Gallery Rediscovers Artists From Past

Steve Turner’s deep, unrelenting desire to have interesting things around led him to research and collect books, posters, furniture and ceramics. His enthusiasm for the objects he collected and for sharing information about the artists who created them moved him to open a gallery with a colleague four years ago.

The gallery, now called the steve turner gallery (yes, spelled with no capital letters), specializes in an eclectic mix of art from the first half of the 20th Century.

An early exhibition brochure describes the gallery as carrying “California art, especially works by Los Angeles artists; Scandinavian art, with an emphasis on Denmark; and poster design, highlighting avant-garde and typographic works as well as superb travel posters.”

“I’m not interested in what’s been hyped,” said Turner, on his own now. “I like to discover things, to rediscover artists’ work that hasn’t been re-evaluated and build a collection that can be shown.”

The gallery’s current exhibition, “Abstract + Surrealist Californian Art 1932-1949,” fulfills that goal. Turner has brought together 24 works by 21 artists who exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago’s “Abstract and Surrealist American Art” show in 1947. California artists such as Hans Burkhardt, Oskar Fischinger and Knud Merrild were among the 252 artists in that show, which included such celebrated names as Salvador Dali, Alexander Calder and Jackson Pollock.

“These California artists were not regionalists, but part of something broader, not related specifically to California,” Turner said. “They were in step with the avant-garde artists of the country. They were not reluctant followers, either. Many of them trained in New York, Chicago and Europe and were involved in the thought of the day.”

Among the works in the show are Clay Spohn’s oil on canvas “The Blue Moon (Fantasy of the Southwest)” (1944). The surrealist painting presents bold geometric figures in an eerie theatrical setting, perhaps involved in a confrontation. Spohn (1898-1977) studied at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, UC Berkeley, the Art Students League in New York and the Academie Moderne in Paris.

Another Northern Californian, James McCray, is represented here by two works. “Flotation” (1945), a gouache on board rendering of black lines and geometric areas in primary colors, is reminiscent of Piet Mondrian’s work. McCray also made the black frame surrounding the work, which elaborates on the geometric notions of the piece. His untitled work of 1941, which is listed as “Sculpture by the Harbor,” with its more pictorial scene, bears no resemblance to “Flotation.”

Elise Armitage (1905-1962) was one of the pioneers of abstraction and modernism in Los Angeles. She was W. C. Fields’ comic partner at the Ziegfeld Follies and came to Hollywood to act in his films. Shortly after her arrival here, she married artistic and musical impresario Merle Armitage and gave up acting to concentrate on painting and experimenting with lithography. An untitled lithograph, circa 1932, of her sublime lines and shapes and a rare 1948 oil on canvas painting, “Anatomy of Movement,” are in this show.

With its painted wood beam ceiling and tile floor in the entryway, Turner’s space was an art gallery in 1930 also. It was opened by artist Nell Brooker Mayhew, who pioneered her own color etching technique. She exhibited her work as well as that of other artists and craftspeople.

“Everything in Los Angeles has to be now , but there was a now yesterday,” Turner said. “There is great art here from the past that has not been exposed. It takes a lot of strength and confidence to buy the work of an artist who is not well-known and dead. I’m looking for independent-minded collectors.”

“Abstract + Surrealist Californian Art 1932-1949, “ at steve turner gallery, 7220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, through Jan. 31. Open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. Call (213) 931-1185.

MEXICAN WOMEN ARTISTS: Since “Mexico: Splendors of Thirty Centuries” opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in October, the life and art of Frida Kahlo have dominated much of the conversation about Mexican art, and especially Mexican women artists. However, Kahlo had predecessors, contemporaries and successors--women artists who have brought their own visions to Mexican art.

From the Iturralde Gallery’s current exhibit, “Women in Mexican Art,” one can get a sense of the diversity of content and styles in the work of Mexican women artists of the 20th Century. The show presents 22 works by 11 artists whose birth dates range from 1902 to 1956.

With a touch of surrealism, Maria Izquierdo’s oil on canvas “Coscomates” (1945) depicts a variety of plants in strong earth tones. The strength of her “Madona Roja” (1944) is in the madonna’s face and her raised arm. A red mantilla flows back from her face, topped by a gold halo.

In contrast, Perla Krauze’s contemporary mixed-media works, “Cuando Ellos Sonrien (When They Smile)” and “Y No Estabamos Solos (We Were Not Alone)”, show unwholesome men and women in seedy bar scenes.

Two untitled works by Joy Laville (1923-) illustrate differing sensibilities. A pastel on paper, circa 1965, suggests three content people with their backs to the viewer, looking out to the horizon. Her 1986 etching shows a nude woman seated facing a cracked mirror.

“After we finished hanging the show, we sat down and looked at the work all together,” Teresa Iturralde said, speaking of herself and her sister, Ana, with whom she runs the gallery, which opened in May. The Iturralde family first established an art gallery specializing in Latin American art in La Jolla in 1987. “It felt so different in here. We realized that most of the works have figures of women.”

Not all in the show is representational work. “Abstracto,” circa 1965, by Lilia Carrillo (1930-1974), is a powerful Abstract Expressionist painting. Irma Palacios, born in 1943, has surely taken in Carrillo’s work. Her “Relatos de Mar y Tierra II (Stories of the Sea and Land II)” and “Huella de Toro (Bull’s Footprint),” both from 1991, are also strong Abstract Expressionist paintings.

Artists Olga Costa, Magali Lara, Lucia Maya, Herlinda Sanchez Laurel and Cordelia Urueta are also represented in the show, along with two sketches by Frida Kahlo.

“Women in Mexican Art “ at the Iturralde Gallery, 154 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles, through Saturday. Open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Call (213) 937-4267.

POP ENERGY: New York gallery owner Bess Cutler opened her Santa Monica gallery in September because she wanted to give emerging and mid-career New York artists California exposure, and she was looking for new opportunities.

“It was a jump for me because I was enmeshed in New York standards and values for young artists,” she said. “There are different aesthetics in New York that are tied to Europe.”

Her current exhibit, “Post Pop & Beyond,” shows 26 works by 10 artists, most of whom live and work in Los Angeles.

“I am always looking for where the energy is,” she said. “This whole ‘pop’ thing--cartoons, comics, ethnic culture--is where the energy is. It reflects the culture here. These new ideas are not derivative of New York.”

Sandow Birk composes contemporary Los Angeles street scenes in the pattern of specific classical paintings. The configuration of “East Side Incident”--in which people gathered after an incident look up to an approaching police helicopter--corresponds directly to that of Rubens’ painting, “The Miracles of St. Ignatius of Loyola,” circa 1618. Similarly, “Crack Deal (Saint)” relates to Caravaggio’s “The Incredulity of St. Thomas,” circa 1600. For this painting, Birk was assisted by Wil Lanni, who painted the brightly colored, graffiti-style background with spray paint.

Jose Lozano explores the essence of Latino culture through sometimes surreal and narrative images of Latinos superimposed over a pattern of generic Latino faces. His mixed-media works include “Ethnic Delights 2” and “Wonder Woman (Mujer Maravilla).”

Steve Hurd’s large oil painting “Available SWF” looks like a collage. Hurd first made the image in a small newspaper collage. Then he projected the collage, and painstakingly recreated the detail of the newsprint and the form of the female figure on canvas.

Anthony Ausgang’s acrylic paintings focus on cars and cartoon characters. He photographs images from animated television programs, projects them and then paints on canvas or occasionally a car door. There’s more to his work than mere copying, though; his images convey a seriousness not associated with Saturday morning children’s programs.

Robert Williams is represented in this show by four drawings and an oil on canvas painting, “Lord High Solver of Puzzledom.” He first worked in the studio of Ed (Big Daddy) Roth in the 1960s, drawing hot-rods and motorcycles. Roth became famous in the 1960s for his T-shirt designs of weirdo monsters such as “Chevy Man” and “Rat Fink.” His “Sidewalk Surfer” is here in a silk-screen edition of 150.

Lynn Coleman, John De Fazio, Gary Panter and David Sandlin are also represented in the show.

“Post Pop & Beyond,” at the Bess Cutler Gallery, 903 Colorado Ave. , Santa Monica, through Dec. 31. Open 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Call (310) 394-6673.