The Roundel Series by John Eden

Roundels

John Eden 1

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The Roundel Series 2012 – 2016

by John Eden

“A Terrible Beauty Is Born” This exhibition celebrates the completion of the Roundel Series by John Eden, fifty-four works over four years and the most complete series of his forty-four years as an artist. These wall relief paintings, automotive metal flake paint on fiberglass discs, are twentieth and twenty-first century military aircraft insignias, and seamlessly join the Los Angeles School tradition of meticulously crafted objects that meld painting and sculpture into a new category of art; further, the “Roundels” add a contemporary edge, an enigma of meaning to their beautiful craft.

How fitting a setting for the show, as Eden spent his childhood here in the Santa Clarita Valley in the 1950’s, roaming the arroyos, arid canyons and foothills, home to the fledging aerospace industry and the metal flake hot rods that are part of the Southern California culture.

His life as an artist began in 1972 at the San Francisco Art Institute studying film. He also had a student job as a janitor. One task was caretaking The Rose, Jay DeFeo’s legendry painting that was on display in a conference room, its fate in limbo. Sculpted to a monumental thickness, bits of the heavy oil paint relief would flake off daily, and Eden swept them up. The work made an enduring impression; Eden later changed his major to painting, and its influence can still be seen by his involvement in 3D painting.

But the history and politics of the time also imprinted themselves. With the Vietnam War raging, the draft in place, and a military tradition in his family, Eden enlisted in the Air Force out of high school and wound up with the lonely duty of guarding B-52 bombers loaded with atomic bombs. The meaning of this enigma, the beauty of aircraft and the horror they can bring, the myth of flying and its lethal reality, left a lifelong emotional and moral imprint that’s the subject of the Roundels.

But before these were to appear, Eden was an abstract painter from USC that produced the highly regarded Pale Series, encaustic rectangular figure/field canvases. The figures recall architecture, furniture, Japanese writing and architecture, stick figures, and so on. They were allusive and illusive, elements he would learn to strengthen Then, as Philip Guston quipped, the trouble began. Attracted by sculpture, becoming neighbor and friend with John McCracken and having seen and admired the work of Bell, Irwin, Valentine, Alexander, et al., Eden worked alongside Jack Brogan, the man behind the magic. Brogan has mastered all the secrets of space age technology, and guided all the LA artists who have embraced it through the creation of the work that put—that continues to put—LA on the art world map.

Since 2003, Brogan provided the “how to” for the various sculptures and materials that Eden wanted to use and explore, as single pieces or small series. At the same time, Eden’s work grew richer in meanings and references; sometimes ominous, sometimes humorous, sometimes cross-cultural, sometimes all together, always touching.

For example, recently, he made multiple 3D-printed resin copies of one of Larry Bell’s famous hats—an act of homage to Bell and the HAT for what they are. Eden’s levels of allegory and symbolism have richened.

Which brings us back to the Roundels. There they are, in three diameters. They curve and float off the wall, separated from the fuselages that bore them through two centuries of nationalism and war, glittering and sparkling, a symbol of man’s dreams and his war machines. Greek myth meets Hitler, the Wright Brothers meet Hiroshima, the beauty of aeronautic lines and the thud of bombs. Each painting/relief becomes both the abstract painting in circular form, a dynamic made only in LA symbiosis of art history, our history, and a symbol of man’s dreams, follies and crimes. Eden’s paintings glow with the murmur of beauty and horror.

Sheldon Figoten

Venice, California

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John Eden holding Vietnam 1950-1962 (Fuselage & Wing), from the Roundel (military aircraft insignias) Series, automobile metal flake paint on a fiberglass disc, 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2013.

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Riding on the Backs of Giants In its essence, every creative act is destructive to everything that has gone before, and Barnett Newman’s edifying title Not There—Here aptly exemplifies that thesis.

As an artist, I have had a lifelong interest in exploring the boundaries of abstraction. For example: Does the crudity of the initial effort make Malevich and Mondrian better painters than anyone working as an abstract painter today?1 Can nonobjective elements used by avant-garde artists a century ago still be considered abstract or has their utopian imagery been absorbed into the culture as nonabstract motif or simulacra? Was a totally nonobjective abstraction ever really achieved, or was it an unobtainable goal, more interesting in the near misses that it generated than its theoretical actuality?

It’s clear to me that abstract artists today are not leaping into a nonobjective void. We are the quasi-academics, the cynics or the naive riding on the backs of giants.2 We mimic and triangulate between those modernist innovators in increasingly diminished ways. That said, an economic “less is more” form of abstraction will always be the art that I identify with most. Early abstraction’s urge towards the universal as well as jazz‘s quest for freedom were both social movements within the arts that marked the apotheosis of Western culture, and today we are left in the vacuum of its epochal wake. All else pales in comparison.

My Roundel (military aircraft insignias) Series is an outgrowth of those issues, as are my experiences as a USAF Airman during the Vietnam/Cold War eras and is my continuing fascination with things that appear to be one thing, but are really something quite different. The parabolic disc structure has its origins via Robert Delaunay’s early twentieth-century circular (Premier Disque) form, Vladimir Tatlin’s 1944 theatrical moon discs and not, just with the ubiquitous Light and Space discs by Robert Irwin. The socially driven design elements that I have used in this series denote rote national identifiers that are obliquely abstract in nature, which runs counter to abstraction’s traditional wisdom of, “What you see is what you see.”3 Today, it seems to me that nothing is what it appears, all content is parsed, all symbols and signs require analyses and yes, the viewer sees it through a complex lens of his or her experiences within the context of our current state of affairs. We live in a very different and nuanced time, a hundred years on, from those heady revolutionary days. I believe that fact is succinctly reflected by the well-worn phrase “All that glimmers is not gold.”4 —John Eden 1. A quote artist/critic Peter Plagens attributes to artist Richard Serra. 2. A sarcastic reference to the Isaac Newton’s quote “If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.” 3. A 1964 quote by artist Frank Stella. 4. A quote from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

Facing page: Zero Point Ten+100, a 2015 Santa Monica College Barrett Art Gallery installation photograph of El Salvador 1922 Onward (Fuslage & Wing) (22.25” Diameter), Austria/Germany 1918 (Fuselage & Wing) (46” Diameter) and Spain 1918-1931 (Fuselage & Wing) (22.25” Diameter), from the Roundel (military aircraft insignias) Series, automobile metal flake paint on fiberglass discs, 2013.

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Background

The name roundel comes from the French cockade ribbon that originated during the French Revolution and whose basic design the French Air Corps appropriated during WWI to identify its military aircraft. Soon after, various militaries from around the world followed suit and adopted their own unique symbols or insignias, which became known as roundels.

Symbols have always interested me because they often evolve over long periods to represent groups, religions or ideas. I find it fascinating how the chosen symbol very often shapes the group’s self-image. For example, the menorah represents light, or illumination, and the Jewish culture places a high value on enlightened edification. Interesting also that several Islamic states have more recently adopted the aggressive symbolism of the crescent moon devouring a star. Of course, the most notorious symbol of the 20th century is Nazi Germany’s black swastika—with its unstoppable juggernaut-like shape—which set out to dominate the world and is probably the clearest illustration of how a group’s self-image is reflected in its chosen symbol.

During the Vietnam War, I initially served in the U.S. Air Force as a security policeman on a Strategic Air Command base in Northern California. I guarded B-52 bombers that were loaded with a total of two megatons of thermonuclear energy, or three times the power of the Hiroshima bomb. These two Hound Dog AGM-28 missiles had the capacity to destroy multiple foreign cities. As I walked the flight line around those planes, I was struck by the dichotomy of their stealthy beauty. How they could be seen as instruments of great good—creating peace and stability—and have the potential of great evil at the same time. The concept of how things can appear to be one thing, but really be something quite different coalesced in my mind. Yes, few things are as they appear.

At the onset of this series, I chose the most abstract roundels available to make a theoretical point about the viability of abstraction at one hundred plus years of practice. However, as the concept grew, I soon realized that I needed to maintain an overall neutrality by representing the entire spectrum of emblematic possibilities—”the good, the bad and the ugly”—and let “the arc of history” reveal which ones are which.

The impulse behind this series grew out of a desire for moderation, or a more general rejection of extremism and zealotry, which many of these beautiful emblems represent. Perhaps the most significant takeaway of this particular series is how truly oblique our understanding of the world is.

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Installation List with Titles, Descriptions and Video Information East Wall (Left to Right) 1.

USSR WWII Camouflage (Fuselage, Wing & Fin), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2016.

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Belgium 1945–1948 (Fuselage & Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2015.

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Israel 1948 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2016.

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Armenia 1991 Onward (Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2015.

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Latvia 1918–1940 (Fuselage & Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2016.

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Transnistria 2001 Onward (Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2013.

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Bahamas 1976 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2015.

Corner 8.

U.S. Army Air Corps 1917–1927 (Fuselage & Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2016.

South Wall 9.

Vietnam 1950–1962 (Fuselage & Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2013.

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China 1913–1916 (Wing & Fin/Rudder), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2016.

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Sri Lanka 1950 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2015.

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Vietnam People’s Air Force 1964–1974 (Fuselage & Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2016.

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Slovenia 1996 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2016.

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Montenegro 2006 Onward (Fuselage), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2015.

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Japan Surrender 1945 (Fuselage & Wing), 46” X 46” X 12”, 2014.

Floating Wall (West) 21.

Spanish Nationalists 1936–1939 (Wing), 46” X 46” X 12”, 2015.

Floating Wall (East) 22.

Free French 1940–1945 (Fuselage & Wing), 46” X 46” X 12”, 2014.

West Wall 16.

Ecuador 1920 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 46” X 46” X 12”, 2015.

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Malawi 1966 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 46” X 46” X 12”, 2016.

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India 1943–1945 (Fuselage & Wing), 28” X 28” X 6.75”, 2015.

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Kingdom of Afghanistan 1929–1965 (Fuselage & Wing), 46” X 46” X 12”, 2016.

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Cameroon 1960 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 46” X 46” X 12”, 2016.

Reception Wall 23.

Bangladesh 1971 Onward (Wing), 22.75” X 22.75” X 5.5”, 2012–2013.

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Hungary 1944–1945 (Fuselage & Wing), 22.75” X 22.75” X 5.5”, 2013.

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Revolutionary Russia 1917–1922 (Wing & Fin/Rudder), 22.75” X 22.75” X 5.5”, 2013.

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Serbia 1913 (Wing), 22.75” X 22.75” X 5.5”, 2013.

All discs are painted with automotive metal flake on fiberglass.

Videos Gliders by John Eden; 16mm color film w/sound, 3:25 minutes, 1972 <https://youtu.be/M5sXw4ILzgc> The Roundels : day one by William Clarkson <https://youtu.be/_r57siPitUw> John Eden : The Roundels by Eric Minh Swenson <https://youtu.be/X6SB-BKAWJg>

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Curriculum Vitae Born in Los Angeles, California Awards and Education

California State Fellowship (a full two-year academic scholarship for graduate studies) M.F.A. University of Southern California M.A. California State University, Northridge B.F.A. San Francisco Art Institute Exhibitions

Roundels; College of the Canyons Art Gallery; Valencia, California Oct 22 – Dec 8, 2016 Babel Imaginary Towers Installation; Metropolitan Pavilion; New York City, New York Jan 21 – 24, 2016 Southern California Abstraction Now; Santa Monica College Barrett Art Gallery Oct 26 – Dec 5,2015 California Dreaming; Riverside Art Museum; Riverside, California April 21, 2015 – July 5, 2015 California Dreaming; Oceanside Museum of Art; Oceanside, California Dec 6, 2014 – March 29, 2015 Service…works by California artists who are Veterans; Muzeo Museum; Anaheim, CA Nov 14, 2014 – Feb 1, 2015 Me, You and Someone Else; Coastline Art Gallery; Costa Mesa, California Nov 13 – Dec 19, 2014 California Dreaming; Palazzo della Provincia di Frosinone, Italy Oct 4 – 28, 2014 Colorimetry; Museum of Art and History; Lancaster, California Jan 18 – March 16, 2014 Rouge; Katherine Cone Gallery; Culver City, California July 20 – Aug 24, 2013 Next To Nothing; Coastline Art Gallery; Costa Mesa, California Jan 31 – March 9, 2013 U Don’t Know Jack; Katherine Cone Gallery; Culver City, California May 5 – June 2, 2012 California Slam; San Luis Obispo Museum of Art; San Luis Obispo, California Aug 12 – Sept 30, 2011 Chain Letter; Shoshana Wayne Gallery; Santa Monica, California July 23 – Aug 25, 2011 Abstract; University of Southern California; Los Angeles, California May 27 – July 10, 2004 Profound Visions: Art in Los Angeles; Ace Gallery; Los Angeles, California May 23 – July 31, 1988 Abstract Painting; University of California San Diego; San Diego, California Jan 9 – Feb 14, 1988 One Person Show; Ace Gallery; Los Angeles, California Mar 3 – Oct 31, 1987 Four Painters; Flow Ace Gallery; West Hollywood, California Aug 23 – Sep15, 1986 Sunshine & Shadows; Fellows of Contemporary Art; Fisher Art Gallery; Los Angeles, CA Jan 15 – Feb 23, 1985 Publications

Southern California Abstraction Now, by Jack Chipman, Santa Monica College Barrett Art Gallery Jan 2016 Spotlight: Orange County, by Liz Goldner, Art Ltd. Magazine Nov 2014 Colorimetry, by Peter Frank, Artillery Magazine Mar/Apr 2014 Colorimetry, by Kimberly Nichols, Droste Effect Magazine Feb 25, 2014 The Galleries, by Cathy Curtis, The Los Angeles Times July 8, 1988 Art Review, by Robert L. Pincus, The San Diego Union Feb 4, 1988 At the Galleries, by Leah Ollman, The Los Angeles Times Jan 22, 1988 Art Review, by Susan Freudenheim, The San Diego Tribune Jan 13, 1988 The Galleries, by William Wilson, The Los Angeles Times May 1, 1987 California had its own Avant-Garde, by John Welchman, ARTnews Magazine May 1985 Sunshine and Shadows, by Susan Larsen-Martin Jan 1985 Curatorial

A Sense of Place, USC School of Fine Arts Gallery, Los Angeles, California

Dec 8 – Dec 30, 2006

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Roundel Series Drawings Page Twenty-Four: 1. Bangladesh 1971 Onward (Wing), 2. Serbia 1913 (Wing), 3. Guyana 1968 Onward (Wing), 4. Australia 1942-1946 (Fuselage & Wing), 5. El Salvador 1922 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 6. Spain 1918-1931 (Fuselage & Wing), 7. United Kingdom 1914-1915 (Wing), 8. Albania 1958-1960 (Wing), 9. Portugal 1915-1916 (Wing).

Page Twenty-Five: 10. Japan Surrender 1945 (Fuselage & Wing), 11. United States American Expeditionary Forces 1918-1919 (Wing), 12. Romania 1913-1915 (Wing) and Chad 1961 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 13. Free French 1940-1945 (Fuselage & Wing), 14. Sweden 1914-1915 (Wing), 15. Poland 1918 (Wing), 16. China Nanking Air Force 1942-1945 (Fuselage & Wing), 17. Libya 1978 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 18. Netherlands 1914-1921 (Fuselage & Wing).

Page Twenty-Six: 19. Vietnam 1950-1962 (Fuselage & Wing), 20. Ukraine 1991-1992 (Fuselage & Wing), 21. Austria/Germany 1918 (Fuselage, Wing & Fin/Rudder), 22. Switzerland 1945 Onward (Wing & Fin), 23. Transnistria 2001 Onward (Wing), 24. Hungary 1944-1945 (Fuselage & Wing), 25. Revolutionary Russia 1917-1922 (Wing & Fin/Rudder), 26. Guinea-Bissau 1978 Onward (Fuselage), 27. Cameroon 1960 Onward (Fuselage & Wing).

Page Twenty-Seven: 28. Montenegro 2006 Onward (Fuselage), 29. Ecuador 1920 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 30.

Belgium 1945-1948 (Fuselage & Wing), 31. Bahamas 1976 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 32. Malawi 1966 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 33. Seychelles 1990 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 34. India 1943-1945 (Fuselage & Wing), 35.

Spanish Nationalists 1936-1939 (Wing), 36. Armenia 1991 Onward (Wing).

Page Twenty-Eight: 37. Mali 1961 Onward (Fuselage, Wing & Fin), 38. Guinea 1959 Onward Fuselage & Wing), 39. Kingdom of Afghanistan 1929-1965 (Fuselage & Wing), 40. Sri Lanka 1950 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 41. Slovenia 1996 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 42. Qatar 1974 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 43. Latvia 1918-1940 (Fuselage & Wing), 44. Japan 1915 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 45. USSR WWII Camouflage (Fuselage, Wing & Fin).

Page Twenty-Nine: 46. Israel 1948 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 47. China 1913-1916 (Wing & Fin/Rudder), 48.

Vietnam People’s Air Force (Fuselage & Wing), 49. Zimbabwe 1980 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 50. Sovereign Military Order of Malta (Italy), 1947-1952 (Fuselage), 51. Moldova 1991 Onward (Fuselage, Wing & Fin), 52. U.S. Army Air Corps 1917-1927 (Fuselage & Wing), 53. Italy 1990 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 54. Mauritius 1992 Onward (Fuselage & Wing).

Page Thirty: 55. United Kingdom 1915 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 56. Malagasy 1961 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 57. France 1912-1942 (Fuselage & Wing), 58. Uzbekistan 1992 Onward (Fuselage, Wing & Fin), 59. Kenya 1960 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 60. Guatemala 1947 Onward (Fuselage & Wing), 61. Sierra Leone 1993 Onward (Fuselage), 62. Finland 1918-1944 (Fuselage & Wing), 63. USSR 1918 Onward (Fuselage, Wing & Fin).

Most of these images are sequentially ordered and were made using Adobe Illustrator starting at the end of 2012 with Bangladesh (or “RedGreenRoundel.ai”) being the first drawing and disc in the series.

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Torii Gates and the Pale Series

John J. Eden with unknown companion, Hiroshima Harbor, Japan 1945.

1987 installation photograph, Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Untitled Abstraction sculptures from the Pale Series, lacquered white maple planks, 84.5” X 33.75” X 2” and 88.5” X 28.75” X 2”, 1986.

1987 installation photograph, Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Untitled Abstraction paintings from the Pale Series, Red/Green- 36” X 120” X 1.5”, Blue/Ochre- 18” X 24” X 1.5”, Green/Magenta, 96” X 48” X 1.5”, oil and beeswax on paper/canvas, 1986.

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At the end of WWII, my father accompanied the first group of American scientists into Hiroshima just days after the atomic bomb blast to measure that city’s unimaginable devastation. He saw firsthand, the burn victims and the phantom human forms that were seared onto its city walls at ground zero.

Similar to what I saw displayed secondhand, thirtyfive years later when I visited Hiroshima’s Peace Museum. I went there almost by accident; I was on my own that day, a lone American, remembering a tattered WWII memento picture of my father standing in front of the Itsukushima torii gate water shrine, taken in 1945. I was attempting to retrace his wartime footsteps by tracking down the actual location, which took me to downtown Hiroshima later that day. I was drawn to the Peace Museum’s entrance, and was approached by a Japanese man who suggested I go through what would turn out to be a mind-bending exhibit. This same man was waiting for my thoughts on the experience as I exited. I was dumbfounded by his question. What can anyone say about such an intensely experiential ordeal? The exposition was beyond words. The torii gate symbol or post and lintel portal was something I employed later in my Pale Series, which represented the barrier between two incongruent worlds.

1987 installation photograph Ace Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Untitled Abstraction paintings from the Pale Series. Blue/Orange, 36” X 120” X 1.5,” Magenta/Green, 18” X 24” X 1.5,” Dk. Green/Lt. Magenta, 96” X 48” X 1.5,” oil & beeswax on paper/canvas, 1986.

The Hat Trick and Larry Bell’s Fedora The conceptual root of this piece involves the 1953 art story regarding artists Robert Rauschenberg and William de Kooning. Rauschenberg had asked de Kooning for one of his better drawings which he would later erase, sign and retitle Erased de Kooning Drawing. This transfer or interaction between two artists is what I was after and Larry Bell graciously played along. “The Changing of the Hats” ceremony took place at Larry’s Venice studio. We traded hats so that I could digitally copy his most well-worn favorite fedora using 3D scanning technology to make multiple editions in a frosted glass-like material.

The artist and Larry Bell going through Larry’s large collection of hats. The hat Larry chose was a plain felt fedora that had a mysterious bite size chunk missing in its brim.

“The Hat Trick” (aka Larry Bell’s Fedora) display from the California Artist Series. Clear cast urethane resin hat, 3D printed black hat original and hat boxes with steel and glass base. 51” H. X 15.875” W. X 15.875” D., 2013-2014.

The Zeiss L3D blue light 3D scanner process is a high-end metrology scan made at 985K points/2448 x 2050 resolution scan that took place at Mimic Studios, Playa Vista, California.

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Credits Catalog design by Eden Productions, LLC All photographs are by Eden Productions, LLC, except Virginia Arnold, page 11, and Eric Minh Swenson, page 33 (top right and bottom right).

Special thanks to Virginia Arnold, Larry Bell, Billy Al Bengston, Jack Brogan, Michael Gomez-Burton, Andi Campognone, Karen Carson, William Clarkson, Judy Chicago, Jack Chipman, Douglas Christmas, Frances Colpitt, Jay DeFeo, Jeanne Eden, Steve Farentinos, Sheldon Figoten, Alex Hau, Larry Hurst, Robert Irwin, Susan Larsen-Martin, Michael Lanham, John McCracken, Jack McGuinn, Mary Lovelace O’Neal, Margit Omar, Peter Plagens, Matthew Schafer, John Slattebo, Nancy Sundquist, Eric Minh Swenson, Dewain Valentine, Marian Winsyrg, Alina and Shane Zade, and thanks to all of my unmentioned coconspirators and fellow misfits—you know who you are.

College of the Canyons Art Gallery 26455 Rockwell Road Santa Clarita, CA 91355 Larry Hurst: Gallery Director Virginia Arnold: Administrative Asst., Angel Nguyen: Gallery Asst. <http://canyons.edu/artgallery> Printed in China Edition 1000 © John Eden 2017

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“I Walk The Line,” Photo-collage, 2014

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