No It Can Assess An Action, 1992
works on paper, abstract, letters, green, words
This work includes green plastic stencils and a pencil inscribed with FEHLAU NORTON HOLIDAY PROJECT @ 1992 as well as an instruction sheet for stenciling NO IT CAN ASSESS AN ACTION creating a palindrome on opposite walls; (a) instruction sheet; (b) pencil; (c) stencil for N; (d) stencil for o; (e) stencil for i; (f) stencil for T; (g) stencil for C; (h) stencil for S; (i) stencil for A; (j) stencil for E. The artist's work often shifts the viewer's point of reference through the doubling of images and text. Beginning in 1988, the Norton Family sent a limited edition Christmas gift to a wide list of friends in the art community including art institutions.
Donald P. Walton Jr. and Frances Jean Colpitt Estate
Relief of 2 figures, water, boat and volcano
Stofnum Lydveldis a Islandi, 1944
corn husks, starched muslin over wire armature; copper and wood base
Gift of Michael Warshaw and Claudia Sole
BASCHET, Francois and Bernard
BAYER, Herbert and KNOWLES, Mel (fabricator)
Steel light box with Fluorescent lights and movie strip
Brushed steel square with horizontal slit cut into center.Gretchen Benders work mines the tropes and language of mass media which she considered a cannibalistic riverthat absorbs everything. Her work, Total Recall, has a sinister appearance with its cold, metal surface and horizontal slit. Only by stepping closer and peering into the seeming void can viewers make out the illuminated words: Life Force, Moving Violation, Bio Toxin and Code of Silence, among others, all film titles. As she states: We recognize the film industry as a very important part of our culture economically and aesthetically and I think its a whole area that should be provoked more. Film and its invocations are much more powerful instruments economically and politically in our lives than we seem aware of. We say were aware of it, but in a glib way. Benders work explores the relationship between the film industry and the multi-national corporations that own them and in her words, own the worldthe mechanisms that make the world run.
Print, laquer and polyester resin on aluminum
An avid motorcycle rider, Billy Al Bengston adapted the spray-gun technique used in customizing cycles to his own art work in the 1960s. Working on the unyielding surfaces of Masonite or metal, Bengston employed spray guns and airbrushes to achieve a sleek surface which he then marked with a recognizable yet out-of-context symbols, such as a cross, heart, iris, or, as in this work, sergeant stripes. While familiar, these centrally placed emblems resist a narrative interpretation and instead heighten awareness of the painted surface. Similarly, the dented metal both disrupts the composition and becomes art of it.
Bengston, Billy Al American, b. 1934
Steel maquette with patinated surfce; circle form dissected into two planes and attached onto a square rotating base; etched signature and date on top surface of rotating base.
Gift of Michael Roby and Austin F. Dohrman III
Steel maquette with patinated surfce; circular forms with thin rod extending diagonally from forms attached to a rotating square base. Etched signature and date on top surface of base.
Sculpture in the form of a green cube inscribed with bar-codes and traditional Mapuche iconography. Artist signature and date of creation are engraved on the underside base of the work.
Rose fur direkte Demokratie, [Rose for Direct Democracy]
Rose fur direkte Demokratie etched in glassThis multiple derives from Josef Beuys Office for Direct Democracy through Referendum (ODD) installation at Documenta 5 (1972) and is typical of the Fluxus artists call for an engaged conceptual art practice that would break down clear-cut distinctions between established art discourse and the politics of everyday life. Beuys employed two parallel processes during this period, namely the creation of concrete artworks and action-performances on the one hand, and counter-institutional frameworksthe basis for free grass-roots public debate on social and ideological issues, particularly the dismantling of traditional party politicson the other. For Documenta, he transposed the Dseldorf office of ODDdesks, filing cabinets, blackboardsdirectly into the exhibition space, creating an information and educational center designed to critique and expand the institutional framework of the event itself. The office included two multiples: We wont do it without the rose, a photograph depicting Beuys didactically engaging with a Documenta visitor; and Rose for direct democracy, a single red rose in an etched, graduated chemistry beaker. The symbolic meaning of the latter is fairly clear, constructing a dialectical binary between passionate love and revolutionary socialism, art and science, bodily affect and empirical investigation. However, Beuys also saw the rose as symptomatic of an evolutionary progress toward a concrete revolutionary goal outside of conventional party hierarchies. (CHECK FILE FOR FULL TEXT0
silkscreen on blackboard, 24 x 35" each of 3
A triptych of green blackboards; Halston screened in white letters on panel 1; Gucci screened in white letters on panel 2; Fiorucci screened in white letters on panel 3 Nayland Blake's Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci plays with ideas of identity and narrative, by infusing objects with greater meaning through their arrangement and grouping. This work comes from a series by the artist in which emblematic words are silkscreened on chalkboards. Blake describes the text in this series as objects that are “treated as link(s) in the chain of association.” For Blake, those associations surround notions of homosexuality and gay culture. Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci, ostensibly takes its title from a line in the 1978 disco hit, “He’s the Greatest Dancer” by Sister Sledge. The song describes a sexy, fashionable, man about town who entrances everyone with his good looks and dance moves. Today, the lyrics can be read as a series of clichés about gay men obsessed with appearance and fashion.
Blake, Nayland, b. United States, 1960
Sachzwang III (Administration Complex III)
A construction composed of file drawers arranged in a square formation, held together with wood and steel strapping.
Fluorescent paper on panel with drawing, watercolor and print image located at center left
Michelle, Heidi, Mayo and Indigo
relief in polyurthane foam, vinyl base, iridescent
Double seated bench set comprised of two metal tractor seats fastened to a metal plate. The tractor seats are painted black separated by a metal "T" painted red. Inscription on the plate with the monogram and date, '93.
expandable steel (similar to Chain 1970.40)
Untitled, 1962 Collage
Collage of cream colored coated paper and swirls of black indian ink and pencil. Paper is torn and rearranged creating a silhouetted image of four vertical hill-shapes to the right, with more sporadic shapes reflected on the left.
Collage of cream colored coated paper and swirls of black indian ink and pencil. Paper is torn and rearranged creating a silhouetted black and white image.
Gift of Regina Cherry, Estate of Herman Cherry
Vertical sculpture in the form of an eloganted cube representing a figure.
Oak sculpture; long plank witht wo forms attached; at left is an upright form; at right, triangular form both have surface holes.
Crude sculpture of the torso and head of a female figure in madrone wood.
Ropes, Days, Nights, Handles, Netting and Poem Variation, 2016
Painted braided rope,with glazed and bronzed ceramics
Hanging mixed media sculpture with painted braided rope; glazed and bronzed ceramic forms knotted throughout the work with saw like handles descending from the lower rung of knots.
rectangular silver ingot. Profile on front, bio. on back.
Paper Collage with musical notes at in pencil
Images of arrows and a grid system painted on clear Plexiglas.Nancy Dwyer likens her work to pictograms or signs that comment on the ways and means by which the media, especially advertising, infiltrates and seduces the public. She attempts to undermine advertising by using the language and graphic design inherent to it. In Diet Life Force, Dwyer shows brightly colored arrows that zoom toward the center of a mirrored expanse, perfectly framing the viewer. Like a lot of marketing related to diets, the work both distorts ones body image and also seems to proffer a fast, easy solution easy.
Oblique Strategies: One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas
In 1975, theBritish musician, producer, and visual artist, Brian Eno, together with the late English painter Peter Schmidt, addressed the challenge of breaking out of creative roadblocks by writing a series of phrases they dubbed "worthwhile dilemmas." These phrases, which suggest approaches from another direction, became known as Oblique Strategies. Originally published as a deck of cards in an austere format, they became an underground hit and sold out in three revised editions and were part of the Norton Christmas Gift. In 1996, as the Strategies were long out of print, Mr. Norton suggested to Eno a "fourth, yet again revised, and more universal edition." Norton edited the newly revised phrases and commissioned their translation into the six languages collectively spoken (English, Mandarin, Hindi, Spanish, Russian, and Arabic). Artist Pae White was commissioned to turn the cards' plain black-and-white format into an extravagantly colored format and housed in a Corian container that is known separately as "Bill's Bad Bone." These strategy cards have found widespread use in dozens of countries, at writers' desks, in artists' studios, and even in boardrooms.
British, b. 1948 (lives in the United States)
ERICSON, Kate and ZIEGLER, Mel
Four Jars from Winter Cellar Series
etched jars, vegetables: wax beans, corn, green beans and tomato sauce
Gift of Councilman Joel Wachs, Los Angeles
Variable edition lithograph with collage, painted map tacks, and gold pins
Lithograph employing elements of collage, painted map tacks, and gold pins to create an image of a woman's head. The woman's face, adorned with pins, is positioned below a celestial eye. Both the woman's face and the eye are arranged against a background of floral motifs. Gold dotted pins are present throughout the work. On reverse, artist signature, date of completion, title, and number of print.
Rotary dial hotel telephone; painted overall in bright colors with black hieroglyph-like marks. Text on top of receiver -- MAKE THINGS RIGHT WITH GOD. Signed on underside with additional text in black.
Estate of Frances Garvin and Keith Julius Puccinelli
Aedes Sacrae Grolierensi (man sitting in library)
"They set great store by their gardens"
For distinguised achievement-Andrew Carnegie
"Souvenir de la grande guerre-dedie aux veterans francais en
Internat'l Business Machines Corp. Honorary Award for a notable
G.R. White Medal of Honor (Reverse-E.H. Wilson)
Andrew Carnegie MCMX for distinguished achievement
The Pennsylvania Society-founded MSCCIXC picture of Wm. Penn
The Century Association 1847-1947
George R. White Medal of Honor duplicate of 69/149
The Pennsylvania Society-founded MDCCIXC picture of Wm. Penn
Henry Hudson Robert Fulton Medal
A felt ball with five round protrusions at the top. Housed in a shadow box.
Phallic object crafted from white felt suspended in a shadow box. On reverse, signed.
Gift of Elena Siff Erenberg and Samuel Erenberg
Painted acylic sleeping bags mounted in Plexi case.
"Art, for me, is a context to slow the viewer's experience from their everyday life in order to think about things they haven't thought about. Or to think in a new way." Tom Friedmans approach to understanding the world and its logic has long been expressed through the laborious, painstakingly precise and unexpected materials that he uses. His work is often autobiographical, recreating random elements from his own life and surroundings. To create these sculptures and objects, he uses everyday materials including Styrofoam, paint, paper, spaghetti, drinking straws, cards, clay, wire, plastic, hair and fuzz. Unfound Object with its random assortment of materials and objects suggests all the detritus that, having no value, remains unfound and unwanted.
This porcelain sculpture carries two protruding additions on the surface, on the left side a half-cylinder shape is connected by a vertical slab. On the lower right side of the sculpture are two porcelain pieces placed in a "L" shape; the horizontal piece contains the number "4,221" upside down. In addition, the upper-right corner of this sculpture contains a projection of porcelain that displays the letters duavin.
Irregular black shape with curved protrusions at top and right. Copper cube and and square plaque mounted at top left.
Floor sculpture with painted colored Corten Steel.
Composition with Y.B. and R. #33
"wonder" brand english muffin bags, acrylic, fasteners
In 1980, Michael Gonzalez enrolled in the California Institute for the Arts (CalArts) at the age of 26, when his artistic references stemmed from comic books and custom cars. Influenced by visual culture, his works critique the glossy aesthetics of optical art, minimalism, and geometric abstraction through everyday materials, in turn raising timely questions about consumption and discarded material culture. This 1990s series exemplifies that approach: Gonzalez manually deconstructs the Wonder brand’s brightly colored bread packaging and presses it in plexiglass to create provocative compositions. Throughout the Wonder series, the ubiquitous logo is rendered as a pattern. The depth, created not only by layers of plexiglass but also by Gonzalez's hypnotic play with dimension, appears to extend toward infinity. In one work, the Wonder logo plunges toward the bottom of the transparent canvas into a seemingly haphazard mess of colored circles, typography, and white rectangles, with the gallery wall occupying the negative space. In another, Wonder’s branding is reduced to a geometric abstraction, as Gonzalez takes advantage of the blue circles' ready-made transparency.
GONZALEZ, Michael b. United States, 1953
Sculpture created using tin-plated copper ground braids, woven together, to form a triangular-like shape.
Wonder Bread, 1996 Mixed media
Gift from Thomas Solomon and Kimberly Mascola
Wonder Bread, (Blue Dots), 1993 Mixed media
A carved soap bar in the shape of a tent housed in a glass box. Signed and dated by the artist on the bottom of soap bar.
Image of a naked man standing inside a barrel. Signed and dated by artist at lower right corner.
Polaroid SX-70 photographs/steel tape adhered with methyl cellulose onto plywood
Living in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s, I was working with an SX70 Polaroid camera and shooting photographs as well as making drawings, sculptures, and installations. Urban is a synthesis of sculpture and photography and was part of the installation, Rattle in the Hot Shop, featured in Andy Warhols Interview magazine. I chose a universal image, a chair, and reduced it to its most basic form, and covered it with black Polaroids that show no image. In this way the Polaroids are not so much photographs as objects, and in this instance are used as tiles. The repetitive patterning of black Polaroid photographs makes them appear window-like, giving the chair an appearance similar to a skyscraper, like the Seagram building in New York City. In working this way, I negated the primary concept of photography to serve as documentation of the world around us.
Lithograph and silkscreen with gold leaf and chine-collon paper, hand-cut and assembled, 10/45
Jane Hammond is best known for her paintings and prints that use a lexicon of 276 images, derived from commercial typography, tattoos, cartoons, ornamental graphics and period illustrations. These images recur throughout her body of work but are combined in myriad ways to create different effects and thereby manifest unique meanings. Spells and Incantations is a biographical work that incorporates a portrait of the artist and references Hammonds personal, familial memories. I was dreaming a lot about my grandmother. I spent much of my childhood with her and she spent much of her childhood in Egypt. I grew up around stories, photographs and objects from this faraway place.I have always wanted to make an Egyptian-based piece for some time using my lexicon of found images in a hieroglyphic context. I think of this piece as an amulet for propitious things in the journey of this life and beyond. Dated at bottom center; title at lower right, signed at lower left.
Wool, polyamide, viscose, polyethylene, terephthalate, hand-spun California Variegated Mutant (Nashua), Redwood
Many of Hansen's works include vibrant abstract forms such as the AD&A Museum's Spooky Action which details a prominent lemon shaded sphere along the top. This mixed media hanging reflects the labour intensive process of hand knitted, wahsed and dyed wool which the artist spins himself eventually mounting onto a wooden stretcher. And although the construction of his work is often seen as improvised, its appearance is predetermined by computer algorithms potentially generating an infinite number of color combinations resulting in the artist being unaware of how the finished work will look until it is complete.
Gift of Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Los Angeles
Metal, shark jaws, wax, nylon stockings, Plexi and wood boxes
Green and purple and red and yellow sculptures of flower petals resembling a vagina. Inside the petals are teeth. Underneath plate, is a description.
wood box with top sliding lid; contains 35 individual collages/sheets of paper; one is made in shell dispenser with paper roll
Given in memory of Paul Chadbourne Mills
part of "German Language Summits" series
buttons (29, black) on canvas, black yarn
Black buttons attached to white canvas with black yarn
acrylic medium, pigment, carpet pad on card board
recycled fiber carpet pad with numerous smears of acrylic paint and incised areas
large bronze sculpture of intertwined figures; surface treatment includes stipled effect; signed at lower right.
b. Allan C. Haozous, Chiricahua Apache, 1914-1994
Silkscreen ink and enamel on canvas with wooden stretcher
Large silkscreen and ink mixed media work on canvas; white ground with blue circular form at top flanked by pink singular stripes at sides.
Gift of Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills
IMATANI, Garrick; SAND, Kaia
Files from Looseleaf Services, The Watcher Files Project
Garrick Imatanis work centers on issues related to archival exploration, artistic collaboration, and placemaking (an approach that considers the planning, design, and layout of public space in relation to the community). This mixed media work includes the files from the Looseleaf Services: (a) cardboard box entitled Looseleaf Services; (b) So He Raised His Hand, (documents) by Inge Bruggeman; (c) 12 stencils with description, designed by Katherine Ball. The Watcher File Project investigates and interprets, in various ways, records amassed by the Portland Police Bureau on 301 activist groups operating in the city between the 1960s through the 1980s. Such groups were under routine surveillance until an Oregon law was passed prohibiting the authorities from spying on factions not officially under criminal investigation. Imatanis participation in the exhibition is represented by Looseleaf Services, which consists of two major components: a filing cabinet holding various records reproduced as metal inserts, and a cardboard binder that sits atop the cabinet holding a publication subscription. For $40 a year subscribers receive primary and secondary source documents-addenda & errata-all punched with holes to slip into the binder. Additional materials that are sent to subscribers include artwork, poetry, essays, and small objects made by collaborators that relate to the materials within the files. All the materials including the filing cabinet are meant to be handled by visitors. By researching and making this information available, Imatani hopes to preserve the history of these activist groups as well as highlight the history of their surveillance.
b. United States, 1974 (Imatani); b. United States, 1971 (Sand)
Wood carved openwork plaque depicting the Holy Family with the dove and two angels above.
Mobile is comprised of four brown paddles balanced horizontally; a larger disk, hung vertically, counterbalances the smaller paddles. The large paddle contains six small holes and a larger square cut-out with a small grey orb.
Mobile is comprised of four red paddles balanced vertically. A large disk on the left, hung horizontally, counterbalances the paddles on the right. The top and bottom paddles contain holes.
Sun Moon Stars (Woman Beats Hell Out of Devil)
Painted wood panel of a woman beating a devil. Title is in wood cut letters along top.
Wooden patterned sculpture with colorful flowers, birds, and stars.
Kinetic sculpture in two pieces. Aluminum blades are held in place by an upright lead mast-like sculpture.
Gift of Mr. Charles E. Craig, Jr. through UCSB Art Affiliates
Drive (a back and forth through time to save lives)
Thread, photo iron-on transfer, permanent marker, vinyl, chroma Key blue screen
Todd Knopke calls his work flexible sculpture. He creates large, even monumental, fabric works that are sewn from many disparate recycled fabric swatches. He arranges these pieces, much like a collage, into representational images depicting figures and recognizable elements. They maintain, however, an ethereal and dreamlike quality. Recalling historical tapestries, each work represents narratives frequently derived from his past memories.
curvilinear form w/ rectangular center space
LANDER, Carl (formerly BUCHER, Carl)
fiberglass coated with blue acrylic lacquer
Project model for moving water-landing sculpture.
Swiss, b. Zurich 1935 - lives Toronto, Canada
Gift of Harriette Von Breton through UCSB Art Affiliates
Two metal forms with rounded top fused with white plaster.
Bullet casings sacttered and glued onto a small metal meal tray divided into three parts. The parts of the casings not covered in glue appear brown and rusty while the casings coverd in glue appear shiny with a bronze coloring.
Unknown Title (altered pitchfork)
Altered pitchfork, springs, and hardware
A pitchfork whose handle has been cut every two inches and elongated with segments of metal spring.
String and paint on board detailing an off-white background with knotted fragments. Knots spaced apart situated in various directions. On reverse: WHITE KNOT PAINTING ROBERT LEVINE 90.