Jo­anna C. Magloff

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  print June 1963

  Group Show

  There has existed in the Bay Area for some time a considerable group of talented painters and sculptors who, for one reason or another, have never associated themselves with the established galleries, and whose work, while well-­known to other artists and more serious collectors, appears only rarely in public exhibitions. A goodly number of these have been gathered by this new, much­-needed and extremely attractive gallery, including Mel and Karla Moss, Bruce Breckenridge, Harry Lum, Charles Gill, Robert McLean, Richard McLean, Stefan Novak and Morris Yarowsky, among others.

  A good deal of work

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  print June 1963

  Tio Giam­bruni

  The basic components of Giam­bruni’s sculpture are solidly blocked-out forms with spikes or tendrils for accent and detail. He controls the volume and space in his pieces by spiraling and con­voluting their masses. Giambruni is work­ing with a biological idea that is sup­posed to be at once fearsome and shel­tering, both predator and hermit. Thus, the sharp extensions balance the inward­turning direction. The simple, rounded shapes give these small pieces bulk and presence which enhances the intended tension without altering its character. Everything in these works functions but the pieces fail

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  print June 1963

  Annual Designer-Craftsmen Exhibition

  This show is a beautifully installed selection of California crafts that maintains high standards of design yet meets commer­cial requirements. Although the quantity of work shown by each of the 106 craftsmen is restricted and the pieces are of modest size, the display retains much variety. Techniques are profes­sional throughout. Some of the potters (e. g., Peter Vardenberge) manage to emphasize the plastic properties of clay within the framework of pottery. About half the jewelry entries are department store items, but the other half are lu­minous, shapely creations. The wall hangings and

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  print June 1963

  “Visionary Architecture”

  Buildings never raised are on photographic display here and the impact is strong, in spite of the show’s many flaws. The Museum of Modern Art in New York assembled the exhibit and rightly stress ed visual themes rather than chronology. The var­ied approaches to traditional forms (such as the tunnel, the cave, the pyra­mid, the spire, the elevated street, the labyrinth, etc.) are the keynote of the show. Thus, Leonardo’s multi-level city is placed next to that of the Futurist, Sant’ella. From Boullée (1750’s) to Ent­wistle (1940’s) the pyramid-cone, symbol of death and autocracy, has attracted

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  print June 1963

  Donald Haskin

  Haskin operates a local foundry and ap­parently casts the pieces of many peo­ple whose approach to bronze grew out of their work in clay. His approach seems to have grown out of their ap­proach and he uses it to cast wall re­liefs, figures and busts. Haskin’s tech­nique is assured and professional, but lacks imagination. He turns the nubby texture of clay into a decorative gloss covering a traditional, long-necked bust or tiny, lumpy figure and generally fails to merge texture with form. However, he mounts these busts on small, black wood posts which tends to prevent their crushed-paper surfaces

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  print June 1963

  Hiroshi Yoshida

  A large retrospective of Yoshida’s graph­ics indicates no subject was too well­worn for his woodcuts. He applies a pic­ture postcard attitude to everything from park scenes to portraits. Yoshida’s woodcuts look rather like overworked watercolors. He achieves his effects by using a large number of wood blocks and by rubbing many shades of one color from each block. The process is labor­ious, to say the least, and destroys any spontaneity that his use of airy colors could engender. The works hint that Yo­shida probably had a good eye for space and color which got lost in the tech­nique and buried

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  print June 1963

  Group Show

  Two exquisite vases by Pat Scarlett are made from tall, slender clay slabs and covered with a glazed design that faintly simu­lates tree bark. They are the only out­standing articles in a gallery that shows literally hundreds of art works, most of them frightful.

  —Jo­anna C. Magloff

   

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  print June 1963

  Frances Moyer

  Most of the pieces in Miss Moyer’s show are spindly figures cast in bronze; two of them are partly built around ani­mal bones. They are all somewhat like Sears and Roebuck versions of Giaco­metti. There are also three wooden toys. One is a body with doors inserted into it. Another (Colonel Bogey’s Cupboard) contains heads, is painted gold and, like the former one, has a music box at­tached that plays the appropriate march. It is fun to open all the little doors and to wind the music box. The third con­struction (Alchemist’s Valise) has pamphlets in it with titles such as Witch-watching for Fun