Curated Art Walk #127

Like many things done at marathon length, a trip to the flea market can turn into an fever pitch death march, a flaneur's heroic odyssey amidst a sea of curiosities, human and object, in which you're blown about by your interests and hunches, until just getting back to your car with your mind intact, if not some captured trophy, seems a triumph.

During six hours under the hot sun at the once-monthly Alameda Flea Market last week, I carted off a succession of things, whose warped eccentricities fun-house mirrored the event's twisted dreaminess. I got there early, and before light dawned, I bought a painted jug lamp for $25. I like painted furniture because it allows me to enjoy a relaxed decoration that I could never tolerate on a formal painting. There are three scenes that encircle this jug like an endless narrative, in which a family of monkeys poses with modernist furniture, watches themselves on TV, and observes the distance through binoculars. The paint handling is milky smooth and the figuration cartoon realism. It's hard to say how old the actual jug is, but the images and the electrical hardware date from the 1970s, that anthropology-obsessed decade which reflected us back to ourselves through entertainments like Reel Family and Planet of the Apes.

           Three long hours later I found a painting by Gordon Wagner, a post-war artist from L.A. best known for his assemblages, which came at the beginning of a tradition that includes George Herms, Ed Kienholz, Wallace Berman, and Betty Saar. It's awkwardly titled Water Pool, probably dates from the early '50s, before Wagner shifted entirely to assemblage. I read it as an essay on pictorial flatness, and an attempt to create an abstract language to represent the depths of consciousness. The top coat, we'll call it, is a coarse black scrim that hangs on the red layer beneath it like a moth eaten sweater. These two layers form the ruddy physical protection for the eerie pond underneath, illuminated in one tiny area by a chartreuse moon, partially obscured to indicate that this inner light is no landscape reflection but some interior glow.

          
Buoyed by the fact that at $175 there is lots of money to be made on a Gordon Wagner, I talked myself into buying a small scale ink and watercolor abstraction from 1964 by John Ihle, a printmaker who taught for many years at San Francisco State. I'm a low wattage fan of Ihle. The works are usually semi-figurative etchings that are hard to sell, but this 7 x 9 inch picture contains a world of interesting decisions, and the seller neglected to research the artist. For $35 I agreed to continue my pro bono employment as superintendent of the isle of lost paintings.

       
     I next stumbled on an older, exurban guy divesting himself of an outsider art collection. Part of me would like to give up on the world of mainstream art and just focus on the weirdoes that fill the pages of Jim Shaw's Thrift Store Art. I never fail to respond to the wrongness of art that's so bad it's good. It must touch on something like the wrongness in me. But in this guy's collection the wrongness was generically reconstituted as style and I wriggled off the hook on everything but two campy pictures inspired by the golden age of Hollywood from the 1990s by someone named Colleen Young. The dealer's speculative biography of the artist was highly unlikely, implying she painted these demanding pictures in her nineties, further placing into doubt the confused story behind the entire collection, which I never could completely put together. And it made me realize that what really I should do is liquidate these lame ass objects I find into an oral history of the sellers' accounts that go with them. I went ahead anyway and popped $75 each for them. Back at my car, I cold see that the artist cheated her way to painterly detail by working on top of collaged pictures of the images. It wasn't like she tried to hide it, I just missed it in the visual scrum of the booth. Even so, the picture's red carpet gaiety and horror vacui kept me entertained.

Comments

[web design kammanahalli]

I wanted to thank you for this special read.I have also bookmarked you for checking out new posts.

[thailand holiday packages]

The post is very informative. It is a pleasure reading it. I have also bookmarked you for checking out new posts.

[web designing banaswadi]

I wish to know more about this because it actually catches my attention. Keep on posting valuable information about this dude! Thank you so much for sharing.

[web design jayanagar]

A good informative post that you have shared and thankful your work for sharing the information. Got some appealing information and would like to give it a try. Applaud your work and keep sharing your information.

[website design jp nagar]

Valuable information ..I am delighted to read this article..thank you for giving us this useful information. Great walk-through. I value this post.

[website design rt nagar]

I need to to thank you for this good read!! I absolutely loved every bit of it. I have you book-marked to check out new things you post…

[Allolvelete]

qboss Hogan Scarpe q http://www.scarpeehoganscarpes.com/
fitlw Doudoune Moncler qxpcx
tvkqw GHD Pas Cher pbrlr
http://www.scarpeehoganscarpes.com/ zdfff
http://www.doudoune-monclerpascherfrss.com/ omqca
http://www.lisseurghdpaschers.info/ ocroq

[MydayFairee]

imyvo Canada Goose Norge e http://www.scarpehoganscarpee.com/
pwfhw Hogan Scarpe eonjg
jjkev Moncler Doudoune dzdbq
http://www.canadagooseenorgee.com/ rtdvf
http://www.scarpehhoganscarpes.com/ fcfxn
http://www.doudoune-monclerppascherfrs.com/ rreii

[Kiu]

Oh Rebecca I'm so sorry! I don't know what that error message means and can't see the cmeomnt in the stuff that Akismet has caught. That is ironic indeed.Thanks for the feedback about Top Commenters as I said to Rob maybe I'll give it a whirl here. Trawling your regular and top cmeomnters for highlights and links is a great practice too. I try and read as many blogs as I can of my readers and regular cmeomnters but every so often I have to cut it back down again to make the reading manageable. Maybe occasional trawls is a better solution.Joanna

[casquette new era]

Gute Blog ... Ihr Blog ist sehr hilfreich ... Ich bin froh, diesen Beitrag sehr nützlich für mich, da es viele Informationen enthält. Ich habe immer lieber um die Qualität der Inhalte und diese Sache, die ich in dir erlaubt, gefunden zu lesen. Thanks for sharing.

[Joicycom]

order an moncler outlet mjlkWoVn [URL=http://moncleroutlet3.webs.com/ - moncler online[/URL - and check coupon code available ceTwDdJv http://moncleroutlet3.webs.com/

[Motrooff]

you will like moncler outlet cgwMmBZQ [URL=http://moncleroutlet3.webs.com/ - moncler[/URL - and get big save JfUgTyoD http://moncleroutlet3.webs.com/

[Erypeshy]

you must read burberry outlet online , just clicks away DuxepnXj http://burberrytrenchcoat5.wordpress.com/