diebenkorn: the berkeley years-1953-1966, an exhibition of over 130 works that opened at the de young museum in san francisco CA on 22 june 2013.

my husband, bob, and i enjoyed the exhibition so much that we are going to see it again before it closes on 29 september 2013.

diebenkorn's work is often grouped into periods according to where he lived because his location often inspired his work. diebenkorn lived in berkeley CA from 1953 until 1966, when he moved to santa monica CA.

although diebenkorn's berkeley period paintings and drawings established him as an abstract artist, his berkeley period actually included two phases: an abstract phase from 1953-1956, followed by a representational phase from 1955-1967.

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #3 | oil on canvas | 1953

fine art museums of san francisco (famsf) | san francisco CA

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #5 | oil on canvas | 1953

private collection

photo credit christie's

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #7 | oil on canvas | 1953

mildred lane kemper art museum | washington university | st louis MO

photo credit kemper art museum

Richard Diebenkorn: The Berkeley Years, 1953-1966 is being organized in a collaboration with the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and the Palm Springs Art Museum (PSAM). A fully illustrated catalogue published by Yale University Press will accompany the exhibition, with essays by Timothy Anglin Burgard, the Ednah Root Curator-in-Charge of American Art at FAMSF, and Steven Nash, Executive Director of the PSAM, with contributions from Emma Acker, Curatorial Assistant for American Art at FAMSF.

Richard Diebenkorn achieved national and international acclaim during his lifetime and is considered one of California’s finest 20th century artists. His work has been the subject of several retrospective exhibitions, numerous smaller exhibitions, and many articles and critical reviews. This exhibition will be the first to examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area, followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in 1966.

These transformations represent one of the most interesting chapters in post-war American art, and Diebenkorn produced many of his most iconic works during this time. No previous investigations of his work have focused precisely on the motivations for his dramatic shifts of style, or what these different modes meant to him as expressive vehicles. A significant cataloguing project now underway has brought to light many works from this period that have long remained little known, and this exhibition will contain a major sampling of such works. Produced by the Richard Diebenkorn Foundation, the catalogue raisonne will identify all Diebenkorn’s work.

Early formative years as a student and teacher at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco provided Diebenkorn with strong influences from Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko who were instructors there. By 1953 Diebenkorn was living in the Berkeley Hills and had developed his own expressive abstract style, marked by a fluid, gestural handling of both line and thick impastos of paint, an expansive sense of space and rich earthen colors. He was inspired by the striking landscape vistas of the Bay Area, with their dramatic plunges, lush greens, and rich light. Over a three-year period he concentrated on a series of more than 50 paintings and hundreds of drawings and watercolors that synthesized these elements of nature in what came to be known as the Berkeley landscapes. Exhibitions of this work in San Francisco and New York gallery shows brought the beginnings of national attention to Diebenkorn’s work.

Diebenkorn’s Berkeley landscapes are deserving of more focused attention than they have received through the years. The numerous drawings and watercolors associated with the paintings have never been studied in order to determine their formal relationship to the paintings. The evolution of some particularly dark and somber compositions requires more explanation in conjunction with the reasons the artist suddenly abandoned this style at a time of recognition. The exhibition and catalogue will bring new light to these matters and celebrate the joyful quality of the abstractions.

- See more at: http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #8 | oil on canvas | 1954

north carolina museum of art (ncma) | raleigh NC

photo credit ncma

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #12 | oil on canvas | 1954

the phillips collection | washington DC

photo credit the phillips collection

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #15 | oil on canvas | 1954

new mexico museum of art | santa fe NM

photo credit new mexico museum of art

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #19 | oil on canvas | 1954

university of arizona museum of art (uama) | tuscon AZ

photo credit uama

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #22 | oil on canvas | 1954

hirshorn museum and sculpture garden | smithsonian institution | washington DC

photo credit hirshorn museum and sculpture garden

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #33 | oil on canvas | 1954

private collection

photo credit wikipaintings

'what i was really up to in painting,

what i enjoyed exclusively, was altering-

changing what was before me-

by way of subtracting

or juxtaposition

or superimposition
of different ideas.'

-richard diebenkorn

diebenkorn composed berkeley #23 in 1954, and then reworked it in 1955.

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #23 | oil on canvas | 1955

san francisco museum of modern art (sfmoma) | san francisco CA

photo credit sfmoma | (c) richard diebenkorn foundation

in 1957, articles in ARTnews* and LIFE magazines expanded diebenkorn's national reputation as an abstract artist.

SWEEPING PATTERNS

FROM CALIFORNIA FIELDS

Brought up in San Francisco, Richard Dieben-

korn became a leading member of a group of

West Coast painters working in the imported

East Coast style of abstract-expressionism. But

when he moved away from the group

to live in New Mexico, he began to create a

less abstract art based on recollections of the

California landscape he had left behind. Now

back in California and settled in Berkeley, the

35-year-old artist has poured out a vigorous

and colorful array of paintings like the 1955

canvas below. Painted with rough strokes, its

broad forms recall the sweeping patterns of

the fertile lands (left) north of San Francisco.

LIFE magazine | 'look of the west inspires new art' | november 4, 1957 | page 67

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | berkeley #44 | oil on canvas | 1955

private collection

but, by then, his work was shifting from abstraction to representation. diebenkorn described chabot valley, painted in 1955, as his first representational landscape painting.

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | chabot valley | oil on canvas | 1955

collection of christopher diebenkorn

photo credit wikipaintings

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | interior with doorway | oil on canvas | 1962

pennsylvania academy of the fine arts (pafa) | philadelphia PA

photo credit pafa

interior with view of buildings combines the four major themes of diebenkorn's berkeley period representational work: landscapes, figures, still life, and interiors.

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | interior with view of buildings | oil on canvas | 1962

cincinnati art museum | cincinnati OH

photo credit cincinnati art museum

in 1964, the US state department invited diebenkorn to visit the soviet union on a cultural exchange grant. while visiting the soviet union, he saw the extraordinary matisse collections at the pushkin state museum of fine arts in moscow and the state hermitage museum in leningrad, which were then inaccessible to most of the world.

even though this was not the artist's first exposure to the work of henri matisse,** this experience influenced his late berkeley period drawings and paintings, which incorporated matisse-like decorative patterns, saturated colors, flat picture planes, and geometric compositions.

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | recollections of a visit to leningrad | oil on canvas | 1965

private collection

diebenkorn also saw the henri matisse. retrospective 1966. exhibition at the university of california, los angeles (ucla) art gallery.

henri matisse (1869-1954) | zulma | gouache and cut and pasted paper | 1950

statens museum for kunst (smk) | copenhagen, denmark

richard diebenkorn (1922-1993) | untitled (yellow collage) | gouache and cut and pasted paper | 1966

collection of gretchen and richard grant

does diebenkorn's late berkeley period work seem like a transition from representation to abstraction?

notes to myself on beginning a painting

1. attempt what is not certain. certainty may or may not come later. it may then be a valuable delusion.
2. the pretty, initial position, which falls short of completeness, is not to be valued-except as a stimulus for further moves.
3. do search. but in order to find other than what is searched for.
4. use and respond to the initial fresh qualities, but consider them absolutely expendable.
5. don't 'discover' a subject-of any kind.
6. somehow don't be bored-but if you must, use it in action. use its destructive potential.
7. mistakes can't be erased, but they move you from your present position.
8. keep thinking about polyanna.
9. tolerate chaos.
10. be careful only in a perverse way.

-richard diebenkorn

*'diebenkorn paints a picture', ARTnews, volume 56 number 3, may 1957, pages 44-47, 54-55.

**in 1952, diebenkorn saw the matisse retrospective, organized by alfred barr for the museum of modern art in new york NY, at the municipal art gallery in los angeles CA.

click here to read my previous post about richard diebenkorn.

10/26/13 - 02/16/14
Annenberg Wing
Palm Springs Art Museum

- See more at: http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf

This exhibition will be the first to examine the productive period between 1953 to 1966 while Diebenkorn and his family lived in Berkeley, California. It was a remarkable period of exploration and innovation in his art marked by vivid abstract landscapes characterizing the rich, natural conditions of the Bay Area, followed by a sudden shift to a representational style that played a leading role in the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which finally gave way again to abstraction after the artist’s move to southern California in 1966. - See more at: http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf

- See more at: http://www.psmuseum.org/palm-springs/exhibition/richard-diebenkorn-berkeley-years-1953-1966/#sthash.po5wJ5tS.dpuf

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5/7/13

art | ruth asawa

ruth asawa: objects & apparitions, a solo exhibition at christie's in new york from 6-31 may 2013, features 34 sculptures and 14 works on paper by the san francisco artist, who is best known for her modernist wire sculptures.

ruth asawa: objects & apparitions
solo exhibition of 48 works of art | on loan or available for private sale
christie's | new york | 6-31 may 2013
photo credit christie's

ruth asawa studied color, design, drawing, and painting with josef albers from 1946-1949 at black mountain college, a progressive liberal arts school in north carolina. albers taught the fundamental courses at the bauhaus before emigrating from germany to the united states in 1933. so, asawa's experimentation with the interrelationship between material, process, form, and light, could be directly and indirectly attributed to bauhaus design principles and modernist aesthetics.

josef albers | homage to the square (A) | 1950
ruth asawa | untitled | hanging sculpture | looped wire | circa 1950's
photo credits (c) 2013 the josef and anni albers foundation/artist's rights society (ARS) | new york and (c) the imogen cunningham trust, 2013

asawa originally wanted to become a painter. at black mountain college, her paintings assimilated the aesthetic principles that albers taught in his color, design, drawing, and painting classes. her black mountain paintings also interpreted the motifs that albers taught in his design class.

don't the dancer motifs in asawa's abstract paintings anticipate her 'form within a form' wire sculptures?

ruth asawa | dancers | oil on paper | 1946-1947
ruth asawa | untitled | hanging sculpture | oxidized copper looped wire | 1996
photo credits christie's and christie's

in his design class, albers used the meander pattern, which could be mirrored, reversed, enlarged, condensed, or connected, to teach mathematical relationships and foreshortening.

don't the textures of asawa's looped wire sculptures recall these meander pattern studies?

imogen cunningham (1883-1976) | ruth asawa holding a 'form within a form' sculpture | photograph | 1952

ruth asawa | meander curved lines | ink on paper | 1948

photo credits (c) the imogen cunningham trust, 2013 and christie's

like his classes at the bauhaus, albers' classes at black mountain college also emphasized the experience of exploration.

asawa began experimenting with wire as a sculptural material after spending the summer of 1947 as a volunteer art teacher in toluca, mexico, where she learned how to crochet wire baskets from the villagers, who used the baskets in the farmer's market.

according to albers, every material has inherent qualities that can be accentuated through combination, juxtaposition, or manipulation.

to asawa, drawing became sculpture through the crocheting process. a two dimensional line could be manipulated into a three dimensional form.

'its like drawing in space!'

-ruth asawa

ruth asawa | untitled | basket | brass looped wire | 1955
photo credit christie's

she found both the linear and transparent qualities of the looped wire sculpture appealing.

'[transparencey] it was albers' word...

...my sculpture is like that.

you can see through it.

the piece does not hide anything.

you can show inside and outside,

and inside and outside are connected.

everything is connected, continuous.'

-ruth asawa

the interior and exterior of asawa's tied wire sculpture is also connected.

asawa began making tied wire sculpture in 1962, after friends brought back a desert plant from their vacation in death valley, CA for her to draw. instead, she began experimenting with wire, which she bundled, divided, subdivided, and tied into trunks, branches, and roots. the diameter of the core determined the number of divisions.

ruth asawa | desert flower | lithograph in colors | 1965

ruth asawa | untitled | hanging sculpture | oxidized copper tied wire | 1962

photo credits christie's and christie's

if you live in san francisco, you may have visited the installation of ruth asawa's tied wire and looped wire sculpture in the lobby of the hamon tower at the de young museum in golden gate park.

asawa donated 15 sculptures to the de young museum, and designed the installation along with the museum director and the curator. she envisioned a juxtaposed installation, similar to the installation of sculptures in her home and studio.

living room of the asawa-lanier home | san francisco CA | 1995
photo credit laurence cuneo

she also envisioned an installation that explored the relationship between light, shadow, transparency, and form.

the lighting design of the de young installation creates unexpected transformations that manipulate the form of asawa's wire sculptures. spotlights project highlights onto the sculptures, and shadows onto the walls, floor, and ceiling. the highlights and shadows define, expand, and dematerialize the forms.