Catalogue - "Sherie' Franssen: Driving Into the Ocean"

So this'll be my last entry for catalogue fever. ...and your last chance to go see this show as it closes January 31.

"Sherie' Franssen: Driving Into the Ocean" at Dolby-Chadwick Gallery, San Fransisco is a remarkably straightforward painting show, and the accompanying catalogue is equally so. I've liked her work for a while now, and I'm impressed that she works in relative autonomy. She lives and works in Orange County, and enjoys success and attention, but isn't so overboard- hyped that it just gets annoying. She's got really great cadaver drawings on her website too.

The catalogue, 8.5" x 11", full color with a short forward, is of high quality and worth buying if you are a fan of painting.  However be warned that it doesn't contain every work in the show. "Waist High", 2008 (77" x 81"), which isn't in the catalogue, was one of my personal picks, as it was a little bit of a departure (from her usual format of overall compositions) with a viscous, buttery blob of brushwork in the upper-center of the canvas. Even the size of the brush is a lot bigger, so it feels like more a bold decision, and offers sort of a resting place.  


Sherie' Franssen, "Waist High", 2008, 77" x 81". Courtesy of Dolby Chadwick Gallery

Catalogue - "Abstract & Figurative - Highlights of Bay Area Painting"

3rd entry in my catalogue fever installments...

"Abstract & Figurative - Highlights of Bay Area Painting", at John Berggruen until February 28, is a jaw-dropping collection of my all time favorite painters from the Bay Area, and maybe ever. There are a lot of paintings in the show from private collectors, and unless a museum (and it would probably have to be in California) organizes another mega exhibit, the paintings will probably go back into privacy for a while.

Familiarize yourself already. Fortunately, the catalogue for the exhibit will give you a leg up. It's a 10" x 10" softcover, and all artwork has been re-photographed just for the publication. No repeats, or archival images. Steven Nash wrote the introductory essay, and after that are just plates, plates, plates. Nice ones, too. My only qualm with the show is that Joan Brown is conspicuously absent, even though it's just because nothing of hers was available, and I was a little less moved by the inclusion of Wayne Theibaud just because his visual treatment is so different.

Contact the gallery for a copy and get yours now. $30 bucks.


David Park, "Figures in a Landscape", 1953, oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 35 1/2 inches, courtesy of John Berggruen Gallery

Catalogue - "Amy Sillman: Third Person Singular"

2nd entry for catalogue fever.

"Amy Sillman - Third Person Singular" at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution.

Note: If, like me, you're on the west coast (and, like me, unable to have seen this particular exhibition of works), New York painter Amy Sillman is currently one of six contemporary painters in "Oranges and Sardines" at Hammer Museum. Go see it if you get the chance, it's up until February 8.

The catalogue for "Third Person Singular" is a 7" x 9" hardcover edition with full color plates, and contains an interview between the artist and Ian Berry, and an essay by Anne Ellegood. The reproduction and page quality is really nice.

Her paintings are honest, with little dogma, and a nice variation on the concerns of abstract expressionism. There is history, decision-making, and discovery. I just feel like looking at a painting should be a journey that takes the viewer through the various intellectual and physical processes of the artist. This is her expressing with paint what words cannot do.

Oddly enough, I'm glad I chose this one over the catalogue for "Oranges and Sardines". It just seemed like the better choice...
Check www.si.edu to get your copy.


Amy Sillman, "S", 2007, Courtesy Smithsonian Institute

Catalogue - "Gerhard Richter: Paintings from Private Collections"

I'm becoming an exhibition catalogue fiend. I'm even starting to like them a little more than the big-fat monographs and surveys. In four upcoming blog entries I will talk about the catalogues (current and past) that I've scooped up recently:

"Gerhard Richter - Paintings From Private Collections", Hatje Cantz leans a little closer to being a monograph that accompanies an exhibition. There are over 80 works spanning 40 years of the artist's career. There are essays by Gotz Adriani and Dieter Schwartz. I don't think this exhibit (which judging from the catalogue looks remarkable) will travel to the US, but we should keep our eyes open (and please correct me if I'm wrong). Even though there are some Richter paintings that I am totally annoyed by, they are all valid in the realm of contemporary painting, and then there are enough that are absolutely fantastic! Hey, my opinion is based on my own criteria for liking a painting, so it's all open for discussion, and I do appreciate comments.

Hardcover, 7.5 x 11.25 in. / 184 pgs / 105 color / 14 b&w.
Distributed by D.A.P. Check your local artist bookstores and museum stores, or check back with us at Rowan Morrison, I'm thinking of ordering a few...


Cover image courtesy of D.A.P