print February 1966

Pol Bury

Belgian artist Pol Bury is a poet, a meticulous craftsman, and a highly inventive and original talent. After showings in Los Angeles and New York his reputation in this country is advancing rapidly to challenge a phenomenal respect already enjoyed in Europe through his success at the 1964 Venice Biennial and other major survey exhibitions on the continent. Essentially a Surrealist, Bury, now 43 years old, abandoned literary images about 1945 and stressed organization of three-dimensional forms which, by 1953, had become motorized. Bury’s poetic approach to mechanized construction places natural

print February 1966

Robert Cremean

At a time when the visual arts suggest acceptance of the insecurity and impermanence of man’s environment by virtually encouraging disintegration, Cremean’s solid construction, his avid attention to explicit detail and apparent absorption with “method,” reassures us. This quality would be without value if the pieces as works of art failed but nothing Cremean attempts appears to be trivial. Each work proposes a concentration of valid artistic solutions which are surprising in an artist only 32 years old. He rightly devotes equal concentration on all aspects of his creations, playing negative

print February 1966

Arne Wolf

The large hand-burnished woodcuts of Arne Wolf commissioned by the Feigen/Palmer Gallery for holiday presentation exploit Biblical themes (though not the Christmas story). Genesis was the inspiration for the prints and direct quotes stated in a variety of type styles are arranged into shapes with little symbolic reference. The massive proportions and extensive use of color prompted the small editions of only ten copies each. Emphatic color registrations through the hand-burnishing method of printing are rare, but Wolf managed to do so consistently. The artist migrated from Germany in the early

print December 1965

“New Images, New Materials”

The Colorado Memorial Center Art Gallery has prepared a touring exhibition which features the experimental works of four aggressive artists who are working with acrylics, polyester, polyvinyl, polyurethane, epoxy, polystyrene and other all but imperishable materials. The results are not always esthetically convincing but certainly the endeavors of these four artists to apply the newest media with which to solve contemporary pictorial problems is commendable.

Of the four participants, Los Angeles’ own Jack Hooper appears as the most inventive and most dramatic. Primary Form I and II are quite

print December 1965

“The Virginia Dwan Collection”

Like most other transitory enthusiasms which seem to periodically engulf the world, such as flagpole-sitting, wars, hoola-hoops, and poly unsaturated fats, the collection of original works of art has reached frightening proportions. The overly successful public relations job performed by the profession in selling culture to the man on the street has resulted in a flood of original pieces in all media, low priced, imported and domestic, good and bad. To possess a “Collection” today means very little indeed. How many pieces constitute a “Collection” or how large an investment must it represent?

print December 1965

Lynn Lester Hershman

Cleveland-born Lynn Hershman is a very pretty young lady, an adroit draftsman, and a particularly keen observer of people and their daily doings. Mixing light flakes of fluorescent reds and greens with delicately penciled figures arranged on vast areas of naked canvas, Miss Hershman offers droll and/or satiric comments about fellow humans who are sick, hot, mad, asleep, hungry, proud, pensive, damned, disturbed, expectant, or just plain dead. They are all pertinent, carefully executed pieces each communicating but a single uncomplicated concept yet arresting enough in execution to demand a bit

print December 1965

“The Optical Experience”

The wealth of “Op” art to be viewed in museums and galleries these days predicates the possession, if not the actual use, of Mother Sill’s as standard art tour equipment. The need is less pronounced than usual at the Comara Gallery which offers a pair of “Op” art specialists whose mathematical presentations seem interesting though restricted. Arthur Jacobs constructs shallow boxes which feature painted geometric compositions as backdrops for the lacing of taut white strings an inch or so off the picture plane. Precisely planted brass brads assist in changing the direction of the strings as they

print December 1965

Margo Hoff

Veteran artist Margo Hoff has effectively substituted brush-strokes with similarly shaped pieces of colored paper and with infinite care mounted them bit by bit on panels creating a surface not unlike a type of pointillism. She obtains a surprising variety of effects with this medium, but no less surprising is the range of subjects which receive the treatment. Many artists exhaust all possibilities inherent in a single idea before approaching another. Once expressed, Miss Hoff seems impatient to get on to some other problem. This disinterest in exploiting themes for all their worth could be

print October 1965

Lichtenstein, Thibaud, Warhol, Indiana, Brach, Jensen, Ortman, Chermayeff, Goodnough, Frankenthaler, Yunkers and Marisol

No one could easily confuse fabric with paint and an attempt to make critical comparisons between the two or to consider the wisdom of transferring designs from one medium to another would only serve to belittle the entertaining, brilliantly colored summer fare featured at Feingarten Galleries. Produced in editions of twenty, these appliquéd felt banners were executed from commissioned designs by such celebrated innovators as Lichtenstein, Thibaud, Warhol, Indiana and others. The flat color compositions appropriate to the above artists adapt themselves with ease to the soft velvety textures of

print October 1965

Richard Klix

The Richard Klix exhibition of paintings was but one of nine weekly one-man shows held during the summer months along with a continuous group presentation including works by each of the featured artists. The eight others: Fletcher Benton, kinetic sculpture; Karl Benjamin, Seymour Boardman, Glen Robles, Roslyn Ehrenhalt, and Dale Henry, paintings; and constructions by Joan Jacobs and Linda Levi. The gallery’s ambitious summer program was impressive but unfortunately public response was not.

During the first week in August Richard Klix was given his due, a selection of a score of paintings featuring

print October 1965

Roger Kuntz

The exhibition of Roger Kuntz sculpture of swimmers, sirens, mermaids, water dancers and beach watchers at the Landau Gallery is lively fare for the summer season. The cavorting ladies, whether soaring, floating, diving, or prancing in and above the water seem wonderfully at ease in their new environment. The frivolous attitudes attained by the figures in no way rejects the authority with which Kuntz arranges the outflung arms, legs, heads, breasts and buttocks of his careless ladies. Sometimes distorting to Lachaise’s elephantine dimensions, the artist deals directly and freely with those

print October 1965

Waldemar Otto

Polish born Waldemar Otto, whose first West Coast showing of bronzes was a total sellout, relies heavily on sentimentality when creating his sculptures based on family ties and religious themes. Mothers and children play, the Good Shepherd carries his lamb, Noah gathers his animals into the ark, etc., all expressed with the solid simplicity and formalization found in much figurative bronze work being accomplished today. When divorced from the anecdotal, Otto also rids himself of some pretty restrictive stylizations, and a few rather hesitant compositions manage to voice statements which are

Curt Opliger