Picasso Drawings at Acquavella

Seven Decades of Drawing by Picasso, curated by Oliver Berggruen at Acquavella.

 Gallery Link

The Harlequin period was mined by Margaret Keane in my childhood.

The linearity and volume in these drawings are so satisfying.

Wet or dry, Picasso is a master at building and portraying worlds.

Structure and mark interweave.

Delicious scribbles, embellishing and filling form simultaneously.

The Rape, private collection, Taipei. Stopped me in my tracks. Shocking to this day, particularly in light of recent events such as the Maxwell trial. Like Guston later, Picasso did not flinch from the horrific aspects of himself.

 

Round Up: Geometries Fall 2021

Stephen Westfall at Alexandre Gallery Link: Persephone

Amanda Church at High Noon Gallery Link: Passengers

Kathleen Kucka in Material Transformations part one at Transmitter Gallery

Gallery Link Material Mutations part one

A burned top layer peels away to reveal a forest green base

"The works by Kathleen Kucka are painted with fire. She literally burns the canvas open and reveals a view of the realm beyond the surface. This realm is sometimes only light and shadow or empty space.  Other times additional painted canvas is stretched behind the burn-marked surface, as to emphasize stratification, and to denote a new world behind the surface facade. There are not just protrusions created by burning the canvas, the surface is also imbued with smoke from the combustion process. The residue from this provides an additional aesthetic with round contours and a contrasting chiaroscuro. Kucka plays with the burns to create patterns that are soft and transcendent. Monumental canvases are created in which its beauty lies in the repetition of destruction."

"Material Mutations, part one: The Canvas proposes that the historic medium of paint is far from exhausted and there are plenty of discoveries and innovations to be made. Revelations depend not only on the brilliance of the moment, but also on perseverance and the constant development of new skills and innovations from the artists. The work in this exhibition suggests that by rigorously looking at something you think you already know, new perspectives, and approaches can emerge and serve as a means for renewal."

"Jan Maarten Voskuil stretches his paintings into the third dimension. He cuts them into modules, after which the works are reconstructed by turning the stretcher bars into tensioned spatial constructions with smooth curved surfaces. In the design of the works he plays with geometric and monochromatic ideas in painting, showing kinship with Minimalism from the 1960s and 70s. His spatial and often modular constructions have evolved into an elaborate oeuvre that explore the boundaries and correlations between painting, sculpture, design, and architecture."

"Lily de Bont attacks her paintings head on by cutting the canvas, removing it from the stretcher bars or at times reversing the weaving. Armed with a scalpel she carefully dissects the canvas structure like an accomplished anatomic pathologist. The unraveled threads hang loosely downwards and change the overall construct, including its dimensions. The deconstructed canvas can be tilted and draped, where at times the wooden supports are exposed as a frame work. In other works the stretcher bars become independent elements and are further dissected by what she calls “amputations”. Her work methods continue the principles of the French Supports/Surface movement."

One of the best shows I saw in 2021: tight, succinct, brilliantly installed.

Still on at Washburn through January 2022: Alice Trumbull Mason's Shutter Paintings

Gallery Link - Shutter Paintings

These have to be seen in person

They marry the natural forms of Arthur Dove with interior observation

Detail

 

Late Frankenthaler at Palm Springs Art Museum

Helen Frankenthaler Late Works: 1990-2003 at the Palm Springs Art Museum.

Surprised by imagery in the paintings; this a virtual interior, washed with veils of lighter reds and begun with squares of black, red, and green.

Also unfamiliar to me prior to this show was the impasto and layering in her work.

I always saw her inclination as washier in its process of discovery, as in this 1991 work, which seems effortless, a painting downloaded from the painting gods.

The heavy application, which in this case is literally combed across the surface, is layered with washes and reaches perfect balance with empty canvas in this, my most favorite painting.

She also brushes and scrubs, as in this work from 1995.

A canyon landscape. So different than what I expect from Frankenthaler! So great to experience the dimensions of this painter.

Deep, dark jewel color.

Interspersed with the paintings are works on paper. Frankenthaler was a printmaking master, but I didn't know her drawings. This work is quite large.

The reef/line becomes an important motif in her work.

Love this work on paper--seems pivotal, disciplined.

Installation views

Sam Francis was scheduled to show at LACMA and the retrospective is postponed until 2023. Though just missing a perfect trifecta, Frankenthaler and Mitchell forge plenty of space through pours and incisions that cut density with light.