Dec 132024
 

Anthony James uses math and science to explore concepts of the infinite in his Portal sculptures. One of them, 80″ Great Rhombicosidodecahedron, 2020, pictured above, is currently on view at Palm Springs Art Museum.

 

Nov 232024
 

Both Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and Palm Springs Art Museum are showing prints from Henri Matisse’s Jazz. It’s interesting to see the same work but in two different contexts based on the curation.

At Hammer Museum they are part of the group exhibition Sum of the Parts: Serial Imagery in Printmaking, 1500 to Now, on view until 11/24/24.

From the museum-

Printmaking’s capacity for serial imagery was recognized during the Renaissance in Europe and has continued to be explored by artists across centuries and geographies to creative, oftentimes experimental ends. Print publishers had a hand in issuing series, which could be conceived complete from the start, expanded from shorter sets, or even formed from existing bodies of related works. Diverse organizing principles have shaped the serial format, including pictorial narratives, iconographic groupings, formal innovations, thematic variations, and sequences measuring time and marking place, as well as structural, modular, and conceptual progressions. Importantly, the creative act itself is an open-ended serial pursuit, with each gesture, idea, and decision interacting with or informing the next.

While we can appreciate an individual print extracted from a series as a work in its own right, our visual perceptions, intellectual interpretations, and emotional responses shift when we view multiple images collectively: the whole becomes greater-or other-than the sum of its parts. New meanings surface as commonalities, patterns, or differences emerge. Selected from the collection of the Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, this exhibition presents prints conceived as sets or series and further considers artists’ informal serial procedures and approaches to printmaking across five centuries.

At Palm Springs Art Museum they are part of Art Foundations, which places different works together in from their collection into groups organized in different themes. Matisse is paired with Ellsworth Kelly in a section devoted to “artmaking through the angle of a given concept, with each wall dedicated to a single concept: pure color, automatic painting, text as a motif, or ready-made.”

From the museum about the exhibition-

Art Foundations explores how various art forms have been produced throughout the last two centuries. It presents a succession of artwork groupings across multiple media and disciplines, bringing together works not usually shown in the same space. Meant to be visited clockwise, each gallery provides a different angle on what we consider art, with each grouping questioning how art is made, why, where, and by whom.

This presentation shifts the lens through which we look at art, allowing us to explore gallery after gallery, the conception and the material of artmaking, and the spaces where it is created. Art Foundations brings together academically trained and untrained artists as well as visual arts, architecture, design, and glass, displaying the breadth and interconnectedness of the museum’s collection.

For more on Matisse’s Jazz, The Metropolitan Museum of Art provides detailed information on its website.

 

Oct 032024
 

“Caly-forny-ay”, 1987, acrylic on canvas

“Caly-forny-ay”, 1987, acrylic on canvas, detail

“Green One” 1975, acrylic on canvas

“Arctic Yellow”, 1975, acrylic on canvas

“One”, 1973, acrylic on canvas

“North Wall”, 1976, acrylic on canvas

“Untitled”, 1977, acrylic on canvas board

“Blue and Yellow Elysium”, 1977, acrylic on canvas board

Norman Zammitt: Gradations, currently on view at Palm Springs Art Museum, highlights the artist’s exploration of color and pattern through his large and small paintings, as well as his sculptural work.

From the museum-

This exhibition highlights Norman Zammitt’s extensive experiments with color and patterns through sculptures, prints, and paintings created between 1964 and 1991. Perceiving a divide between existing color theories and his own direct observation, Zammitt sought new ways of methodically organizing colors in his works across media. By the mid-1970s, he developed a complex mathematical system for mixing pigments in subtly varied shades. Arranging horizontal sections of solid colors in his signature band paintings, the artist produced a broad range of radiant color spectra.

Gradations is the first museum exhibition of Zammitt’s works since 1988. While he earned acclaim and exhibited widely during his lifetime, Zammitt’s achievements have not been as thoroughly examined as those of his peers in the Light and Space movement. This exhibition explores Zammitt’s unique position between West Coast Hard-Edge painting and California Light and Space art and provides insights into his underrecognized artistic accomplishments.

Born in 1931 to Mohawk and Sicilian parents in Toronto, Zammitt spent time on the Kahnawake reservation outside of Montreal before moving to Southern California at age fourteen. Until his death in 2007, Zammitt lived and worked in Los Angeles for the majority of his artistic career.

Zammitt also created paintings using jagged shapes for his “fractal” or “chaos” paintings, two of which are below.

From the museum-

Zammitt produced a series of large paintings based on his consideration of chaos theory. In these works, which he referred to as his “fractal” or “chaos” paintings, outlined shapes appear to fracture or break up the visual space of the canvas while the colors form a larger gradation. He transferred his systematic studies of color progressions into loosely ordered arrangements that contrast organization and irregularity. Zammitt drew inspiration from the mathematical concept that patterns emerge when seemingly random states of disorder and chaos are analyzed within a larger context.

“Triptych XI”, 1992, acrylic on canvas

“Triptych XI”, 1992, acrylic on canvas, detail

“First Fractal”, 1989, acrylic on canvas

“First Fractal”, 1989, acrylic on canvas, detail

The sculptural works in the exhibition continue his exploration of color and pattern, but using plastic.

From the museum-

Zammitt created new forms of sculpture and printmaking through his explorations of geometric shapes and patterns. Across both media, the artist developed methods of layering patterns to create mesmerizing visual effects. Through his sculptural works, he contributed to the emergence of plastic as an accepted artistic material. Zammitt arranged painted plexiglass sheets so as to juxtapose volume and transparent space in his boxes and rectangular sculptures. In his pole sculptures, he further explored sequences of color and transformed plastic by fusing together layers of colored acrylic. Zammitt also experimented with color and patterns in his lithograph prints, which overlay slightly offset arrangements of geometric forms.

Below are a selection of Zammitt’s plastic pole sculptures made of the layers of colored acrylic described above.

This exhibition closes 10/6/24.

Aug 152024
 

After seeing the Albert Frey exhibition at Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center, you can visit his recently unveiled Aluminaire House near the museum’s main location. It’s incredible at every angle as it reflects its surroundings.

The structure has an interesting history. Before it arrived in Palm Springs, it was rebuilt on architect Wallace Harrison’s property in Huntington, Long Island where it remained from 1931 until 1987. From 1988-2012, it was partially rebuilt on New York Institute of Technology’s Central Islip campus before being dismantled and stored in a trailer.

From the museum-

Designed by Albert Frey, Aluminaire House is one of the first examples of European-style modernist architecture in the United States. Built in 1931 as a full-scale model house for a temporary exhibition, it was intended to be a prototype of mass-produced housing, factory made with modern materials. Composed primarily of aluminum, steel, and glass, it was an experiment in realizing a democratic ideal in architecture of creating affordable, well-designed homes using modern industrial methods and materials. Palm Springs Art Museum acquired the Aluminaire House to add to its rich holdings by Albert Frey, who spent most of his life and career in Palm Springs.

Aug 142024
 

Frey House I (1940) as pictured in House & Garden magazine, January 1948

More images of Frey House I

Palm Springs is famous for its mid-century modern architecture and architect Albert Frey played a large part in creating that legacy. Palm Springs Art Museum’s Architecture and Design Center’s Albert Frey: Inventive Modernist celebrates his career with a creatively curated show filled with an extensive collection of historical photographs.

From the museum-

Albert Frey (American, born Switzerland, 1903-1998) helped to establish Palm Springs as a world-recognized center for modern architecture and design. He was the first architect to design a modern International Style structure for Palm Springs and paved the way for modern architecture and the architects that followed.

Steeped in early European modernism, Frey’s adroit handling of low-cost and low-maintenance industrial materials, sublime desert color combinations, and appealing geometric compositions give him a unique and permanent place in the idiom of “desert modernism” and succinctly expressed his two greatest loves—nature and architecture.

His mark on Palm Springs is indelible and includes such recognized icons as the Palm Springs City Hall, Fire Station #1, The Palm Springs Visitors Center, The Palm Springs Aerial Tramway Valley Station, The Loewy House, and his final home, known as Frey House II, as well as hundreds of other notable projects.

“….the sun, the pure air and the simple forms of the desert create perfect conditions for architecture.”

Albert Frey in a letter to Le Corbusier, 1935 about Palm Springs

More selections from the exhibition below-

In 1937, Frey left California to join the staff of Philip Goodwin who was commissioned to design the new Museum of Modern Art in New York. The museum has included documentation, photos and a model of the building- pictured above.

Above are stills taken from North Shore Yacht Club (1958), a promotional video for the structure that Frey built when the Salton Sea was a thriving resort destination. The refurbished building is now used for community events in Mecca, California.

The Tramway Gas Station, pictured above, is now the location of the Official Palm Springs Visitor Information Center.

From the museum-

At the same location where some 23 years earlier Clark & Frey had designed the graceful stone entry gates to Palm Springs, Frey created another welcoming structure-the Tramway Gas Station, a bold and assertive monument. Architecturally speaking, its roof offers a hyperbolic paraboloid design. Its cantilever suggests a spectacular soaring bird and indicates that visitors were entering a decidedly mid-century modern, forward-thinking city. About its genesis Frey said, “When you think about what nature produces in fantastic forms, in birds and animals-that’s where creativity comes in.”

In 1996 the building was approved by the city for demolition, sparking the beginning of the mid-century preservation movement in Palm Springs. The building was saved by those who bravely stood up for and championed its daring artistry, its physical representation of a moment in time and place, and the legacy of Albert Frey.

This exhibition closes 8/18/24.

If you are a modernism fan, every year Palm Springs celebrates Modernism Week- this year with a four day event in October and next year a week long event in February.

 

Aug 022024
 

The above image is of Jessie Homer French’s  Mapestry California 2012, 2012 (fabric, thread, fabric paint, and pen), which was on view in 2018 at Palm Springs Art Museum.

From the museum about the work-

This work is from a series of “mapestries” that the artist made between 2012-2017. These textile works graphically map out natural elements and forces in California, from prominent flora and fauna, natural monuments and mountain ranges, as well as hidden fault lines that spur the earthquakes that constantly threaten the region and its inhabitants. The work reflects the artist’s hyperawareness of the environment around her. Their flat, graphic qualities are similar in form to the artist’s paintings. The mapestries were made specifically for Californians, as artworks that could do no harm hanging over one’s bed in case of an earthquake.

One of her paintings is currently part of the benefit exhibition Art for a Safe and Healthy California at Gagosian Beverly Hills. The exhibition, presented by Jane Fonda, along with the gallery, is raising money to protect communities from toxic oil drilling.

Jul 262024
 

This beautiful painting, San Jacinto Mountains, was created in 1960 by Eva Slater. It is currently on view at the Palm Springs Museum of Art. You can also see her study for the painting on view as part of the exhibition A Shadow Set Free.

California Desert Art has more information on the artist as well as an image of the study.

From the museum about the work-

Eva Slater’s painting, San Jacinto Mountains, conveys the majesty and mystery of the mountain range that dominates the western boundary of the Coachella Valley. Its clean lines, broad areas of rich color, flat simplified forms, and well-defined edges are characteristic of the California Hard-Edge style of painting that Slater helped to establish. However, the delicate triangles that flow throughout the composition are a unique contribution to this movement. Slater described these forms as “cells” that functioned much like the cells in our body. Each triangular “cell” is stretched and molded to conform to the contours of the layered mountain peaks, and the subtle color changes create a sense of atmosphere and depth.

Jul 262024
 

Helen Lundeberg, “Interior with Two Paintings”, 1982, acrylic on canvas

Room with sculpture by Chakaia Booker, “The Privilege of Eating”, 2012, rubber tires, wood, shovel

Max Neumann, “Untitled”, 1986, oil on linen

Liza Lou, “Dog”, 2002, glass beads on fiberglass and plaster

Ori Gersht, “Against the Tide, Diptych Monks”, 2010, archival pigment print on aluminum

There’s a lot of exceptional work on view for A Shadow Set Free, the group exhibition at Palm Springs Art Museum. Above are a few of the standouts, as well as one of two walls on which numerous works are grouped together.

From the museum about the exhibition and its theme-

A Shadow Set Free presents a selection of sculpture, photography, painting, drawings and prints from roughly the last 100 years. Though very different in style, subject matter and historical context, the works are united in their ability to evoke a sense of memory and convey an otherworldly aura.

The artists forgo an interest in the bright light of objective reality in favor of creating dream worlds, maintaining a rootedness in everyday reality while remaining free from specific histories. Together they demonstrate the various ways that modern and contemporary art imbues the familiar, external world with a spirit of subjectivity.

This exhibition closes 8/4/24.

 

Feb 092024
 

This sculpture, The Only Other, 2021, by the artist Midabi, was located in Union Square Park in NYC from June 2021- June 2022.

It is currently located adjacent to Palm Springs Art Museum in California.

Jan 252024
 

The image above is of Squeak Carnwath’s painting, Best Borrowed, 2005, Oil and alkyd on canvas, taken at Palm Springs Art Museum in 2018.

A solo exhibition of her work is currently at Pt.2 Gallery in Oakland, California, on view until 2/16/24.