Constance Perkins

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  print Summer 1964

  The Occidental College Gallery

  THE GALLERY PROGRAM AT Occidental College is aimed primarily at supplementing the liberal arts curriculum of the institution and at expanding the experience of its majors in the department of art. Within such a frame of reference, it is also concerned with its influence on the community as a progressive educational force, and with its obligation to the practicing artist in providing him with an opportunity to be seen.

  The major exhibition area, located in the foyer of Thorne Hall, furnishes ninety-five running feet of wall space which is supplemented by additional eighty-foot accommodations for

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  print April 1964

  Hardy Hanson

  Although the effects of Hardy Hanson’s studies under Albers at Yale are at times evident in his drawings and paintings, the essential import of Hanson’s images is much closer to the microcosmic world of Paul Klee than it is to the highly rational formula of Abstract Classicism. Hanson’s ideographic idiom, even when eclectic, has hypnotic power. His series of “portraits” that culminates in the Six Heads involves a number of archetypal symbols that are handled with considerable ingenuity. At other times the artist invents images from nature that are startling in their originality—Wind Topology, 

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  print April 1964

  Margo Veres

  Margo Veres’ recent paintings of Spain and Italy establish a single romantic mood. Done from sketches made in Europe last year, the pieces have lost the vitality of the immediate impact of color and form one might hope for and have taken on the nature of nostalgic memories, recalled from a distance, dimmed by a filtered screen of light. The effect is one of modified Impressionism. It is not the broken color of Impressionism, however. Rather, it is arbitrary color, muted by a haze of whiteness. Compositionally, the paintings owe something to Cézanne, especially in the street scenes where the

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  print April 1964

  “Near East to the Far East”

  Although the Far East is more broadly represented than is the Near East, there is considerable variety in the collection of fine art objects that Mr. Franklin has assembled. Of primary interest is a Chinese bronze Ku from the Shang Dynasty dated in the 13th century B.C. The trumpet shaped beaker has a particularly nice t’ao t’ieh mask and is in excellent enough condition that the refinement of detailed ornamentation can be studied easily. Dating from 1000 to 600 B.C. are a number of Luristan pieces of which a stirrup and a mace are the most interesting. A third item of antiquity is a Mosul marble

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  print December 1963

  North West Coast and Harry Hubbell

  A small but excellent collection of North West Coast art objects complements the showing of works by the young New Mexico sculptor, Harry Albert Hubbell. Several of the tribal pieces from British Columbia date back to 1880, and provide interesting comparison with more recent productions. A Chieftain’s Headdress from the Tlingit tribe, a Hawk Mask from from the Kwakiutl and a silver bracelet once worn by a Haida princess are only three of several fine pieces. It is the vitality of these primitive expres­sions that makes them meaningful even when the signification of their symbol­ism is not fully

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  print December 1963

  Cameron Booth

  The long career of Cameron Booth seems to have taken a full cycle. At least the most recent of his works, Spring Thaw—1961 and Black Cow in Winter return to the image, echoing in many ways the years prior to World War II. There is, of course, a much greater simplification of form and a far stronger feeling for the essential unity of the canvas than there was in the Social Realism of earlier days. It is, in all honesty, a new image, yet markedly different from that which is so tenuously held by younger artists today. Booth’s familiarity with realism is re­tained. The resulting contrast between

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  print December 1963

  Mau­rice Chabas

  Mau­rice Chabas (1862–1948) was a mystic whose paintings today seem possibly a bit naive if not condemned by the terms “pretty” or “sentimental.” They reflect the attitude of Puvis de Chavannes but avoid the ambiguous compromise of realism and formalism that character­ized Chavannes’ work. For the most part they are small images, warm in tonality and rhythmic in composition, dealing with the metaphysical qualities of light as symbolic of the source of Divine Love. Several relate to a series Chabas titled as Toward the Infinite. In such as The Nativity the figures are little more than sketchily

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  print December 1963

  Lenard Kester

  Lenard Kester’s popular appeal is based on a kind of romantic imagery that makes use of the recognizable ob­ject but surrounds it with the unreali­ties of the dream world. Although his style draws heavily from both Social Realism and Surrealism, strictly speak­ing, it is neither of these. Its nostalgic mood has been compared to that defi­nition of poetry as “emotion recol­lected in tranquillity.” Here popular taste and the taste of the contemporary art world part company. Neither such a definition of poetry nor its translation into visual images is acceptable as apropos of today’s intellectual

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  print November 1963

  Erle Loran

  Recent paintings bear witness to an amazingly fruitful period of product ion that Erle Loran has recently experienced. The large canvases, most of which have been done in the last six weeks, exhibit a new boldness. There is indeed, a feeling of excitement and involvement that heightens the visual experience afforded by these abstract pieces. The spontaneity with which Loran works is balanced by an unconscious sense of order. It is a feeling for the use of space which reflects his long interest in the works of Cézanne and his admiration for Franz Kline. Loran sees, as typical of American contemporary

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  print October 1963

  John Mc­Laughlin

  The technical achievement that is attained would alone make John Mc­Laughlin’s first series of lithographs historic museum pieces. These are flaw­less works, both in design and crafts­manship. The rectangular relationships of the simple neutral forms are abso­lute. Some of the pieces are conceived in black and white only, others employ primary colors that are exquisitely subtle in tone. Although he owes a partial debt to Mondrian, McLaughlin’s concept is eastern, not western. Whereas Mondrian sought a “plastic quality,” McLaughlin is interested in the “static” and its power to evoke a state of

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  print October 1963

  Auguste Rodin

  Rodin’s complete absorption with the concept of movement is vividly dis­played in a small collection of water­colors at the Esther Robles Gallery. They are some of the artist’s last works, no more than ten or so in number. Yet they are some of his most exciting drawings available. Leaping figures are caught at the peak of action. The feel­ing of balance is only momentary. Noth­ing comes to rest. The literary romanti­cism that clouded most of Rodin’s imagery seems to have faded. The nude figure has become his vehicle for the communication of motion in a formal sense. Executed with an amazing

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  print October 1963

  Robert Hartman

  In his recent drawings and paintings, Robert Hartman achieves a feeling of freshness and originality that makes his canvases quite enjoyable. Although the pieces read as totally non-objective compositions, they have a direct refer­ence to scenes from nature. Primary colors, offset by vivid greens, dominate. The best of the canvases employ large areas of white to relieve the vigorous and at times overpowering brushwork that has the character of action paint­ing. Further stability is achieved by using a square canvas. Occasionally the artist introduces bits of collage in a manner slightly reminiscent