Marcia Selsor on wed 15 nov 00
Dear Wes,
I attended the opening of the "Six Sculptors" show at San Francisco
Museum of Art in 1984 as part of an NCECA conference in San Jose.(I
think it was 1984).
The six were: Voulkos, Arneson, Price, Gilhooley, Shaw, and Mason. This
show had also been at the Whitney in New York. It was the first time the
Whitney ever exhibited ceramics. It was a great raising of stature of
ceramic art.
I personally enjoy Gilhooley's work and have used it as examples of
psychological development of the persona in some research. I think this
is again an example of art as subjective to the viewer.
I think his work is quite strong. Mayor Mascone's portrait by Arneson
put that artist on the cover of Newsweek. I believe he was the first
artist to be on the cover. These artists have had a significant impact
on the historical development of ceramic sculpture in the 60s-80s. I
also saw the Arneson Retrospect at SFMOMA a few years ago. What a
powerful statement from the father of "Funk". His autobiographical
pieces were riveting as he visually described his bout with cancer and
chemotherapy using his selfportrait imagery as always.
I believe Gilhooley is one of Arneson's Funk disciples.
Marcia Selsor
"Wesley C. Rolley" wrote:
>
> The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SF MOMA) has a current exhibit of a
> private collection that includes some ceramic art. The exhibit is called
> The Anderson Collection and is the private collection of Harry W. and Mary
> Margaret Anderson. http://www.sfmoma.org
>
> I went to the exhibit last week and found some ceramic sculpture
> represented, which is exciting in itself. This includes the works of
> Voulkous, Arneson and David J. Gilhooly. Presented on an equal footing
> (amount of space and position) with Matisse, Lipschitz, Giacometti, Moore,
> David Smith and Julio Gonzalez, these works suffer greatly by comparison.
> Voulkous is definitely the best of the three, but I still have the feeling
> that the emphasis on process justified a result that is less than great in
> this particular piece.
>
> I am tempted to attend the lecture referenced below to ask Mr. Gilhooly if
> he is not embarrassed by the comparison. I won't do that as I have more
> civility. However, I have seen Claes Oldenburg's treatment of a hamburger,
> and, though technically very competent, Gilhooly's hamburger is not in the
> same league.
>
> For me, two questions arise:
>
> Do I expect too much when I look for aesthetic values of form and design in
> conceptual art or, as the promotion for Mr. Gilhooly's talk calls it, "funk
> art?"
>
> Should there be a standard by which we measure the "product" of our Museums
> and Galleries? I am reminded of a TV interview with the Director of the SF
> MOMA in which he answered a question about why a particular new acquisition
> was "great art" by stating that it had cost over $1,000,000. If monetary
> value is the artistic standard for a museum, what is it teaching the public
> about art?
>
> Wes
> ___________________
> 12.13 WEDNESDAY
>
> Members' Lecture*
> Celebrating Modern Art: The Anderson Collection
> Should I Just Keep Making Frogs and Drop Dead?
> David J. Gilhooly, artist
> 7 pm
> Phyllis Wattis Theater
>
> Well known for his Funk ceramic sculptures of frogs and other
> creatures, Gilhooly in
> recent years has turned to Plexiglas and assemblage work. In this
> entertaining lecture,
> the artist introduces his Shadow Box series and defends his
> decision to leave
> amphibians behind.
> Wes Rolley
>
> "Happiness is to be fully engaged in the activity that you believe in and,
> if you are very good at it, well that's a bonus." -- Henry Moore
>
> http://www.refpub.com
>
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--
Marcia Selsor
selsor@imt.net
http://www.imt.net/~mjbmls
http://www.imt.net/~mjbmls/spain99.html
http://www.silverhawk.com/ex99/selsor/welcome.html
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