U-Nite: Crocker Art Museum

Crocker Art Museum

 Hello everyone, last week was our Festival of the Arts here at Sac State and on April 10th U-Nite was celebrated at the Crocker Art Museum.  The Crocker is one of the oldest art institutions on the West Coast and contains a fine collection of art from all over the world and from various time periods.  Once an old mansion owned by the Crocker family, it was added on to a few years ago with completion in 2010.
My first U-Nite consisted of watching live bands and dance performances along with taking a tour of the Crocker ending in a viewing
 of work by Sam Francis.
When I first arrived at U-Nite I was greeted by live music performed by the Rogue Scholars.  They were doing a Nirvana cover which I had not previously associated with fine art viewing, but it gave it a festive atmosphere nonetheless. My first few minutes there were spent chatting with fellow students from my classes and trying to find a beverage.  The reception room was quite full and a number of people continued to flow into the facility which could have only brought a smile to the organizer's faces. Quite noticeably a large inflatable brain was situated outside in the courtyard with dozens of balloons being released into the top of it.  As curious as a cat I found myself outside inquiring as to the purpose of

"Balloons with names of drugs" U-Nite

such behavior.  It turns out you had to write the name of a drug on the balloon and allow its ascent to the top of the brain.  Along with my Prozac balloon I encountered many others with names such as marijuana, aspirin, and nicotine.
Having participated in a few social events I decided to do what one should do in an art museum and look at some art.  As my girlfriend had never been to the Crocker before we spent some time looking in the old mansion section containing paintings from the Italian Baroque and 17th century Dutch era.

"Inflatable Brain" U-Nite

From there I asked a nice lady who worked there if she could point us in the right direction of Sam Francis.  She not only took us to our destination but provided great insight and history of the museum along with the works we passed by.  Her knowledge and humorous commentary along the way made it feel like we were getting a private tour of the museum after hours even though many people were around us. 
The great commentary did not terminate with the reaching of our destination as our tour guide continued to educate us on the artistic evolution of Sam Francis.  Sam Francis was a Californian artist who worked mostly in painting and printmaking.  You can really see his works evolve over his career and it really helped knowing the history behind them.  For instance his "Blue Balls" series was inspired by his troubles suffering from renal tuberculosis in the 1960's.  Francis later went onto incorporate grids and dripping paint onto his canvases in a way similar to Pollock but they express a more pleasant tone with their placement and color.  Francis ultimately developed prostate cancer and lost the use of his right hand.  He continued to paint however right up until his death in 1994.

Sam Francis, Untitled, acrylic on canvas, 1980

Typically people do not associate fine art and Sacramento together, but instead cite San Francisco and L.A. as more artistic communities.  However with our Second Saturday tradition along with the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento should be a place where anyone with artistic curiosity should find themselves one day.  

Lecture Series: Kathan Brown

Kathan Brown Crown Point Press: An Insider's Perspective

Hello everyone, this week was  Festival Of The Arts here at Sac State.  All this past week Sac State has been celebrating  the arts like U-Nite at the Crocker.  I will detail my visit to U-Nite on a later post. Yesterday I visited the 10th annual Art History Symposium which included five lectures on cross-cultural printmaking from various times and locations in history . The keynote speaker was Kathan Brown, the founder of Crown Point Press located in San Francisco.

Kathan Brown:Lecture 2014

Crown Point was founded by Kathan Brown in 1962 with the initial purpose of serving as a print workshop.  Brown admitted not knowing totally where things were going but stated she was looking to establish a "visual language". A few years later Brown invited Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud to work there and ended up publishing some of their works.

 Over the years Crown Point has shifted back and forth between a workshop and a publishing house.   Other well known artist to have gone through Crown Point include Sol Lewitt, John Cage, and Tom Marioni who became her eventual husband.  One of the interesting things she said was to distinguish between a workshop and a collaboration.  Due to the time and complexity of printmaking it often takes many hands to produce a print.  Although artists would often create the ideas, it was up to the staff to actually make them.  Brown makes a distinction between this method and a collaboration because it is the actual idea that is credited to the artist along with the end product and not the actual production of it.  Brown did say however that she liked the artists to "put their hands' in while they were actually there.  After the lecture I asked Brown about this and if she ever produces prints herself.  She said she has from time to time but since around 1977 she has mostly focused on the publishing aspect to keep her business alive. Crown Point has survived risky ventures, advancing technologies, and even a major earthquake. She basically made a decision that in order to keep this going someone had to run the show.

Kathan Brown 1964

That decision has made Crown Point very successful through the years.  They got to celebrate their 25th anniversary at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and other galleries across the U.S, and recently celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2012.  Brown and some of the artists have also traveled to Japan and China to work with centuries old printmaking shops.  I can really appreciate what Kathan Brown has done for over five decades now at Crown Point.  Her hard work and persistence has allowed many people to learn a skilled craft and others to express their imagination through this craft.  I only hope that people like Kathan Brown continue to follow in her footsteps and keep this tradition going.

Lecture Series: Land of the People

Jung Won Chul, Comfort Women, linocut, 2001

Hello everyone, back in February I posted a blog about a show called The Land/ The People in the library gallery here at Sac State.  Well this week some of the artists came to school to lecture about their work and even go into the workshops themselves to show some of their techniques.  I decided to check out two lectures by Jung Won Chul and Yoon Yeo Geol.  Although the lectures were kept short, they both had many fascinating things to say about their work and what inspires them to create art.  First up was Jung Won Chul who has over 30 years of experience in a wide array of media.  Jung Won Chul was highly influenced to engage politically by the unrest experienced in Korea during  the 1980's He sought out woodcuts as a great medium to display what he called "vigorous expression."  The black and white nature of the works worked symbolically as representing the contradictions he says are displayed in Korean society and in society as a whole.  After studying printmaking in Germany he decided to make art that forced people to talk about it and not ignore it.  Linoleum was a material he saw as showing dignity for the people and a perfect material for printing.  His ignored people have consisted of comfort women and migrant factory workers.  He also used endangered species as a subject displayed in such a way an encyclopedia or textbook would.  His most well know subjects and the ones that are on display in the gallery consist of his Comfort Women Series.  These were women who were used by Japanese soldiers during WWII as objects of pleasure against their will.  The forgotten stories of their experiences are captured in their faces which are often sad and yet stoic at the same time.

Yoon Yeo Geol, Myungdung, woodcut, 2009

Yoon Yeo Geol was political by other means in a very philosophical way.  His art often expresses the existential angst experienced by many who feel trapped by their environment. In this case it would be the turmoil experienced by most Koreans whose country is often in political unrest, especially after the split during the 1950's.  Yoon Yeo Geol likes to ask questions about our very existence and the meanings of life. He seemed embarrassed about a short film he had made about his frustration and angst  by expressing in such a dark and beautiful way .  He said he was always a little anxious about his work and he spoke about his frustration to overcome this in order to survive.  In his City Scape Series this angst comes out vividly  with small emotional lines depicting the streets of an inner city. Each one displays a different time at a different location which resembles a woodcut produced by Monet.  You can make out lines of people, street signs, and buildings that ask the question "where are people going"?

When I first examined these works months ago I came away very impressed and curious about the mental processes behind them.  After the lectures I found that the motivations behind them only added to the great narratives they exhibit.

Sacramento Art: Robert Else Gallery

Ken Potter, Les Soukes De Fez, oil, 1962

  Art can be experienced through oneself and through others so it is always great to see when artists have gotten together in a collaboration effort to teach each other and the audience what art is about. Sacramento has a very rich history in the fine arts which would not be possible without people coming together. Sacramento Art: A Community Art Exhibit, put on through the Sacramento Fine Arts Center(SFAC) is an exhibit that showcases the works of many well known community artists who have shared their ideas, skills, and experiences through various community activities.  Starting last week and running through the 24th of April, you can come and experience all of these things yourself here at Sac State in the Robert Else Gallery. 
  Some of these artists have been or continue to be art educators at local schools and universities.

Jan Miskulin, Mendocino Mist, watercolor, 1995

 Indeed my first exposure to the local community art happened at Sacramento City College where I restarted my education career over five years ago.  That is when I learned the names Thiebaud, Kondos, and Dalkey.  As it happened I missed out on taking a Fred Dalkey class when he retired the semester I signed up to take him.  I did however have the pleasure to take a class from one of the people exhibiting in this show.  I took an oil painting class from Chris Daubert in the fall of 2009 and learned a great deal about myself as an artist and art history as well.  He often would lecture at the beginning of class telling us stories about Theibaud and Dalkey which helped put into context what art in Sacramento has meant to the community.  My first painting I ever sold was one I did in Daubert's class that I sold to a German couple on vacation visiting my Second Saturday event.  It was the first time I had ever made a profit off of a homework assignment!  

Chris Daubert, Doug Rice Reflectionary, 2014

 If you enjoy a range of different art I would suggest this show to you.  The mediums represented range from oil and watercolor paintings, to sculpture and small installations.  The show is also presenting the work of Kenneth Potter as its featured artist.  Potter was both a very well trained and traveled artist who among his many accomplishments studied  with famed Cubist Jean Metzinger.  Chris Daubert collaborated with Doug Rice on a work titled Reflectionary.  The viewer looks into a mirror where phrases are projected onto the viewer's body.  The chosen words did in fact cause me to reflect on what the words were saying and how I was seeing myself in the mirror.    Some of the phrases were "Your eyes remain innocent", and "No mirror can preserve the past".  Upon reflecting upon this I remember thinking about this in the past about our features. Everything ages about us except our eyes, they remain quite recognizable throughout our lives.  In conclusion I recommend this show for anyone who enjoys fine art, history, and quiet reflection.

Greg Kondos, Morning, oil, 1961