Thirsty Thursday at 49 Geary Street
“Good Afternoon Sir, Would you like a drink? Enjoy your time exhibiting the gallery spaces.” The elevator doors close, tilting my head towards the sky letting the liquid ascend my rational thought. Working from the fifth floor and going down I experienced a drunken social group meeting of admires, collectors, those forced to be there, lovers, haters, wannabes, the envious, and those there for the free booze. I will be explaining my experience working down the levels and the works/galleries that gave myself interest/inspiration at the location of 49 Geary in downtown San Francisco.
Pieces of the art that interact the audience solely stand out because generally they have a larger size and the audience literally has to avoid running into it on thirsty Thursdays. Linda Flemming currently has an instillation/sculpture piece of Storm Powder Coated Steel (Dimensions about 8 ft. by 8 ft.) at the Brian Gross Fine Art Gallery. This gallery generally has large-scale abstract work involving the brush/tool to apply paint or material to do the work for creation of image. This instillation work by Linda Flemming causes the audience to walk through the center of the piece as play structure. As I sipped on my glass of wine, I was brought back to the time of my memories of play structures in elementary school; sense the material of Flemming’s piece was the same as those structures of my past. The bright yellow is also a symbolic color for a warning or playing, but please play safe. In my opinion this work needed better lighting and a title other then untitled to give added affect/explanation for the audience. The Form was dynamic and fluid resembling the lines of the sculpture. I wonder if this work would have been more audience interactive on the more happening 4th and 3rd floors. “Time for another drink sir.”
Getting distracted loosing my group beginning to wonder if they came to experience the “Art” or something less academic. Finishing off the Fifth Floor experiencing a few more inspiring landscape studies at Ellins Ellis and Smith Gallery. I enjoyed how Tom Monaghan and Frances McCormack showed their studies for the development of their larger paintings.
“Wow these steps had to spiral and be steep, better not spill the party foul or I’ll look like some amateur wannabe.” The 4th floor smelt like cheap wine, bad breath, smug attitudes, and body heat. Winding my way around looking for something that has that look that I feel like and involves a radical depiction of the human figure. “The hallways are so crammed, I need somewhere to think.”
Toomey Tarrell Fine Art Gallery is large and had their lighting set right for the current loose mood of the public. Ursula O’ Farrell’s show “Beneath the Surface” which involves large-scale oil paintings of the figures in either of present everyday life or an out the ordinary setting. “Present Everyday life” to me is generally middle class average ness, from the scenery and none glamorous appeals of cheap motels. O’ Farrell’s techniques of creating these works showed the expressionism of the known style coming from the ideals behind Bay Area Figurative Painting developed from 1950s abstract expressionism. This movement involves depiction of the figure but allowing the brush to control the look and feel of the painting with more vivid hue incorporation to the works (not matching the hue of the paint but the saturation) showing the movement the artist uses to create a controlled but “loose” mark. These works are generally larger then life depictions to allow the abstract expression of the painterly brushstrokes come forth in the piece. The actual movement of the painter creates the stroke for that moment in time. A work that stood different to O’Farrell’s other pieces at this showing was her “Homage to Nathan” (painting above) is 72” by 54” aesthetically stood out to me from the content of Female figure gleamed up for the night but a posture of frustration. This work gives myself a relation for ideas of “cool” and my personal past lovers/difficulties of frustrations in city nightlife. The form of the figure is close to the iconic shape of a triangle, which gives subliminal power for the sub-conscious of the audience. The style of the more “painterly” from the brushstroke, which is inspiring to myself as a painter that is currently depicting the figure in more “realistic” values. O’Farrell looks as if she was having fun with the actual act of painting. I noticed that these works were most viewed by public out of all the pieces/galleries inside the building, because of quietness of the onlookers along with the great flow of movement around the gallery. Maybe it was the alcohol and the hues of paint that created a large audience, but these works re-ignited/inspired to follow a current study of depicting the figure in an abstract expressionist manner for myself.
Beginning to sway with the crowd as I become distracted from taking in the works of art in an inspiring manner. I develop a feeling of being another lost sole in the art world with only hopes that some fish will take a bit of my bate. Coasting through the last levels and galleries, I finish my descent of 49 Geary as I take that last gulp. Crossing the street to admire more “art” I find myself in a bending of time from the works of Joan Brown at the Paula Anglim Galley. Brown’s works on display were of her depictions of going about the Abstract Expressionist figure paintings of 1950s to 1970s. For myself coming from O’Farrell’s present day re-ignition of this past movement was a great understanding of how techniques have been modified over the last 60 years. Brown’s work is of very large in scale ranging around 10’ by 10’ and of “all over” painted style. Her works were intriguing but not of my liking. Depicting the figure in an over general manner along with the oversized shapes of color. I am intrigued by depth (not flatness feel) and strong understandings of painting. Brown new how to move paint in her pieces but were of nothing special to my aesthetic liking. The thing I enjoyed most about her showing of paintings is how two works residing next to each other that are fourteen years of difference in age. “Gypsy Nativity” (below left) from the year 1960 is consistent of her other large bodied abstract expressionist figurative work found inside the Anglim Gallery. These works were consistent of a continuous simple depiction of the human figure in close to life size proportion in a flat atmospheric scenery. Fourteen years later Brown created a work called “Woman in a sharp Light (1974)” (below right) which is not consistent with the other bodies of work from how the paint is not “loose” and the scenery is easily able to depict. The painting does have the same flatness as the others because of unchanging saturation in pigments to create a sense of realistic depth. These works put together makes myself believe that this artist was inspired by the practices of French artist Matisse from her use of color and flatness feeling of the over all painting.
“Wow this booze is really hitting me, I can’t even take strong notes anymore. Better get out of hear before I embarrass myself. Am I the youngest person in here? Why am I the only one here looking at the art? At least these stairs aren’t that steep. I lost my group again.”
