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 Summer 1965

Gordon Wagner

Too often elements employed in collage and assemblage seem to appear there solely with the inelegant excuse of availability. The large current show of the works of Gordon Wagner at the Silvan Simone Gallery demonstrates what should and can be accomplished through extensive consideration and intelligent selection when applied to these often outrageously misused idioms. It is easy to believe that veteran Gordon Wagner is blessed with an accumulation of debris staggering in size and scope and that he is intimately familiar with every sliver on hand. The sculptures range in complexity from the simple

print Summer 1965

Bernice Kussoy

The extensive showing of sculpture by this San Franciscan first impresses with the artist’s aptitude with a blowtorch and second raises doubts over the appropriateness of using this masculine and indelicate material to depict tender subjects somewhat feminine in character. What Miss Kussoy does she does well. The Cubistically constructed figures of people or animals arrive with authority and the introduction of various functional pieces of junk to portray roles of a less mundane nature such as large washers acting as tortillas for sale by a squatting street vendor shows the artist to possess

print Summer 1965

Salvatore Grippi

Prior to his teaching post at Pomona College where he has been since 1962, Salvatore Grippi was featured in six one-man shows in Manhattan. This is his first exposure on the West Coast and it will no doubt initiate deserved attention. Of particular interest is the curious paradox evidenced in his oils and pastels which emphasize a balanced serenity while activating every square inch of picture surface. Figure and still life compositions present a central mass of action, usually in vibrant glowing reds, surrounded with restless undulations of space or drapery which is apparently without end. The

print Summer 1965

Glenn Vilppu

A teacher of figure drawing and painting at the Art Center School and an admirer of the Renaissance side of fellow instructor Lorser Feitelson, Glenn Vilppu is not ignorant of contemporary compositional solutions. The intellectual breaking up of pictorial space through use of figurative and natural forms nonetheless leaves one with the impression that some drastic but apparently painless cropping has been done to some old masters who were themselves guilty of mannerist posturings. Romantic, flowing, Blake-like figures floating in idyllic landscapes are rarely entirely contained within the confines

print May 1965

Edgar Ewing

Visually Rome presents massive complexities––continuous networks of structural activity. The major problem facing visiting artists is not so much what to paint but rather what to omit. Edgar Ewing, for twenty years a Professor of Painting at U.S.C. and recently returned from Europe with this “Roman Series,” has solved the dilemma with singular success through a high degree of discrimination and selectivity never evidenced in his previous work. A new architectonic attitude has brought a stature to his canvases beyond the anticipated. If that were all it would have been victory enough, but Ewing

print May 1965

“L. A. Art”

In cooperation with leading local commercial galleries, the Los Angeles Art Association is presenting the second of a series of exhibitions surveying the contemporary product. The display at hand is a consistently fine one with styles ranging from the ultra-realistic pencil study of a tree root system exposed by erosion by Marvin Harden to the seductive and elegant collages of Agnes Kellogg. Robert O’Dowd is represented with his eternal air-mail stamp, Robert Hansen shows his encyclopedia of “man-men” gestures while Carson Gladson presents a visually vague but interesting oil, “Tree and Cloud

print May 1965

Paul Rivas

Apparently considering it improper to hold a one-man exhibition within the walls of his own gallery, Paul Rivas has marched with portfolio in hand a half block down the street to set up bivouac at Camara’s. The invasion was probably worth it. With watercolors and crayons, Rivas’ employs a combination of compositional devices and color harmonics which, when they succeed, do so with considerable impact. This success is most pronounced in paintings where imagery has been allowed to fade into whirling profusions of lines and colors, as demonstrated with conviction in “Tree Landscapes” #1 and #2,

print May 1965

Pre-Columbian Exhibition

Gods, animals and people grimacing and posturing for religious, social or domestic reasons appropriate only to those mysterious cultures and times which inspired them, make this collocation of the art of Mexico and Central America a circus to behold. Only the poor scholar whose professionalistic approach might preempt sheer enjoyment would fail to find the display unusually amusing. The gallery has collected examples that are neither unique nor in pristine condition. No improvisation, rebuilding, or refinishing is in evidence and it is a source of wonder that some of the pieces (especially two

print April 1965

The Commissioned Object

Claire Falkenstein’s new fountain raises hopes for a higher level of commissioned art in Los Angeles.

IT WASN’T UNTIL THE CITY fathers unveiled the Bernard Rosenthal bronze family piece on the facade of the new Police Facilities Building in the Civic Center over a decade ago that the drearisome condition of Los Angeles commissioned sculpture was really given much attention. The cries of protest from certain members of the City Council were heard all the way to New York and Philadelphia where artier-than-thou populaces made prompt invitations to suffer the offending sculpture to come unto them.

print April 1965

Vernon Fimple and Luce Norc

For a self-taught artist, Vernon Fimple is a surprisingly adroit draftsman. His undulating anatomical explorations, usually concentrated in the cranium, seem to evolve into other sections of the human body with flowing transitions that keep one guessing as to which is the real and which the false proposal. The sensuous silver-point style of execution, highlighted with white and pastel colors, creates visual mazes. What has decided to be a roll of grey matter soon becomes an arm which in turn transposes into a finger. Fimple’s presentation has much in common with Boris Artzybyasheff with a little

print April 1965

Group Show

It is curious that group shows displaying a gallery’s stable are so rarely a rewarding experience for the pedestrian. Although open competitions and juried exhibitions show about the same selectivity and diversification, there is something about the commercial exhibitor’s review of his own artists that mysteriously belittles the best while emphasizing the worst.

The selection mounted by the Feingarten Galleries certainly has its ups and downs, perhaps even more than its share of ups, yet one leaves the premises with a mild sense of dejection probably inspired by a secret wish that the selection

Curt Opliger