Take your sense of humor with you when you head to the Orange County Museum of Art in Newport Beach to see "Richard Jackson: Ain't Painting a Pain."
Jackson, based in Sierra Madre, likens the display of his work there as a circus. And that is on purpose.
"Art should be more like an event, like the circus, so that it's an experience and people can take from that and relate what they've seen to other people," Jackson said.
Most of his works there will be destroyed when the exhibit closes on May 5. Which, the artist said, is the right thing to do.
Art, he continued, "should have a time and a place like an event, where it moves on and it doesn't get archived in museum vaults.
Artist Richard Jackson with Alberta Mayo at the opening of "Ain't Painting a Pain" at the Orange County Museum of Art. (Submitted photo)
If you see it, then you see it and it goes away. If you didn't see it, you missed it and it's gone."Jackson has been creating large-scale works since the early 1970s. The current show actually greets museum visitors with a 28-foot-high black Labrador puppy sculpture, which has its rear leg raised on the building. The artist squirted yellow paint on the side of the museum in just the precise alignment to suggest ... well, you know what we mean. The name of the sculpture is "Bad Dog. "
Inside, there are pieces created by paint-spraying machines, sculptures of distressed Degas-style dancers, stacks of canvases in Mayan pyramid style, a maze of tall, paint-splattered walls and even a room completely filled
with clocks, all set to the same time."One thing just leads to another. One project suggests what the next one will be," Jackson said.
The works are an intriguing mix that can evoke discomfort and amazement. But many just cause visitors to laugh out loud.
The artist said that although humor is not the principal goal in his work, it does run freely through many of his pieces. He will not attempt to compare his work to anything that has come
A Ford Pinto takes center stage in "Painting with Two Balls" by Richard Jackson. Photo by Stephan Altenburger. (Photo by Stephan Altenburger)
before. New art, he said, cannot be evaluated by old standards."What's interesting about art is how it's all different, not how it's alike," Jackson said. "I think that's the problem that historians have, they're trying to make connections to the past and one artist to another and so on and that's not what's interesting. What's interesting is how you can't make connections. Nobody agrees on anything and that's the beauty of it. There are no answers. There are no right and wrong ways to do it. "
A good example of Jackson's approach to art was demonstrated when he crashed a remote-controlled model military jet plane into a 20-foot canvas wall in a field near the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in January 2012. Video
Richard Jackson splashed buckets full of blue paint across his work to complete the environment of "The Blue Room." From the Rubell Family Collection, Miami. Photo courtesy of OCMA. (Photo courtesy of OCMA)
footage, photographs, the wall and plane debris were later displayed at the Armory Center for the Arts. For Jackson, the joy of this creation, as with all his work, was in the process."I don't really have any attachment to work when it's finished," he said. "All my involvement with my work is during the process of making it, so once it's done I'm not interested in it any more. That's somebody else's job. "
Jackson grew up in a farming family and enjoyed building and being outdoors. His career was in construction; art was a hobby for most of his life until he started to devote himself to it full time 10 years ago. Jackson likes hunting deer, duck and pheasant with his two Labrador retrievers. A commentary
Blood red hues reign in "The Laundry Room (Death of Marat)" by Richard Jackson. Photo by Stephan Altenburger. (Photo by Stephan Altenburger)
on deer hunting is another featured sculpture in the exhibit; the deer shoot back (with paint).Jackson recently bought a car wash unit for his next project. True to form, he may turn it into something else. He is considering setting it up to paint cars, then to crush them.
"People can buy a car to go through there and then they can have a sculpture come out the other end," he said. "We'll see who buys a Prius and who buys an Escalade and we'll see who is willing to ruin a Ferrari. It might get competitive, you never know."
Jackson then muses about what he will do with his "Bad Dog" sculpture. He doesn't really want to destroy it, but he's sure the city won't be pleased if he puts it in his yard at home.
The dog sculpture has put many smiles on the faces of museum visitors. It is, in fact, what has attracted the crowds, and everyone's reaction is different.
"The dog appeals to people who know about art because it's sarcastic about the art establishment," Jackson said. "And for people who don't know anything about art or care anything about that, it's just a big lovable dog peeing on the building."
Want to go?
When: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday and until 8 p.m. Thursday through May 5.
Where: Orange County Museum of Art, 850 San Clemente Drive, Newport Beach.
Admission: $12; $10 seniors.
Information: 949-759-1122; ocma.net.
Ramadan 2012 Michelle Jenneke batman Colorado Shooting News joe paterno British Open MC Chris
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.