OCTOBER 01 - OCTOBER 30, 1999
Artists Who Transformed American Culture
Untitled #2
DBK-008-OC
"San Francisco ... breeds the volatile rebelliousness that has given birth to the most revolutionary social and cultural movements of the past two generations...In keeping with the singularity of its character and history, the San Francisco Bay Area has developed a distinctive and vigorous artistic tradition." (Thomas Albright, Art in the San Francisco Bay Area 1945-1980, 1985).
Hackett-Freedman Gallery honors the rich legacy and lasting influence of the San Francisco Art Institute October 1 - 30, 1999, with an exhibit of select works by many of the outstanding artists who have taught, lectured, and visited there over the past 50 years. "Homage," will showcase signature paintings by Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Richard Diebenkorn, Joan Brown, Wayne Thiebaud, Elmer Bischoff, David Park, William Wiley, and others from the periods they were at the Institute; a full-color catalogue with excerpts from outstanding studies of Bay Area artists will accompany the exhibition.
A portion of exhibition proceeds will endow the Hackett-Freedman Faculty Development Award to support and encourage professional faculty activities and studio endeavors for Institute artists.
"In organizing this exhibition, we seek to show the rich, ongoing exchange between the Art Institute, the Bay Area and the national culture," says Gallery Director Tracy Freedman. "San Francisco has always embraced radical and independent thought, and the Art Institute has been a vital center for experimentation and artistic development--free of the constraints of New York for over 50 years," says Freedman.
Immediately following World War II, the Art Institute, then called the California School of Fine Arts, emerged as the west coast center for avant-garde and contemporary art. Art Institute Director Douglas MacAgy (1945-50) championed a new generation of artists such as Clyfford Still, Hassel Smith and David Park, whose work rebelled against the New York art establishment and was strongly grounded in direct, unmediated experience. McAgy also brought many of the leading New York Abstract Expressionists, such as Mark Rothko, Robert Motherwell and Ad Reinhardt to lecture at the Institute at this time, introducing eastern and western abstract artists to one another, and permanently influencing postwar American art on both coasts.
The Art Institute nurtured San Francisco's own unique approach to Abstract Expressionism, and it fostered a free-spirited, independent and non-commercial identity that artists from David Park and Richard Diebenkorn to David Ireland, Enrique Chagoya and Mildred Howard exemplify today.
"By showcasing some extraordinary historical and contemporary works from the past 50 years, we hope to illuminate the connections from teacher to student, artist to artist, and artist to city that the Art Institute makes possible," says Gallery Director Michael Hackett.
The show will include a rarely-exhibited Interior with Two Figures by Elmer Bischoff from 1965, as well as Woman with Teacup by David Park from 1958. Edward Dugmore's abstract Untitled, 1950, will be shown, along with Still's precursor to abstract work, Houses at Nespelem, 1936 and an early abstraction by Sam Francis. Two rare abstractions by Richard Diebenkorn as well as Woman Head, Blue Background 1963, are also included. Works from the 1960's and 70s include a Slantstep drawing by William Wiley, commemorating his infamous invention and works by De Forest, Hudson and Shaw. Wall notes offering the context and history of many works in the show will also be included.
