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11/5/2007

A View Within

Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Malibu

Selections from the Permanent Collection

"I am proud that we now have a permanent collection that offers a fascinating perspective on recent art in Los Angeles," said Michael Zakian, director of the Weisman Museum. "Displaying this work over the summer is an especially fitting way to introduce our 15th anniversary season."

When it was founded in 1992, the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art had no permanent collection. Over the past decade-and-a-half, it has been gradually building a collection of works by contemporary American and California artists. Assembled through donation, this group reflects diverse trends in contemporary art in Los Angeles and the nation over the past three decades.

Today Los Angeles is regarded as a premier center for visual art, often regarded to be on par with New York in the number and innovative quality of the art made and displayed here. But the generation of artists who helped create a vibrant art scene in L.A. during the 1970s and 1980s are often overlooked by the larger museums in the community. A View Within offers a chance to see the art and movements that helped establish L.A. as a major force in contemporary art.

The art in A View Within is eclectic but captures the flavor of our times. Built solely through the generous donations of work from collectors throughout Southern California, this collection offers the public a side of recent Los Angeles art not often seen in other museums. Artists on view include Larry Bell, Tony Berlant, Mary Corse, Laddie John Dill, Llyn Foulkes, Janis Kounellis, DeLoss McGraw, Jim Morphesis, Ed Moses, John Okulick, Ed Paschke, John Register, Alison Saar, William Scharf, Julian Stanczak, Tom Wudl, and many more.

The 1970s was a decade dominated by process, where artists explored new forms and techniques, often turning to non-traditional materials. Laddie John Dill, an early proponent of Process Art, created a signature style with his concrete and glass constructions that became ubiquitous with the emerging L.A. scene. John Okulick manipulated the laws of perspective in wood constructions that question the boundaries of reality and illusion. Ed Moses is represented by an early and rare crosshatch painting on tissue and resin, as well as by a multi-panel canvas that combines fields of subtly contrasting colors and textures into an elegant image of Zen-like quietude.

Neo-expressionism was an important current in the 1980s which saw artists returning to figurative subject matter, rendered with passionate, gestural brushstrokes. Jim Morphesis created wood constructions from humble, found materials on which he painted human figures with profound mythological and religious overtones. Allison Saar takes a more humorous approach in her totem-pole construction of heads of African-American jazz musicians.

Los Angeles has always been a place of individualists. A number of California artists who have forged highly personal careers include Llyn Foulkes, DeLoss McGraw, and Tom Wudl. These fascinating artists created highly idiosyncratic styles that blend realism and abstraction to make powerful comments on wonders and contradictions of the world around us.

Works will be on view in the Gregg G. Juarez Gallery, West Gallery, and Ron Wilson-Designer Gallery in the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art. Funding is provided by the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation.

Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art
24255 Pacific Coast Highway - Malibu

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