Drawing on the Tension Underlying Diebenkorn

At L.A. Louver Gallery, a sharply focused selection of sketchbook-size drawings by Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) emphasizes the links between the renowned artist’s abstract landscapes and his more intimate studies of the female figure. All the more remarkable for being Diebenkorn’s first solo show in a Los Angeles gallery in more than 20 years, this precise survey of 34 works made between 1954-67 clearly outlines how he built his compositions out of the nearly architectural presence of his models’ bodies.

Some drawings are all grace and ease. Their predominantly nude figures appear to slip into Diebenkorn’s pictures as comfortably and casually as anyone would slip into an old bathrobe or favorite pair of jeans. More relaxed and natural than most of the images displayed, the elements in these works appear to have simply fallen into place, without force or coaxing.

In contrast, most of the drawings show evidence of Diebenkorn’s struggle to get the lines formed by the models’ silhouettes to lock into place on the picture plane. Numerous knees bend at extreme angles, often echoing the legs and arms of carefully placed chairs. More often than not, the figures’ arms form perfect 90-degree angles, as if they’re structural supports that mimic, and reinforce, the corners of each page.

The figures in these signature works have an awkward, somewhat uncomfortable presence, as if their bodies aren’t really in sync with the spaces they occupy. This edgy uneasiness infuses Diebenkorn’s drawings with the same tension that animates his landscape paintings, in which lines are smudged and adjusted until open spaces are created. You can almost feel him wrestling to get the drawn lines and shapes to behave properly.

It’s significant that Diebenkorn’s drawings do not seem to be records of wrestling between the artist and the women depicted. The struggle these works record is between the artist and the blank page, in his attempts to articulate strong compositions.

Not nearly as extreme or malignant as the drawings by Edgar Degas they recall, Diebenkorn’s works are cooler, more distant and less alarming than the Frenchman’s. Drawing, for Diebenkorn, was a relentlessly formal endeavor, an ongoing struggle to negotiate some kind of resolution or compromise between bodies and pencil and ink on paper.

* L.A. Louver Gallery, 45 N. Venice Blvd., Venice, (310) 822-4955, through Saturday.

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Form and Function: At Richard Telles Fine Art, an unconventional collaboration between Jim Isermann and Jorge Pardo highlights the talents of each artist while forming a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. An inspired pairing, this user-friendly exhibition pinpoints significant differences between each artist’s oeuvre as it reveals profound similarities between them.

For his part of the project, Isermann has hand-braided a big, colorful rug that nearly covers the gallery’s floor. Composed of a pair of concentric squares whose supersaturated bands of color mirror one another, the rug’s dazzling pattern recalls Josef Albers’ color studies and Frank Stella’s brash canvases, as well as Alfred Jensen’s vibrant paintings of interlocked shapes.

But, being a rug, Isermann’s boldly decorative abstraction abandons the two-dimensional space of painting for the three- dimensional realm of sculpture. And that’s where the commercially produced, wall-to-wall carpeting Pardo has chosen for his part of the project enters the picture. Serving as a pedestal for Isermann’s work--albeit an extremely low one--Pardo’s contribution foregrounds the fact that the rug resting atop it functions like a traditional sculpture.

Although Isermann’s piece only takes up about an inch of the gallery’s vertical space, it possesses so much visual density and weight that it has a sculptural presence. It fills the room with a rainbow of reflected color.

And like the best pedestals, Pardo’s olive carpeting sets off the art it displays by subtly fitting into its context. Like his other smart works, this one functions by nearly disappearing into its surroundings--though not without making a difference.

Where Isermann’s rug expands conventional notions of abstract art to include “low-brow” crafts and homey decorations, Pardo’s self-effacing work suggests that every design decision represents an important aesthetic choice, one that either adds to or detracts from a setting’s overall beauty. Simultaneously functional and artistic, these artists’ overlapping floor- coverings don’t pull the proverbial rug out from under one’s feet as much as they compel viewers to decide just where they stand on the issue of beauty’s relationship to utility. That’s no mean feat.

* Richard Telles Fine Art, 7380 Beverly Blvd., (213) 965-5578, through Dec. 28. Closed Sundays and Mondays.

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Makeshift Marquees: Jack Pierson’s new works at Regen Projects combine the desperation of ransom notes with the come-one, come-all accessibility of storefront signs that advertise everything from Laundromats to gas stations, diners to dime stores, and bars to bus stops. At once ominous and promising, the New York-based artist’s simple wall reliefs spell out haunting messages in which private desires collide with public fantasies.

Each of Pierson’s six homemade signs consists of a handful of letters found in junkyards and pieced together like the fugitive lettering on punk album covers. These anonymous emblems state facts, name names and make commands, all of which tend toward tragic interpretations.

“Lust,” the largest piece displayed, begins with a red L from an old Lucky supermarket sign, continues with a pair of rusty metal letters that spell “us,” and ends with a new neon T shining brightly. While it’s impossible to know whether this jerry-built sign intends to command or to describe, it’s clear that its “us”--whoever that might refer to--is sandwiched between an unlucky past and a future aglow with hot possibility.

Likewise, “Applause” mimics the flashing signs that direct the exaggerated behavior of game-show audiences. At the same time, it recalls spontaneous outbursts of satisfied emotions, usually shared by large groups of people.

Spelled out in blue, brown and white letters, Pierson’s “Dean Martin” sign functions like a makeshift gravestone. “And Dietrich Dies in Paris” captures the fading presence of the fleeting moment, like a brief obituary in a local newspaper.

Lurking just beneath the surface of all of the artist’s piecemeal marquees is the moment when glamour passes into tragedy. If F. Scott Fitzgerald was wrong and American lives have second acts, Pierson’s art insists that they are built on broken dreams.

* Regen Projects, 629 N. Almont Drive, (310) 276-5424, through Dec. 11. Closed Sundays and Mondays.

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Domestic Angst: Jessika Wood’s modestly scaled paintings at Kantor Gallery reveal a hip sensibility that is equally influenced by Henri Matisse and comic books. Flat, graphic and efficiently simplified, the 15 acrylics on canvas in the 21-year-old artist’s first solo show are animated by a wonderfully light touch.

All of Wood’s images depict stylized interiors whose walls, floors and furniture are rendered in bold, dissonant colors. Even the empty living rooms in “Blue and Green Room With Red Chairs” and “White Panties, Pink House, Landscape” seem to be infused with an alienating undercurrent, all the more troubling because you can’t put your finger on it.

Most of Wood’s pictures focus on very young women who seem to be bored by the isolating middle-class environments in which they find themselves. Almost all of the artist’s lithe girls wear nothing more than unfashionable panties as they loll about, whiling away time in their claustrophobic homes.

Teenage rebellion, well on its way to becoming adult world-weariness, takes shape in Wood’s paintings. Using the decorative stasis of Matisse’s interiors for a backdrop, these depictions of subdued youthful defiance express just the right touch of modern angst. It’s a promising combination.

* Kantor Gallery, 8642 Melrose Ave., (310) 659-5388, through Jan. 6. Closed Sundays and Mondays.