Something Else

:SOMETHING ELSE :

THE ART OF ART WRITING





INTRODUCTION

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CONTRIBUTORS AMIR ABOU-JAOUDE is an undergraduate

20 at Stanford University majoring in art history
and American studies. He is fascinated by
American cinema of the 1950s, primetime soap
operas of the 1980s, the Broadway musicals of
StephenSondheim, and the ballets of George
Balanchine. His paper, A Pure Invention: Japan,
Impressionism, and the West, 1853–1906,
appeared in The History Teacher in November
2016. He has also contributed to the Stanford
University American Studies newsletter, and his
film criticism has been featured in The Stanford
Daily. His current research explores how the
photographer Robert Mapplethorpe employed
classical Greek motifs in his work.

POLLY is a senior currently earninga BA in

Art Practice and minors in Art History and
Human Biology at Stanford University. An oil
painter, she is particularly interested in the role
of religious art in the modern world. Her work
is primarily figurative and deals with ideas
of idealization, beauty, and the sacred. In the
future, she hopes to travel, move back to her
hometown of St. Louis, and fill the walls and
ceilings of churches across America with her
paintings.

SAR A CARRILLO is an undergraduate at LILIA CHANG is, among other things, an R AWLEY CLARK is a junior studying art

Stanford University where she is pursuing indecisive person. She spent much of her practice at Stanford University. Originally
a degree in Art History; her focus is in late Stanford career weighing many disciplines from San Francisco, she grew up in a city filled
modern and contemporary art, looking and sought to put the matter off entirely with arts and culture that provided constant
specifically at fine art photography. Sara by bopping around remote classrooms in inspiration, motivating her pursuits in the arts.
has worked at the San Francisco Museum Washington D.C., Cape Town, and New York Through her work, she aims to explore issues
of Modern Art in the summer of 2018 as a City. Her travels made her rethink what she of identity, particularly issues around Black
curatorial intern in Painting and Sculpture thought originally to be the one true thing: if cultural experience. Passionate about equity
and hopes to continue to pursue curatorial she surrounded herself with other people and and accessibility to the arts, she hopes to one
work in photography in the near future. She things to do, that she would be happy enough. day become an arts educator in order to begin
has recently become an editor of Untitled, She had a stint in journalism and studies to dismantle the barriers of to access to the
Stanford’s only undergraduate art history Mathematical and Computational Sciences. arts that marginalized youth so often face. She
journal. She is currently based in Palo Alto, She is trying be more focused now, though currently works on campus at the Women’s
California and Los Angeles, California. much of that time is spent on crosswords. Community Center and tries to bring aspects of
creativity and the arts to all aspects of her life.
KEVIN CHAPPELLE is an art student at MELISSA CHEN is a Chinese/Taiwanese
NICHOLAS CLINE is a junior majoring in
Stanford University who primarily works in American artist and former child. She is an
photography and video. His work explores undergraduate student and is picking up art history at Stanford University. Originally
the complexities of identity and the confines tips on how to understand her experiences from New York, he spent much of his time in
of culture and belonging. Not limited to art and extract a sense of self from them. high school working on science research and
practice, he is also pursuing a career in art She has some training in traditional interning in a lab. But, after spending a term
administration, most recently having worked artmaking including painting and drawing abroad, living and studying in Florence, he
at Creative Time, a public arts non-profit in and is exploring digital mediums such as decided to pursue art history. Specifically, he is
New York City. He believes in advocating for photo‐manipulation and code-based art. interested in how contemporary technologies
the importance of art and making it accessible She is attracted to the age-old subject mediate and inform engagement with artistic
for as wide an audience as possible. of representing the human figure and its works. In his free time, he enjoys reading,
recognizable essence; and she understands watching movies, and visiting local museums.
such representations to be potentially alive, Nicholas hopes to write about contemporary
and even conscious. artwork and installations for media publications.

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LORENA DIOSDADO is an undergraduate ZHANPEI FANG is completing a BA in ANGELICA JOPLING is a B.A. candidate in

student at Stanford University majoring in art art practice and BS in physics at Stanford art history at Stanford University where she
practice and communications. Her current work University. She works in painting, printmaking, specializes in contemporary art under Alexander
explores the complex relationship between and photography. Originally from the Pacific Nemerov. She is currently developing an Honors
marginalized communities in the United States Northwest, she is especially concerned with Thesis that focuses on the work of Anselm
and artistic institutions; and, she is interested conceptions of natural versus constructed Kiefer, with whom she will spend the summer
in synthesizing avenues that may mitigate the environments in the era of global cybernet working in his studio outside of Paris. She spent
disparity in art production and engagement. works. Her work broadly considers visual the previous two summers working at Gucci
Complicating conventional views of identity culture in the age of digital mass reproduction, America in New York. In 2017, she worked on
and accessibility, her art idolizes menial labor, and features generated and found imagery the collaboration between Gucci a nd Artsy to
thereby challenging the commonly held from computer screens to evoke theexperience raise awareness of gender equality in the art
assumptions of service workers. Equity at the of growing up within the internet—including world at Art Basel Miami Beach. In 2018, she
forefront of her projects, she has contributed to online subcultures, video-game worlds, virtual worked closely on the zine initiative for Gucci
several Stanford initiatives that aim to challenge dramatis personae, glitch aesthetics and and Chime for Change.
historical precedents in art and education. digitized seeing.
PARITOSH K ANORIA is a senior at
MITZI HARRIS is a junior art history major NOAH HORNIK is a photographer and
Stanford University, majoring in art history
at Stanford University, a happy girl from Saint design nerd currently based in Palo Alto, and minoring in religious studies. His research
Louis who is excited for what lies ahead. In her California. He is a senior at Stanford University interests include sacred Hindu and Buddhist
contribution to this publication, she hopes to pursuing a degree in art practice. Hornik’s sculpture, particularly their performed ritualized
portray her obsession with life—with everyone obsession with mid-century furniture has contexts and engagements with mythology and
and everything. Having been an intensely left a permanent mark on him; a tattoo of an philosophy. Born and raised in Mumbai, Kanoria
self-reflective person, she is proud of her many Eames molded chair can be found on his right is invested in improving public understandings
realizations, including that “home” is a feeling forearm. In pursuit of his fantasy to work in the of traditional Indian ideas, which were at
not a place, and that art is a wordless language arts in New York City, Hornik worked there times academically misrepresented since the
through which she best communicates her life as an assistant printmaker for Two Palms. As subcontinent was colonized. He is currently
obsession with anyone willing to listen. a designer, he has developed campaigns for applying for graduate study of classical sanskrit
fashion brands and celebrities at Fam United. texts, after which he hopes to work in the field of
20 He aspires to be the next Dieter Rams, but will education as a writer, teacher and developer of
settle for Herb Lubalin. high-school and college-level curricula on ethics.

ARIEL K AUFMAN is a senior studying art ROSHII MONTANO ANNIE NG is an artist and student at

history at Stanford University. Her research JESSE MORRIS Deeply aware (and critical) of Stanford University majoring in art practice
focuses on modern art, with particular and minoring in anthropology. She works in
interests in Japanese, European, and American his visual surroundings from a young age, Jesse digital art, photography, and collage to explore
cultural transmission and the visual cultures of Morris is currently a sophomore completing his human cultures, behaviors, and psychology,
urbanization. She has worked in the education B.A. in art history at Stanford University. His with particular interest in investigating the
department of the Brooklyn Museum, where writing focuses on modern and contemporary aftereffects of colon‐ization and the idea of
she directed, shot, and edited comprehensive practices with a particular interest in queerness sentiment. Her textile print work, To Sleep,
video introductions to that Museum’s collection —most recently exploring Warhol’s closeted, was recently exhibited in Stanford’s 5th
of ancient Egyptian art. At Stanford, as Vice queer sensibility expressed through the Undergraduate Juried Exhibition. Her artwork
President of the Professional Art Society, she manipulation of gridded geometries. He is has appeared in the Stanford Journal of
fosters student engagement with the arts. She currently Design and Marketing Lead for the Asian-American Studies and the zine Listen
has also held positions in magazine publishing Stanford Student Store and has previously held to the Silence. She has worked at Gagosian
and brand development and volunteers as an positions at McCabe Inc, McBride & Associates, Gallery, Iziko South African National Gallery,
English coach for Stanford custodial staff. and Michael Gaillard Studio. After working as a and is currently the Creative Director of MINT
Sales Associate, Jesse is now a passioned critic Magazine, Stanford’s fashion and culture
MISO KIM is a senior studying art practice of the art market; he hopes to one day make publication.
the market more equitable for artists and more
and communication at Stanford University. She ZOE SCHIFFER is a freelance journalist based
has a love for working across various media of
art, including painting, collage, photography, in Oakland, California. Her ork examines the
and sculpture. She particularly enjoys working intersection of technology and culture, with
with unconventional materials and existing recent pieces in Vox, The Bold Italic, SF Gate,
images to study the physicality and nature and KQED. She earned her B.A. in political
of materials and to explore the multifaceted science from the University of California,
relationship between humans and nature. She Berkeley, and her M.A. in journalism from
also has a passion for promoting education Stanford University.
and awareness of art. She has worked at The
Hutington, Museum of Santa Croce in Florence, 20
Cantor Arts Center, and is currently working at
Haines Gallery in San Francisco.

DYLAN SHERMAN is a junior studying art ALI VAUGHAN is a student, writer, and JENN XILO Originally from Southern

history at Stanford University. He is interested multimedia artist currently studying at Stanford California, Jenn Xilo is pursuing a B.A. in art
in the intersections between art and dance, University. She has written criticism that spans practice with a minor in english at Stanford
drawing from both his academic focus on across and draws associations between film, University. Most recently, she has been an
contemporary art and his experience as a music, fashion, and visual art, including articles intern at the Lancaster Museum of Art and
ballet and contemporary dancer. He has held that have been published in The Stanford Daily History and a social media coordinator at
positions at ODC Theater, Cantor Arts Center, and The Stanford Arts Review. Her art explores iThrive, Stanford’s on-campus wellness center.
Sotheby’s Art Agency, Partners, and Jessica themes of memory, the photographic image, In 2019, she was inducted into the Happiness
Silverman Gallery, working in fields such as and material decay, and has been exhibited at Hall of Fame, for using art and words to inspire
public programming, artist advisory, and shows at the de Young Museum, the Crocker mental health awareness and wellbeing in
gallery operations. Sherman’s research for a Art Museum, and the Stanford Art Gallery. others. Overall, Jenn’s artwork seeks to candidly
senior honors thesis focuses on how dance capture physical manifestations or moments of
is brought into museum spaces, examining JER AMIAH WINSTON When he arrived her internal state, not pretending to understand
the relationship between art history, museum or unravel what it is to live universally, but rather
cultures, and performance studies. on Stanford’s campus in the fall of 2015, attempting to foster empathy with its audience
Jeramiah Winston was far from an artist. about the pains and joys of being human.
PIO THOMPSON is an artists who loves to Rather, he hoped to become a doctor. While
that goal was soon supplanted, Winston
work with string. He is inspired by traditional has created artworks for numerous science
Hmong embroidery designs, as well as his and health publications on campus with the
newfound passions for ceramics and natural goal of bettering people’s lives with artistic
dyeing. Currently he is working on a project science communication. Since committing
to build altars to, among other objects of to art practice, Winston’s art has explored
veneration, the gods of trees, the church themes of identity, self-worth, and community,
of natural underwater childbirth, and some culminating in his Spring 2019 honors thesis:
unappeasable metal monsters who roar and Inglewood. He hopes to continue his practice
shit bombs from the sky. He is also learning long after college in new and innovative ways
how to sketch. He loves to travel and learn new both in the realm of science communication and
languages. He hopes to one day have a moss personal satisfaction.
garden and a whole aquarium of seahorses.

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LAUREN DICIOCCIO :

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:LAUREN DICIOCCIO INTERVIEW AT THE CANTOR ARTS CENTER (REMOVE THIS WHITE PART)
KIM BEIL
DICIOCCIO : [Artist Lauren DiCioccio began by musing on process and material.] I started

POLLY CAPPS making this very literal body of work, translating objects into textiles. [...] Now my
DICIOCCIO sculptures are very anthropomorphic, and they have a lot of energy that comes
off of them because of their color and their texture. [...] If you think about all of the
qualities that make textiles what they are—they’re soft, they’re warm, they’re light,
I find that they kind of absorb energy, and then to work in metals and hard objects,
you can really approach the end of the spectrum. [Gesturing to Marvin Lipofsky’s
California Loop (1970)] Glass is this really interesting material to me—it’s both hard,
heavy, and light. I love the concept of this glass being the shape of breath. That’s
such a beautiful thing to think about when you’re looking at blown glass.

[...DiCioccio remarked earlier of the Lipofsky] I’d think the majority of the world
probably thinks this is not a good sculpture [laughs].

: Why do you think people think it’s not good?

: I think sometimes with pieces that are both recognizable and strange—which is

what I’m always trying to achieve—there’s something really uncomfortable, when
it’s done well. There’s discomfort in finding recognizable forms and then making
sense in how they’re assembled.

: Given that, how come your own objects are called “comfort objects?”

: My show opened a day after Donald Trump’s inauguration, which was an

uncomfortable time. I really questioned as an artist what it meant to be putting these

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(REMOVE THIS WHITE PART) ARIEL KAUFMAN stuffed dolls on a pedestal in a gallery as my life’s work and to just want to make
DICIOCCIO beautiful objects. I thought that the idea of putting these beautiful, like unabashedly
cheerful, peppy, energetic, colorful objects in this room was a way to remind people
NICHOLAS CLINE that’s the whole reason we’re alive.
DICIOCCIO
: [...] Why not then [make] dolls that people can hold, instead of on pedestals in the
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gallery?

: I thought about that a lot when you guys were talking about those objects, and about

how art is so tactile, but never meant to be touched. And, I think it’s a really, really

:strange thing. [...] Quite honestly I would find a lot of pleasure if people would touch

these pieces in the gallery.
[...Attention turns to Jean Arp’s Silent (1949)] Okay, last one. [...] This is so simple,

but it still has a lot of posture in its form, like the arc of the curve, and there’s a lot of
tenderness in this bowing shape and what I would say is the stomach of the piece.
I’m [...] prone to using body terms when I talk about anything abstract.

: In contrast to the earlier pieces that we looked at, this final piece belies the method

of its creation.

: Yeah, [...] my mind is so at rest with it [...]. When I remember that it’s stone, I’m like

Ugh, God, all the material that was shed, all the waste that went into finding this
elegance, but [this] come[s] together so beautifully, to me. [...] I look at it and I don’t
immediately think of the process.

:

LILIA CHANG were persons themselves. She tends to
anthropomorphize, welcoming the possible
LAUREN DICIOCCIO’S UNCANNY VALLEY humanity in even the oddest of works. She
thrives in the “uncanny valley,” the eerie
When asked, no one at first volunteered feeling of interpreting something both
their opinion on the Marvin Lipofsky sculpture, humanoid and artificial. On “pieces that are
California Loop (1968-69). Made out of blown both recognizable and strange,” she says,
glass, flocked textile, and patinaed copper, it “…there’s something really uncomfortable
stood on three legs precariously, looking quite about that when it’s done well.” She greeted
like an industrial balloon animal. Hans Arp’s Silent (1949), a supple, marble
sculpture, as if it were a shapely person: “It’s
Lauren DiCioccio was the first to admit, a lady, she’s curvy,” she remarked. “There’s a
while laughing, “Somebody has to thinkthis lot of tenderness in this bowing shape, and
looks terrible. I’d think the majority of the concavity of what I would say is the stomach
world probably thinks this is not a good of the piece.” I would have likened it to an
sculpture.” She, however, took pleasure in arabesqueing bean.
its peculiarity: “I love that this piece is very
elegant and has a lot of lift in the front and It’s easy to see through her own works
droop in the back that creates this funny how DiCioccio finds the Arp so personable:
balance,” she said. they, too, are abstract figures that appear
unexpectedly human. Called “Comfort
A self‐taught sculptor, DiCioccio Objects” and “Familiars,” they are sculptures
describes things as they are to her, as if they of hand‐dyed linen, stuffing, and felt, which
DiCioccio tediously upholsters and stitches
together herself. She works on multiple
pieces at once and cuts in half the majority
that do not turn out. Those that survive
however bloom in bulbous and graceful

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silhouettes; they exude personality and CHANG
elegance. They seem to have grown out
from themselves, appearing as idiosyncratic LILIA
gestures, ones that she calls “intuitive.”
Lauren DiCioccio, “Fleur-de-lis-ish,” 2016, wood, stuffing, felt, linen, cotton, thread Indeed, their appearances click: it’s difficult
to imagine them as any other way.

It seems simple to speak about sculptures
in this way, in relation to how they appear
like humans and in the shapes of bodies that
we know best. But DiCioccio will be the first
to acknowledge the frank joys she pursues:
“I really like accessibility in what I put into
the world,” she said. A former painter, she
“didn’t find there was a lot of joy to put a
painting up, and then to expect people to talk
about esoteric painting theory...I wanted to
make objects where people could talk about
themselves and personal experiences.”

John Ashbery once wrote that “lesser
artists correct nature in a misguided attempt
at heightened realism, forgetting that the
real is not only what one sees but also a
result of how one sees it.” For DiCioccio, the
“real” is the feeling that comes first. She has
grounded herself in perfecting the tightrope
walk in the uncanny valley, in the personable
and repulsive.

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NICHOLAS CLINE to constructing three-dimensionally knitted
“comfort objects” that blur distinction
“I really like…this line between discomfort and between sculpture and craft. Describing
comfort…those lines that divide two opposite her own experiences in refining skill and
things are really beautiful things to explore. technique, she recalled how “as I worked
Like the idea of melancholy that’s both and made this body of work I spent so many
happy and sad, or, a quality of the grotesque, hours embroidering that I got so good at
that’s…like a gargoyle, both hideous and it that people across the room would think
beautiful,” artist Lauren DiCioccio explained that the objects were real objects and
in aquiet classroom in the Cantor Center for approach them and see that they were these
Visual Arts. DiCioccio gazed thoughtfully laboriously created things.” DiCioccio’s work
at a relatively small ceramic work titled actively embodies divergences between
Fleetline Moderne (1980), by Peter Shire, the appearance and material, as she expressed
displayed sculpture sitting restlessly in the how her own objects shift ambiguously
contemplative atmosphere of the room. In between authentic and facsimile. These
her examination of the artwork, DiCioccio oppositions are essential to DiCioccio’s
expressed how the contradictory aspects appreciation of artistic work in general, as
of a particular artwork—the “opposite”— well as to her own creative practice.
becomes the uniting feature of different art
that she finds most engaging and persuasive. Returning to Shire’s Fleetline Moderne—
Such embodied confrontations between DiCioccio described its range of delicate
antagonistic forces lends a dynamism and pastel colors as being “very soft, even though
intricacy to artistic objects that offer lasting material-wise and texture-wise and edge‐
interest to her. wise it’s so hard, and that’s one of the things
I really like…that push and pull between this…
DiCioccio’s own body of work spans very intentional palette…and then how hard
from embroidering two-dimensional the lines are, and how slick the surfaces are,
household objects—such as newspapers— and the geometry of the piece.” Shire’s work

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is successful for DiCioccio in its ability to CLINE
mediate the disparities between its opposing
Lauren DiCioccio and students in the Wilsey Classroom at the Cantor Arts Center looking at Marvin Lipofsky’s “Califor- qualities—its simultaneous tenderness and NICHOLAS
nia Loop,” 1968-69, glass. harshness, pointedness and glossiness,
mobility and stillness. It is, perhaps, not any
single one of these qualities that makes
Shire’s work “sing” for DiCioccio, but rather,
the slippage between them, an uninterrupted
shifting amongst categories that animates
the work.

Though specific themes might vary from
work to work, DiCioccio’s interest can be
said to lie in the liminality of an artwork:
the capacity for it transform and revise
itself in the perspective of the viewer. In her
own words, it must be “both recognizable
and strange, which is what I’m always
trying to achieve, there’s something really
uncomfortable about that when it’s done
well.” Fundamentally, DiCioccio looks for
aspects in a work that do not easily lend
themselves to understanding—a strangeness
that evades the onlooker’s immediate
recognition. It is here that DiCioccio’s efforts
in her own work become most apparent:
her objects are spaces to be investigated,
arguments to be completed.

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JENN XILO pieces, DiCioccio suggests a significant
relationship between artistic process and
PERSONAL RESPONSE TO LAUREN DICIOCCIO’S product through materiality. In the light of
INTERVIEW SESSION this suggestion, medium is that through
which the history of an artwork resides, a
Lauren DiCioccio defines an artist as an history that, despite its supposed dormancy
individual who can “walk into an empty room, in the artwork’s final state, expands on the
with a bunch of materials and…with…time, overall meanings linked to its creation.
energy, thought, and perspective…[translate]
these materials into something that really Upon looking at Marvin Lipofsky’s
comes alive.” When observing other artists’ sculpture, California Loop, for example,
20 DiCioccio considers the delicate intensity of
its making. Lipofsky’s California Loop is an
abstract structure with bulbous extremities
that is largely composed of blown glass.
DiCioccio reminds us that, aside from their
connection to heat and tools, its forms are
“literally the result of breath.” As DiCioccio
notes, the “lightness” of the piece is offset
by “weight” captured when the energy of
fire and air is compressed into the fragility
of glass—“balance” achieved as process
remains in product through the glass
material. This may lead to discussions about
other moments of balance in the work, such
as that between its thematic concepts or
formal aspects—all relevant to its ultimate
scope of meaning.

DiCioccio’s remarks on the process-product pressure and tension based handling, and XILO
paradox of medium inspire engagement in so doing, assert their purpose before
Lauren DiCioccio, “Prima Donna,” 2016, wood, with her work. In reference to her recent they are even fully formed to figuratively JENN
stuffing, felt, hand-dyed linen collection, Comfort Objects, she explains: absorb the troubles of the masses as
“a comfort object is like a teddy bear,…an artistic products. Even if we sit with her
object…in psychology, that a child…[finds]… words, believing that we fully understand
reassuring…” The collective title is fitting DiCioccio’s motivations regarding her work
because despite their strangely amorphous through what she generously tells us, there
forms, these sculptures are soft and bright, is a special credibility in the physicality of
reminiscent of most stuffed animals. She her process that enhances her statements.
recalls that the exhibition opened a day
after Trump’s inauguration, a moment she You see, an artistic medium is a
describes as a “divisive time” for the United narrative —that of the maker as the first
States. DiCioccio shares, simply, that these viewer, mentally and physically handling
“dolls” are meant to “remind people that…the what is to become an artistic product. The
whole reason for…living, is to…find moments meaning of a final state is substantial, but
of joy and positivity…,” especially in times of it is the medium that provides the path
nationwide malaise. from a past to a present, defining the
limitations and required handling that, in
With her medium and its associated turn, define a product. It calls for particulars
process in mind, we may ask ourselves of making that lead to further discussions
how her methods of making might inform and understandings concerning artistic
her Comfort Objects. DiCioccio’s process intention, most importantly while the work is
consists of manipulating cloth. Linen, in the complete. It is the history that truly exposes
context of sculpture, calls for “kneading and the life of an artwork, the life that is partially
pushing and pulling and…stitching and… defined at the outset—at the moment an
upholstering,…squeezing.” In the process artist steps into an empty room and selects
of becoming, DiCioccio’s pieces absorb his or her material.

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REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN :

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PIO THOMPSON INTERVIEW AT THE ANDERSON COLLECTION (REMOVE THIS WHITE PART)

:REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN : What are the differences between approaching an object that is a “true” sculpture
MELISSA CHEN
GOLDSTEIN or painting, as opposed to a piece like Murray’s Chain Gang, which seems to disrupt
such medium specificity, as a combination of both?

: [Reflecting on her own experience] Working between two mediums has given me

an appreciation for what both can do. I love that painting doesn’t have to abide by
the laws of gravity, but creating sculptures has made me more sensitive to basics,
like shadow and space. So now, looking at Murray’s work, a combination of both, I
think about how she is dealing with gravity, perspective, and space.

I love this edge of hers, to the lower left, and how she’s left it unpainted, letting
the work be a painting instead of a fully‐painted object. You can see the wooden
back, making it almost a theatre set or a prop piece.

: You seem to make use of the hand drawn line to give the work structure. What

makes a structure work?

: A sense of precariousness. I think that comes from the hand drawn line. For my

own work, it tends to be a weird sense of balance where it seems like the structure
is about to fall apart or about to come together. And that’s what Diebenkorn is
doing in Ocean Park #60, his lines give the painting a sense of architecture. What
would this painting be without those lines? Nothingness?

Look how he managed to leave gesso showing on the side and at the top. He
uses his awareness of how the image is dealing with the edges and his instinct to
keep the canvas from getting too built up. That white is what’s giving this painting

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(REMOVE THIS WHITE PART) ARIEL KAUFMAN room to breathe. When you stand back, even though the colored sections are the
GOLDSTEIN biggest part of the painting, that strip of canvas is what comes forward. If the
MITZI HARRIS painting didn’t have that, it would fall flat.
GOLDSTEIN
: When you say something works or doesn’t, what does that mean?
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: For me, what works is when there is the right amount of wrong, something that jars

it slightly. For example, look how tonally related Ocean Park is, and how the lines
at the top move the eye up. I love how the blues and the greens get muted but not

:muddy, and when you squint there is a sense of light.

: When you start a painting, do you make a conscious decision that it will be

abstract?

: I always approach my paintings thinking they will be figurative, and I’m always

surprised when they end up more abstract than I intended. I start by putting down
washes of color, and as I’m working some image takes hold. Eventually, though, I
have to let go of the initial imagery to let the piece take on its own life form.

I try to push myself not to be attached to the parts that I like. There's always a
‘best part’ of a painting, and that's the part that has to go. It ruins everything else
because I end up painting around it, making the work look precious and tentative.
It’s only when I paint out the best thing that the painting gets some guts. I always
like to have a sense of ruthlessness when I paint; like playing a game of chicken
with myself, daring myself to do what’s really uncomfortable.

:

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POLLY C APPS the Murray pieces; it is no surprise that her
own work is dominated by planes of white.
THE PURPOSE OF BLANKNESS: Suddenly, after considering Goldstein’s
GOLDSTEIN’S USE OF WHITE SPACE thoughts on Mouse Cup, her sculpture Coral
Angles (2018) seems to foreground the
Rebekah Goldstein, "Coral Angles" Pointing out the edge of white and black bright inner triangles of white wall outlined in
in Ellsworth Kelly’s Black Ripe (1955) was painted wood, rather than the peach accents
20 worthy of a cross-gallery trip for Rebekah of its name. The delicate, airy structure now
Goldstein. One of the first things she seems to serve as a frame for the section of
discussed in front of Elizabeth Murray’s wall seen through it, negative space which
Mouse Cup (1981–1982) was the utilization becomes visually positive. Yet, Goldstein’s
of the white wall behind the work. In both, sculptures cannot incorporate the wall in a
Goldstein references tension, a kind of constant manner. As an object in the round,
“pushing and pulling up,” first with the when viewed in the gallery context, the
pulsating black form in the Kelly, and then in empty space may involve bodies, clothing,
the whimsically shaped Murray. In one, the other works, and bits of the floor or ceiling.
white spaces of the painted canvas fall back Unlike the Kelly and Murray pieces, which
to become one with the wall behind; and in lay flat on the wall, Goldstein’s use of white
the other the wall comes forward to become space is dynamic yet still full of tension, the
positive space, a part of the painted image. area enclosed by the sculpture switching
from negative space to positive space as the
Goldstein instantly noticed the duality viewer walks around it.
and versatility of white space in the Kelly and
When thinking two-dimensionally,
Goldstein points to Richard Diebenkorn’s
use of the gessoed canvas as the source of
white space in Ocean Park #60 (1973). She
references the strips of unpainted canvas on

the top and right edges as “resting spaces,” CAPPS
and as elements which allow the painting
“to breathe.” In the wide blue-green expanse P O L LY
of the Diebenkorn, the thin white edges
Rebekah Goldstein, “High Kicks" were what drew Goldstein’s attention. In her
opinion, the touches of blank whiteness are
what allow the color to remain constantly
refreshing, constantly surprising. In her own
paintings, Goldstein uses far more than
inch-wide edges of white, often leaving
the majority of her canvases covered in
white paint, but ultimately, the purpose
appears to be the same. In her works Last
Splash (2016) and High Kicks (2017), the
vibrant yellow, gold, purple, and blue shapes
hold their visual punch because of the
white environments surrounding them. In
traversing the canvases, the eye must pass
across these blank planes in order to reach
the next area of color, allowing the vision to
reset before approaching the next stroke of
pigment. Goldstein captures the role of white
space in her paintings with her description
of the Diebenkorn: her painted works truly
breathe, with each full inhale of saturated
color perfectly balanced by a cleansing
exhale of blank white.

20

MELISSA CHEN always start off as figural. We can sense
an immediate kinship between the artists’
SEEING THROUGH THE EYES OF REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN: bodies of work in the same way we might
LINE AND STRUCTURE understand two people to be relatives not
only from obvious traits such as identical
“What would this painting be without nose bridges or the same jut of their lips, but
these lines?” Rebekah Goldstein demands the similarity in expressions and mannerisms
of Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park #60 that arises subconsciously as a result of a
(1973). “It would just be nothingness.” This long-lasting proximity. Indeed, Goldstein says
is true: imagining Ocean Park #60 without that she allows her subconscious to have its
the assortment of lines—all primary and way when she works, and she avoids heavy‐
secondary colors shooting across the frame handed or direct references to other artists.
—that work across the top and the right
edges of the canvas produces a muddled Both Goldstein and Diebenkorn’s
painting deprived of energy, emotion, and paintings gently corral areas of gestural
even the quality of being a finished work. painting between hard lines. These generally
As I take on Goldstein’s perspective, the pale swaths of color indicate the artist’s
architecture of Diebenkorn’s painting grips sweeping arm pulling the brush across
me. Almost like the marble block before the canvas, yet abruptly stopping or being
the sculpture is carved out of it, the canvas painted over with staunch edges. Goldstein
becomes an object that must be broken puts a particular emphasis on the hand‐
apart to reveal the artist’s hidden creation. drawn line and asserts that a taped line sits
wrong with her. She does not elaborate,
It makes sense that Diebenkorn’s later but I imagine that she thinks that the taped
work, located between abstraction and line has an irksome rigidity that prevents a
depiction, should appeal to Goldstein, proper visual flow. My Goldstein‐calibrated
who says that her own abstract paintings eye finds structural dynamism in the two
artists’ paintings. In Goldstein’s words,
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a painting is successful if its structure is CHEN
precarious, if there is a “sense of balance
where it seems like the structure is about to MELISSA
fall apart or about to come together.” This
Rebekah Goldstein, “Everyone but You,” oil and acrylic on canvas, 2016 philosophy rings true in Ocean Park #60. The
disproportionately distributed weight creates
airiness, much as Goldstein does in her own
work. Everyone but You (2016), for example,
snaps my gaze diagonally across the canvas
and back using a composition that resembles
a toppling statue, a second away from
collapsing and shattering.

Goldstein’s attachment to line and using
it to prop up the structure of a painting
informs the appearance of her work. Though
imparting a first impression of geometric
shapes, Goldstein’s paintings contain no
closed traditional forms such as rectangles or
triangles. Instead they gently guide my eyes
along its lines all across the canvas, between
the broken-up sections that Goldstein
calls frames within frames. This sectioning
coupled with layers of color creates a world
we know to be flat that somehow inspires a
feeling of depth—a world that without her
deliberate and ruthless hand would plummet
straight into “nothingness.”

ZHANPEI FANG Rebekah Goldstein loves the baggage She points out the tonal harmony of one
that comes with being a painter. Painting piece, Ocean Park #60 (1973): in particular,
SOMETHING ELSE as a tradition has existed through millennia, the way in which the blues and aquas are
and according to her, a painter has always muted yet not muddied, and how the yellow
20 primarily “dealt with surface and illusion.” and red lines crisscrossing the top of the
For her, “if you’re not comfortable with the canvas elevate the eye. Ocean Park #60
historical weight of painting, then it’s hard is gently colored with chalky, pastel blues;
to be a painter”; embracing art-historical Goldstein notes the layering of overlapping
precedent “is something that keeps me planes of color, and use of “painting out.”
going in the studio.” As a painter herself, she is able to infer that
“from a color mixing standpoint, [the] teals
One artist who has particularly were some of the first colors he put down.”
informed Goldstein’s studio practice is According to Goldstein, “when you squint,
Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993). According there is a really nice sense of light coming
to Goldstein, “it’s more helpful to compare through the painting, and that’s from not
artists to their own work than to compare having overworked the underlayer.” The
artist‐to‐artist”—an approach she takes overall effect is of a tranquil, glowing
when considering Diebenkorn’s use of color canvas, with a sense of opening space,
in the Ocean Park series (1967–1988), relative moody yet bright.
to his earlier bodies of work. In her opinion,
Diebenkorn had not “figured out” color in Goldstein’s characterization of
his prior work, but this later-career series Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park #60 can very
demonstrates skilled, subtle use of color. well be used to describe her own works.
Her most recent solo show, See You on
the Flip Side (2018), is built upon a unified
color palette which was explicitly inspired
by Ocean Park, as well as David Hockney’s
swimming-pool paintings. As with

Diebenkorn’s abstract works, Goldstein’s FA N G
treatment of paint is built upon a layered
Rebekah Goldstein “See You on the Flip Side,” exhibition view of solo show at Cult Exhibitions, 2018 technique: “I start by putting down washes ZHANPEI
of color, and as I’m working some image
takes hold.” Her canvases feature geometric
zones of pigment, lightly scrambled over
colored ground. They demonstrate an
interest in the way that color creates space:
through faint blues and greens, corn-silk
yellows, pastel tones hanging in tension
against each other, all illuminated with the
same bright, cool light.

In their own ways, Diebenkorn and
Goldstein, both Bay Area natives, are trying
to make sense of what it means to be a
“Bay Area painter”. Both artists’ paintings
are quiet, meditative, and suffused with
luminosity. Their works draw inspiration
from the artists’ experience of the landscape,
and respond to distinct attributes of the
region—perhaps suggesting the sweeping
expanses of the Northern California coast,
or in Diebenkorn’s case, the Ocean Park
neighborhood of Santa Monica, with a
sense of openness that is characteristically
Californian. Separated across the decades,
Diebenkorn and Goldstein have arrived at

20

PIO THOMPSON of the work. Chain Gang contains portions
of canvas that are cropped and attached to
PAINTING AND SCULPTURE INTERSECT: the rest of the work at angles, suggesting
EDGES IN REBEKAH GOLDSTEIN’S ARTWORK sculpture, but, as Goldstein notes, “she’s left
[the edges] unpainted so you can see the
Zhanpei Feng, “Rebekah Goldstein in front of Throughout her interview at Stanford’s painting falling off, and for me that’s such
Richard Diebenkorn’s Ocean Park #60 (1973)” Anderson Collection, Rebekah Goldstein a painterly move. I’m not going to paint all
talked repeatedly about the edges of various of the sides, I’m going to let it be a painting
20 canvases. In describing Black Ripe (1955) rather than this fully-painted object.” Having
by Ellsworth Kelly, for example, she drew our heard Goldstein’s compelling thoughts
attention to the abstract black shape painted on edges in these two works, I became
over the plain white canvas. “The black form interested in studying how edges play into
in the center plays with the edge of the Goldstein’s own paintings.
frame,” she reflected, “the white background
[…] falls back but it also is playing and In many of Rebekah Goldstein’s works
pushing and pulling against the black form on canvas, I find a similar tension between
in the center of this canvas.” Goldstein’s the edge of the piece and the form of the
meditations on the tension between the piece to what she locates in Ellsworth Kelly’s
edge of the canvas and the rest of the work Black Ripe. In All Because Of You (2018),
arose again later in the interview when she for example, Goldstein is working with an
described work by Elizabeth Murray. She unconventionally shaped canvas: an irregular
pointed to the edges in Murray’s piece Chain polygon. What surprises me about this piece
Gang (1985–86) as a place of intersection is how the paint both emphasizes and defies
between the painterly and sculptural aspects the form of the canvas. The thin black lines
to the upper and lower left, for example,
delineate the edge of the canvas, while the
light blue paint on the right likewise follows
its angles. In other areas, however, the lines

of black paint break the form of the canvas, THOMPSON
and the emerald green rectangle in the
center of the work runs against any natural PIO
edges of the canvas, creating a sense of
Rebekah Goldstein, “All Because of You,” oil on canvas, 2018 detachment or suspension. One section
of blue paint at the very top seems to be
peeling away from the edge of the canvas,
creating an interesting moment of tension
between the shape of the canvas and the
paint applied to it.

Some of Rebekah Goldstein’s works, like
those of Elizabeth Murray, employ the edge
to create ambiguity between the forms of
sculpture and painting. Navy Pattern Square
(2016), for example, is a three‐dimensional
sculpture, but the painted polygons—that
in many places cross the edges of the
piece—work to compress the form into two
dimensional space. Or, to borrow Goldstein’s
words, they make the work seem like “a
painting rather than a fully painted object.”
I find Goldstein’s sculptures interesting
because, departing from the many paintings
that conventionally use perspective to create
the illusion of three dimensionality, her
sculptures instead use edges to allude to
two dimensionality.

20

MARCELA PARDO :

20

:MARCELA PARDO INTERVIEW AT THE CANTOR ARTS CENTER

: (REMOVE THIS WHITE PART)

20

(REMOVE THIS WHITE PART) ARIEL KAUFMAN : :
GOLDSTEIN :

MITZI HARRIS :
GOLDSTEIN :

20

:

20

AMIR ABOU‐JAOUDE I was bewildered by Clergue’s approach to
the human form, Pardo Ariza admired that
FRAGMENTS OF THE HUMAN FORM “the bodies are fragmented” because “it
gives [the viewer] a sense of possibility of
Despite its straight forward title, Lucien what it can actually be.” As a professional
Clergue’s Italian nude mystifies me. In his photographer, she contemplated “the
photograph, Clergue does not capture a relationship between the photographer and
20th-century successor to the nudes of the subjects” while examining this image.
Titian, Giorgione, or Bronzino, but instead
places three subjects in front of the camera. It’s not surprising that these inquiries
Since their torsos encompass the entire interest Pardo Ariza. She explores them
frame, they are devoid of heads and legs. in her own work. Throughout her career,
Not all of the figures face the same direction she has experimented with the potential
—two are supine, while one is prone. At of photographic collage. In a recent series,
first glance, I assumed that the image was Kin, she layers body parts on top of one
sensuous, but after staring at the picture another—from hands to feet, forearms to
for a while, the erotic became insipid. The knees, buttocks to crotches. The subjects
bodies started to remind me of beached all wear jean jackets or denim pants, but the
whales or poorly conceived abstract forms. composition still seems disconnected. This
There’s nothing particularly Italian about this fragmentation, however, is not detrimental
photograph, and under my gaze, the nudes to the work’s aesthetic appeal. Rather, it
stopped being nudes. conveys “the sense of possibility” Pardo
Ariza mentions in reference to Clergue’s
Standing over the print in the Wilsey picture. Just as Clergue rejects the traditional
Classroom at the Cantor Arts Center, I asked depiction of nudes, Pardo Ariza’s splintered
visiting artist Marcela Pardo Ariza why this bodies suggest that kin extends beyond
puzzling photograph appealed to her. While biological family or uncomplicated romantic
relationships. Pardo often addresses queer
20

concerns in her projects. Here, she argues A B O U‐JA O U D E
that the definition of kin must be expanded to
provide for non‐heteronormative possibilities. AMIR

Marcela Pardo Ariza, Bruno & Marcus (1975~, 2018), 2018 When she takes a photograph, Pardo
Ariza describes feeling a certain kinship with
her subjects, whether her subjects are her
close friends, anonymous models, or queer
performers. The Clergue picture prompted
Pardo Ariza to eloquently describe these
relationships—“the awkwardness that
happens” before the shutter snaps, “and
then the afterwards of it too.” Sometimes
Pardo will “‘talk about life for real’” with a
subject, while in other instances, she has “a
purely transactional relationship” with him
or her. Nevertheless, as disassembled as
the figures may be, Pardo never sees them
as broken or as only body parts. She resists
the temptation to call Clergue’s subjects
“beached whales” because she realizes that
they are people.

This extraordinary humanism is evident
in Pardo Ariza’s work. After she cuts up her
subjects, they do not seem broken, but more
complete than before. In her photographic
collages, individuals transcend their own
limits to forge strong, unorthodox kinships.

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ERIK PARRA :

20

ERIK PARRA INTERVIEW AT THE CANTOR ARTS CENTER (REMOVE THIS WHITE PART)

:ARIEL KAUFMAN : [On Richard Diebenkorn, Girl on the Beach (1957)] [JRV1] One of the things that
PA R R A
KIM BEIL I absolutely love about this painting is that…you can tell Diebenkorn is exhibiting
PA R R A his painting intelligence…He’s defining form through the language of flatness…He’s
literally pushing [paint] onto the canvas and scratching it back out to…define the
ZHANPEI FANG form but also highlight the flatness…It all is neatly tied together in this idea that the
painting is essentially a skin…so it’s living and breathing with you as good paintings
should.

: I can’t help but look at the chair and think about how furniture often plays a role in

your paintings.

: Chairs…do two things in my paintings: chairs are stand-ins…for the figure…I am [also]

interested in this idea that people often make choices about the artwork they live
with based on the furniture…The chair operates metaphorically, operates narratively.

: Shall we move one to another painting?

: [On Paul Wonner, Wine Glass and Postcard (Zurbaran) (1968)] The history of art

starts with things being flat and cartoonish and…moves to…the sort of mimesis of
lived Cartesian space. And then it swings back in the sixties with Modernism to
flatness and reducing narrative and…hints at any sort of Cartesian space other than
just the space of the canvas—which is flat.

: What do you make of the still-life in this image?

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(REMOVE THIS WHITE PART) PA R R A : That is a reference to the history of painting I was talking about. He’s doing here in a
FANG
PA R R A very ham-fisted way what Richard Diebenkorn does in a very poetic and subtle way.
ALI VAUGHAN He’s talking about the history of how paintings have been made—the arc of flatness.
PA R R A It’s just sort of one to one.

20 : All still-life since then is just riffing off Golden Age painting. [Laughter]

: And not done nearly as well…A bad still life is still better than a bad abstraction,

because there was a conversation about facility.

:: Do you believe artists should build up skills of rendering before they can break that
down?

: Abstraction made by somebody who can draw is…stronger than abstraction made

by somebody who can’t draw.
[On Mark Tansey, Yosemite Falls (Homage to Watkins) (1993)] You know…in a

lot of Tansey's work there's threads of philosophy and…existentialism, which relates
to a lot of these grandiose photos…One of the things that I love about his [Tansey’s]
process is that he would have these massive books, so every camera that you see
in the composition I guarantee you he has a little cut-out of that camera turned
in different positions. He's got these huge volumes of everything imaginable like
photographed and cut out as…source. So he'll just put them together and then create
the image from there…Something that as I was saying earlier really resonates with
my process because cutting and moving and actually manipulating an image with
your hands to then create the image with your hands.

:

LORENA DIOSDADO legitimizing modernist work. Coalescing
Greenberg’s relationship with modernism
ERIK PARRA AND FLATNESS and the preceding centuries of art-making,
Parra came to one of two fundamental pillars
Paul Wonner’s Figure at Window (1962) that define “good art”: Good art, for Parra,
was instrumental in shifting the conversation is historically grounded. Parra understands
from the technical construction of flatness to flatness as a product of time and innovation,
its compositional effectiveness. In the piece, made even more splendid because of all
the widecurved construction of a leafy plant the varied techniques that preceded it. It is
contrasts with the rectilinear architectural because of history that Parra saw Figure at
forms behind it. Furthermore, the partially Window not as a unique instance of flatness
concelaed figure, while equally as flat as the but instead a unique piece because of the
afromentioned objects, is compromised of technical departure from previous artistic
short curved strokes. Parra’s education in norms through its embrace of flatness.
art history seemed to inform his vehement
fascination with Figure at Window’s Parra’s own work depicting domestic
different renditions of flatness; he traced spaces also toys with flatness. The expansive
the origins of flatness to the transformation planes of his geometrically rendered spaces
of artistic norms from the early “cartoonish” are typically a single color complicated
representation of figures to “...illusion and by thin washes of black paint creating
space and the sort of mimesis of lived intense shadows. Reminiscent of geometric
Cartesian space” all to be challenged by tessellations, Parra’s use of planes confound
Modernism and flatness. space so it is here that Parra’s second pillar
of good art comes to play: Good art “tell[s]
Parra was particularly drawn to art you about seeing.” Stairway with Atomic
critic Clement Greenberg whose analysis Railing (2015), which centers around a
of modernist flatness was essential in dark railing that leads into a brightly lit
hallway and staircase, best exemplifies the
20

complications of perspective flatness lends DIOSDADO
itself to. At the end of the railing the viewer
Erik Parra at the Anderson Collection discussing Richard Diebenkorn’s “Girl on the Beach,” 1957, oil on canvas. is met with either a mirror (reflecting a bright LORENA
staircase) or another staircase altogether
but because the light source hits objects
unevenly, objects fluctuate between existing
in light and shadow; or rather, reality and
illusion. Most of the geometric planes seem
uncannily brightly lit or ominously in shadow
but never consistently so. Furthermore,
definite borders established by a flat canvas
are of little concern to Parra; he hardly seems
to notice borders (the stairs and railing
unapologetically veer off the page) which is
not a reaction against borders but rather a
humble acceptance of them as yet another
play on flatness.

When thinking of Parra’s desire to immerse
himself in the complexities of visual imagery
and the deliberate, methodical, and nuanced
conversations that stem from a painting, I
realized that Parra’s own work plays off of art-
historical narratives and technical composition.
Meaning, for Parra, is constructed by the
intrinsic preceding history of art-making and
the way in which an artist is able to adapt that
history into a novel technique.

20

ALFONSO GAMBOA valued. During his artist visit, Parra showed
himself to be very knowledgeable about
From the very start of his interview, Erik the history and theories that influenced the
Parra made clear that he got excited when works in the galleries, which he said also
talking about artists whom he admired influenced his own works. The artists and
and drew inspiration from. In referencing artistic movements of the past that he has
Richard Diebenkorn’s Girl on the Beach, studied are present to him, consciously or
Parra said, “I could make this painting in my unconsciously, and the influence of previous
sleep because I’ve seen it so many times.” generations plays a role in shaping his own
His attention to looking at art in order to see artistic production.
what drew him in was inspiring to see and
revealed some of the elements that he most The element that he focused moston in
20 the Diebenkorn was how the artist played
with the use of orthogonal lines in the girl’s
skirt or the beach chair in order to simultane-
ously evoke pictorial space while also calling
attention to flatness in the work. This same
element of play is present in Parra’s collage
Forest for the Trees (2014) in which house-
hold objects are cut out and placed amidst
scenes of nature. Parra cuts out objects and
places them in such a way as to create an
illusion of receding space, while showing the
absurdity of a frame hanging in midair.

When looking at Mark Tansey’s Yosemite
Falls (Homage to Watkins), a satirical take
on depictions of Yosemite Falls depicting
an avalanche of film cameras rather than

a shower of water, Parra pointed out the help but imagine that he has seen and GAMBOA
element of Tansey’s process that most thought of the precise piece of furniture he
Erik Parra, “Living Room with Checkered Seating resonated with his own work: “One of the wishes to depict, and has contemplated it
Options,” 2015, ink, acrylic, watercolor on paper things that I love about his process is that he from each angle, just as Tansey thought of
would have these massive books so every his cascade of cameras. Living Room with
camera that you see in the composition I Checkered Seating Options and Living ALFONSO
guarantee you he has a little cut‐out of that Room with Rabbit, both from 2015, form a
camera turned in different positions.” Parra pair of images of the same size and having
explained the connection of the cut-outs to identical compositions, including the same
his own collage work, which is evident perspective and framing, but exploring
in Dining Room Reflection from 2013, or, how changes in light and shadow affect
as mentioned above, Forest for the Trees the impression of the scene on the viewer.
(2014) in which household objects are cut Checkered chairs are the subject in both
out and placed amidst scenes of nature. The works, and the pair of paintings appears to
connection to Tansey’s work feels tangible in the viewer to be an experience of viewing a
these collages for the attention given to the particular object and returning to it in order
objects chosen, as well as the playfulness of to understand not only its physical form, but
the artist. also the spirit they evoke.

The general fascination withcapturing Ultimately, Parra is inspired to continue
historical objects as they were and incor‐ to build upon the work of the artists
porating them into works of art is present that came before him. He stated that in
also in Parra’s painting. In Midcentury his opinion, Modernism has yet to be
Arrangement (2014) Parra gives attention completely “unpacked,” suggesting that his
to rendering the furniture of the apartment own incorporation of modernist ideas into
so as to capture the feeling and aesthetic of his work is a means by which to continue
a midcentury space like the one he grew up the conversations only begun by artists like
in. After listening to his interview, I cannot Diebenkorn and Tansey.

20

ARIEL KAUFMAN that for him, this empty space is imbued
with the cultural and aesthetic politics of
ERIK PARRA PAINTS DESIGN WITHIN REACH modernism. Having grown up in a modern
house, the house image and modernism are
In a small gallery at the Minnesota Street one and the same for him. Void of figures,
Project, I saw a painting of a low‐profile his paintings of empty interior spaces are
credenza accessorized with a cement planter staged with furniture typical of the mid-
of succulents, a turquoise frame, and a brass century aesthetic as conceived by 21st
lamp in front of an inky sky shining through a century designers. The design objects serve
gridded window (Figure 1). I could have seen not only as actors but as narrative and
this vignette of mid-century modern artifacts metaphorical devices. Pieces of furniture, he
as configured by contemporary tastemakers said in the interview, “are stand-ins for the
on Pinterest (a social media platform wherein figure…There’s this relationship of the body
users share photographs, often of interior to painting, the body to space and the chair,
spaces); it was surprising to see in the art the chair is the medium of that negotiation.”
gallery. I wondered what future viewers will
make of this distinctly 21st century image. As a former student of art history, Parra
Will they find the angular windowpanes as has looked to the work of other artists—
dated as I find 1980s popcorn ceilings? from 17 th century Dutch still-life painters to
1950s–1960s abstract painters like Richard
A year later, in an interview with Erik Parra, Diebenkorn—to think through how art
the artist behind that painting, I learned depicts those relationships between bodies,
furniture, and space. Parra delighted at the
“buttery” profusion of thick oil paint giving
the houseplant in Paul Wonner’s Figure
at Window (1962) a body-like weight.
A room reduced to mostly-flat planes of
color, this painting catapulted a discussion

20

of the history of modernism—one Parra K AUFM AN
conceptually grapples with in his work. “I
think we haven’t unpacked modernism all ARIEL
the way,” he said. “This utopian narrative
Erik Parra, “Can You Tell Me How the West was Won? An Allegory of Fixation,” 2018, of modernism…is actually really dystopic.”
acrylic on canvas For Parra, this dystopic reality is manifest
in the class issues undergirding the design
market. The designs of the Bauhaus with
all their potential to optimize beauty and
efficiency, he lamented, have trickled into a
design market focused more on what people
can afford. Those lofty ideals have been
reduced to the price difference between Ikea
and Design Within Reach, and Parra seeks
to reclaim the aesthetic they share while
acknowledging its complex history.

In his painting, Parra does just that. The
design elements of mid‐century modernism
are freed from not only the inaccessibility
of the market but from the overwhelming
deluge of images we confront on platforms
like Pinterest. He gives the viewer an
opportunity to look at the shallow curve of
the planter or the blush-pink of the drawers
without considering whether they can afford
to purchase them. Ironically, he actually
brings design within reach.

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