AmesNews: No. 19, January 2003

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GALLERY NOTES

Some of us never learn. Instead of simplifying our lives, we keep adding shows and travel to our calendar. We still hope to strike the right balance …but it’s doubtful we’ll ever manage that. You can keep up with our comings and goings if you check our Calendar of Events.

Here at home, we’re putting a good deal of time into curating a show for the San Francisco Airport Museum. Our exhibition of tramp art, called Chipping Away at the Layers, will be on view at the international terminal starting this Spring.

At long last, we’ve launched our web site. We’d love to get your feedback, so email us with your comments.

It’s 2003, and that means The Ames Gallery is now entering its 33rd year. We want to thank you, our friends and supporters, and take this opportunity to wish all of you a new year filled with good health, happiness, and hope.

--Bonnie Grossman

ON DISPLAY

Voices and Visions: Writing in Artists’ Images

Most visual artists deliver their messages without words. What they wish to convey is evident in the image on the canvas or paper. With some artists, words become an important component—as in the cases of A.G. Rizzoli and Alex Maldonado. Each of them go into written detail to describe the purpose or function of their drawn image—clarifying for the viewer their intent and sometimes adding comments or explanations. In his collages, Barry Simons offers up bits of poetry…a word here, a phrase there…torn away and placed with care to add a touch of intrigue to the image. At other times, Simons fills the page with stream-of-consciousness phrases and then paints the image over the writing so that his message becomes fragmented.

Still other artists who incorporate writing in their work provide no clues to help the viewer understand the purpose of their “writing.” Dwight Mackintosh, J. B. Murry, and Donald Walker each fill their fields with “manuscript,” but its meaning eludes us. Mackintosh’s repeti-tive scrawl…like layers of unravelling yarn… and Walker’s well-formed letters and numbers, provide no hint as to their meaning. Murry, on the other hand, has described his delicate, disconnected scratches as “spirit writing.” This exhibition provides a glimpse at the words and images of 6 artists, each working in a diff-erent medium and each a voice to be heard.

Remembrance of Things Past

Among the artists we represent, there are those whose art commemorates their past…they are “memory painters,” who provide us with glimpses of their life. Grandma Moses may be best known of this genre. Among the Gallery’s artists, Harry Lieberman, Alex Maldonado, Wilbert Griffith, and Esther Hamerman are those that have shared their reminiscences through their art. Childhood events, a special occasion, a holiday, a home-coming....any can emerge from the canvases of these artists.

In addition, this show features an array of objects which served as tributes. They range from memorials to birthday greetings….keepsakes that have outlasted their anonymous creators and their honorees. Among them are memory jars—vessels encrusted with glass vials, teeth, bisque dolls heads, buttons and other assorted small items that symbolize significant and trivial aspects
of a life. Also shown are carved commemorative canes, autograph books, mourning pieces, and other sentimental testimonials.

Remembrance of things past… bygone voices that reverberate in the present.

GALLERY NEWS

At the Airport

Those of you who know us do not need any introduction to tramp art; but you may be interested in a show we’re curating for the San Francisco Airport Museums. The show, Chipping Away at the Layers, will feature a fine collection of some of our most unusual and spectacular tramp pieces, as well as many pieces from select private collections. If you are flying into or out of San Francisco International Airport this year between May and November, take a few extra minutes to visit this show. You’ll find it set up in the display cases in the new international terminal.

In Marin

We are pleased to announce that friends of ours, Lisa and Tom Sebastian, have opened a gallery in Olema, CA. The Beulah Gallery inc. is at 9980 Highway 1, at its junction with Sir Francis Drake. The Sebastians have a penchant for fishing, and for Southern outsider and self-taught artists; their inaugural show was The Fish Show. We think it’s worth a trip; but certainly, stop by if you happen to be in West Marin. (Phone 415-663-8837 for hours.)

Off the Press

We are pleased that Wilbert Griffith has been selected for inclusion in a new edition of a book on contemporary West Coast artists. The book is being published by Atelier Books, edited by Douglas Bullis, and will be titled Seventy-five West Coast Artists. We’re excited for Wilbert, and will be sure to keep you informed when the book is released.

In a Bottle

Susan D. Jones has been collecting bottle whimseys for the past 10 years. She retired from a teaching career to do research for a book about this intriguing folk art. The project has just been completed, and I was pleased to provide the introduction to this first-ever book on the subject. Genius in a Bottle: the Art and Magic of Bottle Whimseys will be published in a limited edition. With just over 300 of these colorful and informative books available, they should soon become collectors’ items.

Jones, who has investigated the lives of a number of the bottle whimsey makers, will launch her new book at the Heart of the Country show in Nashville, TN. The show, which runs from February 13th to the 16th, features a Gallery Booth where Jones will be exhibiting a collection of these “minor mysteries.”

On the Radio

Can you imagine listening to a radio documentary about A.G. Rizzoli? How can mere words possibly paint the picture of this fantastic artist? Well, it’s been done. Helen Borten, an award-winning writer and producer, has accomplished what we would have thought to be impossible. A Sense of Place is the name of her series, which can be heard on public radio stations. In Borten’s upcoming shows, listen for “Stranger in Paradise,” her excellent presentation of interviews and insights on A.G. Rizzoli.

On the Big Screen

A new movie, It Runs in the Family, starring three generations of the Douglas family: Kirk, Michael and Cameron (Michael’s son) opens at the end of April 2003. We point this out because of the Gallery’s involvement in the film. At last year’s Outsider Art Fair in New York, Patrizia von Brandenstein, the Oscar-winning production designer, was so taken with the work of some of our Gallery artists that she pursued the possibility of using their work to adorn the sets where much of the movie action takes place. Almost a dozen of Barry Simons’ drawings and a few pieces by Harry Lieberman and Alex Maldonado were selected. We’re eager to see how their work translates to the big screen.

The film deals with three generations of a prosperous NY family, the Grombergs, who are portrayed by 3 generations of a prominent Hollywood family, the Douglases. The eldest Gromberg is struggling with the specter of his impending death, the youngest has a debilitating drug problem, while the middle Gromberg struggles to hold the cantankerous clan together. The cast includes Rory Calkin and Bernadette Peters. Fred Schepisi directed this comedy-drama, from a script by Jesse Wigutow.

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