Exhibition at the UAM on the CSULB campus - A review of "Traditions Transfigured: The Noh Masks of Bidou Yamaguchi" by Helen Cox

The author of this post

Thoughts on Traditions Transfigured:  The Noh Masks of Bidou Yamaguchi

Review by Helen Cox, January 28, 2014

 I knew nothing of Noh Masks when I went to the gallery, so I read the signs.  I was struck by the goal of the masks:  “incremental innovation within tradition.”  By allowing innovation, there is room for creation and evolving art forms, instead of the emptiness and stagnation in repetition.

 The craftsmanship in the masks is superb.  Innovations are left for the creative aspects; there are strict rules for the craft.  Apparently the use of sandpaper is considered cheating, so the artists who carve these very smooth masks have to be highly skilled and patient.  Their skills extend to painting.  Each strand of hair must be painted with one brush stroke so the thickness of the hair does not change, as it would if the brush were lifted and then replaced.  I can imagine the hours of practice required!  After all that careful work, the masks are then stressed with a brush and a secret formula, to make them look old.

First on display is Yamaguchi’s skill in the traditional art form. Then, the artist became interested in transforming two-dimensional Japanese images into three-dimensional masks. Not only did he apply the Noh mask craft to something new, but he demonstrated innovation within the construction of the mask, employing a modern interpretation to facial features. For example, the nose on the Sharaku print mask is bent to the side, as it was drawn in the three-quarter view of the print. The mouths of the women end half-way across the face. This distortion is meaningful, not random. When viewed from a particular perspective, the mask looks identical to the print or painting.

This woodcut Actor Print is on display with masks, Sharaku, Japan, Oban size, circa 1794

In his third stage, Yamaguchi transformed female icons from European art into Noh masks.  He hit all the big ones:   DaVinci, Vermeer, Velasquez, Münch, Botticelli, etc.  His recreation of the Mona Lisa was spectacular.  I enjoyed the mask more than I enjoyed the original painting (seen ten feet away, through glass and surrounded by idiots with their phone cameras who did not even look at the painting).   He brought back the element in the Mona Lisa that got art historians so excited about the image, before it became a cliché of itself.

 When he created the European art, he even matched the brush strokes to those in the paintings, and of course he aged them in proper Noh tradition.  Some of his innovations were not as successful.  He missed the delicate sensuality of the lips in the Vermeer portrait and made them too red and sloppy, as though her lipstick smeared.  Her tongue is grotesque.  Maria Teresa (Velasquez) had a more bulbous nose and her lips were not quite so turned up; in the mask, she was given a “nose job” which took away some of her personality.  Overall, however, the masks were fantastic, alive, and beautiful.  It was a wonderful way to re-experience images that have become overly familiar.

Note from RS - This notable exhibition will be on display at the UAM until April 13th & was curated under the guidance of Professor Kendall Brown (Interim Director of the Museum Studies Program) by Art History graduate students Karenina Karyodi, Lauren Nochalla, Kristy Odett & Ariana Rizo. A published catalogue accompanies the exhibition & is on sale at the University Art Museum. 

Los Angeles 2013 Printers Fair

Despite the heat there was a big turnout, Saturday, October 5 for the 5^th Annual Los Angeles Printers Fair.  According to the program the event is the largest letterpress event of its kind in the US.

Kevin Bradley of Church of Type was the guest artist of the fair and demonstrated on a Vandercook Press.

I stopped at CSULB MFA Alumni Camilla Taylor (http://www.camilla-taylor.com ) and Erynn Richardson‘s (http://www.erynnrichardson.com  ) booth specializing in quality handmade and printed ephemera – and came away with some of Camilla’s very cool bumble bee wing earrings. 

On a side note…..if you have time it is well worth checking out Camilla’s blog on cutting linoleum scraps....  http://horsefleshproductions.blogspot.com/2012/07/catman-print-from-linoleum-scraps.html

But back to the fair -- also among the many exhibitors was another CSULB BFA graduate, Alex Fridrich, representing Angels Gate Cultural Center (http://www.angelsgateart.org/).  Angels Gate in San Pedro is a fully equipped printmaking studio for intaglio, relief, monotype and silkscreen printing.

The International Museum of Printing  which celebrates its 25^th anniversary this year is located at 315 W Torrance Blvd, Carson, CA 90745 310-515-7166 and is open throughout the year.  http://www.printmuseum.org

Rethinking the Multiple, An Exhibition at Occidental College

This sure-to-be-spectacular exhibition opens in Los Angeles' Weingart Gallery on the campus of Occidental College, Wednesday 10/9.  From 5 - 8 PM, there will be an installation performance provided by Paul Mullowney, one of the artists whose work is being displayed. (I'm assuming both the seriously long toes, and the image they stand upon belong to him.)
The other three artists are also exceptionally quite fine - Lynne Allen teaches printmaking at  Rutgers University in New Jersey, and uses non-traditional materials to create prints that investigate her Native American heritage.
Phyllis McGibbon, another East Coast denizen, holds forth on the same subject at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, and is a fellow Dürer enthusiast. Her visual work is largely concerned with how printed images manage to "dis"locate and time travel between artists, physical locations, and cultures. (Sounds like the theme of every one of my three hour lectures...) The gleaming baton below, while appearing to be machine tooled, is a rolled copper plate with an image of Dürer's etched into it. The piece glitters on so very many varied levels.
Fred Hagstrom teaches at Carleton College in the great white north of  Minnesota. His artist's statement ends with these two lovely lines - "I want to see the art world become more concerned with passionately held beliefs and beauty, and less concerned with irony or market based strategies. I believe that art should be a part of people's lives, and that it has the power to change the way we view the world."

Directions may be located by visiting: http://www.oxy.edu/page/maps-directions
Should you find yourself at that venue, do let Linda Lyke know that I send my regards.

Soma and Breath: Work by Tim Musso and Camilla Taylor

OPENING RECEPTION October 3, Thursday 6pm
EXHIBITION DATES October 3 – October 29, 2013

"A two person show at the art gallery of Cal Baptist University in Riverside, CA, featuring the artwork of Camilla Taylor and Tim Musso. Coinciding with the Riverside Artwalk."

Both Camilla Taylor and Tim Musso are CSULB alumni, whose main medium is printmaking. When you hear a word 'printmaking' and only think of a nice little image on a small piece of paper, I can assure you that you will probably be caught off guard by those two artists. I will dare not to describe too much about them, but if you are planning on not experiencing their works in person, all I want to tell you is that you might be missing something incredibly amazing.

CBU GALLERY
3737 Main Street Riverside
Suite 101

https://www.facebook.com/events/709481519066324

Untitled II, Tim Musso

Homage to Ernst Haeckel, Tim Musso

The Crowd (Installation View), Camilla Taylor

The Crowd I, Camilla Taylor

https://www.facebook.com/events/709481519066324

NEWTON'S THIRD: A Karmic Interpretation

Opening Reception Oct 12, 2013 7–10PM

Oct 12–Oct 26, 2013

This is a big group exhibition with works inspired by "duality, connectivity, and universal balance". Many of the featured artists are CSULB alumni, some MFA printmaking, MFA/BFA illustration, etc.

Location

F+ Gallery

661 Poinsettia St., Santa Ana, California 92701

Curator 

Jennie Cotterill

Artists

Aaron Brown | Alex Gardner  | Autumn Buck | Camilla Taylor | Catherine Yi | Chanta deFelice | Corrie Walton | C.R. Stecyk !!! | Diana Danielis | Fred Rose | Javier Beltran | Jennifer Reifsneider | Josh Grelock | Julius Tanag | McLean Fahnestock | Megan LeMaster | Micah Kersh | Nancy Chiu | Nicole Goux | Nicole Sloan | Patti McCandless | Paul Alvarez III | Paul Aguilera | Sara M Lyons | Steven Pillai | Susanne Melanie Berry | Trace Mendoza | Ya-el Pedroza | Yevgeniya Mikhailik 

Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/events/432532813525674/

Give Up 

An exhibition of Carleton Christy's evocative drawings and sculptures is currently on view at Whittier College's Greenleaf Gallery. The show runs until 10/11. Hours for the gallery are from 9:30 - 5:00 PM. It is located at 13406 Philadelphia Street in Whittier CA.

Carleton received his MFA in our Printmaking Area and prior to studying at CSULB, studied with renowned artist Wayne Kimball (lithographer extraordinaire) at Brigham Young University in Utah. His work in the exhibition incorporates text & visually explores the concept of what it means to "give up."

Moments Unchained: Painting and Drawings by Yu Ji

Sept 8–Oct 31

Yu Ji, our life drawing and painting professor at CSULB, is currently exhibiting at Founders Hall Art Gallery of Soka University. His works take very figurative approach to explore contemporary urban life through the media of painting and drawing.

"He was influenced by both contemporary American figurative painters and several New York formalist artists whose teaching challenged him to deepen his understanding of pictorial expression and establish an open perspective for professional studio practice."

Visit here for more info.