Rumiko and I drove up to San Francisco today and went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art... have to differentiate it from the real MOMA. There is currently a retrospective exhibit of works by Roy Lichtenstein that ends soon and we wanted to not miss it.
I was struck by the fact that there is such a qualitative difference between Lichtenstein's works and those of other whose work developed in similar directions. I think in particular of Ed Ruscha and to some extent also of Jim Dine.
I really want to be able to explain the reason why I feel that Lichtenstein's work is excellent, strong and that Ruscha is not even close to being on the same plane. There are some specific similarities in the way that they use words in or as their art. Yet, Lichtenstein's "ART" holds my attention while Ruscha's "FLASH" brings no flash of recognition.
I came to the conclusion that after you strip away all of the intellectual trappings of Pop Art references and images, Lichtenstein just had a better sense of line, form, composition, elements of aesthetic value that enhance whatever referential meaning may be in the words.
While much of "Modern Art" trimmed away meaning, symbol, image, to leave only a manipulated color field, Ruscha has taken away everything except the word and what it might, or might not, symbolize. Lichtenstein was able to handle both. His works are full of references, to Monet, to Picasso, Matisse, even to him own works. Still they are uniquely his own, whether only a Black and White tire, or a comic book image of a kiss, he manages to call our attention to the thing referenced without losing the elements of composition, form and line. Even a simplified landscape covering the canvas from edge to edge with his characteristic dot was still had the power to grab your attention.
In several of his large interior scenes he manages to manipulate a complex set of ideas, symbols and references into works of great strength.
In his last works, a series of landscape paintings from 1997, (age 74) that derive from the study to Chinese Landscapes, at the point where I expected to see the continuance of his sense of composition distilled to the point of being exquisite, I found that all of the elements were there but that the ultimate lack of compositional integrity made these works less satisfying.
I also want to take these thoughts back into the world of ceramic art. I find it gratifying that there is a John Mason work in the 2nd Floor exhibit of the permanent collection. It is a large cross form from 1964 and was probably very early in his development of such large scale works. It comes close to being supurb but while a large work of an important ceramic artist it does not match his work currently at the Frank Lloyd Gallery in Los Angeles
It causes me to wonder even more about one artist whose works I have only seen in photographs, Adrian Saxe. at Frank Lloyd Gallery. and at Garth Clark Gallery.
I read what is written about Saxe. The information on Saxe at from the Frank Lloyd gallery site proclaims that, "Having pressed the question of the utility of his own art in a post-industrial world, his work engages us in a dialogue about our own place in a radically shifting cultural universe. The result is that Saxe has become the most significant ceramic artist of his generation.”
When I try to deconstruct this post modernist verbiage, I don't get the meaning. It is as if there is some vast insider joke that I am missing. What I do see is extraordinary technical virtuosity and an amalgam of diconnected images that I wish I had evaluated at the gallery, because I certainly do not see in this specific set of photographs anything that deserves such high praise. To have written so critically without having actually been to the gallery is not fair to Mr. Saxe. Still, untill the next time I am in Los Angeles, this is all I have, and it is all that most will ever have. Still I wonder what these might be had they been given composition, form and line that I found was the difference between Lichtenstein and Ruscha.
I really look forward to hearing from Forrest Snyder after the International Festival of PostModern Ceramics.
Posted by Wes at February 2, 2005 07:46 AM