LA Artworks Art Sessions

Regional and Global Identities in Art
Tues March 25th
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Ain't No Folk Art Here

John F. Simon, Jr., Map.Globe.com , 2006. Gouache, colored pencil, and graphite on paper. 22 x 29 inches

Is all work made in Louisiana subject to the "Folk Art" stereotype? The tired language of outsider artists and naive painters seems to linger simply due to apathy, if not laziness, surrounding regional art history. Dusty visual vocabularies usually leave out people like John F. Simon, Jr. who is from the Alexandria area. In addition to drawing, his work incorporates generative systems and artist-authored software. Internet art by Simon is among the first commissioned for the Guggenheim Museum's permanent collection.

Ultimate creativity is borderless. Of course Simon had already left the South, as do many talented people, before creating his best-known artworks, Every Icon (1997) and Unfolding Object (2001). Moving away from Louisiana does not discredit one's connection to its history. If anything, successes away from "home" further emphasize a cultural triumph that overcomes regional economic depression. The accomplishments of Keith Sonnier, Lynda Benglis, C.C. Lockwood, Chandra McCormick, Keith Calhoun, and Steven Soderbergh are part of a diverse contemporary dialogue. Their influence is felt in work by artists of the Gulf Coast and abroad.

by Laura Blereau

Southern Belles from Hell: The Impact of Feminism on Contemporary Art in Louisiana, Part 1

The legacy of feminism might not be the first thing coming to mind when considering contemporary art in Louisiana. An outgrowth of the civil rights and anti-war movements characterizing the American 1960s, the feminist art agenda exposes gender-based obstacles and seeks to dismantle hierarchy.

This past Sunday, P.S.1/MoMA opened “WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution”, featuring more than 400 artworks created between 1965-80 by 120 artists, mostly in the Western hemisphere. Among these celebrated by the extensive exhibit is Lynda Benglis (b.1941) from Lake Charles, Louisiana, who received a BFA from Newcomb College at Tulane in 1964. That same year she moved to New York: one step closer to becoming the legendary the sculptor and video artist who posed nude- with a huge dildo and terrible tan- inside the pages of an Artforum advertisement ten years later.

Included in the survey at P.S.1 through May 12 are Female Sensibility, 1973; Mumble,1972; and Odalisque (Hey, Hey Frankenthaler),1969. Even today, these pieces by Lynda Benglis feel provocative. In fact, her work may still be very ahead of its time. As of yet there are no regional events from LA, MS or ALA participating in the Feminist Art Project at Rutgers.

Posted by Laura Blereau