California: North and South

Organized by Heather James Fine Art Palm Desert, CA and San Francisco, CA June 16 – September 30, 2018

CALIFORNIA: NORTH and SOUTH

By Hayden Hunt

“There is science, logic, reason; there is thought verified by experience.

And then there is California.”

Edward Abbey

California has long been seen as a land of promise and opportunity, luring travelers westward in pursuit of a better life. Its first inhabitants arrived over ten thousand years ago and settled throughout its inland and coastal regions. Today, it is by far the most populated state in all of America.

Eureka, California’s state motto, derives from the Greek word meaning “I have found it,” a feeling that encapsulates the way that many visitors feel when visiting here for the first time. The mythology surrounding California is a centuries-old siren’s song, calling out to prospectors and artists alike. Its panoramic landscapes led the naturalist John Muir to the Yosemite Valley, while painters Guy Rose and William Wendt sought refuge among quaint towns that dotted the California coastline.

The end of World War II ushered in an era of unprecedented economic

prosperity for the state of California, which saw its landscape change radically as a result of federal investments in highways, housing, and infrastructure. The state quickly transformed from an agricultural economy into a manufacturing and technological powerhouse, spurring the development of large cities and suburbs to become one of the world’s largest economies. The idea that a carefree life could be attained by moving to California was promoted tirelessly in the media.

It should not be surprising that artists were greatly affected by the changes occurring across California during the post-war period. Scores of young veterans, bolstered financially by the GI Bill of Rights, enrolled in art academies across the state. Many artists, galleries, and museums became concentrated in the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Yet, it is worth pointing out that these cities are separated by a distance totaling nearly four hundred miles. As a result, their artistic histories developed along very different trajectories.

Heather James Fine Art is pleased to present California: North and South, an exhibition which compares and contrasts art produced in Northern and Southern California since the 1950s. In curating this exhibition, we selected works of art that demonstrate the multiplicity of representational and abstract styles that

emerged concurrently in different areas of California, and which helped define the state’s character in unique and exciting ways. We hope this exhibition helps you see California as a place where revolutionary art happens. *** The North

It has often been said that artists working out of New York City were responsible for the most important contributions made to American abstract art during the mid-twentieth century.

However, the development of nonobjective (or purely abstract) art during the 1940s and onward was actually part of a larger nationwide phenomenon. As a writer for Atlantic Monthly observed in 1948, “Hundreds of men and women throughout America are working vigorously with abstract means, attempting to convey their personal emotion through lines, colors, effects of light and texture, rather than through transcriptions of nature.”

Though their contributions have historically been recognized to a far lesser extent than their New York counterparts, California artists have been instrumental in the development of abstract art over the past seventy years. Richard Diebenkorn’s Untitled (1954) is a stunning example

Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) Untitled 1954 oil and graphite on paper 17 ¾ x 35 ½ in.

of how a California painter adopted an unprecedented degree of gestural intensity during an early period of his career. Created during the artist’s years in Berkeley, California, the work is executed in oil on joined sheets of paper that give the work a panoramic quality. Yet, Diebenkorn dismissed the idea that his work from this period was directly linked to observations of the natural world, noting:

What I paint seems to pertain to landscape but I try to avoid any rationalization of this either in my painting or in later thinking about it. I’m not a landscape painter (at this time, at any rate) or I would paint landscape directly.

While Untitled is abstract in execution, Diebenkorn’s vibrant palette evokes the luscious beauty of Northern California, with a bold stretch of blue reaching across the top of the work calling to mind the vivid California sky or the expansive Pacific Ocean. The

work, while highly accomplished, marks a transitional moment in the artist’s career, for immediately following its creation he entered into a period marked by predominantly representational imagery.

Many of the artists from Northern California featured in this exhibition lived and worked in the Bay Area, a geography that encompasses nine counties which touch the waters of the San Francisco Bay. As the seventh largest metropolitan area in the United States, the Bay Area has a vibrant arts culture that extends far beyond San Francisco’s city limits. It is perhaps best known for an artistic style known as Bay Area Figuration, pioneered by artists such as David Park, Elmer Bischoff, and Richard Diebenkorn, that melds Abstract Expressionist paint handling with traditional, figurative subject matter. Most, if not all, of the key Bay Area Figurative artists experimented with non-objective painting during earlier periods of their careers; however, it was the decisive turn to figuration that afforded them a greater degree of individuality that distinguished them from their east coast counterparts.

Roland Petersen’s Girl with Trees (1961) is a bold example of his idiosyncratic figurative style that makes up his Picnic series. The work is executed with extremely heavy layers of impasto and captures a woman seated in a pastoral setting. Petersen noted that he aims to

“create an almost nostalgic loneliness” in his images where “the figures are not aware of the present, or of the others around them.” Petersen’s use of sharp diagonals within the composition creates a sense of dynamic movement that echoes his overall vivacious approach to paint handling and application.

The Bay Area Figurative Movement is further represented in this exhibition with figure studies by Nathan Oliveira, William H. Brown, and Richard Diebenkorn.

They are united by the artists’ practice of drawing from live studio models, though each work differs significantly in terms

Roland Petersen (b. 1926) Girl with Trees 1961 oil on canvas 71 x 59 ½ in.

Wayne Thiebaud (b. 1920) Beach Shop 1960 oil on canvas 18 x 36 in.

of style and execution. Nathan Oliveira’s Untitled (1961) is a gesturally painted work that borders on pure abstraction, with lines of watercolor paint making only vague suggestions to the body parts being represented. On the other hand, William H. Brown’s Nude (1961) from the same year presents us with a more clearly defined figure study that combines sharply drawn lines with washy areas of India ink.

One of the most powerful works on paper is Richard Diebenkorn’s Untitled (1968), which is a study of a nude woman executed in ink and ballpoint pen on paper. The chiaroscuro created by the light falling on the model’s body gives the work the qualities of a monumental Baroque nude.

Taken together, these works represent a small part of the visual diversity of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.

Though Wayne Thiebaud is perhaps best known for his images of delectable foods, he shares an affinity with areas of the Bay Area Figurative Movement because of

his works’ thickly-painted surfaces. Beach Shop (1960) is fervently executed on a horizontal canvas with vivacious tones of blue, capturing a beachfront scene that the artist observed during his travels to Mexico. The beach shop itself is painted furiously, and the work is a tour-de-force example of a Californian artist’s adoption of Abstract Expressionist paint handling.

A standing figure by Manuel Neri demonstrates the Bay Area Figurative Movement’s expansion into the third dimension. Standing Male Figure (c. 1960) is one of the artist’s few full-figure male sculptures, composed of polychromed plaster and wood standing almost six feet tall with a surface texture resembling a thick painterly impasto. Neri has removed the man’s arms, which he stated was a result of his intention to reduce his sculptures to “the bare essentials in terms of structure.”

There seems to be a violence towards his subject matter here, which we might equate to Willem de Kooning’s fervently painted Woman series that emerged in the 1940s and 1950s. Yet, Neri himself dismissed this notion in a 1976 interview:

No, I don’t see them as tortured figures, really. A lot of people say that – that they’re frightened by them, that they’re Pompeiian mummies or what have you… I’ve really wanted … intensity with a varied, strong, active surface but as minimal as possible. I was after that.

The intense quality of Neri’s sculpture is further underscored by the presence of paint that has been applied, roughly in some places, and then scraped off. Neri’s aesthetic is unique for both its painterly and sculptural qualities, making him a key artist within the larger context of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.

Works by the Northern California artists represented in this exhibition are overwhelmingly representational, though elements of visual abstraction do appear throughout their work. Their decisive break from the New York School was made through their turn to figuration, which distinguished them from the gestural abstractionists such as Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock, as well as from the color field painters such as Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis.

Today, artists in the Bay Area continue working in both representational and non-objective styles, inspired by the work of their many predecessors. *** The South

Manuel Neri (b. 1930) Standing Male Figure c. 1960 polychrome plaster and wood 70 x 13 ¾ x 19 in.

As previously mentioned, the narrative of twentieth century American art is overwhelmingly a history of artists working in and around New York City.

Though Abstract Expressionism was never

a prominent force in Southern California, artists working out of Los Angeles have greatly contributed to the development of new and radical forms of visual abstraction.

The presence of several important art schools, including Chouinard Art Institute (est. 1921) and Otis College of Art and Design (est. 1918), gave young artists (particularly those studying under the GI Bill) a place to find their own unique style. While artists in Northern California were influenced by elements of Abstract Expressionism, and simultaneously rebelled against others, artists in Southern California developed unique styles that are distinct from those of their northern counterparts working only several hundred miles away.

The Los Angeles metropolitan area is among the largest in the United States, spanning several counties and totaling nearly 5,000 square miles. Yet, the development of this area’s artistic infrastructure is a relatively recent development. Until the 1950s, the most important art collections were privately held and inaccessible to the general public; however, artist collectives and galleries filled the gap left by a relative absence of public museums. Yet, by the 1960s, the Los Angeles metropolitan area was firmly entrenched in the bustling art world with a wide network of museums, galleries, and exhibition spaces.

A key event in the artistic history of Southern California took place in 1959, when the curator and critic Jules Langsner organized an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum in Exposition Park that featured the work of four artists working in Southern California: Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley, and John McLaughlin. Langsner termed this group of artists “the Abstract Classicists,” with a description of this movement reading as follows:

Abstract Classicist painting is hardedged painting. Forms are finite, flat, rimmed by a hard clean edge. These forms are not intended to evoke in the spectator any recollection of specific shapes he may have encountered in some other connection.

They are autonomous shapes, sufficient unto themselves as shapes. These clean-edged forms are presented in uniform flat colors running border to border. Ordinarily color serves as a descriptive or emotive element in painting.

Its relation to the viewer tends to be more visceral than cerebral. But in these paintings color is not an independent force. Color and shape are one and the same entity. Form gains its existence through color and color its being through form. Color and form here are indivisible. To deprive one of the other is to destroy both.

In the popular vernacular, the Abstract Classicists are perhaps better known as “Hard Edge” painters – a term

coined by Karl Benjamin – for their work pursued clear geometric compositions featuring abrupt transitions between areas of color. This characteristic distinguishes them from the more airy style of stain painting pioneered by Helen Frankenthaler and practiced by members of the Washington Color School. Stylistically, the work of Hard Edge painters is closely aligned with the work of Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers, and Agnes Martin, who are considered pioneers of painterly minimalism. Yet, despite some similarities in their aesthetic, these artists developed their own styles independently from one another. It is worth noting, however, critics on the East Coast dismissed the work of Hard Edge painters, arguing that it embodied nothing more than a hedonistic West Coast lifestyle.

Of the Hard Edge painters, Lorser Feitelson and Frederick Hammersley are represented here by two early works that predate the Abstract Classicists exhibition.

Lorser Feitelson’s Dancers – Magical Forms (1945) suggests an influence of European surrealism with its whiplash lines and ethereal composition. The clean edges of his biomorphic forms seem to predict the Hard Edge aesthetic that he would develop in later years, despite emerging from a transitional moment in the artist’s career.

Another work in this exhibition, Untitled (1954) by Frederick Hammersley, is a rare

Lorser Feitelson (1898-1978) Dancers – Magical Forms 1945 oil on canvas 36 x 40 in.

early painting that the artist described as one of his “hunches.” Hammersley began these hunch paintings with a shape that would be gradually layered upon, creating the complex composition that is present in the final work. This style, though distinct from later examples of Hard Edge painting, bridges the gap between earlier geometric styles and illustrates the process by which the four Abstract Classicists developed their own unique aesthetic.

In our exhibition, Karl Benjamin’s #5 (1970) exemplifies mature Hard Edge painting. Composed of a mix of primary and secondary colors, the work features complex series of geometric patterns that seem to radiate across the canvas. There are no patterns to be discerned within Benjamin’s choices of color, as if they were

Karl Benjamin (1925-2012) #5 1970 Oil on canvas 56 3/4 x 56 3/4 in.

chosen arbitrarily with only the rule that triangles of the same color could not be placed side by side. Another work, #32 (1975) is divided into four quadrants that feature alternating sections of horizontal and vertical lines. This work features a more systematic composition that possesses an inverse symmetry. These works by Karl Benjamin are radical in terms of color and form and represent California’s decisive break from east coast styles of abstract painting.

Tête-à-Tête, #4 (1975) by Frederick Hammersley is an intimately scaled composition at only eight by eight inches.

The work is composed of vertical and diagonal sections of color that seem to

stretch far beyond the limits of the canvas’s surface. At first glance, the work’s simple composition might suggest that the work was created with little time or effort on Hammersley’s part. Yet, the crisp and clean qualities of Hammersley’s lines reveal that it was painted with intense precision, beginning with a pencil underdrawing, multiple layers of paint, and a final coat of varnish. The work’s dynamic visual energy comes as a result of the tension he successfully creates between different lines and areas of color.

In addition to Hard Edge painting, artists working in the metropolitan area of Los Angeles are considered the progenitors of the Light and Space Movement. This style developed as a result of artists’ intense fascination with the effects of light and color on perception, and their work aims to stimulate sensory awareness in sensitive viewers. When considering works from this movement, it is worth remembering a point made by Dawna Schuld: “Light and Space art does not deal with light and space as media as much as it deals with the participating subject’s personal perceptual adjustment.”

Two paintings by Norman Zammitt included in this exhibition, North Wall (1976) and East Wall (1977), are stylistically related to Hard Edge painting because of their abrupt transitions between areas of different color. These shifts are more

subtle in East Wall, but the colors of both works call to mind the open horizon of the California skyline. Zammitt measured the width of each band of color and created parabolic graphs to calculate the exact color-gradation progression in order to enhance the emotional and spiritual effect of his work. The sheer size of these paintings (96 by 168 inches and 78 by 132 inches, respectively) makes them capable of inciting a sublime experience as viewers’ eyes move decisively across the surface of the canvas.

Another pioneer in the Light and Space Movement, Mary Corse, is represented in this exhibition by Untitled (White, Black, Blue Light) (2000). This painting uses glass microspheres on the surface of the canvas to reflect the light of the work’s surroundings, reflecting it back with extraordinary vibrancy. As Corse stated in a 2015 interview:

For me, a work enters the realm of art when it makes me feel and know the reality of my human state in its essence – an abstract perceptual experience beyond thought. I’m interested in a painting that is about itself, that is not political, that is not a cartoon, nothing interesting – just a pure perceptual experience of the moment, the experience before the idea.

Composed of five vertical bands of color, simply repositioning oneself in front of Corse’s canvas causes a flurry of

rainbow-colored light to shimmer in all directions. The work is not just a painting, but a conduit for an immersive visual experience.

The works of Southern California artists featured in this exhibition demonstrate a shared fascination with the formal properties of art – such as line, color, and form – and the means by which their limits can be pushed and probed.

The Southern California artists in this exhibition define the beauty of California by embracing the beautiful, timeless, and universal qualities of visual abstraction. ***

The works included in California: North and South represent but a small part of the artistic styles pioneered and practiced by artists working in California since the 1950s. Taken together, they illustrate California’s unique contributions to the field of postwar aesthetics.

The artistic history of California is a story of men and women rebelling against the establishment, creating new forms of human expression without artistic precedent. There was no guarantee that they would find success by doing so.

Like the first explorers who visited California, these artists traversed new territory despite the risk and challenges they knew they would face by venturing into the unknown.

Norman Zammitt (1931-2007) East Wall 1977 Acrylic on canvas 78 x 132 in.

Norman Zammitt (1931-2007) North Wall 1976 Acrylic on canvas 96 x 168 in.

PAINTINGS, SCULPTURE and WORKS ON PAPER

CHARLES ARNOLDI (b. 1946) Destro 2005 acrylic on canvas 78 x 96 in.

Throughout his long career, Charles Arnoldi has been fascinated with how to imbue his work with unique shapes and patterns.

Internationally renowned architect Frank Gehry has said that “the maturing Arnoldi has a secure color sense and the ability to work at large scale as well as to produce tiny, exquisite watercolors.” Gehry cites Arnoldi as an influence in his own work, stating that “this is an artist whose best is yet to come, who is still experimental, and still willing to risk.”

Arnoldi lives and works in the Los Angeles area.

ROBERT BECHTLE (b. 1932)

Near Ocean View 1993
 watercolor on paper 7 x 10 ½ in.

Robert Bechtle is considered one of the founding members of the Photorealism movement.

His work often captures scenes of everyday life that take place in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Bechtle lives and works in the San Francisco area.

ROBERT BECHTLE (b. 1932) Paros (6/7/96) 1996
 watercolor on paper 9 x 12 in.

ROBERT BECHTLE (b. 1932)

Twentieth and Mississippi 1994
 watercolor on paper 9 7/8 x 14 in.

KARL BENJAMIN (1925-2012) #5 1970 oil on canvas 56 3/4 x 56 3/4 in.

Karl Benjamin received his BA from University of Redlands, Redlands, CA and his MFA at Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, CA. For many years, Benjamin taught painting at Pomona College and Claremont Graduate School, and also served as Professor Emeritus.

Benjamin lived and worked in Claremont until his death in 2012.

KARL BENJAMIN (1925-2012)

#32 1975
 oil on canvas 31 x 62 in.

ELMER BISCHOFF (1916-1991) Seated Nude c. mid 1960s
 wash drawing on paper 11 7/8 x 8 7/8 in.

Elmer Bischoff grew up in Berkeley, California. He taught at the California School of Fine Arts in from 1946 – 1952, primarily painting in abstract styles. His turn to figure drawing and painting began in the early 1950s, when he participated in drawing sessions with David Park, Richard Diebenkorn, and James Weeks.

Bischoff worked in the San Francisco area until his death in 1991.

ELMER BISCHOFF (1916-1991) Untitled 1973 gouache on paper 20 x 26 in.

ELMER BISCHOFF (1916-1991)

Untitled 1970
 ink wash collage with drawing on verso on paper 21 7/8 x 18 7/8 in.

REX BRANDT (1914-2000) Carlsbad Flower Farm 1969 watercolor on paper 18 x 23 in.

Rex Brandt was raised in Southern California and in 1928, while still attending junior high school, began studying art at the Chouinard Art Institute. After a few years at Riverside Junior College, he continued his art education at the University of California, Berkeley.

Brandt lived and worked in Corona del Mar until his death in 2000.  

WILLIAM H. BROWN (1931-1980) Nude 1961 ink on paper 8 ž x 12 in.

William H. Brown was an artist known for his participation in the Bay Area Figurative movement.

Unlike many of his contemporaries who continued to work in the Bay Area, Brown left for Europe in the mid-1960s, settling in England where he worked until his death in 1980.

WILLIAM THEOPHILUS BROWN (1919-2012) Reclining Nude 1965 acrylic and charcoal on paper 14 x 17 in.

William Theophilus Brown studied painting in New York and Paris, during which time he met Picasso, Braque, Giacommetti, and de Kooning.

In the 1950s, Brown enrolled in a studio program at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked alongside artists such as Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, and Nathan Oliveira. It was during this period that he became introduced to fellow painter Paul Wonner, also represented in this exhibition, who became his long-time partner.

Brown painted his entire life, residing in San Francisco at the time of his death in 2012.

WILLIAM THEOPHILUS BROWN (1919-2012) Seated Woman 1982 ink on paper 22 ¼ x 14 ½ in.

WILLIAM THEOPHILUS BROWN (1919-2012) Untitled 1981 paper, ink, and acrylic washes 11 ¼ x 14 3/8 in.

WILLIAM THEOPHILUS BROWN (1919-2012) Reclining Nude 1991 ink and acrylic washes on paper 11 1/8 x 14 7/8 in.

HANS BURKHARDT (1904-1994)

Lying Woman 1974 pastel and graphite on paper 24 Âź x 18 1/8 in.

In 1924, Burkhardt moved from Switzerland to New York City. He moved to Los Angeles in 1937, where he became acquainted with Lorser Feitelson and began showing his work in local galleries.

Burkhardt lived and worked in Los Angeles until his death in 1994.

HANS BURKHARDT (1904-1994) Memento Mori (Skull) 1963 ink on paper 9 ¼ x 12 in.

GISELA COLON (b. 1966) Bar Glo-Pod (Iridescent Green) 2014 blow-molded acrylic 20 x 12 x 6 in.

Gisela Colon was born in Canada and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She began her career as an artist in California in 2005, transitioning from painting to sculpture in 2012.

Colon lives and works in Los Angeles.

MARY CORSE (b. 1945)

Untitled (White, Black, Blue Light) 2000 glass microspheres in acrylic on canvas 44 x 44 in.

Born in Berkeley in 1945, Mary Corse earned her BFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1963 before receiving her MFA from the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles in 1968.

A Los Angeles-based artist aligned with the male-dominated Light and Space movement of the 1960s and 70s, Corse emerged as one of the group’s significant names while facing challenges of both geography and gender. Like the work of her Southern California contemporaries such as Larry Bell, Robert Irwin, and James Turrell, Corse’s shimmering canvases are experiential pieces that stimulate a heightened sensory awareness.

Corse lives and works in Los Angeles.

RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922-1993)

Cup and Ashtray 1957 oil on canvas 13 x 16 in.

Richard Diebenkorn was a well-known 20th century American painter whose early work is associated with both Abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.

Diebenkorn had his first show at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco 1948. The first important retrospective of his work took place at the Albright– Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York from 1976–77 before traveling to Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, Los Angeles, and Oakland.

Diebenkorn lived and worked in many locations in California during his career. He died in Berkeley in 1993.

RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922-1993) Untitled 1954 oil and graphite on paper 17 ¾ x 35 ½ in.

RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922-1993)

Untitled 1953 oil, water, and pencil on paper 24 x 26 in.

RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922-1993)

Untitled 1953 Ink and casein on paper 12 ¼ x 18 ¾ in.

RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922-1993) Untitled 1968
 Ink and ballpoint pen on paper 17 x 14 in.

LADDIE JOHN DILL (b. 1943)

Bronze Plateau 1984 cement, black iron oxide, red iron oxide and bronze glass 31 3/4 x 47 7/8 x 10 3/4 in.

Laddie John Dill was born in Long Beach, CA in 1943. He graduated from Chouinard Art Institute in 1968 with a BFA, and had his first solo exhibition in New York City with Illeanna Sonnabend Gallery in 1971.

Dill lives and works in Los Angeles.

LORSER FEITELSON (1898-1978) Dancers – Magical Forms 1945 oil on canvas 36 x 40 in.

Lorser Feitelson moved to Los Angeles in 1927 after living in New York and Paris. He began to explore abstract art from 1940 – 1960 and became a well-regarded teacher and leader in the arts community.

In 1959, Feitelson was included in LACMA’s landmark exhibition Four Abstract Classicists along with Karl Benjamin, Frederick Hammersley, and John McLaughlin. These four artists subsequently became known as “Hard Edge” painters for developing a style of abstraction that became closely associated with a Southern California aesthetic.

Feitelson lived and worked in Los Angeles until his death in 1978.

LORSER FEITELSON (1898-1978)

Figure Evolving into Magical Forms 1946 ink on paper 8 ½ x 11 in.

SAM FRANCIS (1923-1994) Untitled 1990 acrylic on paper 29 ¾ x 22 ¼ in.

Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California, and studied botany, medicine and psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

He served in the United States Air Force during World War II before being injured in a plane crash. He was in the hospital for several years with spinal tuberculosis, and it was while there that he began to paint. Once out of the hospital, he returned to Berkeley – this time, to study art.

After spending time in Paris and Japan, Francis returned to California during the 1960s.

He continued painting in Los Angeles and other areas of California. His mature pieces are generally large oil paintings with splashed or splattered areas of bright contrasting color, where areas of white canvas are often left unpainted.

SAM FRANCIS (1923-1994) Untitled 1976 acrylic on paper 29 x 23 1/16 in.

SAM FRANCIS (1923-1994) Untitled 1955 ink on paper 11 x 13 ½ in.

FREDERICK HAMMERSLEY (1919-2009)

Tête-à-Tête, #4 1975 oil on linen 8 x 8 in.

Frederick Hammersley was born in 1919 and served in the United States Army during World War II. He was stationed near Paris during the end of his service, which allowed him to meet artists such as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuși.

He began studying art at Choiunard in 1946. Hammersley was one of the four painters included in the 1959 show, “The Four Abstract Classicists” which took place at the Los Angeles County Museum. He continued painting and teaching for most of his life.

Hammersley died in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 2009.

FREDERICK HAMMERSLEY (1919-2009) Second Stanza 1998 oil on linen 12 ½ x 14 ½ in.

ROGER KUNTZ (1926-1975)

Newport Boatyard 1959 oil on canvas 30 x 40 in.

Roger Kuntz began painting in California in 1943, when he enrolled at Pomona College in Claremont.

His first public showing at the Pasadena Art Institute in 1948 resulted in an honorable mention and cash prize, and he began exhibiting his work regularly throughout the 1950s.

In 1962, Life magazine did a special edition on artists of California, focusing on five artists: Stanton Macdonald-Wright, John McLaughlin, Robert Irwin, Billy Al Bengston, and Roger Kuntz.

In 1975, Kuntz committed suicide while living in Laguna Beach.

ROGER KUNTZ (1926-1975) Seated Woman 1966 oil on canvas 35 x 39 ½ in.

DAVID LIGARE (b. 1945) Untitled (Delphi) 1972-1976 oil on canvas 40 x 84 ½ in.

David Ligare was born in Illinois but began his art studies at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He has focused on creating works inspired by Greco-Roman antiquity since the 1970s.

Ligare currently lives and works in Northern California.

STANTON MACDONALD-WRIGHT (1890-1973) La Gaite 1958 oil on canvas 50 x 36 in.

Born in Virginia in 1890, Stanton Macdonald-Wright’s interest in art was fostered at an early age by his father, an amateur painter.

In 1911, while visiting London, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Antwerp, and Brussels, MacdonaldWright met Morgan Russell, another American expatriate. The two studied color theory and worked together, founding the art style Synchronism, in 1912, an abstract offshoot of Cubism that considered color to be the raw material of art. This artistic style, which means “with color,” was based on the arrangement of colors in harmonious and musical patterns.

Macdonald-Wright moved to Los Angeles in 1918 and was an important figure in the regional art scene for many decades. He died in Pacific Palisades in 1973.

ED MOSES (1926-2018)

B/W 2012
 acrylic on canvas 96 x 60 in.

Ed Moses has been a prominent figure in the Los Angeles art scene for almost 60 years. He first exhibited in 1949, and was part of the original group of artists from the Ferus Gallery in 1957.

He remained a prolific fixture of the Los Angeles art scene until his death in January 2018.

MANUEL NERI (b. 1930) Standing Male Figure c. 1960 polychrome plaster and wood 70 x 13 ž x 19 in.

Manuel Neri began his artistic studies at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1951, where he became acquainted with Nathan Oliveira and Peter Voulkos. After a stint in the Korean War, Neri transferred to the California School of Fine Arts in 1957 to study with Elmer Bischoff. It was during this time that he began life-sized plaster figurative sculptures.

Neri currently lives and works in Benicia, California.

NATHAN OLIVEIRA (1928-2010)

Untitled 1961 watercolor and pencil on paper 30 x 22 in.

Nathan Oliveira was born in 1928 in Oakland and began his studies at local art colleges in the early 1950s. He began teaching at the California College of Arts and Crafts in 1955 and transferred to the California School of Fine Arts one year later. He later continued his artistic studies in Europe, and also served as a visiting faculty member at art schools around the United States.

Oliveira died in Stanford, California in 2010.

NATHAN OLIVEIRA (1928-2010) Untitled (Figurative Painting #1) 1988 acrylic on paper 40 5/8 x 27 ½ in.

ROLAND PETERSEN (b. 1928)

Clouds to Water #5 1974 acrylic on canvas 30 x 50 in.

Born in Denmark, Roland Petersen studied painting and printmaking in the United States and Europe before settling in the Bay Area.

The recipient of both Guggenheim and Fulbright fellowships, Petersen’s work has been extensively exhibited, including a 2010 retrospective at the Monterey Museum of Art. His distinct blend of stylized forms and bright, complementary colors has earned the artist a reputation as one California’s greatest living painters.

Roland lives and work in the San Francisco Bay Area.

ROLAND PETERSEN (b. 1928) Girl with Trees 1961 oil on canvas 71 x 59 ½ in.

ROLAND PETERSEN (b. 1928) Sunlight Still Life 1956 acrylic on canvas 27 x 36 in.

MEL RAMOS (b. 1935) Wonder Woman #1 1962 oil on canvas 50 x 44 in.

Mel Ramos is a California based Pop artist best known for his paintings of superheroes and female nudes, including Marilyn Monroe and Scarlet Johansson, with pop culture imagery.

Many of his subjects emerge from Chiquita bananas, 100 Grand Bars, and M&M bags, or lounge around large Coca Cola bottles, or cigarette boxes.

Ramos emerged from the 1960’s Pop art movement through his appropriated imagery from mass media and pop culture – his paintings of women reference the sensuality of pin-ups and Playboy spreads, while commenting on clichés in advertising.

Ramos lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.

SONYA RAPOPORT (1923-2015) Red Prism 1961 oil on canvas 49 ½ x 35 in.

Sonya Rapoport was among the first women to receive an M.A. in Painting from the University of California, Berkeley in 1949. Her admiration of Hans Hofmann led her to develop her own unique style of Abstract Expressionism, before she turned her attention to conceptual art and digital media.

Rapoport died in Berkeley in 2015.

ED RUSCHA (b. 1937)

Melrose Ave. 2001
 acrylic on linen 18 x 22 in.

Born in Oklahoma in 1937, Edward Ruscha moved to Los Angeles in 1957 to begin his studies at Chouinard Art Institute. He became associated with the Ferus Gallery in the early 1960s and achieved recognition for paintings incorporating words and phrases, all influenced by the deadpan irreverence of the Pop Art movement.

Ruscha lives and works in Culver City, California.

HASSEL SMITH (1915-2007) Eyeball to Eyeball 1972 oil on canvas 46 x 46 in.

Considered by critics as a “West Coast underground legend,” Hassel Smith was an influential member of the experimental school of artists that emerged from post-World War II California. Together with Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, and Richard Diebenkorn, Smith made his name at the California School of Fine Arts and from 1950 until the mid-1960s with successful exhibitions in Europe and on both coasts of the US. Smith died in England in 2007.

HASSEL SMITH (1915-2007)

Untitled #7 1996 oil on board 16 ½ x 11 ¾ in.

RICK SOSS (b. 1956) Untitled 1980s
 polychromed bronze 51 x 14 x 19 in.

Rick Soss was born in San Francisco in 1956. He studied at the University of California, Berkeley before he began to exhibit works at museums and galleries across the state.

Soss resides in Burlingame, California.

WAYNE THIEBAUD (b. 1920) Beach Shop 1960 oil on canvas 18 x 36 in.

Wayne Thiebaud spent much of his childhood in Long Beach, became an American icon as the artist who dragged thick layers of paint across canvases depicting still-life cakes and desserts. He also painted large-scale portraits, Northern California landscapes, and San Francisco cityscapes where streets become vertiginous exercises in geometric abstraction.

Wayne Thiebaud currently lives and works in Sacramento.

RUTH WALL (1917-2009) Untitled 1951 oil on canvas 27 x 47 in.

Ruth Wall was born in Wyoming before she moved to Utah as a child. She taught high school before enlisting in the army, and was trained to ferry planes during World War II. After her discharge from the army, she used the GI Bill to study at the California School of Fine Arts under Elmer Bischoff, Edward Corbett, David Park, and Hassel Smith.

Wall was a prolific Abstract Expressionist painter whose work can be found in museums across California. Though Wall spent much of her life in San Francisco, she died in Utah in 2009.

PAUL WONNER (1920-2008)

Nude with Flowered Hat 1964 watercolor on paper 17 ½ x 11 ½ in.

Paul Wonner studied at the California College of Arts and Crafts from 1937-1941. Known for his contributions to the Bay Area Figurative Movement, Wonner met fellow painter Theophilus Brown during his time in graduate school and the two became long term partners.

Though Wonner’s earlier works are characteristic of Bay Area painting with heavy impasto and gestural brushstrokes, his later work is primarily hyperrealistic still lifes.

PAUL WONNER (1920-2008) Untitled (Woman on Balcony) 1960 acrylic on paper 16 ¾ x 15 ½ in.

PAUL WONNER (1920-2008)

River Bathers 1961 oil on canvas 49 1/2 x 48 in.

NORMAN ZAMMITT (1931-2007) East Wall 1977 acrylic on canvas 78 x 132 in.

Norman Zammitt earned his MFA in 1961 from Otis College of Art and Design and was among the artists who pioneered Southern California’s Light and Space/Finish Fetish movement. He is known for his transcendent resin sculptures and expansive canvases of immersive color.

A family man who was settled in life when the movement was taking off, he flew below the radar, while others — including Robert Irwin, James Turrell, Larry Bell, Craig Kauffman, Douglas Wheeler and Peter Alexander — became its biggest names.

Zammitt died in Pasadena in 2007.

NORMAN ZAMMITT (1931-2007)

North Wall 1978 oil on canvas 76 ¼ x 49 ½ in.

PRINTS and MULTIPLES

ROBERT BECHTLE (b. 1932)

Santa Barbara Patio, 12/10/1982 1982
 lithograph on Kensington handmade paper Edition 4/100 25 x 20 in.

RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922-1993)

Green 1986
 etching, aquatint and drypoint in colors on Somerset paper A.P. outside edition of 60 53 1/2 x 40 1/2 in.

RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922-1993) Twelve 1984 lithograph in colors on Arches 88 paper 44 x 34 ¼ in.

RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922-1993)

Untitled 1970 lithograph in colors Edition of 20 26 ¼ x 15 5/8 in.

RICHARD DIEBENKORN (1922-1993)

Untitled (RD82) 1982 spit bite aquatint and drypoint aquatint on paper Edition 18/35 35 x 26 ¼ in.

SAM FRANCIS (1923-1994)

Coincident Blue & Gold 1980 monotype on handmade paper with dry pigments 30 ½ x 25 in.

SAM FRANCIS (1923-1994) King Corpse 1986 screen print in colors 41 7/8 x 58 ¾ in.

SAM FRANCIS (1923-1994)

Untitled (SFM82-014) 1982 oil paint, powdered pigment, and ink on handmade paper 29 ½ x 24 in.

FREDERICK HAMMERSLEY (1919-2009) Light Switch 1988
 three-color lithograph on paper 16 x 11 7/8 in.

FREDERICK HAMMERSLEY (1919-2009)

With English 1975
 lithograph on paper 22 1/8 x 26 1/2 in.

WAYNE THIEBAUD (b. 1920) Dark Cake 1983 woodblock print Edition 68/200 16 ¼ x 19 in.

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