San Jose Museum of Art
photo: John Hazeltine
San Jose, CA
408-271-6840
The Lighter Side of Bay Area Figuration
September 3 - November 26, 2000
Opening September 3, 2000 at the San Jose Museum of Art, The
Lighter Side of Bay Area Figuration is a compelling exhibition of approximately
70 works that deftly examines the historical, social, cultural, and aesthetic
development of humorous Bay Area art. Running through November 26, 2000
the exhibition - the first to identify and examine this genre - highlights
the work of artists associated with the University of California at Davis,
such as Robert Arneson, Roy De Forest, and Wayne Thiebaud, and with artists
associated with the East Bay, such as Robert Colescott, Joan Brown, M. Louise
Stanley, and James Albertson. (left: Richard Diebenkorn, Round
Table, 1962, oil on canvas, 69 7/8 x 63 1/2 inches)
The
Lighter Side of Bay Area Figuration, which was
co-organized by SJMA with the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas
City, is the inaugural exhibition curated by SJMA's Katie and Drew Gibson
Chief Curator Susan Landauer. The exhibition, which premiered at the Kemper,
was expanded by Landauer for the San Jose presentation to include an even
wider range of work which is reflective of the overriding theme. Landauer
states: "A word on my concept of humor: I decided early on to conceive
of humor in its broadest, most inclusive sense. Some works might make viewers
laugh out loud; others may provoke a smile, while still others will probably
induce no more than unexhibited amusement. Humor in this show ranges from
light-hearted, playful jest to grotesque social critique. It is interesting
how personal humor turns out to be. What may be offensive for one viewer
may be sidesplitting to another." (left: Joan Brown, Portrait
of Bob for Bingo, 1960, oil on canvas, 29 x 28 inches)
The
16 artists included in the exhibition are: James Albertson, Robert Arneson
, Clayton Bailey, Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, Mark Bulwinkle, Robert Colescott,
Roy De Forest, Richard Diebenkorn, Viola Frey, David Gilhooly, Philip Morsberger,
David Park, Peter Saul, Richard Shaw, M. Louise Stanley, Raimonds Staprans,
Wayne Thiebaud, Peter VandenBerge, William T. Wiley and Paul Wonner.
(left: Roy De Forest, Country Dog Gerntleman, 1972, polymer on canvas,
96 x 92 inches)
Landauer comments, "In the early 1960s, it became a badge of honor to buck New York-generated trends by combining humor with lowbrow artistic media, notably ceramics fired with commercial hobbyist glazes."
Robert Arneson, one of the most influential Bay Area artists represented in the show, together with Peter Voulkos, revolutionized the medium of ceramics by elevating it from traditional craft to fine art. Arneson was the "leader of the pack" that centered around the UC Davis campus during the '60s. By working with both clay and humor, he also broke two high-art taboos, creating a "double whammy" in the words of one of his former students, artist Richard Shaw. Arneson satirized everyone from Picasso to Ronald Reagan with his large-scale figurative sculptures, even to the point of creating a public brouhaha over his controversial public art commission memorializing George Moscone for the new San Francisco Convention Center.
Wayne
Thiebaud, who began his career as a cartoonist, is another key artist of
the UC Davis group. Thiebaud depicts mundane, mass-produced objects such
as pies, cakes, gumball machines, and sunglasses in a highly developed,
painterly style more akin in sensibility to Pop art. Thiebaud's humor is
subtle and whimsical as opposed to Arneson's razor-sharp lampoons of political
figures, social mores, and even himself. Landauer states of Thiebaud's work,
"The humor in his work is far from parody, but rather is the result
of mentally distilling his imagery through a process he called 'essentialization.'"
(left: Wayne Thiebaud, Cakes & Pies, 1994-5, oil on canvas,
72 x 64 inches)
Other
UC Davis artists included in the exhibition are William T. Wiley, known
for complex, finely drawn paintings that incorporate his personal mythologies
as well as "Duchampian" puns, bits of Zen Buddhism and Western
Americana; Roy De Forest, recognized for his capricious paintings populated
with wild-eyed dogs cavorting in brightly-colored, crazy-quilt jungles;
David Gilhooly and Peter VandenBerge, who each took the medium of clay and
created irreverent, humorous works that poked fun at the absurdities of
the American way of life; and Clayton Bailey, credited as being the zaniest
of the Davis group, who is represented with a series of robots, such as
"Robot Pet" (1990), constructed from cast-off appliances, light
bulbs, and bits of found objects. (David Park, Cousin Emily and
Pet Pet, 1953, oil on canvas, 46 x 32 inches)
In the 1970s, the action shifted to the East Bay - Berkeley and Oakland - where another group of satirical artists formed and continues to work today. Landauer states that, "Like their Davis predecessors, these artists combined humor with crude techniques as a way of rebelling against mainstream models. But where the Davis artists generally produced playful art, the East Bay group prefers scorching satire." Among the artists in this group are Robert Colescott, M. Louise Stanley, James Albertson, and Peter Saul.
Robert
Colescott, who is represented in the exhibition with five paintings, uses
humor to target deeply ingrained stereotypes of African Americans. Ranging
from exposure of sexual stereotypes to skewed versions of American and European
history, Colescott casts a cold, satiric eye on white racist attitudes.
A classic example is his parody of the landmark painting by Gericault, "The
Raft of Medusa" (1819). In Colescott's "The Wreck of Medusa"
(c. 1978) he not only demystifies the art 
historical masterpiece as a sacred object, but also
comments on the fact that African Americans have been written out of history
and excluded from high culture. Landauer states, "Like Albertson and
Stanley, Colescott understands that humor is often the best weapon to address
the most serious problems of society." Other figures in the East Bay
scene include James Albertson, whose paintings parody middle-class American
family life with excoriating wit; M. Louise Stanley, an early feminist,
who targets female foibles and gender relations within her work; and Peter
Saul, who is a classic satirist who addresses social ills and political
pitfalls with a cartoonish rancor. (left: Robert Colescott, Les
Demoiselles d'Alabama vestidas, 1985, acrylic paint on canvas, 96 x
92 inches; right: Robert Colescott, Colored TV, 1977, acrylic paint
on canvas, 84 x 26 inches)
The Lighter Side of Bay Area Figuration, which is organized by the San Jose Museum of Art and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO, is accompanied by a 70-page four-color catalogue with an essay by Susan Landauer and artists' biographies by SJMA Assistant Curator Karen Kienzle; co-published by SJMA and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art.
Deborah and Andy Rappaport are lead sponsors and Adaptec is corporate sponsor of the San Jose presentation.
Read more about San Jose Museum of Art in Resource Library Magazine.
Please click on thumbnail images bordered by a red line to see enlargements.
For further biographical information on selected artists cited above please see America's Distinguished Artists, a national registry of historic artists.
This page was originally published in Resource Library Magazine. Please see Resource Library's Overview section for more information. rev. 3/23/11
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