Estate of Robert Arneson
Robert Arneson
Picasso Mask, 1980
glazed ceramic
13 x 10 x 5 inches
RAs 128
In the mid-1970s Robert Arneson did a series of portraits busts of friends and art figures such as Roy DeForest, William Wiley, Francis Bacon, Marcel Duchamp and including Pablo Picasso. In Picasso Mask and the related piece Pablo Ruiz with Itch, Arneson makes a humorous reference to one of art history's most renown paintings Les Desmoiselles D'Avignon, depicting a young Picasso as one of his own distorted models.
Jackson in Disguise, 1986
glazed ceramic
16 1/4 x 14 x 7 1/4 inches
RAs 125
Between 1982 and his death in 1992, Robert Arneson completed 95 works on Jackson Pollock in which he dealt with not only the artist's likeness, but his art and psyche as well. In this series Arneson examined the myth of Pollock, but also the role of the artist plays in modern society, which ultimately is about Arneson himself. According to Arneson, "...I chose Jackson Pollock as my role model, obviously because of a strong attraction to his work. I initially started by doing just a portrait of Pollock, like I've done with a number of artists...In a sense, that was another self-portrait, of course. When we do another artist, we are really doing ourselves..."
Joan Brown
Charlie Sava, 1973
enamel/canvas
96 x 72 inches
JBRp 26
In the early 70s Joan Brown embarked on a new series of paintings about swimming and her participation in a number of San Francisco Bay organized swims. After a poor showing in 1972, she began training with Swimming Hall of Fame coach Charlie Sava (1900-1983). With Sava's help, Brown was able to cut her previous swim time in half. Brown painted Sava's portrait on several occasions revealing a true respect and admiration for her coach. In the painting Charlie Sava & Friends (Rembrandt & Goya), 1973 Brown includes Sava in the company of the two artists she most admired.
Untitled (Bob with Horses), c. 1960
oil on canvas
46 x 36 inches
JBRp 55
Joan Brown's abstract, thickly impastoed painting style in the late 50's and early 60's was greatly influenced by Elmer Bischoff, Frank Lobdell, and David Park and the predominant expressionist figuration of the Bay Area during that time.
Enrique Chagoya
Poor George #1-#6 (after Philip Guston), 2004
ink on paper
14 x 16 inches each
Exploring the current political climate, Enrique Chagoya has appropriated the satirical narrative from Philip Guston's "Poor Richard" series, replacing Richard Nixon with a caricature of President George W. Bush.
Lesley Dill
Homage to F.K.#1, 2004
ink, thread, horsehair on tea-stained linen, plexi
33 3/4 x 25 inches
LDs 187
Text: "This is a Blossom of the Brain-- A small - italic Seed" Emily Dickinson #945
Homage to F. K #2.2004
ink, thread, horsehair on tea-stained linen
42 x 32 inches
LDs 186
Text: "This is a Blossom of the Brain-- A small - italic Seed" Emily Dickinson #945
Dill's recent work with horsehair inspired her to do a portrait of Frida Kahlo based on Kahlo's own painting, "Self Portrait with Cropped Hair." In this particular Kahlo painting, completed after her divorce from Diego Rivera in 1940, the artist depicted herself in men's clothing with short hair seated in a chair surrounded by her shorn locks. Dill re-creates the image with tea-stained cloth, threads, and horsehair adding text from an Emily Dickinson poem. Dill has long been drawn to the passionate nature of Kahlo and Dickinson, which parallel her interest in imagery that is both feminine and fierce.
Valerie Demianchuk
Wing (After Durer), 2004
graphite on paper
40 x 30 inches
VDd 16
Inspired by Albrecht Durer's 1512 pen and ink drawing of a bird's wing, Demianchuk's carefully rendered drawing is both object of study and thing of beauty.
Diane Edison
Close but No Cigar, 2004
colored pencil on paper
30 x 24 inches
DEd 31
With tongue in cheek, Edison's self-portrait simulates the pose and attitude of Chuck Close's 1968 self-portrait with a cigar. Like Close, Edison works from photographs using self-portraiture as a means to explore representation and figuration.
Guillermo Kuitca
House Plan with Teardrops, 1989
acrylic on canvas
79 x 63 inches
GKp 3
Andrew Lenaghan
Sarah in the Studio with Dinosaurs, 2003
oil on panel
32 x 48 inches
AnLp 371
Backyard with Self-Portrait in Garage Window, 2003
oil on panel
32 x 48 inches
AnLp 360
Lenaghan's recent series of paintings explores the interior spaces of his domestic environment. Including self-portraits and images of his wife and daughter, a more personal narrative emerges in the work.
James McGarrell
Night Boat to Albania (Homage to Rodgers & Hart), 2004
oil on canvas
24 x 36 (diptych)
JMp 107
McGarrell has an ongoing interest in the popular music of the 1920s, 30s and 40s. This painting pays homage to the musical duo Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart using a line from one of their songs in the musical "The Boys from Syracuse" as its title.
Fairfield Porter
Portrait of James Schuyler ('Study for Iced Coffee'), 1966
watercolor, pencil on paper
17 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches
FPd 1
A study for the larger painting Iced Coffee, this drawing features James Schulyer, a poet and live-in companion of Porter's.
Peter Saul
Picasso's 'Girl in a Mirror' I, 1978
acrylic on museum board
40 x 30 inches
PSd 37
During the mid and late seventies, Saul embarked on a large series of paintings and work on paper in which he reworked classic paintings from art history. Favorite targets included Picasso's Guernica, Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware, and Duchamp's Nude Descending
a Staircase.
Untitled (Philip Morris), 1961
pastel, crayon, collage on paper
19 1/2 x 23 inches
PSd 144
Comic (MIC), 1961
crayon on paper
14 1/2 x 16 3/4"
PSd 105
Wayne Thiebaud
Sacramento River, 1965
pencil on paper
9 x 12 3/8 inches
WThd 01
This delicately rendered landscape presents a view of the Sacramento River from Thiebaud's childhood home.
Joyce Treiman
T. Eakins, 1987
W. M. Chase, 1987
Walter Murch, 1987
Winslow Homer, 1987
G. O Keeffe, 1987
E. Dickinson, 1987
A.P. Ryder, 1987
A.P. Ryder, 1987
monotypes
11 x 16 each
James Valerio
Hands & Sink, 2003
pencil on paper
28 5/8 x 27 7/16 inches
JVd 49
Like Catherine Murphy's painting Bathroom Sink , 1994 included in the 1995 Whitney Biennial, Valerio inscribes this highly detailed drawing as a self-portrait through the absence of the full figure.
H.C. Westermann
The Jazz Singer, c.1956
oil on canvas, framed by the artist
42 x 32 inches
HCWp 01
Painted in homage to a jazz singer Westermann admired at the Oxford House in Chicago, this rare painting by the artist echoes the striped patterning and form of the laminated wood sculpture He-Whore, 1957.
Sandy Winters
Pretexts and Subtexts, 2002
block print
15 x 70 inches
SWr 2
Winters' block print, inspired by the Breugel print show at the Metropolitan Museum, can be seen as a series of vignettes in which the clash between nature and culture is played out through organic and machine-like forms.