ALISSA SMITH
Staff Writer
With the vibrancy of bold color and the simplicity of easy shape, Billy Al Bengston has reemerged in the culture of Pop and Color field painting in the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art’s latest exhibit, “Made in California.” Combining artists of different mediums among different decades and traditions, the exhibit is comprised of west coast artists from Weisman’s private collection. The collection, which opened in August and runs through mid-December, features largely contemporary art.
Billy Al Bengston, a now-retired painter influential during the post-war era of the 60’s, surfaces as an artist with one of the most stirring works in the collection. Kipu Ahaihi jumps from the wall in concrete, with its abstract shapes and brilliant color swirling in stark lines of black that frame and support the piece. Amid the other daring works that share the room, Bengston’s piece is a refreshing command of Pop style that does not overwhelm or scream “finger paint.”
The painting is framed on the left and right side by large, significant figures. The near indecipherable figure on the left is a kahuna, a Hawaiian god. On the right, a large bird is surrounded by deep blues and bright yellows, with green foliage framing open space. Black shapes reminiscent of window shutters angle in towards the center of the work, pointing directly in to the center.
The solid gray shape of an airplane dominates the work, being placed at the center of the image. The direct and aggressive style found in most of Bengston’s earlier works indicate are found in his latest ones. This forward approach shows the Pop artist’s rebellion against the vague, abstract impressionist style. But it also moves us into the modern age, a return to the material realities of everyday life.
Kipu Ahaihi marks Bengston’s transition from the Los Angles art scene in which he became involved with upon moving to California in 1948 from Dodge City, Kansas. He left L.A. for Honolulu in the early 1980’s, with the landscape painting depicting the view from the window of his new studio. Even the black shutters, included off-handedly in the work, are one and the same as those that frame his view of the airport out the window. Though strong colors and stark contrasts, he reflects the beauty of the landscape. Round shapes floating in open color among a content grin on the face of the jovial Hawaiian god, creating a sense of peace and a comfortable calm.
While Andy Warhol and other artists of the period were pulling images from mass media and advertising to create a new approach, Bengston is most renowned for his incorporation of subcultural affinities into his work. A former car and motorcycle enthusiast, the images of exhausts, car parts and motorcycles in action serve as subjects in his pieces. A member of the “car culture” in Los Angeles, he began to use car these materials to complete his work, even adopting industrial lacquers, the spray gun, and sheets of hammered-into metal and wood to create nuanced and textured pieces.
Once a premiere artist in an artistic movement that swept America, Bengston now serves as a prominent player in the Weisman’s impressive collection. Amidst a sea of confronting pieces, Bengston’s Kipu Ahaihi pulls the viewer to its composed and unruffled authority. Clear the museum of all else: this piece could stand alone as a testament to an era and as a masterfully compelling work of art.
11-26-2007
