Leslie Laskey: Cloud Images-Eclipse by Bruno David Gallery

LE S LI E L ASK E Y Cloud Images - Eclipse

bruno david gallery

LESLIE LASKEY Cloud Images - Eclipse

October 14 - November 11, 2017 Bruno David Gallery 7513 Forsyth Boulevard Saint Louis, Missouri 63105, U.S.A. info@brunodavidgallery.com www.brunodavidgallery.com Owner/Director: Bruno L. David This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition “Leslie Laskey: Cloud Images - Eclipse” at Bruno David Gallery Editor: Bruno L. David Catalogue Designer: Haleigh Givens Designer Assistant: Claudia R. David Printed in USA All works courtesy of Leslie Laskey and Bruno David Gallery Photographs by Bruno David Gallery Cover image: “Cloud Images - Eclipse” (installation view), 2017

CONTENTS

PREFACE TO CLOUD IMAGES - ECLIPSE BY JOHN E. GOODMAN AFTERWORD BY BRUNO L. DAVID CHECKLIST AND IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION BIOGRAPHY

PREFACE TO CLOUD IMAGES - ECLIPSE BY JOHN E. GOODMAN

I always need a connection in order to start, whether it’s something tactile or visual. … I become very much a part of the rhythm of what the piece is about. Then I feel I’m working. Leslie J. Laskey If you’re not looking under the table, you’re never going to know what kind of gum is there. Leslie J. Laskey

The 44 images in Leslie Laskey’s “Cloud Images-Eclipse” exhibition at the Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, his 11th solo show at this venue, are all mixed media on paper. Though modest in size, their monumental nature showcases Leslie’s power to condense and distill. They speak a personal language that we’re invited to listen to by looking. Its grammar is logical, perhaps even simple, but the messages are endlessly rich with themes and variations, stories told without gimmicks or irregular verbs. What are these outstanding creations? Are they visual poems? Mixed media dances? Answers to questions? Statements of facts? Proofs of the magic found in process? Ultimately, they live in an invigorating dimension of thusness beyond analysis. I have known Leslie since the early 1960s, before he invited the renowned woodblock artist Shiko Munakata to give a seminar at Washington University. Leslie taught a required course in design there for decades, cowing, nurturing and inspiring students, spurring them to explore in directions initially beyond their ken, kindling a love of solving creative problems through devotion to work. And sowing seeds of deep affection, even awe, for a man, now 96, whose multifaceted achievements in the past and today continue to inspire. In these images, Leslie bridges gaps and delights in contrasts: the crackling tension of taut lines, carefully crafted, that define different elements; the push and pull of edges; the interplay of shapes, adjacent or apart; the hierarchy of forms that live in a defined space; the ambiguities of areas and the arenas in which they play. Except for the sui generis Cloud Image 10, with its scrumptious green sea of unfathomable depth as a ground for enigmatic black lines and two whitish shapes, there’s nary a cloud or anything gossamer, billowing or ethereal elsewhere in the other images.

These works could be grouped according to certain relationships, such as by orientation, vertical or horizontal, or according to prominent colors. Sophisticated colors. Laskey colors. The result of ingredients imaginatively combined to create layers and textures that feast the eye, notes pregnant with overtones, like his gourmet cooking without recipes that discovers unique opportunities, enables stimulating journeys and satisfying adventures, provides delicious food that’s filling yet never cloys. These works are declarations, polyphonic harmonies, some less complex than others, but almost without exception there is great and pleasurable tension within, a positing of energies in shapes and colors that express conversations, confrontations, assertions without affront, arguments without discord. Eclipses here are revelatory rather than occlusive. Elements expand to the limits of the image boundaries yet feel perfectly at home, placed but not constrained. There is leverage, displacement, resistance, acquiescence, immediate possession, everything of interest in life when reason prevails. But even in the starkest of Leslie’s iconography, the handling of materials is tender and observant, firm but yielding. Nothing seems left to chance yet these works abound with spontaneity. Serendipity can’t be calculated but Leslie’s patient explorations reveal the logic of his discoveries during the process of creating his art, and fuel is laid upon fuel for our delight in these combustions. These works may appear still and silent but actually they dance to their own rhythms, and the myriad relationships within each work are alive, like a well of possibility that never runs dry. The cohesion and thematic aspect of Leslie’s art allow us to appreciate this exhibition as a collection of flowers of a particular species, as odes to a particular phenomenon, as lyrical explorations and sibling creations. As when experiencing a poem one’s feelings are set in motion, so can contemplating Leslie’s work be a journey of exploration, along the paths of perception, through the landscape of relationships one finds. Of an earlier exhibition, he said, “I want people to see what they see, not what I see. I want them to explore the painting, take home what they need to, and develop it on their own.” Do we find profundity in these works or in ourselves, or is the one a seed for the other? Of course our sensitivity and willingness to be still are prerequisites, but how rewarding the unfolding! However familiar these works may become over time, freshness is revealed as one breathes, as the work stimulates and returns our awareness, like a piece of music one never tires listening to. Although meant to be placed on walls in sheltered spaces as a focus of attention, their tuned and scintillating complexity ensures that these pieces are never merely decorative. Nothing in them is overblown or done merely for effect. Yet, bright and assertive as they are, if they were placed in nature, say on a forest floor or next to a brook, they might not seem out of place, might seem reflective of their surroundings due to their naturalness, their freedom and honesty, their repose in being.

Leslie has said of Munakata that “He was a spiritual father. He’s behind me, a lot of the time. He was a magician, and an actor, a real showman, because he knew what he could do but he also knew that he could mesmerize.” About the creation of his art, Munakata wrote, “A print springs out by itself, just as joy, wonder or sorrow does. Its birth is spontaneous and unsuppressible. What a blessing! It is only natural that it should grow and flower in our soil, but to make it grow and flower is not easy. When one is a true, sincere man it happens, but to be a true man is difficult, and cannot be achieved through mere thinking.” This is the kind of devotion and curiosity, energy and joy that has animated Leslie’s life and work for decades. He tells us that, “My students taught me more than I taught them and they keep that association, and that power they give me keeps me where I am. I don’t think about age. I’m fragile at the moment but there’s a resolution for me that I think I want to make real, and I want people to not just remember me, but remember. Just remember. Remember the color, remember the mark.” Alas, words muddle seeing. Bon appétit!

John E. Goodman is a New York City-based writer. This text is one in a series of the gallery’s exhibitions written by fellow gallery artists and friends.

AFTERWORD BY BRUNO L. DAVID

I am pleased to present a new exhibition of 41 drawings titled “Cloud Images-Eclipse” by Leslie Laskey at the Bruno David Gallery. This is his 11th exhibition with the gallery. At 96 years old, Laskey’s ability to create and inspire, as well as challenge and amuse become ever more apparent with each exhibition. In a recent interview with Bryan A. Hollerbach, Laskey said “I don’t really like talking about the work – I think you have to, in a way, hear what you’re seeing, and you have to see what you’re hearing.” Often described as passionate, demanding, insightful, magical, inspirational and, above all, creative, he is a force to be reckoned with, as illustrated in the 2012 film documentary “Forty-Seven Views of Leslie Laskey” by West-Coast-based filmmakers, David Wild and Lulu Gargiulo. Seeing his last eleven exhibitions at the gallery, one gets the idea that for Leslie, art, work, and life are one in the same: “I don’t think my art is different from my life; they’re intertwined, inseparable. The way I cook, the way I paint, the way I read, and the music I listen to are all one in the same.” (from article “The Art of Life, a Life in Art” published in the St. Louis Beacon) Whether he is talking about baking peaches, sharing his ideas for design, or reciting poetry, his passion and energy for life are contagious. Born in Michigan in 1921, Laskey served in a combat unit in Europe and was among the troops that landed on Omaha Beach, early on D-Day, 1944. He studied at Indiana University and at the Institute of Design in Chicago (now the Illinois Institute of Technology) with founder and American Bauhaus pioneer Lászlò Moholy-Nagy. Currently, he divides his time between St. Louis and Manistee, Michigan and is a Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. Support for the creation of significant new works of art has been the core to the mission and program of the Bruno David Gallery since its founding in 2005. I would like to express my sincere thanks to John E. Goodman for his thoughtful essay. I am deeply grateful to Haleigh Givens, who gave much time, talent, and expertise to the production of this catalogue. Invaluable gallery staff support for the exhibition was provided by Cleo Azariadis, Christina Lu, Haleigh Givens, Peter Finley, Viola Bordon and Thomas Fruhauf.

CHECKLIST & IMAGES OF THE EXHIBITION

Cloud Image 7 2017 mixed media on paper 13.25 x 11.25 inches

Cloud Image 1 2017 mixed media on paper 14.5 x 12.5 inches

Cloud Image 2017 mixed media on paper 18 x 24 inches

Cloud Image 23 2017 mixed media on paper 10.25 x 9.25 inches

Cloud Image 25 2017 mixed media on paper 12.5 x 10.5 inches

Cloud Image 32 2017 oil and mixed media on board 9.5 x 7.5 inches

Eclipse 8 2017 oil and mixed media on board 12 x 12.5 inches

Cloud Image 14 2017 mixed media on paper 9.5 x 11.5 inches

Cloud Image 10 2017 mixed media on paper 7.5 x 10 inches

Eclipse 5 2017 oil on paper 15.75 x 13.5 inches

Cloud Image 46 2017 oil on canvas board 13.5 x 12 inches

Cloud Image 45 2017 oil on paper 17 x 15.5 inches

Eclipse 4 2017 oil on paper 26 x 19.75 inches

Cloud Image XI 2017 mixed media on paper 13 x 18 inches

Cloud Image 35 2017 mixed media on paper 8.25 x 11.5 inches

Cloud Image 15 2017 oil and mixed media on canvas 9 x 11 inches

Cloud Image 22 2017 mixed media on paper 11.5 x 8.5 inches

Cloud Image IX 2017 mixed media on paper 6 x 15 inches

Cloud Image 14 2017 mixed media on paper 10.25 x 6.5 inches

Cloud Image X 2017 mixed media on paper 15 x 18 inches

Cloud Image 18 2017 oil and mixed media on board 14 x 11 inches

Cloud Image 12 2017 mixed media on paper 10.5 x 13.5 inches

Cloud Image 43 2017 mixed media on paper 11.75 x 12.75 inches

Cloud Image 17 2017 mixed media on paper 9.5 x 11.25 inches

Cloud Image VII 2017 mixed media on paper 8 x 16 inches

Cloud Image VIII 2017 mixed media on paper 9 x 17 inches

Eclipse 7 2017 oil on paper 18 x 22.5 inches

Eclipse 2 2017 oil on paper 19 x 25 inches

Cloud Image 34 2017 mixed media on paper 10.25 x 8 inches

Cloud Image IV 2017 mixed media on paper 10.5 x 8 inches

Cloud Image V 2017 mixed media on paper 8 x 17 inches

Cloud Image VI 2017 mixed media on paper 11 x 17inches

Cloud Image 16 2017 mixed media on paper 9.75 x 14 inches

Cloud Image 33 2017 mixed media on paper 8.5 x 12 inches

Cloud Image 13 2017 mixed media on paper 13.25 x 7.25

Cloud Image 36 2017 mixed media on paper 13.25 x 7.25 inches

Cloud Image 30 2017 mixed media on paper 5.75 x 10 inches

Cloud Image 21 2017 mixed media on paper 6 x 8 inches

Cloud Image 9 2017 mixed media on paper 11.5 x 11.75 inches

Cloud Image 38 2017 mixed media on paper 8 x 8 inches

Cloud Image 37 2017 mixed media on paper 9.5 x 12.5 inches

Cloud Image III 2017 mixed media on paper 10 x 13 inches

Cloud Image 24 2017 mixed media on paper 14 x 9.25 inches

Eclipse 3 2017 oil on paper 17 x 11 inches

Eclipse 1 2017 oil on paper 13.25 x 21.5 inches

Cloud Image II 2017 mixed media on paper 13.5 x 21.5 inches

Cloud Image I 2017 mixed media on paper 10 x 15 inches

Eclipse 6 2017 oil on paper 9 x 12.25 inches

Cloud Image 21 2017 oil and mixed media on board 6 x 8 inches

Cloud Image 4 2017 mixed media on paper 11.25 x 14.75 inches

Cloud Image 9 2017 mixed media on paper 8.75 x 6 inches

Cloud Image 8 2017 mixed media on paper 13.75 x 10.75 inches

Cloud Image 3 2017 oil and mixed media on paper 10.5 x 12.5 inches

Storm 2017 oil and mixed media on board 25.5 x 19.5 inches

Leslie Laskey: Cloud Images-Eclipse (installation view)

LESLIE LASKEY American, b. 1921 Lives and works in St. Louis, Missouri and Manistee, Michigan

EDUCATION Institute of Design (Illinois Institute of Technology), Chicago, IL

ONE-PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2011

2010 2009 2008 2007

Bruno David Gallery, Leslie Laskey: Cloud Images - Eclipse, November, St. Louis, MO (Catalogue) Bruno David Gallery, Leslie Laskey: DUETS, December 2016-January 2017, St. Louis, MO (Catalogue) Columbia Foundation Gallery, Leslie Laskey: DROP-OUTS, St. Louis, MO (Catalogue) Bruno David Gallery, Leslie Laskey: A Gathering: Muses-Fates-Furies, St. Louis, MO (Catalogue) Bullivant Gallery, Leslie Laskey: Floral+, St. Louis, MO Bruno David Gallery, Leslie Laskey: Embrology, October, St. Louis, MO (Catalogue) Bruno David Gallery, Leslie Laskey: Windows, September, St. Louis, MO (Catalogue) Manierre Dawson Gallery, Leslie Laskey, Community College, Scottville, MI Bruno David Gallery, Leslie Laskey: S.E.N.T., September-October, St. Louis, MO Steinberg Hall Gallery, Leslie Laskey: Retrospective, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, September 9-October 1, St. Louis, MO Bruno David Gallery, Portrait: Artist and Friends, November, St. Louis, MO Bruno David Gallery, Leslie Laskey: Tango, September-October, St. Louis, MO Bruno David Gallery, Leslie Laskey: Work, March-April, St. Louis, MO New Space Gallery, Leslie Laskey and Frank Schwaiger, May, St. Louis, MO Bruno David Gallery (New Media Room), Archeologie, July-August, St. Louis, MO

2006 Sheldon Art Galleries, Ars Botanica: Works by Leslie Laskey, September 29, 2006 – January 27, 2007, St. Louis, MO Ellen Curlee Gallery, Leslie Laskey: Lilium, September-October, 2006 Bruno David Gallery, Leslie Laskey: Realms, May 5-27, St. Louis, MO 2005 Gallery of Contemporary Art, Journeys, Territories, Adventures, (St. Louis Community College-Forest Park), February 7-25, St. Louis, MO 2004 Columbia Foundation, MMIII (with Frank Schwaiger), St. Louis, MO 2004 Cherokee Gallery, Doll (Portraits), St. Louis, MO 2003 Columbia Foundation, Redux: Work on Paper (Amaryllis Suite), St. Louis, MO 2001 Columbia Foundation, Duet (with Frank Schwaiger), St. Louis, MO 1999 Columbia Foundation, New Works (with Frank Schwaiger), St. Louis, MO 1995 Gallery of Contemporary Art, Opus 1995 Variations, (St. Louis Community College-Forest Park), September, St. Louis, MO 1989 Elliot Smith Gallery, Leslie Laskey: Encounters: Prints, Drawings, Paintings, Sculpture, September-October, St. Louis, MO 1987 Bixby Gallery, Leslie Laskey Retrospective, St. Louis, MO 1987 Elliot Smith Gallery, Sticks, St. Louis, MO 1985 North Carolina State Museum, Leslie Laskey, Raleigh, NC 1984 Elliot Smith Gallery, On Paper: Leslie Laskey Suite of New Drawings, St. Louis, MO 1980 Martin Schweig Gallery, Leslie Laskey, St. Louis, MO 1979 Talisman Gallery, Leslie Laskey, St. Louis, MO 1978 St. George’s Gallery, Leslie Laskey, London, England

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2017 2015 2014 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2002 1988 1987 1986 1983

OVERVIEW_2017, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalog) AND / OR, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO (catalog) Halftone, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO OVERVIEW_2014, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO BLUE-WHITE-RED, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO W.O.P. I, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO OVERVIEW_10, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO OVERVIEW_09, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO OVERVIEW_08, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO ArtsDesire, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri. OVERVIEW_07, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO OVERVIEW, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO Inaugural Exhibition, Bruno David Gallery, St. Louis, MO RITUAL, Zeitgeist Gallery, October-November, Nashville, TN Mentors: Inspiration, Influence, Expertise, St. Louis Artists’ Guild Gallery, St. Louis, MO The Bauhaus Legacy in St. Louis: Woodcuts by Werner Drewes, Leslie Laskey, and Jim Harris, Curated by Olivia Lahs-Gonzales, Sheldon Art Galleries, St. Louis, MO Directions ‘88, Elliot Smith Gallery St. Louis, MO House, Garden: A Sense of Place, Elliot Smith Gallery St. Louis, MO Directions ‘87, Elliot Smith Gallery St. Louis, MO Directions ‘86, Elliot Smith Gallery St. Louis, MO Group Exhibition, Print Club Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

BIBLIOGRAPHY Marks, Kerry Hollerbach, Bryan Marks, Kerry Lowenstein, Michael Fowler, Nancy & Arnold, Willis Griesbach, Hermes Sarah Gay, Malcolm

“Leslie Laskey” TV interview for HEC-TV, October 17, 2017 “At 96, Leslie Laskey Continues to Create and Conceive with Art”, LADUE NEWS, March 9, 2017 “Leslie Laskey” TV interview for HEC-TV, January 16, 2017 “The Art of the Process.” Bruno David Gallery Publications (catalogue) November 2014 “Leslie Laskey and Frank Schwaiger.” Radio interview, NPR/KWMU, October 23, 2014

Fowler, Nancy Harris, Jim Vallowe, Megan Harris, Jim Bonetti, David. Gay, Malcolm Duffy, Robert ____________. Gay, Malcolm Friswold, Paul . Duffy, Robert Drury Dubinsky, Yvette. Miller, Rob. ____________. Murphy, Ann ____________. Crone, Tomas. Beall, Hugh. Miller, Rob. Cooper, Ivy.

“Leslie Laskey: The Art of Life, A Life in Art.” St. Louis Beacon, September 7, 2011 “Leslie Laskey.” Bruno David Gallery Publications (catalogue) September 2011 “S.E.N.T. Security Envelopes Now Tampered.” Bruno David Gallery Publications (catalogue) September 2011 “Leslie Laskey: Tango.” Bruno David Gallery Publications (catalogue) September 2009 “Leslie Laskey: Shows Illustrate Art-design Connection.”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, March 30, 2008 “Art Capsules: Leslie Laskey.” Riverfront Times, March 12, 2008 “A Testament of Blossoms and Bones.” Bruno David Gallery Publications (catalogue) March 2008 “Leslie Laskey.” Art-Patrol, March 19, 2008 “Everything’s Coming Up Laskey.” Riverfront Times, September 28, 2006 “Coin of the Realms.” Riverfront Times. p. 25, May 4, 2006 “Ars Botanica: Works by Leslie J. Laskey.” Riverfront Times, November 2006 “Leslie Laskey: Realms.” Bruno David Gallery Publication, May 5, 2006 “’Leslie Laskey: Realms” Saintlouisart, May 24, 2006. http://saintlouisart.blogspot.com/ “Doll face”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, April 21, 2005 “ARTful Living,” The Healthy Planet, February 2005 “Leslie Laskey”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, September 27, 2005 “Bruno David to Open on Friday”, 52nd City, October 2005 “The Bruno buzz”, West End Word, October 26, 2005 “’Over hung’ show or ‘Hung over’ critic?” Saintlouisart, November 17, 2005 “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, Riverfront Times, November 9, 2005

“Artists plumb their unconscious for Bruno David.” St. Louis Beacon, September 23, 2013 “And suddenly, there was a frame.” Bruno David Gallery Publications (catalogue) September 2013

Bonetti, David. Crone, Tomas. Miller, Rob. Bonetti, David. Sieloff, Alison. Bonetti, David. Murphy, Anne. Miller, Rob. Beall, Hugh. Griffin, William Bonetti, David. Sieloff, Alison. Bonetti, David. Murphy, Anne. ____________.

“Bruno David Gallery”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, November 9, 2005 “Bruno David Gallery”, 52nd City, October 2005, http://blog.52ndcity.com/archives “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, Saintlouisart, October 25, 2005. http://saintlouisart.blogspot.com/ “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 20, 2005 “Grand Grand Center”, Riverfront Times, October 19, 2005 “Gallery musical chairs”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 1, 2005 “Art News”, The Healthy Planet, September 2005, http://www.thehealthyplanet.com/sept05_artfulliving.htm “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, Saintlouisart, October 25, 2005. http://saintlouisart.blogspot.com/ “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, Illusion Junkie, October 25, 2005. Web Video. http://illusionjunkie.blogspot.com/2005/10/bruno-david-inaugural-exhibition.html “Bruno David Gallery: Inaugural Exhibition”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 20, 2005 “Grand Grand Center”, Riverfront Times, October 19, 2005 “Gallery musical chairs”, St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 1, 2005 “Art News”, The Healthy Planet, September 2005, http://www.thehealthyplanet.com/sept05_artfulliving.htm “Leslie Laskey.” Riverfront Times, September 25, 2002

PUBLICATIONS - FILM “FORTY-SEVEN VIEWS OF LESLIE LASKEY” Film documentary, cinematography by Lulu Gargiulo and Directed by David Wild, 47 minutes (VIMEO https://vimeo.com/81783642 )

GRANTS & AWARDS 1982 1986 1987

Rockefeller Foundation Grant (Print Making and Graphic Arts) Washington University Distinguished Faculty Award Distinguished Professor Award (Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture) Washington University Professor Emeritus

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ARTISTS Laura Beard Heather Bennett Lisa K. Blatt Michael Byron Bunny Burson Judy Child Carmon Colangelo Alex Couwenberg Jill Downen Yvette Drury Dubinsky Damon Freed Douglass Freed

Michael Jantzen Kelley Johnson Howard Jones (Estate) Chris Kahler Xizi Liu Bill Kohn (Estate) Leslie Laskey James Austin Murray Yvonne Osei Patricia Olynyk Gary Passanise Judy Pfaff

Charles P. Reay Daniel Raedeke Tom Reed Frank Schwaiger Charles Schwall Christina Shmigel Thomas Sleet Shane Simmons Buzz Spector Cindy Tower Ann Wimsatt Monika Wulfers

Ellen Jantzen