Transformed

Letter from the Curator

"No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist."
 – Oscar Wilde

An artist's fundamental process is rooted in the metamorphosis of materials. Whether a blank canvas, a multitude of pigments, an empty roll of film, or a raw piece of metal, after many hours, each will, in theory, become a work of art. The intention of this transformation typically begins with a subject rooted in psychological, philosophical, or physical interests and the resulting work, potentially infinite in its outcomes. Yet, every piece celebrates a great transition of turning nothing into something captivating.  

For over fifty years, painter Charles Arnoldi has explored abstraction, stating: "In abstract painting, the artist sets up a problem and then solves it." Each work is a primal organization of the visual vocabulary consisting of line, form, color, and shape. While constructing a piece of art, each decision informs the next, an organic process rooted in formality. A subtle discovery in the studio, the way two shapes interact, is the start of a new problem and begins a new journey of analysis. 

In Cara Barer's Carmon (2007), materials experience the ultimate transformation as a phone book is dyed and sculpted into a prismatic burst and then photographed and displayed as a two-dimensional object. The antiquated item takes on a new identity and a renewed purpose. 

Emotions define the human experience, transforming one moment to the next. Grief specifically, creates a sudden, sharp shift in reality. To understand the grieving process, artist Yvonne Cavanagh explored how her creative practice could mirror the experience. Taking a completed drawing and erasing lines and colors, she was forced to either begin again or find new beauty from what remained of the original. The earliest work from the two-year series is often muted in palette and chaotic in its abstract compositions. Floating Oranges (2018) is from the later part of the series when the work began to take on naturalistic forms with an organized, airy harmony and consistent, saturated color palettes. Each work reveals a transformation and the series tells the beautiful story of death and rebirth. 

Memories, too, transform. They reinforce past lessons and experiences, embellished to recall the positive and abandoned when harmful or extraneous. The places we live in and the countries we visit are full of nostalgic impressions. Artist Marion Cunningham devoted her tragically short life to documenting her surroundings. The Bakersfield-born artist and prolific printmaker, who most notably depicted her adult home of San Francisco, made Road to Vera Cruz (1940) after an epic exploration of Mexico with her sister long before it was conventional for two women to go on such a journey. 

The allegorical significance of the landscape is repeatedly explored in photography and painting. An allegory is a tool exploited by artists to divulge underlying meaning, transforming an object's significance. In Bob Kolbrener's Sharon-in Wash (1995), the female figure mimics the rock formation created by nature and therefore becomes one with the landscape. In contrast, Astrid Preston's figureless vistas are characterized by idyllic mystery. In Early Morning Light (2005), the viewer is given subtle clues to a narrative; the hazy background is juxtaposed against the foreground's landscape where a path in the center of the composition is surrounded by the repetition of rounded shrubs inciting safety. For in Preston's paintings, the natural environment simultaneously exudes truth and allusion. The artist tirelessly explores humanity's relationship with the landscape, celebrating its beauty, but recognizing that the human has donned it so.

As the world continues to shift before our eyes, there is comfort in acknowledging the capacity of art to thrive under ever-changing circumstances. When challenged with the question, "What will become of this?" the artist searches for an answer.

Rachel Magnus
Curator
Bakersfield Museum of Art