“Family Tree” Petaluma Art Center’s Exceptional Fine Woodworking Show through March 13, 2011
Barbara Holmes' site specific installation from re-purposed building lath is the focal point of "Family Tree," the fine woodworking exhibition at the Petaluma Arts Center through March 13, 2011. Photo: Geneva Anderson
In the past two years, the Petaluma Arts Center has delivered several well-curated and immensely popular shows. “Family Tree,” the center’s latest exhibition which runs through March 13, may be its best yet. The show explores the lineage of fine woodworking in California from 1945 onward and is one of its most ambitious shows to date, bringing a number of woodworking masterpieces into the small center along with a bevy of artist demonstrations and talks. If your conception of woodworking runs to bowls, tables and chairs, the show offers plenty of fine examples of these but it will also update you with some of wood’s latest trends. It also makes a compelling case for elevating fine woodworking into museums as a vibrant form of conceptual craft.
“Family Tree” is curated by Kathleen Hanna and presents the works of 25 artists, ranging from pioneers and mid-career artists to new entrants whose work has been influential in the CA contemporary fine woodworking movement. Along side of this show, in the center’s community gallery, stands the innovative work of several students from the Furniture Program at California College of the Arts who are rising stars in fine woodworking.
Kathleen Hanna curator of "Family Tree" at the Petaluma Arts Center through March 13, 2011. Hanna is an independent curator who has worked with several of San Francisco's leading craft museums. Photo: Geneva Anderson
“Since WWII, the focus of the art world has shifted radically from the New York to the West Coast in the area of fine craft and I wanted to point to the history of what has happened here since WWII,” explained Kathleen Hanna, an independent curator specializing in 20th century furniture and decorative objects who has worked for San Francisco’s Museum of Craft and Design and Museum of Craft and Folk Art . Hanna, a Petaluma resident since 1983, also has a personal connection to fine woodworking through her father, Arthur W. Hanna, a San Francisco boat builder who took up woodworking and furniture design after he came home from WWII. “This is a very small space, so I wanted to work just with wood and trace the lineage back to a very small group of pioneers in wood and fine craft and show how subsequent makers have expanded the dialogue by painting, manipulating and emphasizing wood’s sculptural aspects as well as show some woodworking tools that are being locally made.”
Early Masters: Material Worship
Much in line with modernist principals of clean lines, truth to materials and simplicity, early woodworkers revered the wood itself for its own inherent beauty and didn’t paint it or cover up its beautiful grain. Art Espenet Carpenter’s (1920-2006) “Double Music Stand” is just one of the masterpieces on display from pioneering California wood artists.
Art Espenet Carpenter's iconic "Double Music Stand," in rosewood, is one the masterpieces of wood art on display in "Family Tree."
Legendary for his sleek and distinctive furniture, Carpenter, who had just returned from military service was so inspired by a Good Design exhibition in 1946 at MOMA in New York that he bought a lathe and took up woodworking. He then moved to California, where later he exuberantly embraced furniture design. He taught at San Francisco State and became so popular that over 130 woodworkers apprenticed under him in his Bolinas studio.
His double music stand, fashioned from rosewood, is finely inlaid with metal and exhibits elegant refined curves that show influence of Alexander Calder, Charles and Ray Eames, and Robert Maillart , a Swiss engineer and bridge builder whose startling and original spans influenced 20th century artists of all kinds. The form of this music stand so appealed to Carpenter that he worked with it throughout his life, modifying it and creating many examples.
Carpenter was also a founding member of the influential Baulines Craft Guild, formed in the early 1970’s, which brought skilled artisans together to further their techniques and artistic dialogue. This led to the formation of Dovetail Gallery on Fillmore Street in San Francisco providing a market for their works.
J.B.Blunk’s “Chair” 1978, 36” x 40” x 40,” was carved from a massive block of redwood with a chainsaw. In the 1960’s and 1970’s, Blunk was well-known for his redwood furniture and wood installations which were unprecedented in their size and degree of abstraction. Photo: Geneva Anderson
Sculptor J.B. Blunk (1926-2002) , whose proud and massive carved redwood chair(1978) is also on display, had a strong influence on wood artists in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Using a chainsaw, Blunk created such iconic works as “The Planet” (1969) which graces the entrance of Oakland Museum of California’s Natural Science Gallery (closed for construction until 2012) and is made entirely of one ring of redwood burl thirteen feet in diameter.
Like many early woodworkers, Blunk took up woodworking after military service. After serving in the army in Korea, Blunk was discharged to Japan where he met sculptor Isamu Noguchi and delved into Japan’s rich ceramic tradition, apprenticing with legendary potters Kitaoji Rosanjin (1883–1959) and Bizen style master Toyo Keneshige (1896–1967). After returning to the U.S., Blunk built his own home and studio near in Inverness and remained true to an aesthetic process that sought to release the inherent beauty in the material he worked with. His legacy continues posthumously with a residency program through his Inverness studio.
Several extraordinary wooden bowls by revered wood artist Bob Stocksdale (1914-2003), a long-time East Bay resident, attest to his influence on many important contemporary wood artists. Mesmerizing in their elegant simplicity, they encapsulate the bowl’s transition from a previously crude farm-style implement to a beautiful and functional
Bob Stocksdale’s lathe-turned vessels fashioned from exotic timbers, like this 1979 bowl from Ebony, exquisitely showcase each piece of wood’s unique grain and beauty..
aesthetic object. Stocksdale’s small thin lathe-turned macadamia nut bowl, barely 3 inches in diameter, is a perfect harmony of graceful form and material, as is his larger Magnolia tree bowl. These bowls were once available in limited supply at Gump’s and reasonably affordable as beautiful utilitarian objects. Now, they are highly collectible and fetch thousands.
Stocksdale’s love for exotic timbers, his care in selecting just the right piece of wood, and his gifted use of simple tools to explore the inherent beauty of wood grain were trademarks that gained him celebrity status. Like most artists, he did not arrive at this spontaneously. He was influenced heavily by James Prestini (1908-1993), an engineer turned artist who started to lathe turn wooden bowls in the 1930’s as art objects—bowls so thin they appeared to have qualities similar to glass or ceramics. Prestini’s new way of looking at woodturning, with his emphasis on the design and shape of the object, influenced an entire generation, especially young Stocksdale, who first encountered him in Berkeley.
Berkeley artist Merryll Saylan was one of the early female entrants to wood art and is noted for her polychrome finishes. “Tower, Keep and Besamim Büchse” (2005) are three turned towers she created referencing her husband’s experience on life support.
Second Generation: Women, Color, Form, Experimentation
Looking back at the sexual politics of the mid-century and the immediate post WWII environment, where woodworking and handicrafts were forms of rehabilitation, and the explosion of power tools that became readily available and affordable, it’s easy to see why woodworking was initially a man’s activity. Berkeley artist Merryll Saylan, was one of the early women in the field, emerging as a leader in the use of color and texture in her lathe turned work. She is part of the second generation of California artists who really went beyond worshipping wood for its inherent qualities and began to experiment with color, finishes and sculptural embellishment. This generation of artists introduced a new round of individual expression to woodworking and began to elevate wood to the realm of conceptual craft.
“Tower, Keep, and Besamim and Büchse”(2005) are three turned wooden towers forming a powerful installation that incorporates the actual nitroglycerin bottles used by Saylan’s husband when he was on life support. Aside from its highly personal nature, Besamim and Büchse (Jewish spice box) are a conceptual reinterpretation of Jewish ritual. The towers have an opaque hard finish that Saylan has created with polychrome “milk paint” which she makes by adding colorants to caseine (processed from the curd of soured milk). Milk paint is water soluble when wet but it becomes virtually intractable when dry and forms a very stable and attractive protective finish—an apt metaphor for what it must have taken to gain recognition in a predominantly male field.
Griff Oakie, from Santa Rosa, began working with wood in the early 1970’s and initially rebelled against color and the trend for painting wood that emerged in the 1980’s. In “The Hand of the Maker,” for fun, Oakie put a very expensive bright red lacquer on a bench he’d made, completely covering the beautiful figurative aspect of the wood, and embellished it with a carved wooden hand left unpainted.
Ashley Jameson Eriksmoen’s “Fledge” 2006 is a table set based on the artist’s observations about how various young animals huddle near their parents’ legs. Constructed from various woods, acrylic and milk paints, casters, 36”x45”x14” and 24”x3-“x11.” photo: courtesy Ashley Eriksmoen
Gary Knox Bennett (born 1934)v has attained legendary status in the field of furniture and is well-known for his subversive humor. In the 1960’s he created lines of roach clips along with his lucrative large-scale furniture and he also started a metal-plating company and has since imbued his wood furniture with decorative metal. Hanna selected one of his satiny redwood tables for “Family Tree” and encourages viewers to browse through any of the 10 artist statements he prepared for the show.
Ashley Eriksmoen’s “Fledge” is a very gestural duo and amongst the most imaginative pieces on display —a solid wood parson’s table and end table set– highly organic in form and suggestive of a bird wing. “Fledge” is based on Eriksmoen’s observations of various young animals (including humans) as they huddle near their parents’ legs. “A gosling will find shelter under the mother goose’s wing as it peers at the world, just as dogs lean into their guardian’s shins when feeling shy,” writes Eriksmoen. “In ‘Fledge,’ the parent table takes a protective stance as the young table leans out, contemplating leaving the nest on a solo flight while still needing the parent.” Each “feather” of the table is an independent segment, shaped and fitted curve to curve. The legs have lap joints in the “knees.” Casters on the hind feet allow these winged creatures to have faster takeoffs and smooth
Russell Baldon’s table “Bad Digital” is a hallucinogenic exploration the possibilities of digital furniture design. Baldon is chairman of the Furniture Department at CCA and encourages his students to embrace technology. Photo: Geneva Anderson
landings, and to be moved easily with one hand. Eriksmoen, who teaches at California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, has travelled the world studying ancient techniques which she applies in conjunction with state of the art design practices taught at CCA. The result is a thoroughly refreshing body of contemporary work imbued with life, movement, whimsy, and stunning craftsmanship.
Highly creative approaches to woodworking are being nurtured in CCA’s Furniture Program and instructors Russell Baldon, Donald Fortescue and Barbara Holmes also figure prominently in “Family Tree.” Russell Baldon’s “Bad Digital” is a digitally-designed and executed table that resembles a Victor Vasarely painting in 3-D. Baldon, current chairman of CCA’s Furniture Program, intentionally designs his work so that it straddles the line between furniture and art, science and art, and between function and nonfunction.
Donald Fortescue's "Pike" (2001) were painstakingly formed by gluing rings of plywood together and turning and hand-shaping it to form a smooth minimalistic tower. In 2001, Fortescue became the first artist to win a design award from SFMOMA. Photo: courtesy Donald Fortescue
Australian born Donald Fortescue, previous chairman of CCA’s Furniture Program, was one of the first artists to receive the Experimental Design Award from SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) in 2001. “Pike” (2000) are two impeccably made sculptural vessels that comment on the potential of non-rectilinear processes now common in design applications of all types. Each was made by gluing innumerable rings of birch plywood together, then lathe-turning and painstakingly hand-finishing it into a single smooth layered form. These layers, like sedimentary strata, stand as a perfect commentary on art’s cycle. In the long run, almost everything in America that starts out at the pinnacle as a coveted art/design object in galleries or design stores cycles downward until it reaches Target and then ascends in large consumer markets.
Barbara Holmes, a fine woodworker and CCA instructor from Oakland, has created the site specific “Tacoma” from reclaimed redwood lathe specifically for the Petaluma Arts Center. This lyrical, spiraling 12 foot long line of lathe unfolds like a melody across the gallery wall. The technique of stacking slats, nailing them and creating spirals is recent and springs from a residency Holmes did at the dump where she discovered how much lathe was a discarded by-product of demolition. The repurposing of wood and wood objects has become particularly popular in Northern, CA, because of our strong interest in sustainability and eco-consciousness. Wood artists like Holmes are exploring the material in new ways and creating pieces with a strong conceptual element behind them.
Sparks and shavings flew as Jerry Kermode demonstrated turning techniques to a packed house at the Petaluma Arts Center. Photo: Geneva Anderson
In late January, Jerry Kermode, a full time wood turner from Sebastopol, gave one of the center’s most action-packed artist demos ever on problem solving for wood turners. “I love the lathe because it’s really the only tool in the shop where you are the blade,” Kermode told a packed house of wood enthusiasts. Kermode teaches wood techniques out of his home studio and is featured in Sunset’s The Ultimate Garage: Getting Organized, Outfitting Your Garage, Creative Use of Space.
Like many artists, Kermode studies ancient techniques and finds solutions for problems that are a blend of old and new. While living in Hawaii, he encountered the cherished calabash (bowl) culture of the Islands and discovered that old calabash bowls were often repaired with wooden inserts, or kepa. Kermode began experimenting with biscuit joiners used in cabinetry to hold together included or fragile wood while turning it and refined this into a signature technique of stitching (bowl repair). Kermode, collaborates with his wife and business partner, Deborah Kermode, who finishes the bowls he has carved, and the couple has a number of natural edge of bowls in “Family Tree.”
David Keller’s dovetail jigs, revered in wood circles, are on display at the Petaluma Art Center’s “Family Tree” through March 13, 2011. Keller worked for Art Carpenter in the early 1970’s who demanded that all casework be dovetailed, a task that was painstakingly done by hand. Together Art and Dave recognized a need for a jig that could precision dovetails and Dave subsequently designed it, along with the first flush-trim router bit . His model 3600 jig that he designed long ago is still a best seller and his bit has revolutionized tool work.
Tools of the Trade
“All these makers love tools” says Hanna, “whether it’s a bandsaw or a new industrial design machine. Over the past 25 years, there have been major changes in the tools associated with achieving sculptural processes, in most cases designed by makers to meet a specific design need.”
Dave Keller, of Petaluma, who apprenticed and then worked with Art Carpenter in the early 1970’s, refined Carpenter’s technique for uniform dovetail joinery into the Keller dovetail system in 1976. Hanna has created a display of three of Keller’s aluminum templates and examples of different ways that dovetails are used.
In "Alumination," Andrew Perkins painstakingly layered aluminum and maple and then cut and sanded to achieve exquisite patterning in his table. Photo: Geneva Anderson
John de Marchi is a Petaluma sculptor and machinist/welder renowned for his finely-designed hand tools for woodworking. De Marchi fabricates new tools from scratch out of the finest steel available and also elegantly refurbishes old tools.
Rising Stars
The community gallery presents a snapshot of some of the latest developments in furniture design through student artists from the Wood Furniture Design Program at California College of the Arts. These rising stars were asked to respond to various design problems posed by their instructors and you’ll see cutting-edge works in a variety of style, materials and intents.
Andrew Perkins’ stunning table “Alumination” is a clever use of aluminum, a very flexible material, which has been layered with maple wood and then cut and sanded to expose elegant metal patterning whose exposure increases as the table leg tapers downward. Perkins is a 2010 CCA student recipient of the Ronald and Anita Wornick Award for exceptional talent in furniture design.
Noah Brezel’s “percival” (2009) is a functional seat with 12 legs that looks a lot like a spider. Brezel took cherry edgebanding and glued it and bent it over a curve to create some highly complex intersections. Brezel is interested in creating functional furniture with a perceived frailty and uses traditional hand-craftsmanship along with 3D computer modeling and laser cutting.
Noah Brezel’s “percival” (2009) is a functional seat with 12 legs fashioned from cherry edgebanding and cherry veneer, 32’ x 41’ x 17’. Brezel has attempted to bridge the gap between craft and design and strives for clean lines. Photo: Geneva Anderson
Michele Marti deconstructs Victorian furniture and then reconstructs it for her own purposes. “The Curious Sofa” has been formed by joining two Victorian chairs together to form a single sofa that forces two people sitting on the chair together to rub knees, a very un-Victorian thing to do. “Victorian’s Spread” similarly co-joins two chairs and indelicately references America’s weight gain. Marti and student colleague Brezel led a chair- making workshop at SFMOMA last year as part of its 75th anniversary celebration.
Wood’s Rising Stature:
In the contemporary craft world, wood is still a little bit of an underdog that has yet to be discovered in the big way that glass or ceramics have been in craft collecting and museum circles, explains Julie Muniz, Associate Curator of Crafts and Decor, Oakland Museum of CA. “Today’s wood craftsmen are really exploring the material in new ways and pushing the boundaries beyond the vessel and chair and into some very interesting installation pieces with some sort of commentary and conceptual element behind it. All this speaks very well for wood’s repositioning as a vibrant conceptual craft form.”
Michele Marti's "Curious Sofa" is a gorgeous spoof on Victorian morays as well as furniture design. Two people sitting on this plushly upholstered seat are forced to touch knees, a very un-Victorian thing to do. Photo: courtesy Michele Marti
Muniz has worked closely with Ron and Anita Wornick of Healdsburg and San Francisco, whose wood collection was the basis of the Oakland Museum of CA’s 1997 show “Expressions in Wood: Masterworks from the Wornick Collection.” Having amassed one of the most important conceptual craft collections in the country, and enthusiastically nurtured and supported wood artists through purchases, endowments, and fellowships, the Wornicks are now pushing to get wood its long due recognition in the country’s leading museums. “Wood will only be elevated to the level of fine art when the best of the work gets into fine arts museums and gets the exposure and recognition it deserves to stand beside other things that are more readily accepted as fine art,” said Ron Wornick.
In 2007, the Wornicks bequeathed 250 pieces from their conceptual craft collection to Boston Fine Arts Museum, including the 120 works in the MFA’s 2007 exhibition “Shy Boy, She Devil and Isis: The Art of Conceptual Craft.” In 2009, they gave several wood pieces to the Oakland Museum of CA’s wood collection. Earlier this year, they gave 100 pieces to Racine Art Museum (RAM) in Wisconsin in conjunction with its “Knock Wood” exhibition celebrating wood’s entrance to RAM’s permanent collection. Their collection includes pieces by many of the master artists in “Family Tree.”
Ron and Anita Wornick attended “Family Tree’s” opening and were impressed. “Shows like this one here in Petaluma are critical in raising public awareness about how far wood has come,” said Wornick. “I ended up spending a lot time there. Normally an exhibition is a little more horizontal in terms of a certain time frame or artist, but this one went all the way from Gary Knox Bennett, who is as old as tree and one of the originals, to Barbara Holmes and Chris Loomis (who are mid-career) and these three represent a 40 to 50 year time span of making in this language. There was real discernment in the selection of pieces too. And not only did it have a range of artists and works but there were also some inexperienced collectors there too and it was fun to see all of this unfold.”
Artist Talk: Saturday, March 5, 2011, 2-4 pm Ashley Eriksmoen: From Vikings to Lasers: One Woodworker’s Journey Seeking Appropriate Technologies for Creative Work
To construct complex, asymmetrical, organic forms, sometimes the best technology involves 21st century lasers, and sometimes it requires hand methods used by 9th century Vikings. An understanding of both can bring the best possible solution in Eriksmoen’s sculptural furniture work. Ashley Jameson Eriksmoen has exhibited at galleries and museums nationwide including the Fuller Museum and Pritam and Eames, and is the recipient of numerous awards and grants including the Norwegian Marshall Fund. She has taught woodworking and design courses and workshops at several schools, including College of the Redwoods and California College of Art (and Craft). Eriksmoen currently creates in her woodshop in Oakland. Fee: $5 suggested donation.
Recommended Reading:
Woodturning in North America Since 1930 (Yale University Press, 2003) complete history of woodturning
The Maker’s Hand: American Studio Furniture, 1940-1990 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2009)
Made in Oakland: The Furniture of Gary Knox Bennett (American Craft Museum, now Museum of Arts & Design, 2001)
Expressions in Wood: Masterworks from the Wornick Collection (Oakland Musuem of CA, 1996 available at the museum store at the Oakland Museum of CA and online.)
Details: The Petaluma Arts Center is located at 230 Lakeville Street, at East Washington Street, in central Petaluma, 94952. Gallery hours: Thursday- Monday, noon to 4 pm. Phone: (707) 762-5600 or www.petalumaartscenter.org
Petaluma Arts Council: A Feast of Color, Embroidery and Painting from the Villages of India, April 7- June 7, 2009
Malini Bakshi, founder of Pink Mango, at Petaluma Arts Center’s “Feast of Color: Embroidery and Painting from the Villages of India,” through June 7, 2009. Photo: Geneva Anderson
For centuries, Maithil women from the remote and impoverished Bihar region of eastern India have marked important rituals such as weddings and encouraged fertility and bountiful harvests, by creating unique freehand drawings directly on the plaster surfaces of their courtyards, verandas and interior rooms. Over time several distinctive styles of Mathila painting evolved. Today, the practice continues on both paper and walls. Malini Bakshi founded the Pink Mango organization to legitimize Mathila art, to share it with the rest of the world and to help Mathila artists generate income. In April, I spoke with Malini, a remarkable young woman who was born in India and currently resides in the Bay Area about Pink Mango and her unique plan for giving back to her native society and spreading the joy of Mathila art here.
1. GA: Can you tell me something about your first encounter with Mithila painting; was it a part of your childhood? What about it did you find so engaging and how did this lead to forming an arts organization?
MB: I grew up in Northern India with a lot of art around me and this work is clearly from East India, which is similar to someone growing up in CA and finding some work in North Dakota and trying to find commonalities—there are few. Seven or eight years ago, I had gone to India to my parents’ place, which is an area that’s sort of a cross between Tahoe and Petaluma, not in the sticks but away from the hustle-bustle of the city—quiet, lots of fruit tress mangos, lychees. An aunt of mine was visiting and she had done a lot of community-building work with villages in India. I was living in the US—I had come over to study sculpture for my undergrad and then gotten my masters–and she was chiding me that Indians go abroad and get their education and they forget about India and nothing comes back to the country.
I wanted to do something with art, but I wasn’t the type of person who’d run right off to a village. Art was a very strong interest, it runs in the family. Also, I had studied art…How many Indians do you know who travel half way across the world to study sculpture, instead of the sciences or engineering? So art was important and like everyone, I wanted to “do” something…but…the thought happens and time goes on.
I was introduced to an artist through this aunt who encouraged me to take a look. I remember that when I saw that first piece, I was taken aback…it was Baua Devi’s orange cow. It came out of the trunk of this beat-up car and her son started to unroll it and all I saw was this orange strip that grew into this fabulous cow. It was such a modern piece and immediately upon looking at it, I fell in love. It was so special. The boy opened up a folded Xerox of a show that she had at Berkeley Art Museum in 1997 and I was blown away by that and wanted more information. Then, I saw the rest of her works and I just bought them all. I was also very touched by the idea that he was here on his mother’s behalf, that his mother had done them and he was so proud of her.
I asked about the iconography and some basic naïve questions and the stories just began to flow out of him and I was hooked…so I have the cow, all the rest of the paintings and these memories. When I came home to SF and spent time with them in my home, I knew I had to do something with them. I knew they had to be in a museum. I spoke with the Museum of Crafts and Folk Art in San Francisco and they knew nothing about these pieces. There was nothing written, anywhere, except an out-of-print pamphlet done by a French man. The Asian Art Museum told there was not enough academic material on these pieces to warrant a show. It was clearly a chicken and egg problem. I started to think about getting more information together.
2. GA: I’m dieing to know, how did Baua Devi get that show?
MB: Precisely! The curators at the Berkley Art Museum told me about Raymond Owens who had spent many months with the Mathila painters between 1977 and 2000 and how he had helped her get that show. That inspired me and while the institutional doors were closed because the art lacked legitimacy, I began to try and find a gallery for an exhibition. I was lucky. Our first exhibit was in April 2003 at the Shavaani Gallery in San Francisco, since closed. I kept it very simple focusing on Baua Devi and other women artists from Jitwarpur, India. I researched the story behind each painting and in retelling the mythology, hoped to educate. David Szanton, an American anthropologist who had been working with the Mathila community for some 30 years heard about the show and contacted me. David and Raymond Owens were friends. David and I became fast friends and that was how our collaboration began.
3. GA: David Szanton co-authored the book, what led to your collaboration?
MB: Well, David had this enthusiasm and knowledge and I had lots of enthusiasm but lacked the knowledge of this culture. In 2004, David and I made our first trip to India to the region, along with my father and people from universities. My parents felt I was literally visiting the armpit of the country and my father wanted to accompany me. I welcomed the company. We went on a journey from New Delhi to Patna, which is the capital of Bihar, and then by car to all these villages which might take an hour here but can take six, seven, eight hours by car because of the horrific roads…bridges washed out, etc. For me, it was quite an eye opener because it’s a very poor part of the country, another dimension. That’s what got me thinking about what I could do to help. I knew it would not help to hand out a dollar, what you need is sustainable change and there has to be some kind of change in that community where the people themselves improve the way they live. I grew up having all my needs met: we traveled abroad and didn’t think about the basics. But suddenly it hit me, that this is my country and this is its state
What happened on that trip was that I was received differently because my father was with me. I also behaved in a very traditional way, I covered my head. This was a real discovery of an India that I had not known. When we entered Bihar, there were so many things that I was shocked about. Kids running around in the bitter cold without proper clothing, the towns were pristine, clean, no trash, so there was pride about the surroundings that you don’t see in the big cities, but there was real poverty. I was also appalled at the callousness of others in my party, others from India, to the surroundings. It really got me thinking.
The women who created these artworks are dignified, poised, wonderful…they may be poor, but they have pride. They are carrying a child on one hip and offering no complaints about what they don’t have. They tell you their stories. They also tell you to shut up at times. They captured my heart: they were like my grandmom.
And they were wise. Shashikala Devi told me, “You know, you have to get rid of this instinct of yours to immediately ask questions to get an answer…you have to let it seep in and grow within you, because the understanding is not in any answer I will give you.”
The more time I spent with them, the more I wanted to get their work in a museum. And so it began. David had the same thought. The idea for the book came too.
4. GA: How did Pink Mango happen?
MB: It happened before that trip to India, with the very first show in 2003 at the Shavaani Gallery in San Francisco. I had to sign all these papers and I was advised by an attorney who is a friend of mine to do this signing under the name of an organization. From there, it emerged.
5. GA: And the name?
MB: India for me is color. The country is pink and red and orange. And mangos, well, it’s just for fun…associations. I did not want one of those serious Sanskrit names. This was a lighthearted endeavor and the name came before I’d actually met all the artists. I wanted the name to be abstract with no symbolism associated with it. Later, I thought it could not have been better.
6. GA: What are the immediately recognizable historical hallmarks of Mithila painting and what are some of the modern trends?
MB: Traditionally, these paintings were done on ritual occasions on plaster…this art is believed to have survived from epic periods. The wall paintings are done as part of a ritual to bring good results in marriage, to bless the home, bring fertility, bountiful harvest and also included protective deities. To bless and they served as auspicious purpose. Nuptial paintings, called khobar were meant to bestow blessings on the newlyweds. It was considered necessary to include all the main gods and goddesses in the paintings so that they could shower their blessings on the newlyweds. When the couple marries they spend their first four days in a room of the bride’s house and the khobar is painted on the eastern wall of this room. The women get together and do it. The process it that the oldest woman who has children and whose husband is alive starts the painting by putting a red dot in the middle of the wall and then someone who is talented in the community makes the outlines and then everyone comes in and all together they start painting to create the total vibrant work with specific use of red. You rarely see this vibrancy any more. The bamboo grove is very important, highly symbolic, and every artist paints it differently.
In general, the mud images allowed for much larger and free-floating images than paper. In the late 1960’s, when there was extreme drought in the region, the government, via the Crafts Council, went and introduced paper to the area so that the paintings could be done on paper and sold at regional craft fairs. That did generate income and it had a profound impact on the community. They continued to adorn the walls of their homes with these paintings too but over time, they have become less elaborate.
I have gotten pieces done with a ball point pen and I don’t tell them not to use it but I ask them why they chose to work with that. I am most interested in the works with the natural colors and they know that.
7. GA: Is there anything distinctive about the transition from wall to paper?
MB: I’ve been wanting to do an animated film to show this, but when they work on paper, they always start on the edges of the blank paper, working the border first and then inward. Whereas they used to start with a dot on the center of a blank wall and expand outwards. Paper is expensive and precious and there are no mistakes, no second guessing in this. Paper gave permanence to their creative expression.
8. GA: When it goes to the paper, do they explore different themes?
MB: It’s expanded…themes that we’ve seen are the epics–the Ramayana epic, so forth. Shakuntala from the Mahabharata. Baua Devi has done a lot of snake stories and there’s this growing narrative tradition in her paintings.
9. GA: Are these stories specific to the region or more general Indian mythology?
MB: They are known throughout India. Mithila is the goddess Sita who was called Mithila and she is from this area. She was found in a furrow in a plowed field and adopted by Janaka, King of Mithila-Jankapur (now Nepal) and his wife Sunayana but she is regarded as a daughter of Bhudevi, the Goddess Mother Earth. She was the princess of Mithila and known as Maithili. When she came of age, she was wed to Rama, an avatar of Vishnu. Sita is one of the central characters in the Ramayana, the Hindu epic. When people are looking at these works, instead of abstract design, there is a real story there.
10. GA: Is everything in the work then symbolic?
MB: I wouldn’t say that. They are almost like tapestries with portions that are filled in. The borders are not so symbolic; the leaves are fillers but they also have a symbolism to them. The fish is basically the Noah’s ark story…he has to get one male and female of each creature on earth.
11. GA: What about the subject matter…How is Madhubani painting changing due to the penetration of modern technology and contemporary culture? What happens when cell phones start cropping up in the artworks or they start working with Sharpies?
MB: The original purpose was ceremonial rituals and this is evolving and expanding. One of the paintings in this exhibition is Kamlesh Roy’s “Twin Towers” (2001). Another is Shalinee Kumari’s “Global Terrorism” (2005), which shows the globe and the twin towers. Amrita Das did “Tsunami in Sri Lanka” in 2005.
12. GA: And, in your opinion, is cross-pollination with contemporary culture a healthy trend in their artistic production or one that will lead them away from their traditional roots into something like touristy folk art? Do you have concerns about maintaining the purity of the symbolism and not wanting the modern world to mess with that?
MB: In terms of the art, it can’t stay pure forever, whatever pure is. With the advent of technology—radio, BBC, newspapers, TV—the artists become aware of the world and that has impacted mostly the younger generation of artists. Shalinee Kumari is a young artist who will have a debut show in June in San Francisco at the Frey Norris Gallery. She has done all these progressive feminist pieces where a woman can pilot a helicopter, mountain climb, drive a scooter and she cooks and cleans…she’s stepping out of the traditional role and addressing gender equality. The works are highly narrative. There have also been works that have been very critical of the dowry, bride burning, capitalism, etc.
In general, the villages in the Bihar region have had a lack of education, along with poverty, corruption, rotten weather, the list goes on. There is electricity, but they don’t have many modern appliances. So, it’s happening but it isn’t happening. When I last visited, I met a woman who we picked up in the jeep, newly married and she had just finished her MS in physics in India. She was from a village and her husband actually works at the Mathila Arts Institute, which is a school that the Ethnic Arts Foundation started that was financed by Ray. She wanted to stay in her village.
I see changes in the short time I’ve been involved, but honestly, I enjoy both ends—the traditional and the new influences– and it’s inevitable. That’s the evolution of an art form and that is addressed in the catalogue too. For art to survive and to thrive, it must remain vital. This is about the expression of a community done in a particular style and that makes it a genre in its own right and you have to acknowledge it and present it as a genre of art. It is not about making little tourist pieces for them but about honoring the fact that this was part of a ritual.
13. GA: Is there any effort underway to preserve the historical wall paintings?
MB: This is not wall-painting like cave paintings, these are done on their interior walls and you’ve got moisture and they don’t last. Rice paste or lime is what they use for the white and it is not a solid ground. The air is very moist and the little stoves they use add black to the works over time, so give it a few weeks, a month and it all will be gone. That’s the natural course of it. These are ephemeral.
14. GA: Have these drawings been documented?
MB: There is a substantial documentation of Mathila paintings from the 1930’s in the Archer Photographs, black and white, which are covered in the book.
This is the change that worries me a more…you’ll hear them say that “my grandma did the old painting on the walls, but we’re cooler than that.” I don’t care for that attitude. I’d like for there to be recognition that my grandma used to paint durga with all her powers and I paint a woman with all her powers, a bachelor’s certificate, so forth. That’s a positive attitude while the other is not.
15. GA: How much effort do these women put into these works?
MB: It varies, basically it’s what ever time they’ve got left over. They say “I save a bit of time like a few pennies and put it into the paintings and at the end of it, you’ve got a painting.”
16. GA: How does the sale of an artwork typically impact an artist?
MB: They are paid immediately. I buy the paintings in India and then I sell them in the US for them and send them the money back. They are paid twice. Once an artwork is sold, whatever profit is generated, that profit goes back to India. The most expensive piece I’ve sold is for $2,100, which is a huge sale, and that translates into lots of cash going back. At first, my model was hard for them to believe–that they would get a share of what it sold for in the West. Never in their life had someone bought something and then said, “Do you recall that three years ago I bought a painting, well I re-sold it and here’s your share. One of the artists was in such complete disbelief that she took the money and started counting it in the corner.
17. GA: Is getting paid for their work problematic or empowering for the women in this society? And has money been a factor in enticing men to take up this art form? How many men actually participate?
MB: You might think that it upsets things, but that’s where the poise of these women comes into play. They don’t want to flex their muscles or stand shoulder to shoulder and rub it in. They are so comfortable in being women that they handle it well. For the next generation though, it may be different. You hear the younger women like Shalinee saying that she’s listening to the BBC. I don’t encourage the works about the bride burning, female infanticide, the heavy stuff. I’d like to focus on the good, positive stuff going around basically because if you focus on the positive, you will be happier. Getting back to the money, there is no idea of mortgages, big debt…what you need to survive there is very different from here. The focus is on marriage, kids and what they believe the real things in life are and less on accumulating objects you will spend the rest of your life paying for.
A lot of men have started painting. It is traditionally considered women’s work but it is legitimized because it is an income earning choice.
18. GA: Are the men any good?
MB: They start out by filling in the paint. The women will do the outline and they will fill them in and some of them are very talented. One man was so good that he was sent to an art school. Komlesh Roy did the twin towers piece, also Santish Kamar Das (??ask about spelling) did a series of works of the awful train burning and riots accidents and some pieces on the death of Raymond Owens.
19. GA: The show at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco’s Year Buena Gardens in 2005 allowed Mathila art to enter the museum circuit and you won a quite prestigious curatorial award. Can you tell me about that?
MB: The idea for the show at this museum emerged over two years because the director, Kate Alexson, was pregnant. It started small, but after David came along, it grew and I mean literally…from the mezzanine to several galleries until we had filled the museum with over 500 works. The key impact of that exhibition “Mithila Paintings: The Evolution of an Art Form” was that Mathila art entered the museum circuit. I was interested in legitimization from the museum community because that would give us a solid base from which we could work and present this work. I knew there would be added research, scholarship too, on their part. I realized that if the value of the object went up, it would bring back more to the community tangibly and intangibly. David is very interested in sales because the money goes back to the artists, whom he has a deep connection with
Kate Alexson had nominated Pink Mango, for the 2005 Curatorial Excellence Award from The Apple Valley Foundation. The award was for the most comprehensive and look at a new body of fresh work, material that had never been shown before. The committee made unannounced visits to museums and galleries and evaluated exhibitions for their creativity, presentation, so forth. When I learned that the runner up was The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C, and that we beat them out, I was stunned. After that, David and I realized more than ever, that we had to do a book.
20. GA: I understand that other museums have expressed an interest in Mithila painting—both the Berkeley and Asian Art Museums have large collections. How did they acquire the works? Did they paying decently for them? I know that in this exhibition, works will sell from a hundred to about $4,500?
MB: Well, at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, we met with curator Forrest McGill and he had bought all their paintings from Raymond Owens. Raymond gave the money to the village. This amount of $4,000 to $5,000 is a goal and it will come. Right now, the majority of works that sell are smaller and between $40 and $150. By the way, I love it when people tell me they are going to India and would like to visit the artists and buy directly. When they do that, it forges a special bond and I love to see that. This is not about Pink Mango having any exclusive.
When I think of really successful shows here in the State, our most successful financially was the show we had at the SRJC Mahoney library under Karen Petersen. That was the maximum number of pieces we’ve ever sold.
21. GA: The book, Mithila Painting: The Evolution of Art Form, was very important in your vision wasn’t it?
MB: The intention of the book which was published in 2007 was to explain the history and of course to give the individual artists a tool they could use. It gives them quite a lot to be able to show someone a book written in English that profiles them and their artwork. This about empowering and that is all I care about. I am more in sync with the philosophy of the Google boys rather than the Rockefellers. The Google boys want to put systems in place during their lifetimes and say that my money is going to go toward the creation of this sustainability model rather than the Rockefellers who have this board distributing this lump sum and they are not so active. Our generation wants to be actively involved and to see results. My idea with the book was to just give it to the artists, give them something to break the language barrier and let them run with this while we are helping them here.
22. GA: I understood that up until recently, the art was not well-known in India. Was it taught about in the schools for example?
MB: No. There was no mention of Indian folk art in my education at all in India…it was Rembrandt, the classics. But these are not artists waking up in the morning with berets on, saying I’m going to paint. It’s part of a ritual that is integrated into their lifestyle. When you get married, you have a little ritual that involves fertility and blesses the marriage. It was not considered art per se.
People know something about the Multalbani paintings mainly because of the government-run craft emporiums. People who go to India, go to the craft emporiums…and people who travel from India go to the craft emporiums to shop for gifts. These emporiums are in every state, and in the major cities—New Delhi, Bombay– so that each state can showcase its own unique crafts, like in Oaxaca, Mexico. You can buy stuff straight from the villages from these women. The transaction happens and money is exchanged and it’s over.
23. GA: Are there serious Indian or other collectors who are building collections within India?
MB: In India, are there a handful of collectors of this type of art, including Menisha Mishra from Delhi, who I worked with on the Habitat Center exhibition. She’s very involved and also works with the Ethnic Arts Foundation. I think that this form of collecting will catch on.
24. GA: What events have been organized in India?
MB: The Habitat Centre show in January, 2007 in New Delhi is by far the most important thing we’ve done. This is like the Lincoln Center, a huge government-run cultural center, which represent the arts, not a gallery, so it’s a very different mindset. The proposals went in two or three years in advance because it’s very tough to get in, but that basically happens with all big museums. We were able to show 500 plus paintings and several of the artists came from the villages. Artworks were for sale, not very many sold, but a lot of people came and we had tremendous press coverage in India. We rushed the book, so it was available at this show. This was a tremendous success.
25. GA: Is there a relationship between motifs in Indian textiles and these artworks? I am speaking of composition, subject, color, border treatments and the basic evolution of the forms and symbolism?
MB: First, the majority of these tapestries are from the Punjab region and all over, which is North and this Mathila painting from the East and key in both of these is their region of origin, so it’s very difficult to draw comparisons. I do think a lot about what a craftswoman is though because these were all made by craftswomen.
A craftswoman is not an artist in the Western sense of an artist. The West has a definition for an artist but I don’t think the East really has a definition for an artist. It’s a way of being, a kind of meditation that comes out of our spiritual traditions so it’s an integrated aspect of the personality and personal expression. It’s like the mom doing the icing on cake for her kid’s birthday. That’s what a craftswoman is.
GA: Maybe now, you are giving them power to see that there is even more flexibility in being a woman, even more power that can come from sharing their creative expression and getting paid for it, or maybe that’s my Western overlay…linking identity and empowerment, to sending a message out to the world.
ARThound 