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JAMES SPITZER (b.1936, American)
TARGET:Pen
and ink drawing, 1960
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Jim Spitzer contains the rich heritage from which he emerged, the stuff written, as a hieroglyph on the helical spiral of every cell. Like a modem-day
example of
spontaneous generation, arriving on our scene without precedent without permission to be what he must be: a painter. Spitzer, more than any living artist today, speaks through his manifold means, a language that broadly encompasses the whole of human experience, He experiences himself, first, and tells that story in rich detail. His use of the materials of artistic expression finds no peer, anywhere. There is no-one living (or dead) whose surfaces are as wonderfully worked. Beyond the attention to crafty detail, however, there shines from each of his works a brain, an intelligence that has spoken to me from the day I first happened upon his work in the year 1957. Here he speaks to me as a child.
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MICHAEL BRENNER (1885 -1969)
Portrait of GERTRUDE STEIN, Bronze, ed 9 (3 cast)
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I knew of Brenner in college, my room mate was his son, Joe (see bust of Joe at age 9 or 10) . I knew almost nothing of him until 1988, when Joe and I re-opened our friendship and we chose to re-discover his father. The next year, we joined in
completing a unique catalog raissonne, Michael Brenner's life told in the form of poetry,
written by his son, the collected works researched, photographed and put into one place. Stein was the first to discover Brenner's talent. Brenner was a member
of the coterie that encircled Stein in the Paris Montmartre years: Picasso, Braque, Gris, and many others. He was admired and befriended by Stein. This portrait
bust was her favorite, among all that were done of her. We believe that jealousy of Brenner arose within Alice B. Her strong will to have Gertrude to herself
generated a rift that never healed. Brenner retreated to a life of drawing and sculpture, endlessly reformulating the primal vision he owned until his death.
Brenner caught the unique intelligence, her regal bearing, in this wonderful atmospheric work.
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WARRINGTON COLESCOTT (b. 1930, American)
HISTORY OF PRINT MAKING:
"S. W. Hayter Discovers Viscosity Printing."
Color etching, soft ground, 1976
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Warrington Colescott might be a re-incarnation of William Hogarth (1697-1764). Hogarth, mercilessly lampooned English society; Colescott, with a lighter
hand, does
the same thing. He examines historical events, emphasizing traditional lore, while at the same time showing how interpretations of historical matters are apt to be overly gratuitous, doling- out praise unnecessarily, elevating buffoonery and stupidity of inner sanctums to sacred status. Here, we observe a boxer's hook to the jaw of Hayter, who did not invent or discover viscosity printing. In point of fact, the honor would go to Keiko Moti, who worked at Atelier 17 with Hayter.
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STRIPED CHAIR: Serigraph with intaglio, 1970
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The Stripped Chair, a collograph (serigraph with acrylic intaglio) and this sculptural rendering of an idealized female form contain elements that
dominated Meeker's
work. Do these strongly configured and classically beautiful female sculptural form represent his high esteem for the women who inspire them? I think that is likely, although it is of interest that Meeker, a classically handsome man, professor of Art at the University of Wisconsin for an unprecedented 55 years, was viewed by some women as Chauvinistic. Further analysis points from the accused and to the shrill protestors of whom, it could be said, they 'protest too much.'
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JACQUES VILLON, (1875-1963)
"Modigliani, L 'Italienne," Color aquatint, 1926
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After WWI, the Paris artist community was in financial extremis. In an attempt to bring more interest and thereby improve their circumstances, they began doing each
other's work
in their own medium. For example, here we have Jacques Villon (brother of Marcel DuChamp) creating an image by Modigliani. Modi's life and his work are especially attractive to me. Both artists signed these works. Several other fellow Parisian artists were done by Villon.
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ELLEN KOMENT, contemporary, Santa Fe
"FORNICATING FEMALES*": Oil on canvas
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It is my opinion, and that of Professor of Art History (and painter) James Rosen, Ellen Koment is the finest painter in the abstract genre working today. She presents her inner
feelings through large oil abstractions, landscapes and with gestures to figurative origin. Each of her paintings seems to contain an archaeology of prior imagery that has been left behind as a clue to pre-existent feelings and ideas.
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*Ellen actually used the "F" word. I cannot allow the language I use, one rooted in almost 1600 years of developmental history, to become sidetracked by a rather
silly local and recent phenomenon limited to the United States. I employ the correct pronoun.
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