Trying to Piece Together Threads of ‘Form’

There is something markedly puzzling about the current exhibition at Cal State L.A.’s Luckman Fine Arts Gallery. Its title, “Form/Synthesis,” is one of those enigmatic artspeak handles that doesn’t really mean anything unless somehow illuminated by the art on view.

In this case, the matter is works of painting, sculpture and the like by 19 contemporary artists. Most are Italian, so labels on the works are usually in that language. The catalog’s essays, by Enrico Mascelloni and Angelo Trimarco, appear in both English and Italian, in prose so poetic and metaphysical it provides virtually no clue to what the exhibition is meant to be about. It does, however, create the impression that the thing either originated in Italy or will travel there later. But according to gallery director and exhibition curator Patricia Woodlin, that’s not the case. The catalog was printed in Italy, but “Form/Synthesis” will appear exclusively at the Luckman.

Well, OK. So maybe this is a survey of recent Italian art. Closer scrutiny reveals that’s not the case either. The roster includes at least one American, Dennis Oppenheim, a German, Matthias Wagner K, and a sprinkling of other nationalities.

Since nobody at the organizational end seems eager to divulge the exhibition’s intent, there’s nothing left but to figure it out for yourself. Perhaps the work reveals common threads that hold it together, you think.

There’s quite a bit of Minimalist abstraction, like a big serial painting by Michele Zaza. Carlo Alfano does a kind of variation on Frank Stella’s early black paintings. You begin to notice there are hardly any familiar names here--beyond, say, Alberto Burri--but these unfamiliars tend to make work that looks like more familiar artists’. Tommaso Durante, for example, is represented by a painting that resembles an early Ed Moses. Concetto Pozzati seems to want to be Rene Magritte.

The search for common threads soon proves hopeless: The work is all over the place. Franco Ciuti makes formal abstract sculpture that deals with the idea of turning organic form into machinelike shapes. Right nearby stands Vettor Pisani’s Renaissance-style sculpture of Jesus crucified on a sheaf of wheat.

On one wall is a satirical painting by Gabriele Amadori showing Old Glory draped around two huge fingers that stick out the top; feet emerge from the bottom. Then there’s a conceptual earthworks proposal by Oppenheim. A realization dawns: Even though some pieces are quite recent, most everything here could have been made in the ‘70s. Nothing is revealed.

* Cal State L.A., Luckman Fine Arts Gallery, through May 10; closed Friday and Sunday. (213) 343-6604.