October 15–19, 2014
Booth A03
Kohn Gallery is pleased to showcase a historical booth thematically focused on “the dark side of light.” Featuring rare work by artists Bruce Conner, Larry Bell, Joe Goode, Wallace Berman and Jess, the Kohn Gallery will underscore the duality, the sensory, and the metaphysical in California art from the 1950s to the late 1970s.
Early assemblages from the late 1950s/early 1960s by Bruce Conner will be featured prominently in the booth. Conner created his famous assemblages from scraps salvaged from abandoned buildings, doll parts, and other found materials. Often shrouded in nylon stockings, these extremely rare artworks toy with the duality of the sacred and the profane. Often critical of modern American life, these important pieces underscore the artist’s feelings of political disillusionment within the backdrop of sunny California. Bruce Conner has an upcoming solo show at the Kohn Gallery in November, and a major retrospective at the MoMA, New York and SFMoMA, San Francisco in 2016.
Also present in the booth will be a rare painting from Joe Goode’s “Nighttime” series. These masterfully painted pieces recall the zero of form of Malevich’s Black Square, but are violently slashed by the artist with a box cutter, creating a beautiful play of shadow and light along the surface.
Finally, an important piece by Jess will be given prominent placement in the booth. Titled The 40 and 1 Nights, this is Jess’s Didactic Nickelodeon: a collaboration between filmmaker Lawrence Jordan and Jess. Jess made a set of 41 collages, made primarily from Life magazine issues in 1955, which he framed like a nickelodeon. He then carefully selected a piece of music for each collage, so sound and image would cut from frame to frame. This film will also be on display in the booth.
