News Scrapbook 1979

SAN DIEGO CLIPPING SERVICE

EVENING TRIBUNE NOV 2 6 1979 EXHIBITION FEATURED AT USD Folk art: Cre By JAN JENNINGS TRIBUNE Ari Writ!< Ten years ago a Santa Fe carpenter had an urge to carve a lift·-size animal out of a single piece of wood. lie carved a life-size oxen He painted it with houre paint. Then , he sold 1t. For 75 cents. And that might have been the payoff. He might have brushed off the chips and gotten out of the woods. But ~·elipe Archuleta , now 75, continued acting U!)O!, the burning urge to carve other life-size animals out of single pieces of wood. lie carved a sow, piglets, a koala bear, a cat, a panda, an ewe, a porcupine, a lynx, and on and on. It became his thing, his art, his individual form of expression. And even though lurked awa) in his Santa Fe, N.M. domain, his "art" rame to the attention of enthusiastir patrons of American folk art. His carving of that first life-size oxen wasn't Just a passing fancy It b came indigenous to his expression. Archuleta's desire to create art expressive of hi environment 1s slnular to th desires of folk artists dOIJN their thing throughout e country. Agroup e.xhtbition of wirks by American folk artis , including a sclect1on of Archuleta's works, is on view at the Art Gall ry, Founders Hall, University of San Diego. The exh1b1t is entitled "The Naive Eye." It wlll continue on view at the Founders' Hall gallery through Dec. 6. Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m weekdays. It was organized by Therese Whitcomb and Del \1cGraw of the USO art faculty, and includes examples of art by skilled, but untutored artists - the "naive" artists. According to McGraw, the naive artist may be found n all walks of life. One woman, in prison for murdering hH husband, took up drawing, expressing herself in an inner, primitive way Aman blmd since age 12, carves simple statues.

ive expression ol the simple life Locally, a man, now deceased, created massive sett- ings, such as "Circus" and "Hospital," detailing the drama in every day materials and objects.

The work of these artists is termed - not necessarily by them, :'vlcGraw points out, but by art historians and scholars - folk art, primitive, naive. "By naive, we are referring to artists who have no formal training," said McGraw. "A naive artist could be anyone who creates things from his own personal experience and vision on a continuing basis. He is not affected by academic institutions or art trends. He has had no exposure to the great masters. His expression is direct, singular, personal. He captures what strikes him as the essence of a subject. "And, basically, if you don't like it, he could care less. He is not out to please you. He is satisfying himself in self-taught ways." And Archuleta, is one to prove this. In addition to decorative house paint, Archuleta embel- lishes his ambitious wooden dolls with glue, sawdust, wool, feathers, whatever adds texture, and to the artist, grams of reality. Such resourcefulness in use of matenals is common among the folk artists. John Hoff, who did "Hospital" and ''CJrcus," used wood, plaster, metal, ready-made dolls, paint and found objects His staging of a three-ring circus s just that, a hullabaloo of activity including those daring young men on the flying trapeze, the lion's cage with lion tamPr, and prancmg equestrians. They are encircled by an entou- rage of clowns, bareback riders, musicians, et al. There is nothing sophisticated about Hoff's work, except its individuality. A bit macabre and grotesque is "Hospital," in which Hoff depicts a baby's ward, an operatmg room complete with bloody surgery in progress, patients lying helpless in their confining beds, religious memorabilia scattered about. Hoff's statements are perhaps some of the most poignant in the exhibition, offering his basic but honest interpretations of life. See ART, E-4

'WOODN'T' HURT YOU - It looks rather ferocious, but this lynx wouldn't hurt a flea. He's a carved wood creation by Felipe Archuleta in "The Naive Eye" exhibit now on display at USO.

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ious imagery. They are not isolated artisans, but it is a family way of life. An example of this type of artist, according to McGraw, is the Lopez fami- ly of ~ew Mexico. "A piece may be attributed to one member of the family," s11id McGraw, "but it could easily be another member, or several." In a statement concern- ing the impetus to assemble such an exhibition of con- temporary naive folk art,

Whitcomb and McGraw conclude: "In an era when contem- porary art is suffocatingly subject to the problems of its own concerns, it is invig- orating to witness pure statements which are, as Herbert Waide Hemphill wrote in his book, "Twenti- eth Century American Folk Art," unaffected by the mainstream of professional arts - its trained artists, trends, intuitions, theories and development.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE E•I More light-hearted are the wood carvings by Seaborn Sutton of Long Beach. By trade, a duck decoy carver, his personal expression in carvings in- clude a New York Yankee, Uncle Sam and Abraham Lincoln, all just straight, standing figures, painted in colors befitting their imag- es, such as red, white and blue for Uncle Sam. Ben :'\filler of Kentucky carves canes with an Ap- palachian snake cult motif. (Perhaps influenced by the tatoo artist.) The blind wood carver, Ernest Goud of Kentucky, models fig- ures which, as in "Greeting Couple," tend to have a choppy, yet warm feeling to them, inviting touch and suggesting a love of life by the artist who comes off as mnocent and refreshingly naive. Inez Walker of 'l"ew Jer- sey, who 1s the naive artist serving time in prison, draws solemn figures in a simple way These appear as solitary statements, inner feelings showing strength, yet alienation. Among the more humor- ous expressions in the ex- hibit is "Garden of Eden" by Uncle Jack of Virginia. He used airplane model paint on board to depict Adam and Eve huddled about the apple tree with a lurking devil. And in child- like printing, as if in _a message cloud over a car- toon character, Adam says· "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" The exhibit also includes works which McGraw la- bels as the more "primi- tive" art m which families and generations carry on traditions of depicting relig-

EYEING 'THE NAIVE EYE' - A visitor looks over works on display at the Art Gallery, Foun- ders' Hall 1 University of San Diego, in an exhibit

called "The Naive Eye." The exhibit, running through Dec. 6, features works of so-called untu- tored artists. - Photos by George Smith, Tribune