La Cienega

The spinning Mobius strip metal sculptures of Jose de Rivera have long made space and form one inseparable unit. Kin to Anton Pevsner’s sculptures that pulled space into an abstract form of spiraling movement, De Rivera’s tapering metal “strings” surround space in ever changing coils of tapering line. Unlike Pevsner however these forms are at most outlines of mass and their movement is kinetic and real rather than illusion.

In this presentation of works dating back to 1940 it is interesting to see how De Rivera’s forms developed from flat, wing like shapes on canvas into spherical three dimensional skins of painted aluminum. These forms, painted bright red on the inside and black on the outside suggest peels flayed from metal spheres.

The unpainted aluminum edge, appearing and disappearing around the contours of the form, is later isolated to become the swelling and tapering coils of the playful, sleek steel lariats. The near complete absence of mass in these pieces directs the vision to the distilled essence of the form’s movement. Subtle changes in the line, and in the spatial pockets captured by the geometry of the twisting form as it slowly rotates, still have the power to mesmerize. (Herbert Palmer Gallery, 802 N. La Cienega, to Dec. 31)