Ron Cooper @ Franklin Parrasch Gallery, NYC

Ron Cooper

Franklin Parrasch Gallery, NYC

January 29 - March 13, 2015

Franklin Parrasch Gallery (New York) presents an exhibition of recent works by New Mexico-based artist Ron Cooper. Not keen to indulge the expectations of others, Cooper is a true Renaissance man: artist, homesteader, producer of superlative mezcal, vehicle enthusiast, lone wolf. It’s no wonder his work deftly rides the fine line between the “Light and Space” and “Finish Fetish” monikers, both conceptually hard hitting and eye candy-tasty. Cooper - like his contemporaries Robert Irwin, James Turrell, and Doug Wheeler - is fluent in the uniquely Southern Californian minimalist visual language; yet he does not limit his art making to any certain boundaries.

Ron Cooper emerged into the Los Angeles art scene in the mid-1960s following study at Chouinard Art Institute with fellow students Mary Corse, Allan Ruppersberg, and Wheeler. At this time, Cooper directed his focus upon two geometric forms: the square – shallow, poured-resin constructions he named “Light Traps”, and the rectangle – exaggerated “Vertical Bar” forms made of Plexiglas, upon which smooth, translucent mica-laden pigments were applied “like the exhalation of a breath.” Impelled to make pieces relating to a human scale, and inspired by the full-swing growth of 1960s SoCal tract housing developments, Cooper conceived of these bodies of work with stock building materials in mind. The “Light Trap” pieces consider the depth of 2x4 framing with standard drywall facing; the “Vertical Bar” series, the actual measurements of the common 4x4 lumber stock.

These bars, acknowledged early on by visionary gallerist Richard Bellamy, were first exhibited in a group show entitled “Arp to Artschwager” (cur. Bellamy at Noah Goldowsky Gallery, 1967); soon thereafter, they were the focus of a solo exhibition at Los Angeles’ ACE Gallery. The current grouping of Vertical Bars in this exhibition recall the proportions and structure of the early bars; in this series, however, Ron Cooper has employed contemporary surface pigments that allow greater potential and range in their chatoyant properties.

Franklin Parrasch Gallery

53 East 64th Street, New York

www.franklinparrasch.com

Craig Kauffman: Works from the 1960s at Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York

Craig Kauffman: Works from the 1960s
Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York
November 11 - December 21, 2004

Franklin Parrasch Gallery presents an exhibition of select works from the mid to late 1960s by Los Angeles born artist Craig Kauffman. This exhibition of six works provides a small window to view the developing concepts and discoveries Craig Kauffman made within this intriguing and productive five year period.

Craig Kauffman began his career in the mid-1950's as an abstract painter exhibiting in Los Angeles first at Felix Landau Gallery then at Ferus Gallery, throughout its nine year history. Craig Kauffman's early work explored figure/ground relationships as defined by color, saturation and image density. By the mid 1960's Craig Kauffman became intrigued by commercial plastic signs in the Los Angeles area, particulary with vacuum formed plastic in which figurative elements were rendered in vibrantly colored relief along a background plane.

Craig Kauffman's initial forays with industrially produced plastic resulted in a series of flat rectangular planes embossed with convex linear (somewhat phallic) imagery, the versos of which were printed in vibrantly contrasting colors. These works, while pioneering in their execution retained many of the aesthetic gestures addressed in his previous paintings and drawings.

It was not until his next series of mold-formed plastic works, euphemistically referred to as "Washboards," that Craig Kauffman abandoned altogether the identifiable centralized image and embraced the ambiguous depth of field inherently produced by this industrially colored medium. These undulating rectangular reliefs create a funhouse mirror-like effect with color and light.

The convex reliefs from the Washboard series establishes a basis from which later experimentations with vacuum formed plastic led to a series of horizontal ellipses Craig Kauffman called "Bubbles." Merging qualities of pigment, plastic, and light, the "Bubble" successfully produced a range of formal and spatial arrangements that furthered this artist's ongoing investigations of perception. In these works (produced from 1967-1968) Craig Kauffman ceased all application of exterior pigmentation, as well as any iconic lines or gestural imagery. Using an industrial sprayer Craig Kauffman painted the interiors of these lozenge shaped forms with a specialized enamel commercially known as "Morano." "Morano," a specialized pearlescent lacquer, produced an exquisitely chatoyant surface that simultaneously reflects and refracts light. It was a toxic, extremely expensive material and had only a short lived commercial application in the then popular spector of hot rod industry.

Craig Kauffman's plastic forms once again morphed and evolved. He realized that plastic's innate tendency to atrophe from its own weight could be used to create a loop shape by slumping a 1/4 inch sheet over wire. Gradations of altering colors and the confluence of the back ground plane and the foreground (looping) plane vary the viewer's chromatic experience based on proximity and light. Cascading bands of translucent (Rothko-esque) pigmentation on the slumped plastic sheet bathe the background wall in varegated color.

Over the past two years Craig Kauffman's early work has been reexamined in a number of group exhibitions including "Ferus" at Gagosian Gallery in 2002, "LA's Finish Fetish" at Franklin Parrasch Gallery in 2003, and "A Minimal Future? Art as Object 1958 - 1968," Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles the spring of 2004.

FRANKLIN PARRASCH GALLERY
20 W 57th St (between 5th and 6th aves.), New York, NY 10019
www.franklinparraschgallery.com

Rosanjin Kitaoji: Ceramic and Calligraphic Works from the 1940’s and 1950’s at Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York

Rosanjin Kitaoji: Ceramic and Calligraphic Works from the 1940’s and 1950’s
Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York
September 20 - October 19, 2002

Rosanjin Kitaoji (1883-1959) is internationally recognized as one of the most influential and illustrious Japanese ceramic artists of the 20th Century. Franklin Parrasch Gallery presents over twenty original ceramic and calligraphic works by Rosanjin Kitaoji in the first United States exhibition of this artist’s work since 1972. A full-color catalog of this exhibition including an essay by Ken Price (one of the numerous American artists influenced by Rosanjin Kitaoji) is available.

In the Zen tradition, Rosanjin Kitaoji focused his energies on an array of disciplines including seal engraving, calligraphy, publishing, culinary arts and pottery. As an acclaimed epicurean, who established a private eating club in Tokyo, Rosanjin Kitaoji developed a heightened appreciation of ceramic vessels and, in particular, pottery of the ancient Japanese masters. The Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 led to the decimation of his Gourmet Club along with his vast collection of functional antique ceramics. In 1925 he set out to open what would eventually be the most famous restaurant in Japan. In the course of planning, he decided to create all new ceramic wares to enhance the quality of the food he served and create a total sensual experience for his guests.

After considerable research and with the help of Living Treasure designee Toyozo Arakawa, Rosanjin Kitaoji excavated ancient kilns in Korea and present day Gifu-Prefecture, relocating them to his own property in Yamazaki. As he was not a production potter, Rosanjin Kitaoji brought many of the best ceramicists of his time to his compound to take advantage of these ancient kilns and their ability to achieve the firing effects of previous periods. The result was a marriage of glaze-colors and patterns reminiscent of various Japanese periods, but the forms were uniquely Rosanjin Kitaoji’s creation. It was Rosanjin Kitaoji’s gifts with the brush and calligraphy that not only distinguished the surfaces, but also the basis of the gestures (lines, bulges, weights and balances) of his clay forms.

Much has been discussed of Rosanjin Kitaoji’s painful and tumultuous childhood. Born under the name Kitaoji Fusajiro in 1883 to Seiso and Tome Kitaoji, he was the unexpected result of an affair his mother had with a funerary worker in Kyoto. His father was so shamed by this dishonor that he took his own life prior to Rosanjin Kitaoji’s birth. His mother was financially unable to care for Rosanjin Kitaoji and left the young boy in the care of a local policeman who shortly thereafter also committed suicide. Rosanjin Kitaoji was eventually placed in the foster care of a local sign carver, where he arguably received his first artistic training. In the end, however, all of his experiences with family and marital relationships were by and large tragic and unsuccessful. His best rapports were with artists and art (including several years in the early 50’s that Isamu Noguchi lived and worked on Rosanjin Kitaoji Kitaoji’s compound), and even then only when and with whom his exacting standards were maintained.

In 1954 a solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York brought Rosanjin Kitaoji to the United States and later led to meetings with Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall both of whom were admirers and collectors of his pottery. Despite all his accomplishments in pottery, he turned down the Japanese government’s attempts to designate him as a Living National Treasure in 1955 and then again in 1956. After his death in 1959, Rosanjin Kitaoji’s work was exhibited in the United States; in 1965 at the M. H. de Young Museum in San Francisco; and in 1972 at the Japan Society Gallery in New York City. Concurrent with this exhibition, the Setagaya Art Museum in Tokyo, Japan is mounting a show of their permanent collection of Rosanjin Kitaoji’s work.

FRANKLIN PARRASCH GALLERY
20 West 57 Street, New York, NY 10019
www.franklinparrasch.com