Deus Ex Machina by Kim Ryu

DEUS EX MACHINA

DEUS EX MACHINA KIM RYU

01 02 03 04

Ralph Bacerra (1928 - 2008)

Frederick Hammersley (1919 - 2009)

Rudi Gernreich (1922 - 1985)

Harry Bertoia (1915 - 1978)

05 06 07

Paul Landacre (1893 - 1963)

Oskar Fischinger (1900 - 1967)

Uta Barth (1958 - Present)

THOUGHTS For this project, I wanted to find something I could fully immerse myself. More importantly I wanted to learn something from my research and in result, become a better artist, and person from it. I find myself straddling the fine line between an illustrator and a painter. I can’t even say for sure what the difference is, but I know they are not entirely harmonious. I dip between abstraction and representation, narrative and intuitive action. In an attempt at self discovery, with graduation quickly seeping into reality, I wanted to take a step back into the past of California Modernism—a time where optimism was at its brightest contrasting the East Coast post-war depression. During this time of crazed artistic expression and development, I found artists of different field ranging from fine art to film that all tapped into a certain form of abstraction and expression. Although paint is my medium of choice, I made it a point to explore field that I knew nothing about in order to learn about the processes, thoughts, and failures of different artists and to curate my own visual language.

I often find myself painting through representation, story, and anything that follows through a so-called illustration. And then as soon as intuition takes over I’m creating passages of abstract washes and layers that remain elusive until the finish of the painting. Abstraction was always close to my personal process. It’s allure jump started this project. To create this book, I wanted to introduce a brief history, a summary of their process, and feature works that are the most recognizable or pieces that I found interesting. Secondly, I wanted to apply the information I found out about each artist back into my practice. Most of these artists remain relatively unknown, which prompted me to create a portrait for each of the seven artists that I chose. Then I wanted to create imagery based on their process or what inspired them. I took this as a personal evaluation, a study of how I can expand my images and to learn more about abstract imagery and the emotions they elicit—a pilgrimage into abstraction.

Ralph Bacerra (1928 – 2008)

HISTORY

THE INSPIRATION

Bacerra was born in Garden Grove, California in 1938. He was a student at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, now renamed the California Institute of the Arts. He studied under the celebrated ceramist, Vivika Heino from the years 1959 to 1961. After returning from the army in 1963, Bacerra was positioned as the chairperson of the ceramics department at the California Institute of the Arts and then shortly after, worked full-time in his studio.

His decorative aesthetic draws from Asian sources including Japanese Imari and Kutari pieces, Persian miniatures, and Chinese Tang ceramics. The surface imagery of Bacerra’s sculptures is design– conscious and draws comparisons to M.C Escher’s grid techniques and use of positive and negative space, as well as to the geometric sensibility and creation of movement and space associated with Wassily Kadinsky.

THE WORK Ralph Bacerra is recognized by its vivid use of color and contrast, which are the result of a delicate and multi-staged process of overglazing. He is also known for geometrically complicated and technically difficult forms. Bacerra is most well known for his development of technological innovation in advanced ceramic featuring the use of electromagnetic induction.

Ralph Bacerra was a ceramic artist and career educator. He lived and worked in Los Angeles, California. Untited Cup N.D // Ralph Bacerra

“I’ve never really thought of my work in post-modern terms. But I suppose in many ways it fits the definition. My pieces are based on traditional ideas and engage in certain cultural appropriations—in form, in design, in glaze choices. However, my work is not post-modern in the sense that I am not making any statements— social, political conceptual, even intellectual. There’s no meaning or metaphor. I’m committed more to the idea of pure beauty. The finished piece should be like an ornament, exquisitely beautiful.” RALPH BACERRA

BACERRA Acrylic and Ink on paper

Ralph Bacerra’s work instantly stood out to me. Honestly, it was by chance that I came across his work in a thick neon orange book labeled ‘California Artists.’ As I looked at his sculptures I wondered how he came up with his intricate patterns. Who were his inspirations? And how did he create these organic forms that clearly stood apart from any other pottery I’ve seen? When I drew his portrait, I wanted to show an equal attention to detail as he did to his ornamental style of pottery. Bacerra’s steadfast dedication to ornamentation. He was one of the first potters to revive the decorative surface which were so intricate that they were compared to Escher’s tessellations. Just as he kept his main focus on an exquisite form of beauty, I wanted to do the same. I kept Bacerra’s color palette in mind. My favorite piece was the ‘Untitled Cup’ in the previous page. I appreciated his use of organic shapes and my skewed preference for organic versus geometric kept his portrait fairly distant from any Escherlike influences.

What I appreciated the most when I learned about Bacerra was his thoughts on his work. As a student I sometimes step back from a painting wondering why I did it. Is content always necessary in a piece? In abstraction, is there always a pressing need for a grandiose explanation? Bacerra was a glimmer of hope that sometimes an artist can create work just based on the fact that they want to create a beautiful piece of work. One that can be appreciated for its beauty without picking apart at its every detail. Of course, creating beauty that can stand alone, is also a daunting thought.

Lizards // M.C Escher

Imari Pottery // 18th century

LEOPON Ink on Paper

Surprisingly, I found that Bacerraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main influence was Asian pottery, but also Asian art overall. Just as he looked at Imari and Kutari porcelain from Japan and celadon pottery from the Tang Dynasty, I also look toward Asian art for inspiration. Our common artistic roots was probably why I was so drawn to Bacerraâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work in the first place. I find myself looking at Persian and Indian miniatures, Japanese woodblock prints, and Korean architecture and celadon pottery to generate ideas for my own paintings. Many of the horse-like figures in my paintings come from Asian folklore and Chinese brush paintings. A motif in my work is various kinds of pottery scattered in my paintings. More than a few will be scattered across this book.

Spellbound Acrylic on Panel

Frederick Hammersley (1919 – 2009)

Frederick Hammersley was a critically acclaimed American abstract painter whose participation in the landmark of 1959 Four Abstract Classicists exhibit secured his place in art history. The Four Abstract Classicists exhibit showcased the work of Karl Benjamin, John McLaughlin, and Lorser Feitelson which was organized by the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art and curated by Jules Langsner. Lansgner and Peter Saiz coined the term “hard-edge painting” to describe the work of these artists. The exhibit, which traveled to the San Franciso Museum of Modern Art, the Insititute of Contemporary Arts in London, and Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was praised for its presentation of cool abstractions which were different from the emotional ones of the abstract expressionist movement.

#7 1986 // Karl Benjamin

“My painting begins with a hunch, no plan, no theory, just a feeling to make a shape. That shape dictates what and where the next will go and so on...” FREDERICK HAMMERSLEY 14

HUNCH Hunch paintings produced from 1953 to 1959 start by laying down an initial shape. Other shapes are successively added, and the whole evolves in unplanned ways. They are formed by pure intuition. The final canvas may be suggestive of a still-life or a landscape, but they remain quite abstract.

GEOMETRICS Around a round 1959 // Frederick Hammersley

Geometrics are orchestrated compositions of sharp geometric forms, painted from 1959 to 1964, and from 1965 to the mid 90s. While more rigidly composed than Hunches, they still retain a degree of playfulness. A gridded canvas may have sections divided by diagonals or arcs. The triangles, squares, and other geometric shapes combine to form interlocking relationships, creating a rhythmic composition with interchangeable positive and negative space.

ORGANICS Organics consist of freely curved shapes inspired by the natural world. These works, produced in 1964 and from 1982 into the 2000s also contain interlocking shapes, but they are more â&#x20AC;&#x153;evocative and suggestive, with elements seeming to probe and penetrate, embrace, and envelop one another.â&#x20AC;? Particularly effective is the combination of hard breaks between colors from one shape to the next with gradations between colors within a shape.

Middle East 1964 // Frederick Hammersley

A LITTLE HUNCH A series of shapes inspired by the activity of the elements next to them. I also let the colors inspire each other. I found it the most exciting with certain shapes inspired the curves of the one next to it. Each dip and jut influenced the presence of the form next to it. Just as Hammersley informed, they do end up appearing to be a landscape.

ORGANIC INTUITION Out of the three processes Hammersley explored, I found Organics to be the most interesting. Just the idea of creating abstract shapes out of things in the natural world was very attractive to me. In my work I meld and melt mountains, trees, and plants into organic â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;mush.â&#x20AC;&#x2122; I found this study particularly more intuitive. Although it was very similar to the way I work already, trying to paint through the lense of Hammersley made it almost like an out of body experience. I especially fell in love with the concept of these shapes embracing and probing each other.

Keeping that concept in mind, these shapes seemed to curve more drastically than they usually do in my paintings. After creating a certain visual style, often times shapes are shamelessly recycled out of comfort and lack of time. Now that these shapes had a concept of intimacy and violation they almost wanted to curve and slither around than my usual forms did. It was a refreshing exercise that I plan on using throughout my painting practice.

GEOMETRIC BALANCE I chose to do this study last because of my natural preference to stray away from geometric shapes besides the circle. This was by far the most challenging of the three studies in that it required constant attention. Although the shapes are the most recognizable, this overall process seemed the most foreign to me. It felt more rigid. I seemed to lack the control I felt during the previous two studies. An attention to rhythm was important. And fascinatingly, despite it being a process of just shapes and the space between them, there was an exact time where things seemed to look pleasing, and others when I knew I had chosen the wrong shape.

THE ETERNAL OPTIMIST After doing the three studies, I wondered if Hammersley ever combined all three. Soon after, inspired by the difficulty of the Geometrics study, I wanted to combine the organic approach I felt close to home as well as this new way of painting. I wanted to maintain the use of geometric shapes and still keep the probing, embracing, enveloping feeling of the Organics process. The overall use of intuition and creating one shape inspired by the previous was representative of the Hunches. For example, the black symmetrical shape was created first and then in response to their curves, I created a sharp geometric shape, the blue diamond, behind it. From then on it was like a metamorphosis from the inside out.

Similar to a blooming butterfly, or a blossoming flower. Two signs of optimism, which was a lingering feeling I found after creating this design. The constant play between hard edges and organic intuitive shapes was the most intriguing for me. I could easily hear music in the back of my mind, or this shape blossoming in motion as a flat graphic.

HAMMERSLEY Illustrator

After the three studies, I had a closer idea to what I wanted to do for a portrait of an abstract artist. I felt it was important to make sure the back of his head was recognizable and be broken back into organic shapes that match his style of painting. 20

FORBIDDEN FRUIT Acrylic on Panel

A painting that I did shortly after researching about Hammersley. Although I had no intent in using hivs process in this painting, I used the Hunches study as a study for this painting. I found the enveloping shapes inspiring. Despite the lack of tangible perspective I found the overlapping of

shapes to create a sense of shape. Shapes in relation to each other and their position with the few representation things such as the figure, branches, the fire, and the snake, they slowly started to become viewed as mountains, hills, and bushes.

Rudi Gernreich (1922 – 1985)

Rudy Gernreich was an Austrian—born American fashion designer and an early gay rights activist. He is most well known for introducing the single-piece topless monokini in 1964. He had a long, unconventional, and trend-setting career as a fashion designer. After the annexation of Austria to Germany, Hitler among many other acts banned nudity. Austrian citizens were advocated of exercising nude—a rejection to the overcivilized world—which may have influenced Gernreich’s later designs. Gernreich and his mother escaped to the US as Jewish refugees and settled in Los Angeles, California. Gernreich was against the sexualization of this human body and the notion that the body was shameful.

Gernreich’s first job was washing bodies before autopsy at the morgue of Cegars of Lebanon Hospital. He joked, “I grew up overnight. I do smile sometimes when people tell me my clothes are so body-conscious [that] I must have studied anatomy. You bet I studied anatomy.” Gernreich moved into fashion design via fabric design. He worked closely with model, Peggy Moffitt and photographer, William Claxton. He pushed the boundaries of the “futuristic look” in clothing over the course of three decades. He was the sixth American designer to be elected to the Coty American Fashion Hall of Fame.

MONOKINI

NO-BRA

Gernreich is most noted for his design of the first topless swimsuit, the monokini. The topless swimsuit ended around mid-torso and was supported by two straps between the breasts and around the neck. The design was first worn by Peggy Moffit and the swimsuit was a protest against repressive society. It was published in Women’s Wear Daily and it generated a lot of controversy.

Gernreich introduced the “no-bra” in October 1964. The brassiere was made of sheer-stretch fabric without underwires or lining of any kind. It has a single metal clip used to fasten the bra in front and was manufactured by Lily of France. The no-bra featured a soft, sheer cup, and free of padding. His minimalistic bra initiated a trend toward more natural shapes and soft, sheer fabrics. He later designed the “no-side” bra where women could wear open-sleeved garments without displaying a bra band. Following this was the “no-front” and the “no-back” bra.

PUBEKINI After designing the monokini he predicted the bosom will be uncovered within five years. He also ripped out the boning and wiring that made American swimsuits like a corset. He saw baring of the woman’s breast as a form of freedom and in a response to the monokini designed the pubekini—a bikini with a window in front to reveal a woman’s pubic hair.

“NO ONE HAS FREED THE BODY LIKE RUDI GERNREICH.” — Vogue, 1967

SPACE AGE His focus for his collections were heavily influenced by the functionality and movement of clothes on a live body. He anticipated the shift in aesthetics brought on by cold war advancements in technology and the breakdown of sexual and gender barriers in society.

RUDI Graphite and Ink on Paper

HARROWING SIGHTS Acrylic on Paper

INDIGESTION Acrylic on Paper

Fashion has always been an important part of my life. Instead of being a part of my creative process, I often looked toward shopping, designing textiles, watching runways, and reading Vogue as a form of stress relief. It wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t until I decided to import my textile designs into the figures in my paintings that I found my figures in my painting to come alive and become more tangible as a relatable being. Just as Gernreich looked toward the future for a more freeing body form, I looked toward the past to develop a more conservative, controlled, and mystical approach. The graphic shapes and the abstraction of the female figure in Gernreichâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s designs was thrilling to say the least. I respected his approach to fashion, and it inspired me to indulge my figures into a more fashion forward realm.

Keep Your Head Down Acrylic on Panel

Harry Bertoia (1915 – 1978)

Harry Bertoia was an Italian-born artist jewelry designer, sound art sculptor, and modern furniture designer.

RAY AND CHARLES EAMES In 1937 he received a scholarship to study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art where he encountered Ray and Charles Eames for the first time. He opened his own metal workshop in 1939. As the war effort made metal a rare and expensive commodity he began to focus his efforts on jewelry making. He even designed and created wedding rings for Charles and Ray Eames. He got married himself in 1943 to Brigitta Valentiner and moved to California to work for Eames at the Molded Plywood Division of the Evans Product Company. He worked for them until the war ended in September 1945. HANS AND FLORENCE KNOLL During the period where he worked with Hans and Florence Knoll, he designed five wired pieces that became known as the Bertoia Collection for Knoll. The most famous one out of the five was the ‘Diamond Chair’, a fluid, sculptural form made from a molded lattice work of welded steel. It became instantly famous. 34

“If you look at these chairs, they are mainly made of air, like a sculpture. Space passes right through them.” HARRY BERTOIA

Top: ‘Diamond Chair’ Bottom Left: ‘Sunlit Straw’ Bottom Right: ‘Dense Cattails’

GRAHAM FOUNDATION The chairs he produced sold so well that it allowed himself to devote himself exclusively to sculpture. In 1957 he was a fellow at the Graham Foundation in Chicago. The sculptural work that he produced explored the ways metal could be manipulated to produce sound. By stretching and bending the metal, he made it respond to wind or to touch, creating different tones.

He performed with the pieces in a number of concerts and even produced a series of ten albums, all entitled “Sonambient,” of all the music made by his art, manipulated by his hands along with the elements of nature.

Top: ‘Zepplin’ Upper Bottom: ‘Sounding Sculpture’ Lower Bottom: ‘Spray Sculpture’

Bertoia recalled how, as a child, he wished there was a musical instrument that anyone could play instantly. His father and brother were musically inclined and played the accordion. Bertoia would tap his foot, not owning the same talent. Later when a group of Hungarian gypsies came through his village in northern Italy, they banged on pots and pans with a rhythmical beat. These vibrations left an impression deep insideHarry.

As an adult, Bertoia never stopped experimenting with, playing, and enjoying his art. The tall tonal wire pieces came about when he was bending a single heavy wire and it met another piece and made a wonderful sound. It provoked wonder as to what two or three or twenty rods might sound like. Thus began the adventure down the path of “Sonambient” or the environment created by sounding sculptures. He never made the same piece twice, always seeking a different or richer sound with varying size rods.

THREE SOUND DRAWINGS Ink on Paper There are so many varieties of Bertoia sculpture that it is perhaps too broad to plunk them all in one category. But, just as Bertoia rarely signed his work, feeling that his gift to the universe needed no manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mark on it to be appreciated or interpreted, the sculpture speaks for itself and needs no definition or classification.

Just as his sculptures escape any classifications, I wanted to draw something informal, abstract, and direct. Instead of bending wire, I created circular designs taken directly from the negative space found in his sculptures.

BERTOIA Graphite and Ink on Paper Sound was Bertoiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest influence. Just as his sculptures played with interactivity and playfulness, I wanted to execute that in the line quality used in this drawing. Sounds, tempos, rhythm drive his work, while emotion, anxiety, and depressionsteer the course of my images. Both are abstract concepts given form through a physical artistic practice. I wanted the lines on his face to have a rhythmic quality and of course, the pattern of his wired Diamond Chair had to be highlighted in his shirt. The shapes surrounding him were influenced by the previous drawn studies. I wanted something as free form and whimsical as his sound sculptures.

UNTITLED Ink on Paper I enjoyed the flow of the linework in my drawing of Bertoia, which was the inspiration to this drawing. Somehow, Bertoia managed to create beautiful, flowing, organic shapes from something as hard as wire. I wondered what it would look like if I were to try and create a line as stiff as that wire, and still create the shapes and flora I usually make. For this drawing, I regressed into a childlike grip, holding the pen with my entire fist and then slamming the nib against the paper. I fell in love with the flowers in the foreground. Despite the odd composition, I enjoyed this drawing very much.

Paul Landacre (1893 – 1963)

Landacre was one of the standout printmakers of the modernist era. He largely taught himself the art of printmaking through various experimentation.

Paul Hambleton Landacre’s body of work was largely responsible for elevating the wood engraving to an art form. Landacre’s linocuts and wood engravings of landscapes, still lifes, nudes, and abstractions are celebrated for their technical virtuosity and master of design.

He was a track and field athlete but a debilitating polio-like illness spurred him to leave Ohio in favor of Los Angeles. Margaret, McCreery, an advertising copywriter and later lifelong companion, realized his artistic prowess. Counterpart // 1939 42

Beach Campers // 1941

Landacre experimented with the technically demanding art of carving linoleum blocks and eventually, woodblocks for both wood engravings and woodcuts. Jake Zeitlin’s antiquarian book shop in Los Angeles included a small gallery space where Landacre was given his first solo exhibition. After being elected as a member of the National Academy in 1946, Landacre was honored in 1947 with a solo exhibition of his wood engravings at the Smithsonian Museum. Of national and local appeal, Landacre’s linoleum cuts and wood engravings were inspired by the American Far West such as Big Sur, Palm Springs, Monterey, and Berkeley. “California Hills and Other Wood Engravings by Paul Landacre” was a series of fifteen early works and it was awarded recognition as one of the “Fifty Books of the Year” for 1931. Three more books illustrated with his wood engravings also garnered recognition such as: The Boar and the Shibboleth (1933), A Gil Blas in California (1933), XV Poems for the Heath Broom (1934.)

Landacre developed a singular style respected for its formal beauty, meticulously carved lines, delicate cross hatching, and flecking all of which were contrasted with rich blacks. His prints gained early and lasting critical recognition. They were also awarded numerous prizes, and can be found in more than a hundred public collections throughout the United States.

GARDEN Ink on Paper

LANDACRE Ink on Paper Landacre, along with Bacerra, was one of the artists that immediately stood out to me as I researched this time period. Nature and landscapes are close to my heart. The way he sometimes subtly mixed figures into rolling hills was another aspect of his work that caught my attention. His process was another. Considering the amount of detail, line, and stroke, I found it remarkable that his work was created through wood engravings and linoleum cuts. Just the thought of such a process is daunting. And yet, he created a remarkable amount of work with this laborious process. For these series of illustrations, I wanted to play with reversed line—white on black—instead of the usual mark making I’ve become too accustomed to.

I attempted a reversed line technique through three ways. Bleach against water soluble inks, white ink on black paper, and then an inverted image. Landacre’s images are always soulful, quiet, and full of nature. I wanted to capture this essence in my images.

Oskar Fischinger (1900 – 1967) Oskar Fischinger also participated in the making of Disney’s Fantasia (1940). He designed the J.S Bach Toccata and Fugue in D Minor sequence but quit without credit because of Disney’s alterations to his design.

Oskar Wilhelm Fischinger was a German-American abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter. He is noted for inventing abstract musical animations before computer graphics and music videos.

19 21 In Frankfurt, Fischinger met the theatre critic Bernhard Diebold who introduced Fischinger to Walter Ruttman, a pioneer in abstract film. Inspired by Ruttman’s work, Fischinger began experimenting with colored liquids and three-dimensional modeling materials like wax and clay. Wax Experiments 1921-1926. Experiments. Orgelstabe 1923-1927. Experiments. Stromlinen ( Currents ) 1925. Experiments. Spirals 1926. Experiments. Silent. Pierrette (Unfinished) 1924-1926. With Louis Seel

19 36 Despite the Nazi influence in Germany, Fischinger was able to finish his abstract work, Composition in Blue in 1935. An agent from Metro-GoldwynMayer screened a print in a small art theatre in Hollywood. Ernst Lubitsch was impressed by the films and the audience’s enthusiastic response to the shorts. An agent from Paramount Pictures telephoned Fischinger asking if he was willing to work in America. Fischinger promptly agreed. Fischinger arrived in Hollywood February 1936. Allegretto became one of the most screened and successful films of visual music history and one of Fischinger’s most popular films. Allegretto 1936-1943. 3 Versions Paragretto 1936-1943. At Paramount Allegretto 1943. Non-Objective Painting An Optical Poem 1937. MGM

19 47 Frustrated in his filmmaking, Fischinger turned to oil painting as a creative outlet. Fischinger created Motion Painting No. 1 (1947) as a documentation of the act of painting, taking a single frame each time he made a brush stroke. The Motion Painting No. 1 won the Grand Prix at the Brussels International Experimental Film Competition in 1949. Three of Fischinger’s films also made the 1984 Olympiad of Animation’s list of the world’s greatest films. An American March 1941. MN-OP Organic Fragment 1941. Radio Dynamics 1942. Silent Muntz TV Commercial 1952. Motion Painting No. 2 and 3 1951. 16mm

19 55 Fischinger patented the lumigraph in 1955. He hoped to make the lumigraph a commercial product that was widely available unlike a color organs. The instrument produced a imagery by pressing against a rubberized screen so it could protrude into a narrow beam of colored light. The size of its screen was limited by the reach of the performer. Two people were required to operate the lumigraph. Fischinger passed away in Los Angeles in 1967. Fischinger’s son, Conrad, built two more of the machines in different sizes. After his death, his wife Elfriede and his daughter Barbara gave performances with the lumigraph, along with William Moritz, in Europe and the US.

SOUNDS FROM MY APARTMENT Colored Pencil on Paper Fischingerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work was remarkable to say the least. As someone who grew well accustomed to the recent tsunami of a digital age, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s easy to forget how something such as the mixture of sounds and music with visual imagery could have been an untapped concept. Even more alarming is how well Fischinger captured the concept of sounds with simple circular forms. I wanted to try illustrating sounds from my apartment. Closing my eyes I tried to envision what it would be like if these sounds had to be expressed in curves and dips. I heard a range of sounds varying from birds chirping, my roommate using the faucet, and an engine roaring. The result turned into an enjoyable experiment of shapes that I used to inspire the two illustrations based on Fischinger.

VAGABOND Acrylic on Paper

I fell in love with the shapes that I created in the sounds study that I wanted to create a bridge between my illustrations with the concept of sounds. What sounds would my images create?

AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL Acrylic on Paper 59

FISCHINGER Acrylic and Ink on Paper I rewatched Fischinger’s most well-known animation, Optical Poem, numerous times in order to create his likeness in this portrait. Aside from his friendly features, I wanted to capture the feeling of movement, sound, and his color scheme all in one image. The repetitive rippling rings are a direct influence from his motion studies such as, Composition in Blue. His eyes were important to me. I hoped they would look as mesmerizing as the images he creates. I made textural washes and scrubbed the surface to create a kind of canvas that you normally wouldn’t see in a Fischinger motion piece.

I wanted it to have an emotive quality, like the tumultuous lifestyle Fischinger had. He escaped the Nazi influence in Germany, but his time in California wasn’t necessarily an easy ride either. I was surprised to find that he worked in the Disney film, Fantasia. Of course, the rolling hills against that deep drum tempo was just like his rotating rings, but he was left uncredited. I thought it was admirable that he quit when he noticed his work wasn’t being represented in the way that he liked. I wish I was as gutsy as him.

Uta Barth (1958 – Present)

German born photography, Uta Barth’s work is evocative and abstract. Her photographs explore the nature of vision and the difference between how a human sees reality and how a camera records it. In contrast to documentary and confessional modes of photography, Barth intentionally depicts mundane or incidental objects in nondescript surroundings in order to focus attention on the fundamental act of looking and the process of perception. In White Blind (Bright Red) she investigates both literal and metaphorical

modes of perception in ghostly compositions that mimic the afterimages that persist in one’s visual memory after turning away from an object. Barth continues to expand her photographic practice to probe the theme of perception in new and inventive ways. She encourages viewers to reconsider the traditional functions and expectations of the photographic image.

In her most recent series, ...and to draw a bright, white line with light (2011), she intervenes in the staging of her photographs. By manipulating curtains in her home, she created lines and curves of light that expand from a silver to white ribbon across a sequence of large-scale, dramatically cropped images that evoke the subtle passage of time while also highlighting the visceral and intellectual pleasure of seeing.

Uta Barth currently lives and works in Los Angeles. She is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship of 2004â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 05. Her work is represented in numerous public and private collections worldwide.

UTA BARTH Acrylic on Paper

IN A MAN’S WORLD YOU WERE EVERYTHING Acrylic on Paper

The idea behind Uta Barth’s work was easily understood the minute I saw her work. Her photographs play with the fogginess of memory while creating abstract shapes and atmospheres within a single shot. Just the haziness and the calm, quiet sense of her photographs resonated with me. Creating quiet imagery, one you can sit with for a while and still feel the weight of a being, a moment, a memory is something I try to achieve in my paintings. Barth rarely shows the figure in her photographs. If she does, she tastefully crops them so that they lusciously fill the space as though you passed by them on the street. A stranger you feel like you’ve crossed paths with, but the color of their eyes eludes you. I wanted to do the same when painting her portrait.

I painted this after learning about Barth. I wanted to explore her concept of a nondescript surrounding. This vast Pepto-Bismol shape cradled by spots of black create a landscape that can be hills, flat plains, and a two-dimensional flat shape.

PLEASURE GARDEN Acrylic on Paper Another motif Barth shows in her work is the concept of a subtle passage of time, and the ‘visceral and intellectual’ pleasures of seeing. I wanted to explore that concept in a landscape, with areas mixed and colliding, bare and lush. Death and Life, White and Black.

KIM RYU 510.305.4948 www.kimryuillustration.com kimryuillustration@gmailcom

Ralph Bacerra Frederick Hammersley Rudi Gernreich Harry Bertoia Paul Landacre Oskar Fischinger Uta Barth