IN A FUNK:
SAM MAKES A CASE FOR SEATTLE
published on-line at PostAlley.org
The large, ambitious Poke in the Eye exhibition at the Seattle Art Museum (through Sept. 2) is an exercise in historical revisionism, making the case that Northwest artists have been unfairly excluded from the Funk Art movement, historically associated with the Bay Area.
The curator, Carrie Dedon, has mined SAM’s back storage for pieces to make her case. Given that “Funk” was more an art-historical concept than a coherent movement, the 100-odd works play together quite nicely. The show has humor, highly evolved craft, and a general sense of irreverence. Funky dogs are much in evidence, along with funky frogs, and one gorgeous glistening funky pig – the last set of animals by California Funk pioneer David Gilhooly,
 Jeffrey Mitchell | The hands-down star of the show is an enormous sculptural installation by local artist Jeffry Mitchell, a piece that has only been on view one other time in the 30-plus years since its creation. Nominally inspired by the James Ensor painting “Christ’s Entry into Brussels,” Mitchell’s Savior is a Bozo the Clown figure hanging from the ceiling, arms extended in a gesture of what might be welcome or surrender. |
Behind the colossal clown, whose hands feature bloody stigmata, is a wall-mounted cheering section of hundreds of miniature paper mâché clown heads that are bug-eyed, tongues extended. I heard at least one museumgoer laugh out loud upon catching sight of the piece – how often does that happen in an art museum? Given its complexity (and fragility), it might be many more years before the work is on display again.
Dedon creates many inspired CA/WA pairings. The cartoony Wild West canvases of the prolific Eastern Washington artist Gaylen Hansen clearly share some essential DNA with the baroque extravaganzas of California painter Roy de Forest. What Hansen does with lively, gestural paint, de Forest accomplishes with all manner of canvas accretions – beads, balloons, hoses, and puppets, among other things. Both artists are essentially satirists, creating a world of anthropomorphic animals sharing the stage with their outmatched human counterparts, turning the narrative of man vs. nature on its head.
Dedon creates many inspired CA/WA pairings. The cartoony Wild West canvases of the prolific Eastern Washington artist Gaylen Hansen clearly share some essential DNA with the baroque extravaganzas of California painter Roy de Forest. What Hansen does with lively, gestural paint, de Forest accomplishes with all manner of canvas accretions – beads, balloons, hoses, and puppets, among other things. Both artists are essentially satirists, creating a world of anthropomorphic animals sharing the stage with their outmatched human counterparts, turning the narrative of man vs. nature on its head.
Bruce Naumann
Clay art, a favorite medium for funk artists, well outnumbers the paintings on view. It was not so long ago that ceramics were seen purely as a craft, put to the service of creating useful objects like cups and bowls. All that changed in the mid-’50s, and remarkable work followed, with both Seattle and California leading the charge.
SAM is fortunate to have several signature works by California artist Robert Arneson, considered the most important ceramic art pioneer. Both his spectacular and hilarious self-portrait bust on a Roman column, and his scatological ceramic toilet, show Arneson at his witty, confrontational best. If any artist embodies the spirit of the artistic counterculture, it is Arneson.
Dedon gives us full opportunity to appreciate the work of Arneson’s clay contemporaries in the Northwest. There are over a dozen works by the late UW professor Howard Kottler, ranging over several decades and representing a wide variety of approaches. A glittering, metallic glaze creates a preciousness that wittily contrasts with the strangeness of the abstracted figure sculpture, “Kottler Posing as a Cubist,” along with a fire engine red dog nuzzling an emaciated red skull in “Skull Doggery.” “Baroque Braque” imagines a Analytic Cubist painting as it might look in three dimensions.
SAM is fortunate to have several signature works by California artist Robert Arneson, considered the most important ceramic art pioneer. Both his spectacular and hilarious self-portrait bust on a Roman column, and his scatological ceramic toilet, show Arneson at his witty, confrontational best. If any artist embodies the spirit of the artistic counterculture, it is Arneson.
Dedon gives us full opportunity to appreciate the work of Arneson’s clay contemporaries in the Northwest. There are over a dozen works by the late UW professor Howard Kottler, ranging over several decades and representing a wide variety of approaches. A glittering, metallic glaze creates a preciousness that wittily contrasts with the strangeness of the abstracted figure sculpture, “Kottler Posing as a Cubist,” along with a fire engine red dog nuzzling an emaciated red skull in “Skull Doggery.” “Baroque Braque” imagines a Analytic Cubist painting as it might look in three dimensions.
