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The Judson Gallery of Contemporary and Traditional Art CONTEMPORARY DRAWING AS PREPARATION Opening Reception: SATURDAY, JANUARY 22, 2005, 4 – 6 P.M. Exhibition Continues: Monday, January 24 through Friday, April 29, 2005 ABOUT THE “DRAWING AS PREPARATION” EXHIBITION The exhibition includes the work of 18 contemporary mature artists who work by preparing thoughtful drawings as a study format of preparation. Both the studies and finished works are presented. The exhibition visually yields unique information about contemporary processes of art making. The artists included are Wes Christensen, John Frame, D.J. Hall, F. Scott Hess, Tom Knechtel, Laura Lasworth, David Ligare, Dan McCleary, Jim Morphesis, Deni Ponty, Tino Rodriguez, Aaron Smith, Jon Swihart, Masami Teraoka, Ruth Weisberg, Patty Wickman, Jerome Witkin and Peter Zokosky. Works are being loaned by private collectors, contemporary art galleries and artists. There is a fully illustrated catalogue accompanying the exhibition. It includes all images exhibited in the “Contemporary Drawing as Preparation” exhibition, and information regarding “The Maine Project”. Also included is an essay by the curator Prof. Ronald E. Steen, Art Historian and Art Educator, with an introduction by the Director, David Judson. ABOUT DRAWING AS PREPARATION: This exhibition presents contemporary drawings as preparation for finished well crafted works of art in the mediums of painting, relief sculpture and printmaking. The primary focus of the exhibition is on preparation drawings. However, in some cases, and depending on the artists working method, oil, watercolor and/or photographic studies as well as text outlines are presented in addition to the drawings alongside the final works of art. The exhibition contains a total of 77 drawings as preparation as well as a few oil, watercolor, photography and text studies and 22 art works in the formats of paintings, relief sculpture and prints, such as engraving, etching and monotype. ABOUT THE ARTISTS: All of the artists included in the exhibition are, established and most have been living, working and exhibiting in Southern California or consider this area one of their primary showcases, from the early 1980s to the present. This diverse group of artists focus on the human figure as their primarily mode of expression, while none of them can be considered an abstractionist. A percentage of these producing and exhibiting artists teach at local universities and are involved with the education of Southern California’s future artists. It can be said that this community of artists also represent the current state of art in this Post-Modern art era as multicultural, inclusive as to all genders and sexual orientations. EXHIBITION GUIDELINES: Though no guidelines or expectations for the exhibition were predetermined, what emerged from research and conversations with the artists, collectors and gallery owners was art made by mature artists, having drawing as preparation, in the categories of painting, sculpture and print making, with a figure/object based focus. Initially the list of artists considered was lengthy therefore upon analysis a guideline emerged for work focusing on the human figure rather than still life, landscape and other themes. Due to exhibition space limitations, work available in medium and small scale, where available, was selected for exhibition. For the same reason artists who draw primarily and who do not paint, sculpt, print, or work figuratively were noted, but were not included, such as Ira Korman, Stephen Namara and Robert Schultz. Artists who draw as preparation but did not have drawings as remnants of the process were not included, but again were noted such as the sculptor Cecelia Miquez. Artists who draw and compose directly on the canvas or print surface, without establishing a fixed scheme in drawing beforehand, such as Enjeong Noh, were also, unfortunately, not included. Finally, artists who incorporate modern technology with drawing were listed, but not included, such as John Nava. Through the evolution of the selection process other projects such as object based art exhibitions dealing with still life, landscape and drawing as finished work, as well as object based conceptual art, and preparation processes incorporating modern technology with drawing preparation, can now be considered for future explorations and presentations. WHAT THE DRAWINGS PRESENT: Artistic production created via drawing is developed through a prolonged focus, which slows the creative art process down, as opposed to spontaneous and expressionistic working methods. This form of art making is contemplative and done in thoughtful solitude. The drawings are signs of virtuosity, skill and craft, so personal and so close to the heart that they open a path for the viewer to access how an artist thinks, as if secrets are revealed. This series of drawings as a preparation uncover rigorous training with polished execution and appear as if produced via a common past academic process, a school of art or a collective art philosophy. But the process is different for each artist, negating any claim to a strict past tradition of drawing as process. WHAT THE WORKS RESULTING FROM DRAWING AS The finished paintings, sculptures and prints in the exhibition illustrate the extensive preparation undertaken by the artist. It becomes immediately apparent that the artist is a skilled draughts person, concerned with craftsmanship as part of an aesthetic. The drawing preparations reveal a contemporary view of the human figure which is not truncated fractured, alienated socially or spiritually, broken or cubed. The finished paintings on exhibit incorporate visual elements of twentieth century art, such as illogical descriptions of space, split realities, complex lighting, intense color and color combinations. The art making and art is influenced by many deceased or living artists and many different art movements in art history and developed through rigorous research and discussion. This body of work presents concepts of contemporary beauty, appears preternatural or could possibly be labeled as Supra-Naturalism. WHAT THE ACCOMPANING DATA PRESENTS: What the artist’s collective vita present is, that not all art produced from about 1979/1980, bought into abstraction per se, but rather sought skills of craftsmanship. Also, given the absence of training methods in twentieth century art school, art making by these artists, such as drawing, watercolor and printmaking are self taught or reclamations of aspects of past methods of art making. Further that this art was showcased by Southern California university galleries and public art spaces and supported primarily, but not exclusively, by Southern California fine art galleries, and only later by galleries in San Francisco, Seattle and San Diego, in that order. In addition figurative art has been included in major private abstract art collections, and in only a few cases in collections focused on figurative and object based art exclusively, such as the Anderson collection. These collective facts also suggest a shift in art making, art presentation and collecting, dating from 1979/1980. WHAT THE PROCESS OF INVESTIGATION YIELDED: All of the above described figurative and object based aspects do not suggest that the artist, art or collections are anti-abstraction or against any prior twentieth century art movement. In all cases where asked the artists explained that this art is not produced by a collective unified school or a collective philosophy per se but produced individually and that only at a later date did the artists discover via thoughtful gallery presentation that this type of work was created by similar minds. Further, the art produced does acknowledge either directly or indirectly elements from schools of abstraction and art history sources combined with the traditions of skill and craft in art making. The end result is a byproduct which is inherently contemporary and not retrograde. Discussions with the individual artist over time and upon analysis suggest that the art produced is meant to be different from, but not better than, other art or art making types. Finally, the focus on the figure causes one to wonder why the artists present the human figure as whole after decades of abstraction including themes of alienation and cynicism. This exhibition also yields an examination of accumulated facts from the perspective of time and therefore an objective look at art making and art that has been tracked by the curator since the early 1980s. This data can now additionally be supported by the fact that some of the mature artists in this exhibition are currently teachers in art institutions or are in facilities having visual art departments or art education formats that are passing on or influencing art students. They are Hess and Smith at Art Center College of Design, Ponty at the College of the Canyon, Zokosky at the Getty Center, Hall and Knechtel at Otis Art Institute, Morphesis at Pasadena City College, Wickman at U.C.L.A. and Weisberg at U.S.C. It is also noteworthy that this exhibition represents the commercial art galleries which have presented this type of work for over two decades. They are in Southern California Jan Baum Gallery, Carl Berg Gallery, Couturier Gallery, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Mark Selwyn Fine Art, Jack Rutberg Fine Arts and Hackett-Freedman Gallery, in San Francisco. While the exhibition includes works borrowed from nine art collections the scope of those collections and the attitudes of the collectors have yet to be researched in depth, but the exhibition does appear to bear supportive information about taste for art made by drawing as preparation as well as craftsmanship. ABOUT “THE MAINE PROJECT” EXHIBITION IN THE HALL GALLERY:
Concurrent with the “Drawing as Preparation” exhibition displayed in the Hall Gallery area of the Judson Gallery is the exhibition “The Maine Project”. This exhibition consists of works created by five contemporary artists during their six week fall 2004 residency in Westport Island, Maine at the MacNamara Foundation. Francesco De Benedetto, Luis Serrano, Sergio Teran and Tim Carey were brought together by artist Peter Zokosky to work under the general theme of portraiture. Their collaboration during model sessions as well as sharing of ideas and techniques provided the artists with a rare and welcomed community experience. The work on exhibition represents a variety of techniques and media used in each artist’s unique interpretation of the people and the natural surroundings of Maine. The exhibition extends the concept of drawing as preparation to include the work of young artists studying, working and developing an artistic construct along with mature figurative/object based artists. The exhibition is organized by Tim Carey with the gallery curator Prof. Ronald E. Steen, Art Historian and Art Educator. Download Microsoft Word Version of Press Release ART EDUCATION PROGAMS Talk: Saturday, February 26, 2005, 4 to 6 p.m. Illustrated Discussion: Saturday, March 26, 2005, 4 to 6 p.m. Reservations and pre-payment required. Call (800) 445-8376,
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