Artillery Magazine

Tag: AbEx

  • Pick of the Week: Heather Day Diane Rosenstein Gallery

    Pick of the Week: Heather Day
    Diane Rosenstein Gallery

    You never really know which exhibition is going to make you cry. I certainly didn’t expect it to happen at Heather Day’s “Ricochet” at the Diane Rosenstein Gallery. None of the work was particularly sad and I actually had low expectations based on what I saw online. I remember I had even bemoaned to my editor; would this show just be another contemporary artist pining after AbEx?

    Yet from The Persistence of Memory to Fever Dream, I could tell that Day was not pining after anything. Instead, she had cracked open the very center of her mind and laid it out on canvas for us all to see. Her works are free and expressive, with large fields of flooded pigment acting as the backdrop for floating ribbons of paint. They are chaotic and improvisational reflections of her inner world—her “mind maps,” as Day calls them.

    And like any good map, they are also well-planned. Every stroke of paint falls just so, every flood of pigment only extends so far. These discrete elements work in harmony like dancers in perfect choreography; responding to one another, forming and disintegrating, flowing around each and every line. 

    These two poles of Day’s work—deliberate planning and improvisational chaos—do not necessarily explain my strong emotional reaction to her work. I’ve had a lot of difficulty putting my reaction into words, but I can share these few connections I forged in the hope that you’ll forge them too. 

    Day’s paintings show the entire spectrum of universal experience. They are fetuses forming in the womb; stars collapsing in on themselves. They are embryonic, and they are nebulous. I cried while walking through “Ricochet” because I was looking at art which so strongly reminded me of the beautiful, mystical and sometimes terrifying knowledge that I am alive.

    I can’t promise you’ll have the same experience as me, nor can I promise that you won’t cry, but I can promise you that “Ricochet” will still be rebounding in your mind for days and days.

    Diane Rosenstein Gallery
    831 N. Highland Avenue
    Los Angeles, CA 90038
    Show runs through Oct 24th
    Appointment Only — No Walk-Ins

  • GET THEE TO THE GETTY

    GET THEE TO THE GETTY

    Jackson Pollock, Mural, 1943
    Jackson Pollock, Mural, 1943

    I am so glad I made sure to see the just-visiting Jackson Pollock painting at the Getty before it leaves this weekend—I did procrastinate a little. The painting, Mural (1943) has been at the Getty for an extended facelift. It’s now beautifully restored and has been on display in all its glory from early March, ending this Sunday, June 1. And that’s why I’m writing at this time and need to tell you:

    GO SEE THE JACKSON POLLOCK AT THE GETTY… RIGHT NOW!

    If you don’t, you will miss it. I mean, do you think you’ll be passing through Iowa City any time soon? I actually had a legitimate reason to visit, and still didn’t go. (My husband stayed near Iowa City for six weeks for a book project).

    Mural permanently resides at the University of Iowa Museum of Art. It is one of Pollock’s most famous paintings; Peggy Guggenheim commissioned it and hung it in the foyer of her Manhattan apartment (yes, the same place where Pollock pissed in the fireplace).

    But nevermind that.
     

    Detail, left side
    Detail, left side

    When I look at a Pollock, I am pretty much in awe. To tell you the truth, in the proper circumstances, I can damn near have a religious experience with a Pollock painting. So I should tell you upfront, I’m a little partial.

    The thing about a Pollock is you can feel him when you look at his paintings. But there are ones that stand out, and Mural is one of those. Could it be the size?—it is the largest painting of Pollock’s (nearly 8 x 20 feet)—but it’s not just that. There’s no denying its formidableness, but to me, that’s merely a coincidence. It is truly magnificent, but that’s not the reason for its sublimeness.

    Detail, middle section
    Detail, middle section

    When you see it for the first time, as I did today, it is breathtaking. Just gorgeous. This is painting. Everything perfectly placed. Every swirl strategically slathered. Every brushstroke brilliantly stroked.

    The myth is Pollock painted Mural in one night. There are many accounts that refute this, but just as many that do not. As a former serious painter, in my opinion, it’s the latter.

    Detail, right side
    Detail, right side

    It doesn’t stop, it doesn’t start—it just goes. Frenzied energy that go go goes. Black long smears tear through reds, yellows and blues. It laughs, it cries, it sneers at you. It stands boldly and confronts you. It demands your attention.

    Mural reminds us what a painting can do and why we care that there is art in the world. Jackson Pollock was a masterful painter, a pioneer of his era. When you see this masterpiece, the painting that nearly falls off the easel (it is most likely one of his last paintings to be painted vertically), you just might nearly fall to your knees.

    Image courtesy: University of Iowa Museum of Art, Gift of Peggy Guggenheim, 1959.6
    Reproduced with permission from The University of Iowa

     

    The Getty Center

    1200 Getty Center Drive

    Los Angeles, CA 90049

    www.getty.edu