Point on a Set #30 (Photo – Garrett Rowlan)
Think of Pasadena: L.A.’s Art Legacy as a sort of octopus with its tentacles in the past, pulling together nearly 60 artists from 70 works in an exhibition at the Jack Rutberg Fine Arts off Lake and California.
By Garrett Rowlan
Seen this way, Claire Falkenstein’s Point on a Set #30, with its interlocking tendrils forming a sphere and placed near the center of the exhibition, struck me as a miniature black hole pulling the various artists into a geographic commonality.
Another artwork, René Magritte’s The Tree from 1968, had a similar gravitational and thematic feel, with its rooted base rising and flowering.
The only piece I found explicitly tied to the titular city was Hans Burkardt’s Pasadena Bridge, the one on the upper Arroyo near Devil’s Gate. Painted in 1948, the date reminded me that only a decade later I would go up the Arroyo and slide down the mossy incline below the bridge, or that a decade after that my sister would give me my first driving lesson, steering perilously down the winding road toward Highland Park.
The weathered shovel, an oiled found object in Alison Saar’s Spade Study, reminded me of the shovel I use to break chunks of backyard dirt, and at the same time I thought of the late Terry Cannon’s collage Films Found in a Box, which played at the corner of Raymond and Colorado in the original film forum around 1980.
While I liked and recommend this exhibit, somehow it doesn’t strike me as having the unity of the George Nama exhibition at Rutberg’s gallery a year ago. Perhaps this is due to the current exhibition’s subtitle, A Selling Exhibition, which suggests an eclecticism based not only on geography but also on mercantile considerations in these unclear economic times.
Regardless, Rutberg’s gallery again presents us locals with a first-hand experience of artwork found either in books or the congested Westside.
The exhibition is on display until August 29. Find full exhibit details online here. The gallery welcomes visitors Tuesdays – Fridays 10:00 am – 6:00 pm and Saturdays 10:00 am – 5:00 pm. It’s located at 600 S Lake Ave #102, Pasadena, CA 91106.
(R-L) Jack Rutberg and Jonas Short (Photo – Garrett Rowlan)
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