Jack Brogan
Exhibition Photographs by Alan Shaffer All Images Courtesy of Katherine Cone Gallery
CONTENTS
Foreword by Peter Frank Exhibition
Studio
Biography & Acknowledgements
JACKED UP: MAKING IT REAL IN L.A. ART By Peter Frank Jack Brogan invented it. If he hadn’t, of course, someone else would have, but likely much later, and perhaps not as deftly. What Brogan invented was the profession – the occupation, the position, the role, whatever it is – of art fabricator. It was a profession with an august lineage. But it was a new profession all the same, and its time had come. Don’t let them tell you otherwise: making art is a collaborative effort. Even painters who make their own pigments don’t fabricate their own brushes or weave their own canvases. Someone has to do it for them. These days, in particular, artmakers may not know the people who manufacture their materials or build their tools and supports, sometimes half a world away. But artists still regard these artisans as siblings under the skin, crafting substances and structures with (it is hoped) the same exact exactitude and devotion that goes into turning them into art. Even the operator of the machine spitting out tubes of paint or pen bits is a colleague of sorts – and a figure integral to any artist’s process. There’s another level of collaboration that has long pertained in art, especially when the artist leaves the personal studio for the exotic climes of a print atelier or foundry. The bronze caster or master printer acts as guide to the artist, technical master intervening where the artist’s own hand cannot reach. Some artists are sufficiently proficient to run the presses or pourings themselves; perhaps they had themselves served in printshops or foundries. (Or ceramic workshops, for that matter, or glassworks.) But most have needed some help at some point – even when running machines they know backwards and forwards, machines that may be located in their own studios, even custom‐made for them. There is always room for the technician – especially the innovative one. Jack Brogan began helping out Los Angeles artists in the early 1960s, solving problems of presentation through new means of fabrication with newly available (mostly petroleum‐derived) materials and tools. Robert Irwin, looking for an increasing level of refinement in the visual dispersion he sought in his painting, was Brogan’s first “customer.” Soon enough, Irwin’s cohort of Los Angeles avant gardists, even those who could detail their own cars or build their own surfboards, descended on Brogan for assistance. Brogan’s diverse technical experience, spanning furniture‐making, architecture, engineering, and chemistry – and employment at the Atomic Energy Commission and NASA, among other places – allowed him to think across the boundaries of
material and process, to grasp the properties of new substances and methods, and to address challenges with a wide technical repertory. He is not a craftsman bound by tradition, but a problem‐solver impelled by curiosity. It’s an adventure for Jack, and with Jack. He and the artists he works with feed one another’s exploratory urges, practically daring one another to take it a step further. Jack’s spirit was one of the intangible things that drove LA’s aesthetic in the 1960s and ‘70s – and his handiwork was one of the tangibles. He was and remains equal to the exploratory drive of his friends. Larry Bell, De Wain Valentine, Helen Pashgian, John McCracken, Peter Alexander, even Frank Gehry may all be seminal figures in the emergence of “finish/fetish,” “light and space,” “perceptual minimalism,” “material abstraction,” or whatever you want to call the sensibility that put LA on the international art map; but Brogan is its soul, its go‐to guy, its one‐man band. When Brogan went into formal business as an “art fabricator” in 1965 (in Venice, under the name “Design Concepts”), he lay the first paving stones for a new path off an old road. Others in this neck of the woods were fabricating artist’s works for them after a fashion – usually a well‐established fashion. Home of Tamarind and Gemini, LA itself was already playing host to the American print revival; metal sculptors were patronizing welding shops across the region; and Southland art schools and universities were humming with new ways of throwing clay and newer, larger kilns to bake the results. But, until Jack hung out his shingle, no one had declared himself a specialist in new media. Brogan invented not only a new way of going about making art objects, but a position, a role in the art world, for those who would do the same. A half‐century later, art fabricators dot the international art landscape. The best of them work shoulder to shoulder with their artist clients, and delight in solving tough problems with a creativity and cleverness born of common sense. These fabricators, as ever, are cut from an ornery cloth, so don’t expect them to hold a convention any time soon; but were they to, they’d probably honor Jack Brogan with their profession’s first lifetime achievement award. Instead, the artists he’s served express their gratitude and admiration with birthday parties and exhibitions like this one. They accord him equal status the way writers accord editors, composers accord instrumentalists, or directors accord screenwriters. (Well, certain screenwriters.) We may not know Jack, but “his” artists know him like a brother. Los Angeles April 2012
Peter Alexander Untitled Wedge, 1967 Polyester resin Signed on lower side 8 1/2 x 8 1/2 x 9 inches
John McCracken Red/Black, 1977 Plywood, fiberglass, polyester resin 16 3/8 x 18 x 12 inches
Frank Gehry, Jack Brogan and Robert Irwin Easy Edges Cardboard Furniture Speaker Cabinets, prototype, 1969 Corrugated cardboard and fiberboard Each 27 x 12 x 16 inches
Frank Gehry, Jack Brogan and Robert Irwin Easy Edges Cardboard Furniture Table, production piece, 1970 Corrugated cardboard and fiberboard 26 1/4 x 13 7/8 inches
Frank Gehry, Jack Brogan and Robert Irwin Easy Edges Cardboard Furniture Straight back chair, production piece, 1970 Corrugated cardboard and fiberboard 32 3/4 x 17 1/4 inches
Clytie Alexander Diaphan 28, Lime/Phthalo, 2007 Acrylic on aluminum 48 x 35 inches Signed and numbered on veso lower edge CA07-D28
Clytie Alexander Diaphan 51, UltramarineBlue/UltramarineBlue, 2010 Acrylic on aluminum 48 x 35 inches Signed and numbered on veso lower edge CA10-D51
Clytie Alexander Diaphan 26, White/White, 2007 Acrylic on aluminum 48 x 35 inches Signed and numbered on veso lower edge CA07-D26
John Eden Black Hole, 2011-2012 Black nickel with stand 53 1/2 x 12 x 12 inches
Helen Pashgian Untitled (wall piece), 1969 Polyester 13 x 13 inches Only 5 in existence, one owned by Orange County Museum
Helen Pashgian Untitled (wall piece), 1969 Polyester 14 x 14 inches Only 5 in existence, one owned by Orange County Museum
Chris Burden Indo-China Bridge, 2002-2003 Stainless steel Edition 2/12 Signature and number engraved on side 14 7/8 x 45 x 8 1/2 inches
Larry Bell Cube 57 FBC (Framed Blk Chrome), 2007/2012 Cube Series Coated Blue & Light Gray Glass 15 x 15 inches
Lynda Benglis Untitled, (Racer Series Knot), 1989 Stainless steel mesh, metal sprayed bronze, Black nickle plated 14 x 9 inches
Robert Irwin Untitled Prism, 1974 Acrylic optically polished 9 Feet High
Studio
Projects of Jack Brogan Armand Hammer, Los Angeles The Art Institute of Chicago Museum, IL Automic Regulatory Commission, Tennessee Bank of America Art Collection Boeing Aircraft Company California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA City Center, Las Vegas, NV City of Houston, Texas Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Count Panza di Biumo de Menil Museum, Texas Donald Judd Foundation, Marfa, Texas Frank Gehry Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation/Museum Garrett Corp, Los Angeles Gemini G.E.L. Los Angeles, CA General Motors, Detroit MI Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland Irving Blum Irvine Corp, CA Knoll Furniture, New York Lannan Museum/ Foundation Lockeed Corp, Los Angeles Los Angeles County Museum of Art Louisianna Museum of Modern Art, Denmark Musee des Beaux-Arts, Dijon, France
Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego Museum of Modern Art, New York NASA National Endowment for the Arts, US New Orleans Museum of Art, LA Orange County Museum of Contemporary Art, CA Palm Springs Museum of Art, CA Pompidou Center, Paris, France Portland Art Center, Oregon Roy Lichtenstein San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, AZ Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh Seagrams Corp, Paris, France Stedilik Museaum of Art, Amsterdam Sotheby’s Contemporary Art, New York The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles University of Arizona University of California, Irvine University of California, Los Angeles University of California, San Diego
Acknowledgements:
Jack has a debt of gratitude to all the artists he has enabled these last 50 years.
Katherine Cone Gallery thanks the following people for helping to make this exhibition possible: Edith Baumann Billy Al and Wendy Al Bengston Peter Frank Alan Shaffer Bertil Petersson
Š Katherine Cone Gallery, 2012
Katherine Cone gallery
2673 S. la cienega blvd. los angeles, ca 90034 310.287.1558 www.katherineconegallery.com