Janet Delaney, "South of Market"

I recently stumbled across a small showing of Janet Delaney's photographs at the deYoung the last time I visited (see photograph proof of attendence in previous deYoung post). I was suprised to find her work spoken of in the Art History Symposium this year at Sacramento State University and was glad to have already been exposed to her photographs by chance just a couple weeks before.

She worked in San Francisco during a time of change in the Soma district. She shot many small businesses and the people who worked there, highlighting their way of life that was soon to be taken over by the gentrified establishments of the late 20th century.

Though Janet Delaney works in a photodocumentary style, there is something more to her photographs. There is a sense of connection with the image, a sympathetic relationship between photographer and subject.

The quality of light tells much of the story in these images, particularly in the one below. The light is low, evening or morning we can't tell. There is a sadness, a nostalgia in this image that is quite beautiful. The light in these images of buildings and their inhabitants remind me of William Eggleston's portraits of people from the 70s. Thoughtful explorations of their character. 

Tom and Ted's Kitchen, 58 Langton St. 1980

Photography and its role in my own work is something I am struggling with a lot in my paintings and it is nice to see a photographer's work that is so inspiring. I hope to come across more of her work in the future!

Rackstraw Downes Lecture, UC Davis

I attended a lecture last night given by Rackstraw Downes, a wonderful landscape painter originally from England. I found this talk incredibly inspiring, particularly with regard to his inspiration and his painting style. 

He spent the majority of his MFA studies painting abstractly and it wasn't until he graduated that he began to explore a more realistic style. 

While describing his paintings, shown during the lecture in slides on an old projector, he knew what the buildings housed, he knew the people and the political climate surrounding the areas he painted. This struck me as being very significant to the content of his paintings. These were not panoramas quickly taken by a photograph, these were careful, painstaking studies of the environment and the people who lived in them. 

He mentioned the internal struggle he sometimes has of making a painting that is too idyllic; how does one make a "modern" painting of a mountian? His answer was to paint what was there, to pay careful attention to the reality of the landscape.

He paints in extremely long format because he wants to include everything relevant to the environment he is painting. This has caused him to develop a wide-angle style of painting not based in any mathematics but painted by sight. Here are a few of my favorites:

In the High Island Oil Field, February, After the Passage of a Cold Front, (1990), oil on cavas, 16” x 120”, Coll. Ellen Jewett and Richard L. Kauffman, New York

Beehive Yard at the Rim of a Canyon on the Rio Grande, Presidio, TX, 2005, Oil on Canvas,  6 3/8 x 34 3/4 inches

Crocker

I recently visited the Crocker Art Museum to take a look at the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec show (which ended up having very little Lautrec in it) and spent some time in the permanent collections as well. Here are a few highlights:

Daniel Douke, Widescreen, 2009, Oil and Acryilc on canvas

When I walked past this work, I thought someone had simply taken a Mac computer box and stuck it in a glass case. It wasn't until I walked all the way around it I realized it is canvas stretched over a wooden frame and that the image of the computer and all the labels on the canvas had been painted. I give this work points for shock factor alone. The artist, Daniel Douke, has been painting packaging boxes since the 70s. His work is reminiscent of Warhol's soup cans from the Pop Art era. 

Robert Bechtle, French Doors II, 1966, Oil on Canvas

Robert Bectle has painted his reflection into the windows while looking at his wife in the next room. This work makes it seem the painter is actually in the room with the viewer and we are, together, looking at a painting of a woman seated at a table. There is an ominous feeling to this painting, the ghostly images of the painter, the darkened and dramatic lighting of the room beyond the french doors. 

Ralph Goings, Sacramento Airport, 1970, Oil on canvas

Part of the Photorealists, Ralph Goings recieved his MFA from Sacramento State and exhibited with Wayne Thiebaud and Mel Ramos while in Sacramento.

Hung Liu, Shoemakers, 1999, Oil on Canvas

Other than the Lautrec exhibit, I went to the Crocker in search of this painting after studying Hung Liu in my Contemporary Art class. I find her themes of culture, traditional roles and immigration to be very inspiring.

Tip Toland, Wall Flower, 2011, Stoneware, with paint, pastel, and synthetic hair; wood and wall paper. And me.