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
-
20 things that positively delighted us in and around Design Miami this yearFrom covetable 20th-century masterpieces to a tower made from ceramic pickles, these were the works that stood out amid the blur of Art Week
-
Montcalm Mayfair opens a new chapter for a once-overlooked London hotelA thoughtful reinvention brings craftsmanship, character and an unexpected sense of warmth to a London hotel that was never previously on the radar
-
Magniberg’s latest bedwear collaboration with Our Legacy is beautifully sun-faded and lived-inColoured using dyes derived from plants and minerals, the new bedding sets and pyjamas are meant to evoke the feeling of ‘a well-worn band T-shirt or your favourite vintage sweatshirt’, says Our Legacy co-founder Jockum Hallin
-
Nadia Lee Cohen distils a distant American memory into an unflinching new photo book‘Holy Ohio’ documents the British photographer and filmmaker’s personal journey as she reconnects with distant family and her earliest American memories
-
Ed Ruscha’s foray into chocolate is sweet, smart and very AmericanArt and chocolate combine deliciously in ‘Made in California’, a project from the artist with andSons Chocolatiers
-
Jamel Shabazz’s photographs are a love letter to Prospect ParkIn a new book, ‘Prospect Park: Photographs of a Brooklyn Oasis, 1980 to 2025’, Jamel Shabazz discovers a warmer side of human nature
-
The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles launches the seventh iteration of its highly anticipated artist biennialOne of the gallery's flagship exhibitions, Made in LA showcases the breadth and depth of the city's contemporary art scene
-
Thomas Prior’s photography captures the uncanny fragility of American lifeA new book unites two decades of the photographer’s piercing, uneasy work
-
Central Park’s revitalised Delacorte Theater gears up for a new futureEnnead Architects helmed an ambitious renovation process that has given the New York City cultural landmark a vibrant and more accessible future
-
Stephen Prina borrows from pop, classical and modern music: now MoMA pays tribute to his performance work‘Stephen Prina: A Lick and a Promise’ recalls the artist, musician, and composer’s performances, and is presented throughout MoMA. Prina tells us more
-
Curtains up, Kid Harpoon rethinks the sound of Broadway production ‘Art’He’s crafted hits with Harry Styles and Miley Cyrus; now songwriter and producer Kid Harpoon (aka Tom Hull) tells us about composing the music for the new, all-star Broadway revival of Yasmina Reza’s play ‘Art’
