The Joys of Zooming, the L.A. Art World, and a New Novel about the Mona Lisa
Not too many good things have come out of the pandemic, other than the heroic behavior of Anthony Fauci and the frontline health-care workers, but from my perspective I can report a real delight in mastering the mechanics of the Zoom interview (even if I failed to record the first, with New York gallerist Valerie McKenzie). I’m finding these a great way to get to know professionals in the art world—curators, critics, dealers, et al.—and a chance to meet up with members of the Vasari21 audience, who inevitably add to the dialogue by asking smart questions that hadn’t occurred to me. So far, among a few of those who have participated, we’ve Zoomed with dealer Hal Bromm on artists’ estates, critics Karen Wilkin and Peter Plagens, art coaches Lesley Heller and Brainard Carey, and last week with Santa Fe dealer Charlotte Jackson, who has been a presence in the Southwest for more than 30 years. Though she’s right in my own back yard, I knew very little about her history, starting with her early years pursuing ceramics and subsequently landing at a museum in Taos and launching her career as a dealer in Santa Fe. It’s an intriguing look at the life of a widely admired and hugely dedicated professional in the art world—with some sharp questions from the audience. If you’d like a copy of the hour-long meeting, email me at ajlandi33@gmail.com (I haven’t yet figured out a way to add these to the site, but it will happen). Skip to the end of the newsletter for more details on our next Zoom, with long-time critic/curator/artist David Rubin.
Charlotte Jackson (photo by Jeff LeFever)
Another joy of being my own boss at Vasari21 is the luxury to pursue stories that pique my curiosity. After reading Jonathan Santlofer’s engaging new novel, The Last Mona Lisa, which is grounded in the disappearance of the noble lady from the Louvre early in the last century, I was inspired to find out more: about the painting, the theft, the culprits, and the possibility of forgeries stashed in private collections. Sometimes the truth is almost stranger than fiction, as Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire make cameo appearances in the saga. But only almost—check out the book for a fun and frisky bit of escapist reading and take a look at my post here.
Jonathan Santlofer’s new book
Last on the agenda this week is a report from members in Los Angeles, the first in a series that I hope will include other major and minor art hubs like Seattle, New York, Houston, and possibly a couple of European cities. What’s it like in the LA art world right now, as we cautiously ease our way out of some of the pandemic proscriptions? Seven L.A. members offer their assessments here.
Dealer Tarrah von Lintel is glad to see more and more visitors to her gallery
And now here’s the news from other members
As noted in “L.A. Confidential,” Susan Chorpenning has a show called “Making Light of It” at Loiter Galleries in Long Beach, CA, from October 2 through November 6. Included are small works, works on paper, and two light installations. She’s also part of an online group show at Site: Brooklyn of painting from the last ten years, juried by Peter Frank (through October 13). As noted in a portfolio of the artist’s work on Vasari21, in one way or another Chorpenning’s work has always been involved with light, and “with the sensual experience of looking and the perceptual experience of seeing.”
Susan Chorpenning, Inner Light 6 (2021), paint, wood, LEDs, 60 by 42 by 2.75 inches
Another source for the Los Angeles Report on the site this week, Linda Vallejo has just received the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2022 from the National Women’s Caucus for the Arts, which notes in the announcement: “In 1970–1980s Los Angeles she worked in the Chicano community with Self Help Graphics; the feminist community at the Women’s Building and African American community at William Grant Still Community Arts Center and Brockman Gallery. She owned Galeria Las Americas, presenting contemporary Latino and Chicano artists and established A to Z Grantwriting beginning a lifelong career as a nonprofit consultant, instructor and coach.” She’s had an impressive four decades as an artist as well, often riffing on statistics about the Latino community or playfully skewering stereotypes of Western art history, as in Beautiful Brown Bouquet below.
Closer to home, in Roswell, NM, Phillis Ideal has a solo show called “Gesture and Geometry” at the Roswell Museum and Art Center (through November 21). “Growing up in the desert—imprinted by the mystery of open space and the ever-changing dynamic sky—combined with living thirty-six years in the crowded urban energy of New York City, defines her current works that juxtapose expansive gestural space and tightly packed collage areas,” notes the announcement for the show. Included are generous selections of her abstract paintings and iPhone drawings, which, as I noted on the site, are remarkable for the range of effects achieved on a tiny cell-phone screen, from snaking lines that look like they should have been made with a sweep of the arm to subtle tones that range from pale gray to blackest black. The “geometric” portion of the show features her Color Grid, below, completed just before Covid-19 shut us all away for a year. The museum is well worth a visit if you’re thinking of a road trip to New Mexico this fall.
Phillis Ideal, Color Grid (2020), 20 11- by 14-inch panels, 78.5 by 85 inches
North of Roswell in Santa Fe, Max Baseman of 5. Gallery is showing photographs by Taos artist Deborah Manville, whose work will also be included in a photo show I’m curating for Bareiss Gallery in late October. These are tiny works, often no more than 3.5 inches on a side, in black and white and with a strangely nostalgic feel, as though they belong to another century. Something tells me Alfred Stieglitz would have loved them.
And lastly in New Mexico, Susan Christie is showing paintings, collage, sculpture, and etching-press printmaking at Rio Bravo Fine Art Gallery in Truth or Consequences, NM, through October 24. “This installation is an eclectic variety of work dating back to 1998 from my studio, not only covering the years but series of works which illuminate my interaction with the natural world since I was a kid,” she writes. “My studios over the past 50 years have been very flexible and often outdoors or exposed to the elements intentionally. I chose to work as a horticulturalist for many years so that I could be outside.”
Susan Christie, Pentimento III, Asian ink and water media on handmade Japanese paper, mounted on foam core, unframed, 24 by 33.5 inches
“Joshua Tree Boulders by Lynda Keeler are three paper sculptures that capture the mass, color, scale and texture of the monumental boulders dotting the national park,” says the announcement for the Brand 49 Annual National Juried Exhibition of Works on Paper at the Brand Library & Art Center in Glendale, CA, an exhibition of 125 artworks on view through October 29. “The sculptures are constructed of paper, paper mâché, paint with stone bases, and are created so that the component pieces fit together without any additional devices—much like how the actual rock formations are situated.” Adds Keeler: “My painting and sculptures reflect the natural and built environments I see on my daily walks. I abstractly chart the intersection of plant life, streets, and sidewalks, front gardens, and commercial and residential properties to show how they are changing due to development and climate change.”
Lynda Keeler, Joshua Tree Boulders (date?), mixed media, dimensions tk
Through October 31, Jeannie Motherwell is having a solo called “What Matters” at M Fine Arts Galerie in Boston, MA. “In exploring space, I try to make space,” the artist writes. “I am intrigued with complex and expansive space on a flat surface. The painting process I use creates the unexpected for me. By pouring and pushing paint, I can engage in the element of surprise, often using a bright and intense palette, or through my continued passion for black and white. Employing undulating, bleeding, and layering, my paintings are inspired by the mysteries of outer space and what astronauts often refer to as ‘inner space’ (the skies and the sea).”
Jeannie Motherwell, Can You Hear Me Now (2021), acrylic on canvas, 72 by 30 inches
Another Boston-based artist, Beverly Rippel has two paintings at the Invitational Exhibit, called “Honoring,” at the Attleboro Arts Museum in Attleboro, MA. “The oil painting First Aid III was selected in dedication to the ‘First Responders’ in our medical community here and globally during the Covid-19 pandemic,” she says. “The magnificent miracle of life-saving vaccines discovered to fight this deadly virus were found by the round- the-clock, persistent and tireless healers—the laboratory workers. In this still life painting, a mortar and pestle sit on top of a 1940s porcelain first aid box. Used throughout pharmaceutical history to grind and mix medicine, the mortar and pestle has been found as far back as the Stone Age.”
Beverly Rippel, First Aid III (2021), oil paint on primed panel, 12 by 12 inches
James Deeb is part of the 78th Annual Salon Show at South Shore Arts in Muncie, IN (through November 6). He has three pieces in the exhibition, each “completed during different phases of the pandemic,” he writes. “Wallflower was the first. I had set it aside in early 2019, thinking it finished, but worked on it again during the early stages of the lockdown. It became more faded and fragile, reflecting my general mood at the time.” A second piece in the group “resembled a few of the talking heads I'd seen on the countless Zoom meetings I had participated in during the course of the year.” And a third, called Perfect Stranger, completed after the attempted insurrection at the Capitol, reflected the realization of “how radically different my world view was from a large percentage of the other folks living in this country.” Deeb also has a pop-up show of paintings and drawings, called “The Ghosts on the Shore,” slated for the weekend of October 1-3 at Space 900 Gallery in Evanston, IL.
James Deeb, Perfect Stranger (2021), oil on board, 24 by 12 inches
Francine Tint has a solo show called “Broken Silence” at the Stephanie Ann Roper Gallery at Frostburg State University in Frostburg, MD, from October 2 to 25. “Tint is presenting a suite of brightly colored abstract acrylic paintings in which her ties to the New York School are explored and reflected upon,” says the gallery’s website. “At the same time, the artist is intent on pushing the language of contemporary lyric abstract painting. Tint has always pursued her own path in painting, even as she is devoted to a style belonging to recent painting history in New York. She has developed a body of related paintings that offer her audience a true sense of joy – a feeling needed in contemporary painting. By refusing to yield to a politicized outlook, or a conceptually based vision, Tint shows how everyone can appreciate recent art history.” The show of 30-plus works will travel to museums and university galleries around the country, including the Alabama Contemporary Art Museum.
Francine Tint, Himalaya (2017), acrylic on canvas, 46 by 44 inches
Through October 10, Carolyn Oberst is part of a show called “Coping Reservoir” at the Box Factory in Ridgewood, NY, where she has five paintings addressing the theme of surviving during the Covid-19. Curator Kiera Stuart describes the exhibition as “a collection of art created during the pandemic in NYC by artists of different backgrounds. While illness, panic, fear, and death swept through the city with the virus, some artists turned to their available mediums as a means to cope and process life changes that no one was prepared for. The show seeks to explore how artists made sense of their inner and outer worlds during the time of quarantine, and how personal coping reservoirs reflected the collective emotional landscape of the time.”
Carolyn Oberst, My Pain Flows Like a River Through My Heart (2020), oil on canvas, 24 by 30 inches
Lily Prince has a show of more than 30 paintings in a show called “American Beauty” at Thompson Giroux Gallery in Chatham, NY, through October 17. “The exhibition title, ‘American Beauty,’ is taken from one of the most iconic 1970s American rock albums by The Grateful Dead but refers to the artist’s search for the inspiring beauty still remaining in our country in these challenging times,” notes the press release. “The paintings in this exhibition, Prince’s first solo show with the gallery, are all inspired by her travels to the Western U.S., where she was on a road trip to draw en plein air. This is her first foray into the particular patterns, color, light and vistas of the Eastern U.S. landscape. She considers it a political act to plein air draw—to search for and record the beauty still left in our country in these devasatting times.”
Lily Prince, American Beauty (2021), watercolor and gouache on Fabriano paper, 16 by 16 inches
Beth Barry is part of “Straightforward, Image Driven,” an intergenerational show of five female Pratt Institute graduates from different decades at the Painting Center in New York from October 5 to 30. “ This show brings together the work of these women who have been working in the arts and have unique perspectives in their creative explorations,” says Barry. The gallery’s website adds that Barry was the first to graduate (1979) and "creates multilayered impressions called 'Brainscapes,' inspired by observations during her travels. By rejecting the horizon line, Barry focuses on the emotional experience of when land and light meet. The work on view includes the installation Sea Wall, in which the horizon playfully surfs across 20 tri-colored 8- by 10-inch panels that extend into the peripheral.”
Beth Barry, Waterworks (2019), acrylic on canvas, 30 by 40 inches
Lesley Kerby has several exhibitions in the works, including “Pandemonium! Postcards from the Edge,” a group show featuring USPS postcards from all over the country, at Chroma Vault Gallery in Charlottesville, VA, from October 1 to 31; “Artists Draw Their Studios,” curated by Michelle Weinberg, at Kleinert/James Contemporary Art in Woodstock, NY, from October 9 to November 21; and a group show called “Hanging at Home” at a new upstate venue called Mod House in Ellenville, NY (through October 31). Curated by Julie McKim, a veteran of The Kitchen and the Whitney, the show is hung in the living quarters of the Mod House, a 1964 mid-century modern lodge and event space. The goal is to show artwork in a home rather than a gallery. “In doing so, it’s our hope to provide interested collectors with an intimate experience with the work itself, removing barriers to imagining what it might be like to live with the art,” says the website. Kerby will be exhibiting eight works from her “Container” series, including the one below.
Lesley Kerby, Containment IL U22BO (2016), monotype with chine collé, 17 by 15.5 inches
“Painting and drawing the human figure have always been my passion,” writes Kathleen Migliore Newton. “I try to capture a person’s gestures and personality. I aim to reveal the humanity and diversity of strangers.” She’s part of a show called “Faces,” curated by Ramona Candy, at the Alumni Room Gallery at St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn, NY, through October 20.
Kathleen Migliore Newton, Conversation (2108), oil on canvas, 40 by 30 inches
Martha Wakefield announces a series of color classes via Zoom beginning next month. “I have been teaching these classes for ten years now and they are very popular,” she writes. “The two classes are called Alchemy of Color I and Alchemy of Color II. Alchemy of Color I introduces students to the language of color, their properties and personalities. Alchemy of Color II students will dive deeper into color theory and practical applications to deepen their knowledge," she writes. Wakefield has held classes all over the state of Massachusetts—at arts organizations, private clubs, and one-on-one. ”Whether working with one student or a group, teaching is a reciprocal process: my students energize me with their passion to grow as artists. I love supporting artists of any age on their creative journey.” For more information, click here.
Martha Wakefield, Convergence, mixed media, 30 by 22 inches
And that, my friends, is about enough for the time being.
As mentioned, I will be doing a Zoom meeting with David Rubin on October 14 at 3 p.m. Mountain Time (that’s 2 Pacific, 4 Mountain Time, and 5 on the East Coast). David is the former curator of contemporary art at the San Antonio Museum of Art, who relocated a few years back to Los Angeles, where he is a freelance curator, a critic for Visual Art Source, and an artist who discovered his passion for drawing in 2001, inspired by work he’d been doing on automatism and automatic drawings among the Surrealists and Abstract Expressionists. He will be having a solo exhibition at CSUN Art Galleries, California State University in Northridge, CA, between October 2nd and 21st. Drop me a note at ajlandi33@gmail.com if you’d like to join us—I’ve known David for years, and he’s a fascinating guy with much to say about curating and criticism.
David S. Rubin with Kupka (photo by Jason Jenn)
For those of you who have been following Rotten Romance, my Substack memoir in progress, there was a glitch in the system and the gremlins would not let me ship it out yesterday without "verification." They determined I was neither KGB nor a spammer, and the latest installment will be coming your way later this afternoon. You can always find an archive here.
Until next time!
Top: Visitors taking selfies with the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in pre-pandemic times
