Have Blog, Will Travel

Sculpture Gardens at Oakland Museum of California

This blog travels!  We go west for Thanksgiving, and before we sit down to dinner together, let us look around the art scene in Oakland      ( California, that is ).  The New York Times said recently that "Oakland is the new Brooklyn" - and having lived for a while in Brooklyn, I just had to go and see for myself..

William Harsh,  oil on canvas 

at Vessel Gallery, 471 25th Street, Oakland, CA

We stopped to take in the gallery scene not far off from Telegraph Avenue with a tour of a 5000 sq. ft. gallery space called Vessel which featured a large selection of paintings and prints from the late William Harsh who passed away in 2012 at age 59.  Harsh had been a student of the painters James Weeks, and Philip Guston.  

When I was a student I heard Guston speak at the New York Studio School, and I was also familiar with James Weeks having studied with him at Tanglewood, so I was eager to find out more about William Harsh, and I could see right off that his art owes a strong debt to Guston and to a lesser extent to James Weeks.  Harsh is at the cusp of expressionism and representation, and the stacked nature of this deck of cards sometimes tumbles into a caricature of Philip Guston without presenting something  more original.    

  

Viola Frey ( 1933-2004 ) at Oakland Museum of California

It was a beautiful day in downtown Oakland, so we moved on to the Oakland Museum of California perched near Lake Merritt at 1000 Oak Street.  This modern building is really a series of museums that incorporate a terraced sculpture garden with many levels and many views and some engaging modernist sculpture.  Greeting us at the door was this larger-than-life glazed ceramic woman from the artist Viola Frey whose work I used to see frequently at Nancy Hoffman Gallery in New York City.

Fertile Ground: Art and Community in California

Once inside the museum, the show that attracted my attention was all about the visual arts and a strong relationship to communities that grew up around the artists living and working in the Bay Area.  This is a bit of a history show, and you are greeted at the beginning with well-known works by Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo.

Diego Rivera ( small scale rendition of "The Allegory of California" )

Most impressive,  on our tour of the show is Diego Rivera's mural "The Allegory of California" which was created for a stairwell in the Pacific Stock Exchange building.  Here is the story of an activist painter with ties to leftist politics being commissioned to paint at the seat of capitalism - and boy - did that rub some people in the wrong way!

Rivera on the ceiling ( The Allegory of California )

The photographic scene in San Francisco is also honored with a few images ( too few from my perspective ) and that section of the show deserved a better treatment - because the photographers that are included continue to be a major force in the art form ( Edward Weston, Ansel Adams, Imogen Cunningham among others ).

"Today, painters do not have to go to a subject matter outside of themselves.  Most modern painters work from a different source.  They work from within."

Jackson Pollock

There was a period of time after WWll that artists who are now of international stature were in the higher educational field in the Bay Area , such as Clyfford Still and Mark Rothko.  They were in the process of making a name for themselves and had a strong effect on the path that painting was to take.  Two others Philip Guston and Jackson Pollock met at school in California before migrating to New York City to find fame and fortune.

Richard Diebenkorn

I was influenced by the painters who came to my attention from the 1960's onward, and that included Richard Diebenkorn who regularly exhibited at the Poindexter Gallery near 57th street in Manhattan, and Wayne Thiebaud, who is still alive and working today ( talk about longevity! ).

Wayne Thiebaud in "Fertile Ground"

The show concludes with a group of current artists who grew up in part with graffiti, skateboards, and found object/installation art.  Some of these folks were in the movie "Beautiful Losers" that came out a few years ago.  Prominent in this show is the art of Barry McGee who has a kind of funhouse installation of hundreds of small framed patterns and figuration that is in total truly memorable and mind bending.

Barry McGee

The Nesting Impulse

Sarah C. Rutherford

at

1975 Gallery

Is this part of gentrification, the nesting impulse?  Arriving at a certain junction in life one wants to look for a comfortable spot to call home and maybe start a family.  One of the home based hobbies people had when I was a kid was to take up wood burning ( not on a stove, but with little hand tools that you plug in to make your own brand of art).  I thought it was only a fifties sort of thing, but when I was putting together my book on wildlife art ( Quarry Books division of Rockport Press published "Wildlife Art" by Alan Singer in 1999 ) I came across the art of Haruki Koizumi ( see below ).  I knew I had to have his art in my book, it was such a delicate rendition in basswood of an Eagle-Owl.

Haruki Koizumi

Eagle - Owl

wood burning on bass-wood

Now, along comes the art of Sarah C. Rutherford with her show "Nesting " recently opened at the 1975 Gallery.  She has a short story form of composition complete with enigmatic titles which she has given these low-relief painted constructions.  The stories she has to tell about birds and people ( are we supposed to know who sat for these portraits? ) denote a space she has carved out for herself that is all very much her own in our contemporary art scene.  CITY newspaper surveys say that she is at the top of her field, as the most popular artist in Rochester at the moment.

Sarah C. Rutherford's art at

1975 Gallery

November 22 - December 14, 2014

Sarah does this all in a non-threatening way, and you come away with a feeling of assurance for the careful aspects of her art - observance of nature - both human and animal, and the care she gives to the painting and shaping, the wood burning for detail, and the layering of her tableaux.  There is an illustrative core to this work that goes beyond nature worship with forays into a mysterious land of action and reaction ( "The Shadow of the Grasp" ).  Sarah is really onto something with the birds she conjures with.  She places most of her birds in flight, or just about to land and this sense of life and movement is welcome.  Yet there is a story behind this, maybe they are just day dreams.  In  "Auspice" why is the hawk placed in such a way as to come in for a landing near a decorative nest box that would never do for a home?  What's more-  is that the hawk is right over a woman who looks up with something like anticipation or even anxiety.

Other subjects are handled as deft illustrations of situations like the youngster among the orange Japanese lantern flowers.  And in the center of this show there is a kiosk of sorts that displays for sale, hand carved wooden feathers ( for your nest ).  Some really interesting details about the wood used for this show stand out.  They are attractively painted, and some of the wood pieces fit together like a streamlined jig-saw puzzle.  Should I mention that her wood-burning is quite nice, she has a feel for the structure of feathers, and she seems to favor birds of prey and interesting combinations of flowering plants.  It is curious to see these flowers on the wings of the birds.  It is something a bit different than what you are used to seeing in the galleries around town, maybe with the exception of what the Olneys                     (  Don and Cheryl ) have created over the years.

Rochester Rocks

Brett Eberhardt stands by his art

at the University Gallery

R.I.T.

This week I had a lot to think about and much to be thankful for.  We are culturally well endowed in Rochester and at the moment the art scene is bubbling.  I am thankful for the opportunity to bring my art to the public, in my new show "My Visual Life" now on view at The Spectrum Gallery ( through November 29th ), and I am also thankful for having met a guest artist, Brett Eberhardt, who came to share his work with students and faculty at the request of Emily Glass.

Brett is a perceptual realist, who looks to elevate the mundane and the matter-of-fact in his paintings - a few of which he had on hand for his artist talk that he gave in the University Gallery this past Wednesday.  Brett is in good company because there are other gifted artists who share his sensibility, Catherine Murphy and Antonio Lopez Garcia come to mind in that regard.  A painting of Brett's shows a patch of floor boards and a wall vent, another features a gift box on an old painted crate, not the stuff of high drama, but rather calm, quiet determination to get all the details down while not overworking the subject.  Luckily, Brett could take some time away from his sabbatical to talk with us, and send us away with some valuable inspiration.

Art by Sue Blumendale

at 

Axom Gallery

Sue Blumendale is also part of our vital art world with her new show now in it's last week at Axom Gallery.  Sue was also on the faculty at R.I.T. for many years and has her MFA degree in printmaking  from R.I.T.  The works she has created are like elegies for her departed relatives.  Her artwork in this show often is found in the form of a coat, dress, or other garment, and the fabric  is imprinted with archival photos of family members.  She goes back into history to rescue old photos that then are used as a way to reflect on who she is, where she came from, and maybe help her recall how she felt about the members of her extended family.  The colors are restrained while some of the emotional connections may not be.  This art reminds me of the archival artwork from someone like Christian Boltanski, and it is a moving tribute.

Student drawing Melinda

Barn Owl in the care of WILD WINGS

Another visitor came to my class this past week at R.I.T., and I am also thankful to the volunteers at WILD WINGS who brought live birds to my studio for students to draw.  Above, Melinda the barn owl was asleep, but sleeping or awake it is always a challenge to have the opportunity to draw from life, in this case bird life!

"Lovely Day to Lose It"

Transfer monoprint by Alan Singer

on view at

The Spectrum Gallery at Lumiere Photo

I had a lot to think about this week because I was also asked to give an artist talk, and from my perspective - I am swimming in the flow of this work and I don't often take a break to discuss why I do it and what it amounts to.  Many people who have followed my art want to know how I can go from very illustrative paintings to almost spare minimalist abstraction that is part of the show today.  I would say that I like discovery - and I don't mind it if now and again I take a hike.  One has to allow for growth, make some mistakes, learn from them, but take the chance to break through to something original, something you feel deeply about, something you can call your own ( even if this feeling is fleeting ).  So as I have said before in this blog, my new work that espouses mathematics is a bit of a conundrum ( right brain - left brain activity ).  I am a visual omnivore - I see potential in pattern, in nature, in science and mathematics, and I was schooled in the theory and practice of color and structure.  I am just working on something that I love doing, and hope others will come to see that too.

Keep In MInd

" See For Yourself "

"My Visual Life" in paintings and prints by Alan Singer

at

The Spectrum Gallery in Lumiere Photo

100 College Avenue, Rochester, New York

I frequently write about artwork I have seen ( a result of the many invitations I get to go see gallery shows ) and then sometimes I write about my own progress in the field.  Think of it - we as a people have come a long way - from the cave painters thousands of years ago to the digital realm today - and all of this art making activity is a form of communication involving image making.

Maybe we lose sight of the reasons for the art to exist in the first place - and it is not because it fits nicely over the couch, or will sell for a million bucks someday.  The art we make comes from an exploration of our personal visual space, and there is always some element of our art that tends towards the self-portrait, even if the art is abstract - the challenge is to "read" the image, whether it is the artist's intent or not.

The paintings and prints in my new show, which opens the first Friday of November ( 7th ), 2014 at the Spectrum Gallery in Rochester, are influenced by mathematics - and this art would not exist if it were not for that ubiquitous tool, the computer.

"The Odd Man Out" monoprint by Alan Singer

My art might have been different, if I had not come to teach at a school for technology ( R.I.T. ).  But I don't look back, I go forward, and part of this movement is working with the tools at my disposal.

Years back, when I made all of my work by hand, I wanted certain shapes  that a computer could help me draw quickly and accurately.  Once you use a tool as complex as a computer, you need to stay with it ( as with any other technique ) to understand and realize the potential it may have to offer.

Our lives are shaped in part by our culture and at this point things move fast, and making art gets us to slow down a bit.  Painting is a slow sport, and like the slow food movement it is much more nourishing in many ways.  But, I don't always have time for the lengthy process of painting, and yet I still need my creative playtime, and now I often opt to spend my energy at the computer.  I know I am not alone in that.

I will sign books with Anne C. Coon

at The Spectrum Gallery

November 13th, 2014

My artwork began to change because the computer as a tool allowed me to do things I couldn't have dreamed of before.  The digital realm is really an application of mathematics, and so I began to investigate properties of geometry, especially after I found a site called "The Geometry Junkyard".

So a door has opened, and I walk right through and the art that you will see in this new show is the result of a few years of intense focus and exploration.  I really look forward to the new things I can discover and bring into my art, and now you can see for yourself.

Buffalo Shuffle

Charles Burchfield

"Wind Blown Asters", watercolor, 1951

at

The Burchfield Penney Art Center

Buffalo, New York

Today, I travel west down the Thruway to Buffalo to see what I can see, and also do some work for my school at R.I.T.  I want to start out early and get to the Burchfield Penney Art Center to look at the shows - then walk over to the Albright Knox Art Gallery since I promised that I would represent the School of Art in the search for young talent.  Maybe I will see a friend, the Director of the Burchfield Penney Art Center, Anthony Bannon, but sadly, he is out of town.

Down on their main floor, there is some construction going on, I think they are creating a replica of a barge found on the Erie Canal - anyway there is a lot of hammering and sawing, so I am not going to stay too long.  On the ground floor there is an intimate show of "Burchfield's Botanicals" - something right up my alley.  I was hoping for some of his sunflower compositions but I found a large watercolor of some fanciful asters in the wind.  Burchfield may have spun some wonderfully gothic tales in the paintings that he made, so I was surprised to see the delicate botanical portraits on view in this select show.  Also included were some samples of his wall paper designs which echo the art nouveau styles that the culture was just taking leave of when these were made in the early 20th century.  Pattern design is part of the Burchfield story, but my sense is that we hold him in higher regard for his large scale watercolors that represent times of the year ( like "Retreat of Winter" ) - and he even goes so far as to try to represent the sounds of the meadows and fields that he loved so much.

Photographer Marion Faller in collaboration with Hollis Frampton

captures a falling watermelon

Just opposite the Burchfield Botanicals ( now until November 9th ), there is a large retrospective of the photographs of Marion Faller          ( 1941-2014 ) and the show is titled: "Inquisitive Lens".  Along the first wall I found some structurally cinematic black and white photos that she made in collaboration with one of my old teachers from Cooper Union, the esteemed art film maker, Hollis Frampton ( Marion Faller's husband ).  This brings back memories of the years I spent studying film and the work of artists like Ernie Gehr, Paul Sharits and Frampton himself.

Marion Faller " Road to Oklahoma "

Collage of color copies, 1979

Marion Faller's photos in the show are mostly in color and they celebrate the American scene, a whole wall of photos document food signs.  Another part of the show featured her collages of color Xerox copies pieced together like an American quilt.  I especially liked her " Road to Oklahoma " from 1979 pictured above.  I had seen these works when they were relatively new in a show in New York City, but I can't remember the gallery now.  I read that she attended the Visual Studies Workshop ( in Rochester ) where she no doubt studied with Nathan Lyons, and she also had a credit from the University of Buffalo.

Cambodian artist Sopheap Pich

"Cycle", 2011

After a walk across the street to the Albright Knox Art Gallery I found a dynamic construction made out of bamboo reeds, wire and glue that has an almost mathematical perfection that attracted me.  The artist is Sopheap Pich, the work is called "Cycle" and it is BIG.

Clyfford Still "October" 1950

The Albright Knox has a new hanging of Clyfford Still's paintings that gives them a different space to live and breathe in, and there was a special showing of works by Lucas Samaras.  I am constantly reminded when I am in the Albright Knox that they have a very active program that highlights new artists and new acquisitions and the visit to the gallery is always rewarding.

Tacita Dean "The Friars Doodle" 

Down a dark hall you can also stop and see a black and white film from Tacita Dean one of my favorite artists working today.  Her film is called "The Friars Doodle " and it is a minute - inch-by-inch cinematic study of a black ink drawing that takes in every cursive movement of the hand, and every recurve reminds me of a dream, or a regret, or a furtive emotion that I have felt....what else can I say?

Paul Feeley retrospective

Upstairs, at the Albright Knox, there is a retrospective for the painter Paul Feeley ( 1910 - 1966 )

and these big colorful abstractions edge towards and away from a minimalist position, strong in color and design -from the early 1950's through the early 1960's - and they leave a lasting impression.

While I was taking notes about Paul Feeley, I met the new Director of the Albright Knox - who I nearly bumped into - Dr. Janne Siren, who smiled, shook my hand, and was pleased that someone was paying so much attention to the art!

The Golden Years

Artist Richard Scarry

at

The Memorial Art Gallery

in the exhbition

Golden Legacy

At the Memorial Art Gallery I went around to look at the new show with docent Margaret Cochran.

We went to see the children's book illustrations from Golden Books, which has been a mainstay in America from the 1940's onward.    I had an intimate view of the show ( and the artwork is all small scale so you have to get in close to appreciate what the artists have accomplished ).

Golden Book of Birds ( not in this show ) by Arthur Singer

As I said to Margaret, I grew up with Golden Books - in part because my father, Arthur Singer, was under contract as a book illustrator with Golden which was associated with Simon & Schuster

and the company was later absorbed into Western Printing and Publishing.  The people that started the company included Georges Duplaix, and Albert R. Leventhal with editor Lucille Ogle.

Artist Tibor Gergely's " The Great Big Fire Engine Book

I later worked with Albert Leventhal and Lucille Ogle, when they went out on their own to establish Vineyard Books.  My book ( which put me through Graduate School at Cornell University ) was called "The Total Book of House Plants" and I diligently worked on the art until it was published in 1975.  Lucille Ogle was a visionary and it was largely due to her energies that the Little Golden Book came into existence, and her company prospered.  Over their lifetime, the authors, illustrators and company people associated with Golden sold over 500 million books ( and artist Richard Scarry alone sold over a hundred million copies of his books!  Not too shabby! ) My father, Arthur Singer, published a number of books with Golden, and was an art director there for a while during the 1960's.  His books were more oriented towards science - with birds and animals -  and they sold well also.

Artist Gustaf Tengren

illustrations for " The Lion's Paw " (1959 )

So, what was the secret to their success?  A clearly written short story, engaging realistic illustration, beautiful color printing, and a very low price.  In short, this is the kind of book that has mass appeal, and the books were carried by every bookstore that had a children's section - and every library and school across the country.

I also had a chance over the years to meet some of the illustrators who published under the Golden logo.  The art on view in the Memorial Art Gallery does give a visitor a sense of middle America in the 1950's - 1970's and beyond.  The Golden Books franchise changed hands over the years, as many institutions do and was gradually sold off in pieces and a lot of the artwork for their books was lost ( I heard a rumor that most of it was put in a dumpster - can you imagine that!? ).  In any case I am glad that someone had the foresight to save the art that we see - some of these pages bring back bright memories from childhood, and what could be better?

Japanese wood block artist Yoshitoshi

Down the hall at the Memorial Art Gallery, you can find in the little Lockhart Gallery a beautiful selection of prints from the 19th century artist Yoshitoshi.  If you like printmaking and you like arcane drama, don't miss this opportunity to see this portfolio of great prints by a real master.  Just take a look at the blind embossing that creates a texture on what this fellow is wearing - these prints are the forerunner of the manga - full of operatic sci-fi....

Also check out the Infinity boxes, just stick your head in and have a look around..  A Coney-Island of the mind..  Have Fun!

Shop One

William "Bill" Keyser's  "Fowl'

at

The Bevier Gallery

Rochester Institute of Technology

"Shop One", and exhibition open from October 17 thru November 8th, 2014

At the top of their craft, the artists presenting at Shop One in mid-20th century, represent the germination of a seed that was to spread far and wide on the strength of their individual yet collective vision.  Shop One was a location - a destination really - but more than that it was an oasis where the utilitarian met on equal terms with the aesthetic and formal qualities of modern art.  Upstate New York had deep traditions of Roycrofters, the Oneida silversmiths, and glass from Corning, but all these handmade artifacts were more aligned with commercial and industrial design for utilitarian wares that also happened to look good.  The Shop One folks in some ways were idealists, and they believed they had a mission to elevate the craft traditions, move them into the modern era, and take on a leadership role in American art.

Silver service, by John Prip

Back in the early 1950's when Shop One had its beginnings, Americans were just starting to feel a new wave of prosperity, and the building of massive numbers of new homes opened up many possibilities for beautiful objects to be collected and integrated into new households.  People began hunting for the unique object, and at the ready were artists like Tage Frid, Ronald Pearson, John Prip and the other founders of Shop One - a new kind of emporium.  There weren't many other galleries of this sort in the country - it was a cooperative effort to bring forth new designs, hand made works in wood, ceramics, and silver, tables and chairs, jewelry and metalwork of all kinds, plain and fancy.

"Firebird",  2013, gilded fiberglass

by Wendell Castle

In the exhibition that has just opened at the Bevier Gallery, the curators - Wendy Marks and Betsy Murkett - should be justly proud.  This show of over eighty objects would really justify a museum enlarging on their concept and introduce the wider public to this vein of gold founded right here in our neighborhood.  That R.I.T. should host this exhibition is the right thing to do as we are standing only a few feet away from the studios of the School for American Craft, on this Henrietta campus.

Albert Paley in the exhibition for Shop One

Stainless Steel, wood and copper

At the end of World War ll, after many people had fled from Nazi Germany and set on new paths here in America, there was a blossoming of spirit and culture that led to the creation of places like Black Mountain College in Asheville, North Carolina.  Artists like Frans Wildenhain brought to our shores great skills from schools like the Bauhaus and all this new energy coalesced into making new objects that extended modernism deep into the craft traditions.   These artists were risk takers who had a vision of what could happen with the right materials and the time to pursue a dream.

Tarrant Clements  and  Kurt Feurerherm

When you visit this show at the Bevier Gallery, it is like opening a dictionary on the state of American craft. From the early 1950's through 1976 Shop One offered innovations in American craft, and modeled itself on the success of America House, in New York City.  Gorgeous silver work is there, many ways of working with metals, wood, ceramics and so much more it is thrilling!

Go SEE this show!

Shop One at Bevier Gallery, Booth Building 7a

Rochester Institute of Technology

through November 8, 2014