| PRESS
CRITICAL VISIONS
Mark Vallen January, 2003
Two vital Art exhibitions will be
running here in Los Angeles during these ominous days of gathering
war clouds, and both shows will offer insights into a certain
restive spirit that will undoubtedly be growing in times to come.
One exhibit will present historic posters designed as visual
protests against war and militarism, the other show will confront
the viewer with artworks produced during L.A.'s late 70's Punk
rebellion.
Opening this January 11th, the
Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) will present "The
Anti War Show The Price of Intervention from Korea to Iraq", at the
Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica. Dozens of posters designed by
professional and amateur artists alike will be on display. Some of
the posters will no doubt be familiar to the viewer, like Lorraine
Schneider's 1968 design for the activist group, Another Mother for
Peace. Schneider's simple abstract illustration of a Flower
incorporated bold text into its design, with words that read "War is
Not Healthy for Children and other living things." The original
poster printed in black ink on ocher yellow paper became an iconic
symbol of the late 60's international peace movement, with its title
entering the popular lexicon of the day. An example of the power of
Schneider's poster is that its message is still on the lips of
today's peace activists.
Another socially engaged Artist
from that period was Sister Corita Kent, whose poster quoting French
Philosopher, Albert Camus ("I should like to be able to love my
country and still love justice"), is also included in the show. The
Catholic Sister was popularly known simply as Corita, and her works
became so famous that even Newsweek proclaimed her the "modern Nun"
on a 1966 magazine cover. Recognized for her Serigraph Prints that
utilized montage techniques and text as part of their aesthetic, she
used her Art as a plafform to attack racism, poverty, consumerist
culture, and U.S. Imperialism in Vietnam. Corita became a Teacher
and the Chair of the Art Department at Immaculate Heart College in
L.A. But her creations also attracted frequent censure from local
Church officials, and as a result Corita left the order in 1969 and
moved to Boston where she continued working as an Artist until her
death in 1986.
The Price of Intervention
exhibition will also include more recent works like Stephen
Kroninger's 1991 poster, "Uncle Sam Wants You", a parody based on
James Montgomery Flagg's famous Uncle Sam recruitment poster for
World War 1. Kroninger's skill at photomontage allowed him to
cleverly reconstruct Flagg's image into one lambasting then
President, George Bush Sr. The text in Kroninger's lampoon reads
"Uncle George wants you to forget failing banks, education, drugs,
AIDs, poor heath care, unemployment, crime, racism, corruption, and
have a good war." For anyone interested in studying how visual
Artists have responded to war in recent times, "The Price of
Intervention" exhibit from the Center for the Study of Political
Graphics is a good place to start.
Coming up February 1st
2003 will be "The Art of Punk", the inaugural exhibit for the new
Kantor Gallery on Melrose Avenue (formerly the Zero One Gallery).
The exhibit will offer artworks and related materials documenting
the rise of L.A.'s Punk underground at the close of the 20th
century. Not only will my own original Drawings and Paintings from
the late 70's Punk explosion be included in the exhibit, but so will
the works of Raymond Pettibone (graphic Artist for Black Flag), and
Shepard Fairey (known for his "Obey Giant" absurdist propaganda
street posters). Original album cover artworks and hundreds of rare
Punk flyers will also make up part of the exhibition.
The Kantor family name has long
been associated with Fine Art in Los Angeles. Paul Kantor opened a
Gallery in L.A. during the late 1940's when the city had no art
scene to speak of, and in 1952 mounted the first L.A. showings of
Abstract Expressionists Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, and Willem
de Kooning. Today Paul Kantor's Son, Niels, is carrying the torch,
and his passion for Art burns as brightly as his Father's. Niels
Kantor was a pre Teen when L.A.'s original Punk scene was raging
away in rented store fronts and seedy back ally basement venues, but
the cabaret like netherworld had a major impact on his
impressionable young mind. He went to as many shows as he could gain
entry to and started to collect the outrageous cut and paste, dada
style flyers that announced underground Punk shows.
The two of us undoubtedly crossed
paths many times during that riotous period as I was already deeply
involved in the city's Punk insurgency. I spent most of my time with
a sketch book or camera in hand, furiously documenting the
nihilistic passion play passing before my eyes. I worked briefly as
a production artist at SLASH magazine (L.A.'s notorious propaganda
organ for the Punk revolution), creating two cover Illustrations for
the infamous periodical. Like other young Artists working in L.A. at
the time (Gary Panter, Shawn Kerry, Pettibone, etc.), I saw the Punk
phenomenon as an opportunity to challenge the established order by
helping to create an energetically contentious culture. Punk turned
accepted aesthetics and notions of "normalcy" upside down, it
admonished the complacent and demanded that people be "more than a
witness." Concepts that are perhaps more relevant today than ever
before.
The "Art of Punk" exhibition opens
with an Artist's reception on the evening of Friday, February 1st
2003, with the show running until March 14th. 2003. The Kantor
Gallery is located at 7025 Melrose Avenue (323) 933 6976. |
