Life's work: Wallace Berman's controversial oeuvre at LA's Kohn Gallery

LA’s Kohn Gallery showing a retrospective of the work by Wallace Berman
LA's Kohn Gallery has been transformed into a replica of Semina, Wallace Berman's early gallery space, for a new retrospective of his work, entitled 'American Aleph'
(Image credit: Kohn Gallery)

From 1957 to 1961, Wallace Berman lived in the Marin County township of Larkspur, California, where he took over an abandoned house on Madera Creek and turned it into Semina, a private gallery space where he would host one-day art exhibitions featuring his own work (and those of his contemporaries). It's fitting then, that curators Claudia Bohn-Spector and Sam Mellon have recreated the footprint of the space – 'a phantom Semina gallery' – inside LA's Kohn Gallery for 'Wallace Berman: American Aleph'.

'What we're trying to do is really create a survey from the moment he started until he passed away in 1976,' says Bohn-Spector. Though Berman is known mostly for his Verifax collages (made by placing cult and commercial images over the template of a handheld Sony transistor radio from a 1964 advertisement in Life magazine) and as the high priest of Semina culture – the visual language disseminated through the titular art and poetry journal that Berman published (with work by William Burroughs and Walter Hopps, among others) for a few hundred select individuals in the post-war Beat counterculture – the show begins with Berman's early drawings that he made as a teenager, inspired by jazz greats like Jimmy Durante, Louis Armstrong and Slim Gaillard.

These hang on the outside wall of the phantom gallery, while inside it there is a photo, which appeared on the ninth and final issue of Semina, capturing Jack Ruby assassinating Lee Harvey Oswald (altered with the Michael McClure poem 'Double Murder') as well as photos of the sculptural collages – Temple and Veritas Panel – that he created for his one and only one-person show in 1957 at the Ferus Gallery, back when Walter Hopps and Edward Kienholz were directing it.

'Everything was lost from that show except for the box hanging on that cross,' says Bohn-Spector, pointing to Factum Fidei, the mixed media combined with a faded photo of sexual penetration dangling off a white crucifix from a rusty chain. Mellon notes that Berman was arrested at the opening for an illicit drawing that Marjorie Cameron did for Semina, which was displayed on the floor inside one of the collages during the opening.

'Rumour has it that [Edward] Kienholz called the cops to make it controversial and they didn't even find the pornographic stuff,' explains Bohn-Spector. 'The vice squad ran right by it and came back. Finally, somebody had to point it out to them. It wasn't even his work. After the arrest, Dean Stockwell bailed him out and he felt like he had been backstabbed. So he left LA and went to San Francisco where he met Jay DeFeo.'

Work by Wallace Berman on display at the Kohn Gallery in LA

Curator Claudia Bohn-Spector explains, 'What we're trying to do is really create a survey from the moment he started until he passed away in 1976'

(Image credit: Kohn Gallery)

Untitled, 1969 by Wallace Berman

Berman is known mostly for his Verifax collages, which were made by placing cult and commercial images over the template of a handheld Sony transistor radio from 1964. Pictured: Untitled, 1969

(Image credit: Kohn Gallery)

Early drawings by Wallace Berman on display at the Kohn gallery in LA

The show begins with Berman’s early drawings that he made as a teenager, inspired by jazz greats like Jimmy Durante, Louis Armstrong and Slim Gaillard

(Image credit: Kohn Gallery)

photos of the sculptural collages Temple and Veritas Panel by Wallace Berman on display at the Kohn Gallery in LA

The exhibition also features photos of the sculptural collages Temple and Veritas Panel that Berman created for his one and only one-person show in 1957 at the Ferus Gallery

(Image credit: Kohn Gallery)

work by Wallace Berman on display at the Kohn Gallery in LA

Curator Sam Mellon notes that Berman was arrested at the opening for an illicit drawing that Marjorie Cameron did for Semina, which was displayed on the floor inside one of the collages

(Image credit: Kohn Gallery)

Untitled TV, 1963 by Wallace Berman

'Rumour has it that Kienholz called the cops to make it controversial and they didn't even find the pornographic stuff,' explains Bohn-Spector. Pictured: Untitled TV, 1963

(Image credit: Kohn Gallery)

Installation view of 'Wallace Berman: American Aleph' at the Kohn Gallery

Installation view of 'Wallace Berman: American Aleph'

(Image credit: Kohn Gallery)

INFORMATION

’Wallace Berman: American Aleph’ is on view until 25 June. For more information, visit the Kohn Gallery’s website

Photography courtesy Kohn Gallery

ADDRESS

Kohn Gallery
1227 North Highland Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038

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