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There are art movements that are so inextricably linked to a place, like impressionism to Paris and abstract expressionism to New York City, that they are melded together in the annals of art history. But what about the San Francisco Bay Area? The region can also boast a home-grown artistic revolution in the form of the Bay Area figurative school and it is impressively represented in a group show now on view at the Pamela Walsh Gallery.
Titled “Concentric Circles: Tracing the Radiance of Bay Area Figuration,” the show presents museum-caliber works of art by most of the famous proponents of the style, including Richard Diebenkorn, Elmer Bischoff, Nathan Oliveira, Manuel Neri and Joan Brown. Even more notable is the fact that all of the art is for sale.
“It’s truly remarkable to consider that works by these artists — many of which can be found in major museums across the country and around the world — are still accessible through a gallery exhibition. That’s part of what makes this show so exciting; it offers collectors and viewers alike a rare opportunity to engage directly with important pieces of art history,” said Walsh.
The exhibition reflects a departure for Walsh, who for the last six years has mainly displayed work from the gallery’s own roster of artists. The inspiration for this show came from a collaboration with a fellow gallerist, Jenny Wilson. Wilson, like Walsh, loved the figurative school artists and had developed a wide network of contacts with collectors, families of the artists and artist estates. Over the last year, the network grew until Walsh felt she had enough inventory to present an exhibition. Sadly, Wilson died last fall, but Walsh decided to proceed and present the show as a tribute to her colleague and friend.
“Moving forward without her was incredibly difficult, especially without access to her extensive network, but I trusted the process,” said Walsh. “Once I committed, the most remarkable things began to unfold.” Walsh said that, like the “concentric circles” of the title, connections among the artists’ families, friends and estates began to grow and expand. “Their stories brought the artworks to life and created a special bond between me and each piece.”
Her respect and care for each piece is evident in the show’s thoughtful installation. White walls provide a neutral background for color-saturated works like Nathan Oliveira’s “Twins” and each piece has enough room to breathe and be enjoyed. The natural California sunlight from the skylights softly bathes these paintings and sculptures, which seems most appropriate since all of the work was created in the Bay Area.
A short art history background might be helpful to understanding the importance of these artists, although one can certainly appreciate them just on the basis of aesthetics. After World War II, the center of art tipped from Paris to New York City, where many European artists fled in order to escape persecution. They brought avant-garde ideas about painting and sculpture and mixed with the city’s growing artist population. Together they reacted against the horrors of world conflict with non-representational work like the gestural drip paintings of Jackson Pollock. The abstract expressionist movement was born and held sway through the late 1940s and ’50s.
But all art is reflective of the time, place and the culture in which it finds itself. It is also always a reaction to what came before and, in the case of Bay Area artists, a reaction against working only in an abstract manner.
David Park is credited with initiating a return to the figure, which his fellow San Franciscans soon followed. “These artists pushed beyond the dominance of abstract expressionism by reengaging with the figure — not in rejection of abstraction — but in expansion of it,” Walsh said. “That’s the enduring power of art — it teaches us how to see in new ways.”
A section in the back of the gallery features several examples of this radical (at the time) return to the studio and to working from the nude model. There are wonderfully spare, direct and dramatic versions of this genre by Frank Lobdell, Nathan Oliviera and Elmer Bischoff, mainly done in ink or charcoal. Then, as if to say, “look at how the female gaze takes on the subject,” there is a lovely mixed-media piece by Joan Brown. Her model stares right at the veiwer, voluptuous and at ease with herself.
Having now established the importance of the figure, the show evolves into more “circles” of figuration. Paul Wonner’s “Boy with Flower” is a good example of how these artists approached the human body not in a precise, realistic manner but rather with room for expression and symbolism. The boy occupies the foreground and is rendered in a generalized manner while our eyes are drawn, via the strong diagonal in the center, to the horizon behind him. Wonner’s attention to surface, painted in a thick impasto applied in energetic, horizontal strokes, is the stand-out here.
The influence of Park and his solid, blocky figures can clearly be seen in James Weeks’ “Two Children with a Ball.” Even without facial details, this is a sweet representation of a brother and sister captured not in a pose but just being themselves.
Theophilus Brown’s take on the male body, “Bather,” is large, imposing and enigmatic. The full-frontal nudity captures the attention first but, upon further inspection, it is obvious that this is a highly personal portrait of a friend or lover.
Fans of Manuel Neri will expect to see his usual plaster and bronze figures, and there are several, but his two-dimensional works on paper are stunning. Executed using water-based pigments and charcoal, these pieces show an obvious affinity for the human form. “Amante Drawing I” could be a master class example of rendering the female body in stillness. In contrast, “Mary Julia’s Arabesque” captures joyous movement with just a few strokes of the brush.
In addition to these well-known proponents of the figurative group, whose members not only knew one another but were also fellow instructors at the California School of Fine Arts, Walsh has managed to find examples of work by a lesser-known artist, Henrietta Berk. As Steven Nash points out in the exhibition catalog, Berk was an early member of the group whose work was unappreciated for decades. The influence of her teacher, Diebenkorn, is evident in “Excavators” in which two children play at the beach. They are depicted with a minimal amount of loose, energetic brush strokes while broad bands of tan and royal blue represent the sand and sea.
Because most of these artists were also teachers, their impact continued on via their students, like Berk. A second generation of artists — Neri, Brown and Oliveira –perpetuated the movement with subsequent artists making their own stamp on working with the figure.
Noted Walsh, “Though they resisted the idea of being labeled a movement, their camaraderie was undeniable. They drew from the same live models, taught in the same institutions, and even played jazz together. Their kind of shared creative ecosystem is rare-and invaluable.”
Continuing with the idea of the concentric circles of influence, Walsh has included several artists who came later, chronologically, but whose art certainly benefitted from the freedom of expression established by the figurative movement. There are several black and white confectionary delights by Wayne Thiebaud, a colorful landscape by Raimonds Staprans, and a blend of abstraction/figuration by Kim Frohsin entitled “Modernity.”
End the gallery visit by closely examining the very large and colorful painting, “Woman Holding Umbrella” (2009) by Roland Peterson. This cheerful scene is an amalgamation of so many influences, from the impressionist fondness for social groups, to Park’s solid figures, to Diebenkorn’s planes of color, to Oliveira’s sense of stillness and isolation. Peterson makes his own mark via bold, high-key colors and a profusion of geometric shapes; it’s a bright and fun coda to this celebration of California’s unique contribution to American art history.
“The Bay Area has always been fertile soil for creativity and ingenuity,” said Walsh. “Whether in art, literature, science or technology, this region has long been a place where bold ideas flourish. It’s no surprise that a group of artists here found synergy, inspiration and the freedom to invent a new language of figuration. Their legacy mirrors the spirit of this place: collaborative, innovative and deeply human.”
Concentric Circles is on view until June 14. Pamela Walsh Gallery is located at 540 Ramona Street, Palo Alto. pamelawalshgallery.com.
