The Edward Larrabee Barnes-designed home of the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles is architecturally remarkable only in its anonymity: perched on a sloping corner site, its blank facade stands in the shadow of a bland office building and turns in on itself so as to practically disappear. And so, to find a room awash in vibrant hues – arched walls panelled in felt, floor lined in a jazzy Jugendstil carpet – comes as a shock. Fortunately, there are cushy furnishings on which to recover, including a sofa and two armchairs with red piping so thick it resembles cake frosting. This is the richly textured world of Joseph Holtzman.
'Joe was intent on creating a comfortable space where one can really spend time looking,' says Hammer senior curator Anne Ellegood of the gallery-turned-'quasi-domestic space', in which an exhibition of Holtzman's work is on view until 20 September. 'I thought the overall experience might be somewhat overwhelming. But I was surprised by how elegant the installation is. His use of colour is really beautiful and his attention to materiality is exquisite. He's an aesthete, but a highly original and surprising one, and that comes through loud and clear.'
Founder, creative director and publisher of the wonderfully off-kilter shelter magazine Nest, New York-based Holtzman shuttered the quarterly in 2004 to return to painting after a hiatus of almost 25 years. 'I felt restricted by the palette, particularly, of graphic design,' he says of the decision. 'There's a difference between painting and graphic design, and I think that painters today are at a place similar to where the Impressionist painters were at the time of the invention of photography.'
An interior decorator and inveterate collector (the newly slipcovered comfy chairs and rug come from his own home), he confronts the present tyranny of the backlit image by delighting in surfaces, from the setting in which he immerses them, to the viewer, to the paintings themselves. The show's six large, colourful and strikingly framed works, which flicker between abstraction and figuration, are painted on marble or slate rather than canvas. 'I was looking for a hard, bright surface – something that would refract light,' explains Holtzman. 'At first I was gessoing [priming] the slate, to get a white ground, and I though well, what about marble?' He found his answer at the 100-year-old quarry in Danby, Vermont where he selects his white stone.
In the softly lit, windowless space (originally designed to house a rare manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci), the paintings shimmer and glow without being slick. The compositions, achieved with thin layers of paint that are etched to reveal traces of the rocky slabs beneath, simultaneously fuse with their luminous substrates and float above them, evoking crayoned wax resists. In the age of Instagram, their charms deliberately evade the camera. 'I really don't think the paintings convey in a graphic image – an image on the screen,' says Holtzman. 'But if they could be seen in a photographic way, then I wouldn't bother to do them.'
The exhibition's six large, colourful and strikingly framed works flicker between abstraction and figuration.
The pieces are painted on marble or slate rather than canvas.
The sofa and two armchairs with red piping come from the New York-based artist's own home and reflect his richly textured world.
His compositions are achieved with thin layers of paint that are etched to reveal traces of the rocky slabs beneath. Pictured: Carl Skoggard, 2011. Courtesy of the artist
These simultaneously fuse with their luminous substrates and float above them, evoking crayoned wax resists. Pictured: Jane Austen, November 1815, 2007. Courtesy of the artist
Left: Mary Todd Lincoln, 1880, 2007. Right: Balbec Springtime, 2007. Courtesy of the artist
Robert Offit Dying with AIDS, 1989, 2006. Courtesy of the artist
'Hammer projects: Joseph Holtzman' is on show until 20 September. Pictured: Frieda Holtzman, with the Phases of the Moon, 2007. Courtesy of the artist
ADDRESS
Hammer Museum
10899 Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90024
-
Inside producer Kenny Beats' retro-inspired Los Angeles recording studioDrawing inspiration from the golden era of Motown recording studios of the 1960s and 1970s, Ben Willett’s design weaves in modern influences.
-
Cicchetti Piccadilly is like dining inside a Venetian sunset. Here's what we ateSan Carlo Group’s beloved Italian haunt returns with a glowing new look, just steps from its original home
-
'What does it mean that the language of photography is invented by men?' Justine Kurland explores the feminist potential of collage'The Rose,' at the Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) in Kingston, New York, examines the work of over 50 artists using collage as a feminist practice
-
Architect Erin Besler is reframing the American tradition of barn raisingAt Art Omi sculpture and architecture park, NY, Besler turns barn raising into an inclusive project that challenges conventional notions of architecture
-
The dynamic young gallerists reinvigorating America's art scene'Hugging has replaced air kissing' in this new wave of galleries with craft and community at their core
-
Meet the New York-based artists destabilising the boundaries of societyA new show in London presents seven young New York-based artists who are pushing against the borders between refined aesthetics and primal materiality
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscapeArtist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this weekThis week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, DiversGeordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took placeMarc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
A major Takashi Murakami exhibition sees the world in kaleidoscopic colourThe Cleveland Art Museum presents 'Takashi Murakami 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow', exploring outrage and escapist fantasy
