Painting by Mary Heilmann
"Blood on the Tracks"
2005

Today I mapped out about 4 different exhibits I wanted to get to, and they weren't necessarily that far from each other (Westwood, Hollywood, and Santa Monica); but we got going too late, and had to return to Pasadena too early to be able to fit in more than one of them, especially considering LA traffic (1 hour to get there; 1.5 hours to get back; how do people stand it out there?).

The first (and last) place we made it to was the Armand Hammer Museum, which I am now officially declaring to be my favorite museum in LA. Every show we've seen there has been fantastic. OK, well, that may not apply if you're primarily interested in viewing only Impressionist works or art from previous centuries. But for me and Terry, the shows at the A.H. tickle our art-appreciation bits the most.

Each room in the Oranges and Sardines Exhibit showcased the work by a current artist with accompanying works by artists who influenced them. What a strong show!

The first room contained the work of Mary Heilmann, whose piece, "Blood on the Tracks," 2005 (above) I found to be quite striking.

I'm afraid my notes are too sketchy to reconstruct the experience, but I do recall (I think) that one of her influences was Francis Bacon, and they had his piece "Figure with Two Owls, Study for Velasquez," 1963 on display. A gorgeous work. I do love how he applies paint; it's so scrumptious!

Do click on the link in the title to see more about this show at the Armand Hammer (they do a great job of extending their exhibits online). If you're in LA, please do yourself a favor and go see this show! The few images here are but a tease.

Here are the pieces I made note of throughout this exhibit:

Amy Sillman
U.S. of Alice, the Goon
2008

(no image)
Willem de Kooning
Untitled XXII
1982

(no image)
Juan Mele
Irregular Frame #2
1946
Oil on Masonite

Eva Hesse
H + H, 1965
(love the colors! green, chartreuse, ochre, ecru, brown, + stripes!)

Alice Neel
Thanksgiving
1965
Oil on Canvas

Philip Guston
Sleeping
1977
Oil on Canvas
(I'm pretty sure I saw this in a Philip Guston show at the Art Institute of Chicago when I was a student there.)

(no image)
Philip Guston
North
1961-1962
Oil on Canvas

Forest Bess
Star of David
1959
Oil on Canvas

(no image)
Dieter Roth
Selbstportrait als Suppe
1969-74
glue and acrylic paint

(no image)
Dieter Roth
Bonbons am Abend
1974
glue and acrylic paint

(no image)
Dieter Roth
Ein Bleicher Kracker
1974
glue and acrylic paint

(no image)
Dieter Roth
Mit Vogelkacke sich ernahrender bleicher Schleimbonbonscmeisser
1969-74
glue and acrylic paint

(no image)
Dieter Roth
2 Kartobbelknaben
1969-74
glue and acrylic paint

(some of the above were in the room of Christopher Wool; no promises that I got the German words correct!)

(no image)
Albert Ohlen
Untitled 1988
Oil on Linen

(no image)
Picasso
Man with Pipe
1969
Oil on Canvas

Charlene von Heyl
Big Nobodaddy
2008
acrylic, oil, pastels on linen

Carla Accardi
Verderosso #6
1914

Wols
Oui, Oui, Oui
1946-47
Oil on Canvas

Wade Guyton's room:

(no image)
Robert Morris
Horse of the Vetti II
1983
felt, grommets
(do an image search on Robert Morris -- great stuff!)

Mark Grotjahn's room:

Paul Klee
Blossom in the Night
1930

(no image)
Paul Klee,
Two Heads
1932

Clyfford Still
1946

(I think this was the Still painting; he has long been one of my favorite Abstract Expressionists)

(no image)
Joseph Albers
Homage to the Square
1954

Yayoi Kusama
No. T.W. 3
1961
Oil on Canvas
(small swirls of white paint, more or less covering a stained canvas, with holes through which you could see the stain color, similar to the one above -- and check out the slideshow on her bio page!)

Sherrie Levine
Untitled, White Knot 9
1986
Casein on Plywood
(similar to the one above)

Painting by Susan Rothenberg
"Triphammer Bridge"
1974
Synthetic polymer paint and tempera on canvas
67 1/8" x 9' 7 3/8"

More Notes from Art School, SAIC, 1991

More artists to look at:

• Leon Golub: lots of layers, painting, disrupting it, etc.
• Roche Rabell
• de Kooning
• Rothenburg: investigation of same form; break it down, open it up, more abstracted. Space horse is in; deconstructing, reconstructing. Another layer of movement added by lines.
• Donald Sultan, Clyfford Still - idea of shape.
• Palladino
• *Louisa Chase; Frankenthaler
• *Forest Bess - visionary abstraction.
• Phillip Taffe - simplified landscape.
• Baziotes, Jonathon Lasker - the role of line.
• Louise Bourgeois
• Gary Stephen
• Terry Winters

Figuration and abstraction.
How ideas are developed.
Comes from nature.
Look at source periodically.

Can you not go back and be very particular after moving fast, getting abstract?

Look at:
Diebenkorn (Diebenkorn's missing works) - colors on cigar box top - beautiful: Yellow, lavendar, green, pink, peach, white - very pale with strip of red, brown. Archeological presence of landscape - strata, layers.

Giorgio Morandi - simplicity of shapes. The less there is to look at, the more you look at it (a specific edge). Drawing aspect vs. painting aspect - how to find out from different material.

• Paul Klee - still lifes.
• Gregory Gillespie - very intense - collage (too tight) + wonderfully encrusted walls.
• William Bailey
• Nicholas de Stael
• Pat Stier - 3 still lifes.
• Giacometti - drawing as a presence in the painting.
• Brice Marden - calligraphic, gets looser as time goes by, more figurative. Great interview here.
• Joan Mitchell - more of Joan Mitchell
• Mel Bochner drawings - lines of force.
• Romare Bearden - NOT flat collages.
• *Charles Burchfield
• Kenny Sharf
  
• Malcolm Morley
• Sherrie Levine
• Jan Cherkey (?)
• Melissa Miller
• Roberto Matta, more
  
• Robert Stackhouse, more
• Jake Barlow (Batow?)
• Ross Bleckner