'Standing' in the Stuart Collection: Kiki Smith's Statue at UCSD

Kiki Smith’s fascination with the body and skin as both protective yet fragile began in the 1970’s. Her emphasis on the human body and its functions defied traditional distinctions between public and private subject matter. When she began her Stuart Collection project, her ideas evolved in relation to the site between the Medical Teaching Facility and the Basic Sciences Building on the UCSD campus in La Jolla.

Smith decided to put a body on top of a classic pedestal to show the importance of the human body but later evolved into putting a body on a cast of a tree trunk. A dead eucalyptus tree was located on campus and removed to be cast in concrete. The many insect paths under the bark of the tree immediately interested Smith and were included on the final product.

The figure for "The Standing" was cast from a live model and calls forth thoughts of human strength and fatality, and both the power and limits of medicine. The figure produces a feeling of serenity. The calming sound of the water and hummingbirds that drink out of the hands creates a quiet intimacy. The arms reach downward towards the earth in a Madonna-like pose. Water flows from her hands into the rocks that line the bottom of the tree trunk. The starfish-like pins on her chest, which make up the astrological sign for Virgo plays on the word virgin, to emphasize the Madonna-like pose. The tree trunk itself, filled with the paths of insects, which could have caused its demise, creates an image of life and death.

After seeing "The Standing," stop by Thumbprint Gallery, on Kline Street in La Jolla, to learn more about contemporary and urban art!

Source: http://stuartcollection.ucsd.edu/artists/smith-k.shtml

The Dean of San Diego Painters Leaves Impact on La Jolla

Rocky Arroyo, Charles Fries

All artists need some kind of mentor or instructor. Some San Diego artists were lucky enough to have the tutelage of painter Charles Arthur Fries in the 1890s. Charles Fries's involvement in the San Diego and La Jolla art community was enormous. So much so that he was given the nickname the “Dean of San Diego Painters.”

Charles Arthur Fries was born in Hillsboro, Ohio in 1854. He studied art under Charles T. Webber at the McMicken School of Design. Fries worked at the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette as a staff photographer and illustrator before heading off to Paris and London to witness the impressionist movement. After his return to the United States, Fries began making lithographs for various publishing magazines in Cincinnati.

In 1896 Fries moved his family to San Diego. They lived for several months at the San Juan Capistrano Mission. During that time, Fries’s daughter fell ill, inspiring his moving painting: Too Late. The painting portrays a mourning mother holding her deceased daughter as the doctor stands in the doorway. The painting became a poster ad in countless pharmacies nationwide. Fries's daughter recovered.

Fries became increasingly involved in the artistic community in San Diego and La Jolla. He became a member of the San Diego Art Guild, the Art Association in Laguna Beach, the California Art Club, and the San Diego Contemporary Artists. Charles helped found the La Jolla Art Association and the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego. He taught and painted in Yosemite, Death Valley, Baja California, and San Diego.

Thanks to the hard work of artists like Charles Arthur Fries, the La Jolla artistic community was given a strong foundation. Today the community of La Jolla continues to encourage the creativity and innovation of local artists. To see what is fresh in the LaJolla art world stop by Thumbprint Gallery on Kline Street. The gallery exhibits works from local artists in the genre of urban and lowbrow art.

Source: http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/v54-4/pdf/v54-4Stern.pdf

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/online_resources/fries.html

La Jolla Flora Part of Larger Botanical Collection

Matilija Poppies -Albert Valentien

All art is interconnected. The study and practice of sculpture can improve ones ability to paint, while painting can improve ones photography. It is not unusual for an artist to employ their talent over a spectrum of media. Albert R. Valentien was an established pottery painter before he found a passion for painting flora in La Jolla. His most extensive collection of paintings is in the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Valentien was born in Cincinnati, in 1862, and began his art education at School of Design at the University of Cincinnati. His favorite study was pottery decoration and he became so proficient that by 1881 he was hired as the chief decorator at Rookwood Pottery. He remained the chief decorator for over twenty years. Albert and his wife, Anne, went to Paris for a while so Anne could study sculpture from Rodin. Albert submitted some of his work to the Universal Exposition of 1900 and won the Gold Medal for his pottery decoration.

In the spring of 1903, the Valentiens traveled to San Diego to visit family. They fell in love with the beauty of La Jolla and San Diego and decided to stay. Albert discovered a passion for painting flowers and produced 130 paintings of the local plants. These paintings are now a part of the Cincinnati Art Museum. Not long after, Ellen Browning Scripps, La Jolla resident and philanthropist, commissioned Albert to paint the entirety of the California flora. The commission took nearly ten years to complete and required that the couple travel all around the state collecting specimens. In all, Albert Valentien painted 1,200 pieces. The collection was donated to the San Diego Natural History Museum.  

The collection is one of the largest by any one artist on a single subject. Valentien truly captured the beauty of the local natural flora. For more information on local art in La Jolla, visit Thumbprint Gallery on Kline Street. The gallery is open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 12-4pm. 

Source: http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/v54-4/pdf/v54-4Stern.pdf

http://botanicalillustration.blogspot.com/2009/11/california-legacy-of-albert-r-valentien.html

Foreign Artists Find Home in La Jolla

Monterey Coat, Franz Anton Bischoff

It does not take more than a few minutes to take in the view of the California coast to comprehend why so many artists paint there. The rocky shoreline of La Jolla combined with the special light quality that only Southern California has creates a kind of aesthetic magic that is almost irresistible. With this in mind, it is perfectly understandable why artists like Alfred Mitchell and Franz Anton Bischoff traveled so far from home to settle in sunny California!

Franz Anton Bischoff was born in Austria in 1864. He was trained as a fine porcelain painter before coming to the United States in 1885. Over the next twenty years, Bischoff established himself as the foremost china painter in America. In the 1920’s Bischoff moved to Southern California where he took up landscape painting. He traveled the coast, painting La Jolla, San Diego, Laguna, Monterey, and parts of Palm Springs.

Alfred Mitchell began his artistic career in 1913 at the San Diego Academy of Art under Maurice Braun. Two years later, Mitchell won the silver medal at the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego. After studying more in his hometown of Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Alfred traveled across Europe in 1921. Mitchell returned to San Diego and took an active role in the local art community. In 1929, Mitchell became a founding member of the Associated Artists of San Diego. He also was an important figure in the early years of the Fine Arts Gallery of San Diego and the La Jolla Art Association. 

This pattern of artists finding a new home in San Diego and La Jolla continues to this day. The beauty of the area is one draw, certainly, but the thriving local art community contributes as well. To learn more about local art in La Jolla and the Southern California area, visit Thumbprint Gallery on Kline Street in La Jolla. The gallery exhibits works by lowbrow and urban artists and is open Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 12pm to 4pm.

Source: http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/v54-4/pdf/v54-4Stern.pdf

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2001-3/mitchell.htm

http://www.franzbischoff.com/