TINKER’S TOYS
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Publication: Journal Santa Fe Section; Date: Sep 3, 2010; Section: Gallery Guide; Page: S8
TINKER’S TOYS Innovative sculptor loves to play with materials Art Issues MALIN WILSON-POWELL For the Journal
John Tinker’s quixotic and meticulous conceptual sculpture has been on my must-see list since I first became aware of his work in 1978. Fifteen works from 2000 to 2010 are currently installed in the upstairs gallery at the New Mexico Museum of Art. They are assembled in the gallery historically identified as “The Ladies Board Room,” a lovely room with many windows and a great place to see the intricacies of threedimensional objects in natural light. Tinker’s facility with many different materials, his sophisticated use of scale, and his reliance on humor and pleasure make for a very lively agglomeration of objects. The artist came to maturity in the tumultuous American art world of the early 1970s, a time of youth culture, wide-open possibilities and irreverence. My first introduction to Tinker’s work was his proposal for an installation at the then-named Museum of Fine Arts, now the NMMA. He and Carl Johansen built a pool table titled “Desert Theatre (For Oyvind Fahlstrom, 1928-1976).” It was filled with water and floating vinyl cutout figures, as well as fragments of maps and iconic elements. Fahlstrom was a versatile and influential politically oriented multimedia artist and writer with an international perspective. Tinker was introduced to Fahlstrom’s art at a 1974 retrospective at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire. For more than three decades, Tinker has worked with a similarly broad, worldly view mixed with innovation and tempered by realpolitik. Tinker combines exacting craftsmanship, seductive surfaces, and mysterious, sometimes surrealist tendencies, with a noticeable bite. Such is his enlarged drop of red-black liquid titled “March 19, 2003.” To quote the artist: “Compelled by the Bush Administration’s invasion of Iraq, ‘March 19, 2003,’ denounces the efforts to combat terrorism and the ‘axis of evil’ trading blood for oil.” An elongated 6-inchhigh drop of ominously dark resin, suggesting a cocktail of blood and oil, is overwritten with an elegant “NO” rendered in gold leaf. Though the script is small, it is perfectly placed on the bulbous, highly polished drop in a manner that both emphatically addresses and implicates the reflected viewer and his environment. An oversized “Kumquat: Nagami” (2008), standing 15.5 inches high, impresses with swirling leaves that spread out from the prickly oval fruit with the floating grace of a silk scarf. The whole is primarily made of various woods whose grains reinforce the metaphor of solidity in the base and the whirling extension of leaves that look so impossibly thin and alive they seem translucent. Tinker’s 2010 “The Three Graces: Radiata Koi” is the most recent and largest sculpture in the exhibition. Historically, the Graces were minor Greek goddesses representing beauty, charm and joy. They presided over banquets and gatherings to entertain and delight, and have long been a favorite subject in art history, including in iconic works by Botticelli, Raphael and Canova. In Tinker’s version there are three lifelike fish, sinuous in movement and startling in color. Koi are carp that have been artfully bred by the Japanese for variations in color, patterns and scalation. Are Tinker’s koi an investigation of the beauty of artifice, i.e., the intervention into and hybridization of nature by culture? Is this work, perhaps, a meditation on the irrepressible human drive to tamper with nature? Additional food for thought comes from the subtitle: In Japanese, ‘koi’ is also a homophone for another word that means ‘affection’ or ‘love,’ and the fish are therefore symbols of love and friendship in Japan, and “Radiata” is a Latin term for bilateral symmetry. The aesthetic orientation and emphasis on materials in Japanese culture would hold a natural affinity for a sculptor like Tinker, as seen in the 2003 “Turning Japanese.” This sculpture combines Japanese design in the chair and Pop Art in the swirl of soft ice cream occupying the seat. Tinker is obviously a materials hound who does not like to repeat himself. This time-consuming devotion to material culture can be seen in the art of peers like Erika Wanenmacher, Tom Ashcraft and California feminist Millie Wilson. Each of them painstakingly masters the physical properties and techniques of wildly different mediums. Whereas many contemporary artists work with an ingenious fabricator/engineer like Jack Brogan of Los Angeles to make physical their conceptions, these artists become their own magicians and fabricators. This hands-on approach finds a fertile ground in New Mexico, where craft is deeply respected. It is good to remember that in ancient Greece those who practiced the visual arts, including sculpture, were held in low regard and viewed as mere manual laborers. As Plutarch (c. 46 – 120 AD) wrote in his Life of Pericles II, “We admire the work of art but despise the maker of it.” Any guide to appreciating Tinker’s art must note that he was born in the Midwest, Eau Claire, Wis., in 1951, and raised Catholic. Many cultural critics have explicated both of these traits in recent years, and two conclusions seem particularly pertinent to Tinker’s sculpture. Midwestern artists are not susceptible to the postmodern practice of simply going “shopping” to assemble critiques of culture: they still make art by hand. They also tend toward beauty, especially those with a Catholic background. Every neighborhood church was replete with passionate images, flowers and watered-silk vestments, along with gold chalices, candlesticks and remonstrances. The word of God was incarnate and made flesh multiple times a day, and the music was great, too. In recent years there has been a dearth of solo exhibitions for living artists at the NMMA. Tinker’s show and Johnnie Winona Ross’s painting show in the adjoining gallery, both opened Aug. 13, and are a welcome antidote to this inexplicable absence of one-person shows. Having followed Tinker’s work, there are a number of memorable pieces I would like to have seen in a 10-year survey, but looking over the small brochure it appears that there was no budget to ship items from far-flung collectors. This is, perhaps, due not only the current economy, but also the lack of a budget for this revived program of solo shows. In a state with such a wealth of talent, it can only be hoped that one-person exhibitions featuring great art made here by artists who’ve chosen to make New Mexico their home, will garner enough support for full-fledged installations and publications. If you go WHAT: John Tinker’s Narrative Sculptures WHERE: New Mexico Museum of Art, 107 W. Palace Ave. WHEN: Through Jan. 9, 2011 HOURS: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Free Fridays 5-8 p.m. COST: $6 New Mexico residents; $9 nonresidents. Museum members and children 16 and under free. Sundays free to residents with ID. Wednesdays free to New Mexico resident seniors with ID. CONTACT: 505-476-5041 or www.nmartmuseum.org
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TINKER’S TOYS
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COURTESY LINDA DURHAM CONTEMPORARY ART “Turning Japanese,” a 2003 hydrostone and painted mahogany sculpture by John Tinker, whimsically combines Japanese chair design with a pop art swirl of soft ice cream occupying a seat.
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TINKER’S TOYS
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COURTESY MARSHA SWISS AND RON COSTELL, WASHINGTON, D.C. John Tinker created his polyester resin and 14-karat gold sculpture titled “March 19, 2003” to mark the day George Bush launched the invasion of Iraq and began “trading blood for oil.”
COURTESY LINDA DURHAM CONTEMPORARY ART “Kumquat: Nagami” is a 2008 encaustic, wood and epoxy resin sculpture by John Tinker.
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