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Work of the Week! WOW! Larry Rivers – Stencil Camel

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Stencil Camel
1978
Color stencil and pochoir printed on acetate and color lithograph on two sheets
25 x 21 1/2 in.
A.P. of 25
Pencil signed & numbered

About the work:

Although controversial today, cigarettes were once main-stream. The three iconic American brands that almost anyone can identify based on branding are Marlboro, Lucky Strike and Camel. The Camel pack was long a subject of interest for Larry Rivers. Rivers was one of the first to merge non-objective, non-narrative art with narrative and objective abstraction. Reproducing everyday objects of American popular culture was the foundation of Pop, and Rivers was at the forefront.

This week’s Work of the Week! WOW! is Larry Rivers’ Stencil Camel, a lithograph color stencil and pochoir.

Stencil Camel is a single work of art comprised of two pieces; cotton rag paper superimposed with acetate on top of it. The cotton rag paper makes up the background, with the lithograph creating the landscape, setting the tone for the front piece which is the acetate that bares the stenciled camel. The acetate (front piece) contains the main image in which Rivers uses the pochoir technique, a method by which the pigments are applied by brush or sponge in the negative spaces of the stencil. Rivers’ artistic thoughts and ideas of merging non-narrative and narrative served as an inspiration to many artists that came after him such as Rauschenberg, Johns, Warhol, Dine and Lichtenstein.

Work of the Week! WOW! Andy Warhol – Superman

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Andy Warhol
Superman, from Myths
1981
Screenprint on Lenox Museum Board
38 x 38 in.
Edition of 200
Pencil signed and numbered

About the work:

“Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound!”

“Look up in the sky!”
“It’s a bird, It’s a plane, It’s. . . Superman!”

“Yes, it’s Superman… he fights a never-ending battle for truth, justice and the American way!”

Superman is one of the most recognizable and beloved Super Heroes of all time. Also known as the Man of Steel, he is the ultimate symbol of truth, justice, and hope. Though his powers make him almost god-like compared to regular humans, Superman’s story is not one of greed or conquest. Instead, he represents the goodness of the human spirit.

Batman remarks of Superman: “It is a remarkable dichotomy. In many ways, Clark is the most human of us all. Then…he shoots fire from the skies, and it is difficult not to think of him as a god. And how fortunate we all are that it does not occur to him.” Superman is an extremely moral person. He believes that killing anyone under any circumstance is wrong. It is said that his alter-ego Clark Kent’s upbringing in the Midwest largely contributes to this, as his adoptive parents raised him to always try to do the right thing.

This week’s Work of the Week! WOW! is Andy Warhol’s Superman, from Myths.

Warhol was an expert at capturing deep American truths and fantasies. “Everybody has their own America, and then they have pieces of a fantasy America that they think is out there but they can’t see,” he once observed. Nowhere is this national fantasy clearer than in Warhol’s Myths Series of 1981.

The term ‘Myth’ often evokes the collected stories of the Ancient Greeks and Romans, however, it is a feature of every culture. The collection of myths, stories, or heros of any society defines its spirit and soul.

In the Myths Series, Warhol selected 10 uniquely American personas, from Santa Claus to Uncle Sam, each artwork revealing facets of America’s personality.

With the Superman portrait, Warhol captured the modern imagination as completely as the gods and goddesses of ancient mythology once did. The moment Superman was introduced to the American culture, he became a star. He was on radio stations, television shows, and cartoon series. Even today he continues to be a star and loved by society.

The emergence of Superheroes like Superman created a fantastical outlet for the American public during arguably the bleakest periods in our country’s history. In the time that superheroes first emerged in America, our country was faced with incredible difficulties including, most notably, the Great Depression. For the first time across the nation people were realizing that they were a part of a whole, suffering together and going through the same kinds of problems. Americans were facing not only economic struggles, but the threat of war in Europe. The fantasy and accessibility of the comic book became especially alluring as an escape from an unforgiving reality. Superman’s incredible strength and perseverance inspired many and gave hope to those who had long-since lost it.

Warhol understood this, and realized the importance Superman in American culture. Superman is truly an American icon, a nostalgic representation of America, theatrically reflecting American fantasies, hopes, fears and dreams. Warhol’s portrait of Superman not only captured his awe inspiring power, but also a feeling of wholesomeness. The exact two personas of Superman.

Work of the Week! WOW! David Hockney – Early Morning

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David Hockney
Early Morning
2009
iPad drawing printed on paper
37 x 25 1/2 in.
Edition of 25
Pencil signed, dated and numbered

About the work:

David Hockey is a big deal. Just six months ago, the British Pop artist broke the auction record for a work by a living artist with a $90 million sale at Christies, and at 81 years old, is one of the most innovative artists still working today. Throughout his career, he has never shied away from using different types of mediums to push the boundaries of his artistic expression, making use of color photocopy machines to create original work, or sending an entire body of work for a gallery show via fax.

Approximately a decade ago, Hockney started using a tool familiar to us all to explore the act of drawing: the iPhone. When the iPad became available, he transitioned to that device. Of the switch, he said “I thought the iPhone was great, but this takes it to a new level – simply because it’s eight times the size of the iPhone, as big as a reasonably sized sketchbook.”

This week’s Work of the Week! WOW! is the iPad drawing Early Morning.

After spending about 25 years living in California, the source of inspiration for his famous pool-side paintings, Hockney returned to his native seaside town of Bridlington, on the north/east coast of Britain. It is in Bridlington that he started experimenting with Apple technology and the application called Brushes.

Flowers are a frequent subject of the iPad drawings. John Fitzherbert, Hockey’s partner buys a different bouquet every day – roses, lilies, lilacs – and places them on the windowsill of their bedroom. Early Morning was created at dawn, drawn from the comfort of the artist’s bed, however, the real subject of the work is light and the role the iPad plays in capturing fleeting moments.

Hockey has said that the medium is perfectly suited for the study of light. The color wheel in the app supplies every pigment on demand, making it possible to capture the dawn light rapidly before it shifts. The device’s backlight, has proven to be useful too, allowing the artist to draw at any time of day, even in dark settings, enabling him to work in almost any circumstance. Lastly, the very nature of the medium allows the artist to be able to draw as soon as inspiration hits, without having to worry about having the necessary materials at his immediate disposal.

Hockney’s iPad has effectively replaced the sketch book. In all his suits, the artist has always requested that his taylor insert a large internal pocket, which in the past, would be for a sketch book, but now holds his electronic device. For an artist who is so inspired by the outdoors, the tool enables Hockney to work in “plein air” easily and efficiently.

David Hockney is a big deal. He is an innovator, unafraid to experiment and explore the technologies at his disposal. He has said “I just happen to be an artist who uses the iPad, I’m not an iPad artist. It’s just a medium. But I am aware of the revolutionary aspects of it, and it’s implications.”

Work of the Week! WOW! Andy Warhol – Brooklyn Bridge

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Andy Warhol
Brooklyn Bridge FS II.290
1983
Screenprint
39 1/4 x 39 1/4 in.
Edition of 200
Pencil signed and numbered

About the work:

When you were young did your parents ever say . . . If your friends jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge would you follow them?

Mine did all the time, and we did not even live in Brooklyn, let alone New York.

Along with the Golden Gate Bridge, The Brooklyn Bridge is the most well-known and beloved bridge in America. It is an American Icon, representing American ingenuity, American grit, and American pride. The is why Andy Warhol chose to paint fantastic modern day marvel.

This week’s Work of the Week! WOW! is Andy Warhol’s Brooklyn Bridge.

Completed on May 24th 1883, after 14 years of construction, the Brooklyn Bridge set many records, it was the world’s first steel-wire suspension bridge, the first fixed crossing across the East River, and at the time it opened, the longest suspension bridge ever built by 50%, it is also one of the oldest roadway bridges in the US. In 1964 The Brooklyn Bridge was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service, and in 1972 became a New York City Landmark by the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

In 1983, The Brooklyn Bridge celebrated its centennial anniversary. Exhibitions, lectures and performances were organized, including a 9,600-rocket firework display. President Ronald Reagan was also part of the festivities, leading a formal procession of cars along the bridge to mark the start of the celebrations. The entire production was put together by the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial Commission, which produced a brochure listing all the related activities taking place from May through October of 1983. It seems only fitting then that the Commission approached another American and New York City icon to create the official celebration image: Pop Art star, Andy Warhol.

Warhol’s depictions of iconic American symbols are what lead to his rise to the most famous American artist of the 20th century. He captured the political and commercial strength of the post-war American era and gave them an artistic platform.

As with most of his work, the imagery of Brooklyn Bridge is based on actual photographs. What is different in this case is the use of multiple images, as opposed to just one. The juxtaposition of the two images better captures the power and symbolism of the Brooklyn Bridge as one of the greatest American engineering feats of the 19th century. To create a visual 3D effect of the bridge on a 2D medium, Warhol used color block techniques and multi-layer superimposition of colors, tricking the eye to think the bridge is popping out of the sheet.

Work of the Week! WOW! SHEPARD FAIREY – Love Unites

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Shepard Fairey
Love Unites
2008
Screenprint
36 x 24 in.
Edition of 450
Pencil signed and numbered

About the work:

Shepard Fairey is a known activist. He became a household name in 2008 for the Hope image he created for then-candidate Obama. In California, on the same ballot that elected President Obama, Proposition 8 (commonly referred to as Prop 8), a state constitutional amendment, was passed. The passing of Prop 8 overturned the California Supreme Court’s ruling, from the same year, that same-sex couples “have a constitutional right to marry.” As an activist, Fairey became swiftly engaged in the cause to “Defend Equality.”

This week’s Work of the Week! WOW! is Love Unites.

Love Unites was specifically designed for the marriage equality movement called “Defend Equality” and became a symbol of the post-Proposition 8 struggle. The work was released by Shepard Fairey’s studio only 13 days after the November 4, 2008 vote, and just one day ahead of the rallies held in Hollywood and Highland. All of the proceeds from the sales were donated towards efforts to achieve marriage and LGBTQ equality. The image Fairey created was inspired by the work of Aaron Harvey, a campaign image to promote a “No” vote to Prop 8.

Aaron Harvey Campaign Poster

California first explicitly defined marriage as a state between a man and woman in 1977. In 2004, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom allowed same-sex marriages in his city, which were subsequently annulled. This led to the May 2008 California Supreme Court ruling, by a 4-3 vote, that same-sex couples had the “constitutional right to marry,” which was overturned by Prop 8.

Numerous lawsuits, protests and demonstrations challenged the proposition’s validity. It wasn’t until August 4, 2010 that United States District Court Judge Walker, ruled in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, that Prop 8 violated both the “due process” and “equal protection” clauses of the US Constitution. The appeals process continued the stay until February 7, 2012, when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel affirmed Walker’s ruling of Prop 8 to be unconstitutional.

Love Unites is the symbol of the almost 8 year process from the time that Mayor Newsom allowed same-sex marriages, through to the Appeals Court ruling the Prop 8 constitutional amendment void.

Work of the Week! WOW! WIFREDO LAM – Lune Haute, from Pleni Luna

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Wifredo Lam
Lune Haute, from Pleni Luna
1974
Lithograph
25 1/2 x 19 3/4 in.
68/262
Pencil signed and numbered

About the work:

“My painting is an act of decolonization, not in a physical sense, but in a mental one” the Cuban artist Wifredo Lam stated in 1980.

Lam belonged to an extraordinary generation of artists who examined the place of the individual within twentieth-century society, marked by political conflict and the legacy of colonialism. His work was revolutionary in defying cultural hierarchies and classifications through its emphasis on Afro-Caribbean culture. He was part of the surrealist movement, which encompassed visual and written art forms exploring the creative potential of the unconscious mind.

In his later years Lam was a prolific printmaker, often collaborating with poets who were longstanding friends. This week’s Work of the Week! WOW! is the Lune Haute, from Pleni Luna, inspired by poet Jose Pierre’s poem Lune Haute.

From his transatlantic experiences, Lam derives elements of Cubism, Surrealism, the fantastic images from Caribbean voodoo, African sculpture, and images of Santeria. These are all features which can be seen in his Lune Haute.

Lune Haute reflects Lam’s genius with line and shape, evocative of his friend Picasso’s strong influence on his work. This work explores the transformation of the human figure into a fantastic entity, a powerful psychological tension, reflective of twentieth century socio-geo-political tensions.

Lam combined his influences and created a unique style, characterized by the prominence of hybrid figures. He sought to portray and revive the Afro-Cuban spirit and culture by overlapping the numerous styles that he encountered through his extensive travels, all blended in a Surrealist atmosphere, as an act of decolonization.

Work of the Week! WOW! JASPER JOHNS – Untitled 1977-1980

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Jasper Johns
Untitled 1977-1980
Lithograph
34 1/4 x 30 1/4 in.
Edition of 60
Pencil signed, dated and numbered

About the work:

In the mid 1950s Jasper Johns, one of America’s most renowned artists, began experimenting with symbolism in the form of flags, targets, numbers and text in his work. His use of symbols was in stark contrast to the predominant introspective abstract style at the time. Johns’ formula examined representation, revealing the ways in which the art object itself expresses meaning.

In representing symbols, that were not usually represented in high-art, Johns challenged the viewer to see something new, to question accepted conventions and be inquisitive as opposed to complacent, transforming the ordinary into rich visual objects. He explored the impact of changes in color, scale, sequence, and medium, favoring subjects that “the mind already knows” but overlooks.

This week’s Work of the Week! WOW! is Untitled 1977-1980, a work that encompasses 3 recurring symbols of Johns’ body of work: the device, text and numbers.

This work came to be by Johns’ famously use of Savarin cans to hold his paintbrushes. One day while looking at the can, Johns realized that the label printed and affixed to the cylindrical can, transformed from a flat sheet when wrapped around the form. The label runs around the form in a continuous band suggesting that some of Johns’ work can be seen from the same perspective.

Starting with the two half circles that create most of this image, the easiest interpretation can be that these half circles represent the actual Savarin can, which in one way it does. However, upon a deeper interpretation of work, we come to see many different representations of these half circles.

These circles were created by a device that Johns invented by which he attached rulers to each side of a wood frame, and used the rulers as a pendulum which will spread the paint over the work in a semi-circle. This device removes the hand of the artist, and forces us to see the artwork for what is it, and not for who painted it. It bears a Duchamp like quality, an idol and huge influence on Johns.

The two-dimensional nature of the sheet, plays into what the mind already knows, but overlooks. Although divided in half, appearing in reverse order in the representation, the stroke that the rulers create look like the bottom of the cylinder Savarin can, and when the paper is rolled with the two edges touching, the two half circles create the single image of the cylinder. The composition of the piece is extracted from an everyday object transformed into art.

Written words are where the worlds of thought and representation meet. The use of text automatically invites the viewer to read from top, left to right, downwards (which “the mind already knows”), giving the work the preconceived notion of direction. The words and colors red, yellow and blue take on meaning of their own, as primary colors they are the foundation on which all other colors are created.

This is addressed in the lower portion of the work. As previously stated, in considering this work as a flat cylinder the edges are supposed to connect as if three-dimensional. In connecting the two edges of the sheet, the color wheel takes shape. In the numerals portion, the blue at the extreme left is separated form the green at the extreme right. In between, we have the additional colors and shades completing the color wheel.

The numbers represented in the color wheel at the bottom of the work address perception and representation. Each number from 0 to 9 is superimposed one over the other, scaled to fill the delineated space in 6 rectangles. While each number is visible, each is difficult to discern individually. Their forms are created from stencils, further challenging perceptions between the connection of high-art with the banal.

Johns’ transformation of everyday symbols into art objects reflects his interest in the nature and connections between “what the mind knows” and what the eye sees. His technical expertise in exploring these concepts results in this stunning and captivating work.

In the Fall of 2020, both the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Philadelphia Museum of art will be collaborating with the artist in an unprecedented joint retrospective of Jasper Johns’ career.

Work of the Week! WOW! FRANK STELLA – Polar Coordinates VII Hand-Painted Trial Proof

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Frank Stella
Polar Coordinates VII (hand-painted trial proof)
1980
Mixed media – lithograph and screenprint in colors with hand-coloring in tempera, acrylic metallic paint, gouache and crayon
38 x 38 1/2 in.
Unique
Pencil signed & dated

About the work:

Frank Stella is widely known for his concern with geometry, precision and rationality that characterize Minimalism. By the late 1970’s, his work had evolved to become more complex with visible brushstrokes and experimentation with combinations of shapes, colors and printing techniques. Despite his progression towards more dynamic work, the grid base of Stella’s earlier creations remained an integral element of his style.

This week’s Work of the Week! WOW! is Polar Coordinate for Ronnie Peterson – VII, a hand-painted, mixed media unique work, of which only 5 unique pieces were ever made.

The Polar Coordinates series is dedicated to his friend Ronnie Peterson who was a Swedish auto racer. During the time Stella was working on the series, Ronnie Peterson died at the Grand prix at Monza in September 1978. The theme of racing is one that would appear again in Stella’s Circuits series and Race Track series.

In his reinterpretation of the polar coordinates, Stella activates the graph paper to become lively and vibrant, a spinning energy evocative of the momentum of racing.

The title of the series stems from mathematical polar coordinates graph paper, which consists of lines emanating from a central point. Each print from the Polar Coordinates series was created from multiple layers of screenprinting and lithography. The lithographic plates determined the grids, outlines of the shapes and rapid line drawing in the form of superimposed netting. Photoscreens created from washes and crayon drawings on Myalr were used for the tonal backgrounds and flatter colors, including the metallic inks and GitterFlex.

This hand-painted mixed media version, available from Gregg Shienbaum Fine Art, differs from the regular edition in various ways. Firstly, the metallic silver is hand-applied by the artist without certain of the superimposed lithographic rapid line drawing elements. Secondly, the two bisected quatrefoils which create the image, are hand-painted in different colors and with differing elements of rapid line drawing. In some instances, Stella removed some of the rapid line drawing and in other instances added them to this image. These mixed-media hand-painted versions were Stella’s color trial proofs and studies that eventually led to the regular edition of Polar Coordinate VII.

An interesting addition to the series and further tribute to Ronnie Peterson is a BMW which was hand painted by Stella in 1979 as a custom work for another race car driver and close friend, Peter Gregg.

Work of the Week! WOW – Claes Oldenburg – Miniature Soft Drum Set

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Claes Oldenburg
Miniature Soft Drum Set
1969
The complete set of 9 sewn screenprinted elements on canvas, some with washline, wood, plastic buttons, rope, metal eye screws and spray enamel with wood base covered with screenprinted paper in colors
9 3/4 x 19 x 13 3/4 in.
29/200
Initialed and numbered in black ink on the bass drum

About the work:

Deeply inspired by Duchamp, Claes Oldenburg made radical contributions to sculpture. “I like to work with very simple ideas,” he once said, and while his ideas were simple, the results were groundbreaking. In rethinking scale, form and material as methods of disrupting the functionality of regular everyday objects, Oldenburg challenges us to reconsider our perceptions by way of his unconventional take through provoking our expectations of how ordinary objects “behave.”

In the early 1960’s the artist started to experiment with soft medium, defying the traditional rigid and static nature of the sculpture. With these works, Oldenburg proposed an alternate form, the “soft sculpture” which exists in a state of constant change. The “soft sculpture” has no fixed form, it is subjected to the forces of movement and gravity and configurations can be changed at any time. This innovative approach transformed the very definition of the sculpture.

This week’s Work of the Week! is Oldenburg’s Miniature Soft Drum Set.

Oldenburg might be most famous for his monumental structures, however, he worked with scale in all capacities. The soft drum set was originally designed in 1967 as a large sculpture, inspired by the architecture of the Guggenheim Museum, but the small-scale model, created as the prototype for the project, became the basis for the miniature edition.

The notion of enlarging or diminishing everyday objects such as the drum set takes from the Surrealist movement and the concept of the absurd. In dramatically shifting the scale in his works, Oldenburg transforms the relationship between the viewer and the object through shrinking us or, in this case, enlarging us.

Another absurd element of the artwork is that while the it depicts a drum set, the soft material entirely removes the function of the musical instrument. With the rigidity necessary for percussion absent, the drums cannot make a sound, instead, we are faced with a flaccid, unstructured canvas – a gentle commentary on our material world of object fetishism and our relationship to consumer goods.

The Miniature soft drum set is comprised of 9 hend-sewn, screenprinted canvas “drums” with additional collaged elements such as wood, plastic and rope. It is presented on a wooden base, created specifically by the artist, and accompanied by a set of six suggestions for display positions. The instruction manual allows the viewer to creatively participate in reassembling the work into various configurations which simultaneously gives the work multiple identities.

Work of the Week! WOW! Red Grooms – Los Aficionados

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Red Grooms
Los Aficionados
1990
3D lithograph construction in original plexiglass box
23h x 35w x 14d in.
Edition of 90
Pencil signed and numbered

About the work:

Red Grooms is renowned for his dedication to printmaking and experimentation with non-traditional techniques.

By his own account, Red Grooms was always drawn to drama and spectacle. The multimedia artist is known for his lively and colorful three dimensional pop-up, pop-art pieces portraying busy urban life scenes, characterized by his strong talent for stylization and a sharp sense of humor.

In 1973, after purchasing a hot-glue gun he started creating “sculpto-pictoramas.” These constructions are elaborate three-dimensional lithographs, pieced together into a believable space. The “sculpto-pictoramas” would eventually become the artist’s signature works.

This week’s Work of the Week! (WOW!) is Grooms’ sculpto-pictorama, entitled Los Aficionados.

Printmaking for Grooms, became a vehicle to disseminate his vision of urban life as a site of invigorating chaos. Many of his works are composed as if they were stage sets. Red Grooms clearly “sees” from several points of view and wants viewers to experience scenes from noticeably unusual angles. Every print features a different aspect of the image Grooms is portraying, which is underscored by the different vantage points:

Los Aficionados is a dynamic piece depicting a fictional bullfighting scene at a bullring in Spain, attempting to recapture the motion lost in still images. The work is a warmhearted parody and satirical observation paying homage to Spain and its culture while celebrating some of the artist’s idols.

In this case (starting from the back of the Stadium), we see the cobble stone street leading up to the bullring, with food vendors, and spectators around the arena. Grooms even takes the viewer down the stretch of the passage way where you enter the stadium, and the viewer can see the other side of the bull ring with the spectators, and the bull fight with the matador, which is the image on the front. So in other words, he puts the same image that we see from the front on the back.

The work is even curved into a circle to represent the three dimensionality of the bullring

As for the front of the work, the main focus of the work, Grooms incorporates “cameo” appearances of important art historical figures and even includes his printmaker comically in harms way.

“Los Aficionados” in Spanish means The Fans.

In the audience the spectators include (from left to right) Pierre Levai of New York’s Marlborough Gallery, artist Francisco Goya, Ernest Hemingway, Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso, and first wife Olga Khoklova, and famous Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca. As for the Matador, that is Bud Shark, Red Grooms’ long time print maker and friend, whom Grooms puts in most of his sculpto-pictoramas. Here we see the funny comical side of the artist, having a laugh at his friend’s expense.