Exhibit shows destruction as form of creation

View slideshow
"Concetto spaziale, Attese" is a 1958 aniline on canvas by Lucio Fontana. The artist slashed the canvas with parallel lines using a knife. On view at MOCA Los Angeles through Jan. 14, part of "Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949-1962." FONDAZIONE LUCIO FONTANA, MILAN, ITALY

â€˜Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949-1962'

Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, 250 S. Grand Ave., Los Angeles

When: Through Jan. 14


How much: $12 adults, $7 seniors and students with ID, free for children under 12

Call: 213-626-6222

Online: moca.org

In the years following World War II, humanity was at a precipice.

The cities of Europe were still emerging from unprecedented bombing and near-complete destruction. The horrors of the Holocaust and the atomic obliteration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were still sinking in.

And the specter of nuclear weapons and global annihilation hung over the world like a dark, suffocating cloud.

In this context, artists stared into the void and looked at destruction as a mode of creation. An exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, aims to document and explore this effort.

"Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void, 1949-1962" captures artists' literal assault on the picture plane. The group show is a fascinating collection of artists from the United States, Europe and Japan who ripped, cut, burned or affixed objects to the traditionally two-dimensional canvas and made it an undeniably three-dimensional space.

It's also former MOCA chief curator Paul Schimmel's final effort. Schimmel was unceremoniously let go from the museum in June, after 22 years at the helm of an ambitious and widely respected art program.

Schimmel's departure could be reason enough to see "Destroy the Picture," but it's the dynamism, diversity and strength of the art that are the main draws.

The exhibit features 85 works by 26 artists from the U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Japan. The selection of Japanese artists and their post-World War II work is something that hasn't been seen widely by American audiences. It's a rare and revealing peek into the Japanese psyche and culture during a time of demoralization and reconstruction.

Japan's Gutai group is particularly interesting and well-represented in "Destroy the Picture." The exhibition starts with a 1950 work by Shozo Shimamoto that's made of mixed media, newspaper, oil and soil – demonstrating that he and other Gutai artists were willing to use all kinds of unconventional media in their art, including dirt. In fact, Shimamoto became known for hurling glass bottles of pigment onto a canvas – a performative approach to painting that goes a step beyond Jackson Pollock's action painting. Shimamoto also painted on starched newspaper and punctured holes into the work with a pencil – an accidental act that he turned into his modus operandi for a while.

Fellow Gutai artist Kazuo Shiraga (formerly of Zero-kai, or Zero Society) also has a number of pieces in "Destroy the Picture." He physically hung above his works from a rope and painted with his feet. The results are interesting but not astounding or aesthetically beautiful; in reality, "Inoshishi-gari 1 (Wild Boar Hunting I)," a 1963 painting on panel, is rather disgusting with its use of fur, paste and red paint made to look like blood and guts. Audiences found the piece repugnant when it was first exhibited in the 1960s.

Among the Gutai artists, other highlights are Saburo Murakami's red, peeling oil painting, "Sakuhin (Hakuraku suru kaiga)" from 1957; Shimamoto's "Taiho no sakuhin (Cannon Picture)" from 1956; and Chiyu Uemae's red paintings made of oil, wood and collage from 1958.


Another element that makes "Destroy the Picture" worthwhile is the mixture of Japanese works among like-minded American and European achievements. Though the artists in Asia and Europe didn't necessarily know they were both puncturing and slashing the canvas, those similar and simultaneous movements are often represented at MOCA side by side, regardless of country of origin.

Near Shimamoto's works are those by American Salvatore Scarpitta, who used bandages in several works, as well as resin, aluminum paper, flex tubing, canvas straps and metal hardware.

"Moby Dick" (1958) is a composition consisting of cloth, bandages, wood, resin and paint that Scarpitta has impressively transformed to look like whale bone. "Sun Dial for Racing" (1962) and "Racer's Pillow" (1963) are physical works with straps and hardware separating sections of the canvas like a traumatized hospital patient.

Spaniard Manolo Millares' "Composition 9" (1957) is a paradigm of Schimmel's thesis of creation through destruction and filling the void with potentiality. Gaping holes in burlap are bridged by white string and accented by swirls of black paint. Though the piece looks like it's been thoroughly thrashed and strung back together again, the result is something new that goes way beyond the traditional two-dimensional oil on canvas.

American Lee Bontecou's untitled works from 1959 and the early 1960s are raw, emotive and sculptural. She uses canvas, welded steel, wire and other unconventional materials to create pieces that literally jut out toward the viewer. The deep, dark, oval holes are reminiscent of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" (1893), and her use of a saw blade in a 1962 untitled work adds a touch of danger and vulnerability.

French artist Yves Klein's untitled fire paintings were made with a blow torch, cardboard and female models dressed in fire-retardant clothing. Some look like they depict eggs, with dark pigment dripping around them. Here, both image and process are fascinating; it's worth noting that Klein died soon after he made these.

Performance has a lot to do with many of the works in "Destroy the Picture." For instance, Niki de Saint Phalle of France used to hold performances of her "shooting paintings." The artist would place plastic bags full of paint in front of a canvas, then shoot them with a .22 caliber rifle. While the result is interesting, I'm not sure if that kind of performance would fly today, in the wake of some tragic public shootings.

"Destroy" features several works by Argentine Lucio Fontana, who punctured his canvases with multiple holes and, most famously, slashed them in parallel lines with a knife. The slashed aniline-on-canvas paintings were revolutionary during their time (1958-59), but today, such an act seems somewhat commonplace – either by the artist or by the art-hating misanthrope.

"Painting the Void" features a good deal of work that isn't pretty per se, but it's thought-provoking and representative of dark, uncertain times. It's one of those exhibits that underlines process and how that's a critical ingredient in the creation of art.

Schimmel's swan song opens a chapter in 20th century art history that's fascinating, engaging, occasionally repulsive and ultimately, profoundly educational.

Contact the writer: rchang@ocregister.com

Digital & Driveway Delivery - 50% Off
User Agreement



Business Directory
Ads by Google