David Richard Gallery | News

February 24, 2015
Persistence of Vision
Art & Antiques, March 2015

News

Persistence of Vision
Art & Antiques, March 2015

When the Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted the exhibition “The Responsible Eye” in 1965, curator William Seitz could not have imagined that it's impact would persist, like an afterimage on the retina, 50 years later. The show, which launched "Op Art,” helped bring artists such as Richard Anuszkiewicz, Julian Stanczak, Victor Vasarely, and Bridget Riley to prominence. This year, David Richard Gallery of Santa Fe is marking the anniversary of the epoch-making MoMA show with not one but four exhibitions over the course of the year, not only revisiting the original work but analyzing and contextualizing Op Art as a historical phenomena.

On February 25, the gallery opened the first exhibition in the series titled "Post Op: The Responsive Eye Fifty Years After,” which will run through April 4. For each of the 16 artists, it presents a work from the 1960s along with one from later in the artist’s career. Among the works on view will be (shown here clockwise from top to left) Francis Celentano's Elliptical Kinetic Painting, from 1967, Oli Sihvonen’s Elegy (017) from 1988, and Richard Anuszkiewicz’s Exact Quantity, from 1963. Among other artists are Hannes Beckmann, Karl Benjamin, Ernst Benkert, Lorser Feitelson, Francis Hewitt, Mon Levinson, Ed Mieczkowski, and Tadasky.

The second exhibition will feature 1960s artwork from around 16 of the original American artist included in "The Responsive Eye" alongside art from the ‘60s and ‘70s by friends and colleagues who were working in a similar vein at the time but were not in the MoMA show, including Charles Hinman, Leo Valedor, Mario Yrissary, Larry Zox, and June Harwood. The third installment will show later-career work from artist who were in “The Responsive Eye” alongside work by contemporary artists who are inspired by the Op approach, such as Beverly Fishman, Sanford Wurmfeld, Robert Swain, and Gabrielle Evertz. The last show in the series will present the work of international artists who were included in “The Responsive Eye”.

Gallery co-owner David Eichholtz says, "The main thing that's driving my interest is not a celebration per se of the historical effect of ‘The Responsive Eye’ but the desire to contextualize a couple of things – that these artists really pursued visual perception seriously as a lifelong ambition, and that younger artists continue to find hard-edge geometric are compelling and imbue it with content."

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Art & Antiques, March 2015

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January 17, 2017
Globalocation: Celebrating 20 Years of Artnauts
J. Willard Marriott Library
The University of Utah, 01/17/2017

The University of Utah’s J. Willard Marriott Library will host the art exhibition Globalocation: Celebrating 20 Years of Artnauts, Jan. 20-March 3.

Artnauts, an art collective formed 20 years ago by George Rivera, professor of art and art history at the University of Colorado, Boulder, consists of 300 global artists who serve as goodwill ambassadors, acknowledging and supporting victims of oppression worldwide. Their creativity has generated over 230 exhibitions across five continents. Five faculty members from the U’s Department of Art and Art History are members of the collective, Sandy Brunvand, Beth Krensky, V. Kim Martinez, Brian Snapp and Xi Zhang.

Globalocation derives from “Globalocational Art” — a concept used by the Artnauts to refer to their exhibitions in international venues. It is the mission of the Artnauts to take art to places of contention, and this anniversary exhibition is a sample of places where they have been and themes they have addressed.

“The Artnauts could not exist without the commitment of the artists in the collective to a common vision of the transformative power of art,” said Rivera. “The Artnauts make their contribution with art that hopefully generates a dialogue with an international community on subjects that are sometimes difficult to raise.”

Krensky, associate department chair of the Art and Art History Department, had the opportunity to travel with Rivera in Chile as part of an Artnauts project, working with mothers who were searching for their children who had mysteriously disappeared during a time of political unrest.

“When I travelled to Chile in 1998, George and I spent an afternoon with the Mothers of the Disappeared, and the meeting changed my life,” said Krensky. “It was from that moment on that I placed a picture of them on my desk to look at every day. I was so moved by what they each had lost — a son, a brother, a father — and yet what remained for them was a deep, deep well of love. They were fierce warriors and stood up to the government to demand the whereabouts and information of the people who had disappeared, but they lived within profound love.”

The 20th anniversary exhibition at the Marriott Library is a retrospective of the traveling works the Artnauts have toured around the globe. The exhibition will be located on level three of the library. The opening reception is open to the public and will be held on Friday, Jan 20, 4-6 p.m. Rivera will speak at 4 p.m.

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