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2428 =½4BC ?0B D=4 0E>203> Small glimpses of a fictive personal life animate Shaw’s work.
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01.27.10-02.02.10
THE BOHEMIAN
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ingenious trompe l’oeil technique of which he is the undisputed master. But critics and art professionals are quick to remind that there’s much more to Shaw’s work than meets—or tricks—the eye. A recurring motif is that of the cup with a plate, perhaps a cookie and a book. “I think that if you look at the titles of the books, there are so many levels where he’s being very subtly creative and sometimes not so subtle and is joking,� says Sonoma County Museum executive director Diane Evans, who curated the show. “The little bits of debris on the plates. One thing that people tend to overlook with his work is the blue and white work—look at the artwork on the plate, he’s created all of the designs and patterns, playing upon traditional Asian designs. None of these are direct copies from some object in nature. He manipulates everything.� The “blue and white work� that Evans references is Shaw’s homage to the traditional Blue Willow china pattern prized by the Victorians and ubiquitous now. Looking closely at the familiar dishware, one can see that Shaw has entirely redrawn the figures. “As a kid I didn’t like it, but I liked that it told a story,� he explains. Ah, the story. Narrative is rampant and intended in Shaw’s work, and he gives lots of intriguing clues for viewers to mull over. “The realism and the transition of the materials grab people, but hopefully there are layers going on,� he says. “It’s about people looking at things that they probably wouldn’t spend that much time looking at otherwise, like junk, and the story of why that is put together, because a lot of times I’m trying to pretend I’m someone else. Especially in the still lifes. You can read it: Is it a male who did this, or a female? What were they drinking when they left that coffee cup? What kind of book were they reading? That’s the narrative and then just enjoying the works for what they are.� Michael Schwager adds, “The wow factor that everyone, understandably, has when seeing Richard’s work is that it is
technically such a tour de force. He has such prodigious skill. But people who give thought to artwork at all talk about the content, the storytelling and the implied narrative that’s there, as, actually, does Richard. This little tableaux he creates— there’s a cigar sitting on the edge of a tray of watercolors or a house of cards—the story part is what grabs people and holds people and that’s what given Richard a sustained career. However, his renown and respect in the field would be less if that were all that was to it.� Long married to the painter Martha Shaw, who is being given an adjacent exhibit of her solo work at the museum, Shaw is known for regularly biking from Fairfax to his Berkeley teaching post and for playing bluegrass guitar and soccer. What some may not know is that under this athletic family man there lurks the heart of a romantic—specifically, one whose romance is with materials. Shaw’s sculpture often juxtaposes an artist’s palette or watercolor box or sketch book with other items. He explains: “There are a lot of materials that have so much possibility, like if you buy the right kind of brush, it will make everything turn out all right. With a palette or the watercolor boxes, it’s not what they make but what is used to make it. I think there’s a real romance in art and art materials and traditional materials.� Forty years is long enough to get good at something. The challenge is in keeping it fresh. “I take chances once in a while,� Shaw explains. “Selling isn’t the priority, but you can tell that when people buy things, it’s because it moves them some way. In every show, there’s some work that goes in a new direction and that kind of keeps me alive. “If I can do what I’m known for and find a way to make it interesting to me,� he laughs, “all the better.� ‘Richard Shaw: Forty Years of Ceramics’ runs Jan. 30–May 30 at the Sonoma County Museum. A public reception is slated for Friday, Jan. 29, from 5pm to 7pm. 425 Seventh St., Santa Rosa. 707.579.1500.