Los Angeles, CA–An ambitious museum-scale exhibition entitled “Some Assembly Required- Assemblage & Collage” presented by Jack Rutberg Fine Arts in Los Angeles is currently on view through May 31, 2011.
“Some Assembly Required- Assemblage & Collage” features some of the most widely acknowledged contemporary and modern artists associated with the ascent of collage and assemblage.While collage in modern art is cited as having its origins with Picasso’s works of 1911, assemblage and collage have been particularly prevalent since the mid-twentieth century in virtually all aspects of contemporary art, ranging from painting, printmaking and sculpture to installation- from the figurative/narrative to the most ephemeral conceptual art.
Included in this exhibition ofsome sixtyworksby thirty seven artists are those most identified with these disciplines, including Joseph Cornell, Man Ray,Conrad Marca-Relli, Louise Nevelson, Romare Bearden, Hannelore Baron, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella and others.
California artists are particularly evident in their commitment to assemblage and collage, especially since the 1950s and1960s with the emergence of those artists associated with the Beat Generation. Among those in the exhibition are such pioneering artists of assemblage as Gordon Wagner, whose early beach-combing finds and other found objects were combined in a manner that wed abstract expressionism with Wagner’s interest in surrealism; Wallace Berman, often cited as the leading influence of the Beat Generation artists; Bruce Conner, and George Herms- the most significant living artist associated with the Beats. Other California-based artists included in the exhibition are Hans Burkhardt, Llyn Foulkes, Ed Kienholz, and Betye Saar, who early on were particularly responsive to provocative social or political issues, as well as Terry Allen, Larry Bell, Tony Berlant, Claire Falkenstein, MichaelC.McMillen, Ed Moses, Tom Wudl,Alexis Smith and others.
Among the many notable works in the exhibition are rare examples in the medium by Mark Tobey, who is better known for his influential, intimate calligraphic paintings; an important early assemblage/painting by Ed Kienholz; a provocative construction by Claire Falkenstein entitled “Predator”, exhibited at the Whitney Museum in1964; “Lang Vei” a 1967-68 painting by Hans Burkhardt in which the artist employed actual human skulls in his now iconic Viet Nam Series, which art historians cite as being among the most important modern paintings on the subject of war; Irish contemporary painter Patrick Graham’s celebrated monumental and poignant constructed paintings and collaged drawings; and evocative works by the Spanish artist, Jordi Alcaraz, whose recent critically acclaimed U.S. debut exhibition opened new dimensions in contemporary assemblage and collage.
“Some Assembly Required- Assemblage & Collage” presents works spanning seven decades. Through a remarkable range of scale and content, this exhibition affirms the expansiveness of the assemblage and collage in modern and contemporary art as each artist in the exhibition is uniquely identifiable in their respective works.