Approaching Art From Different Perspectives

Two exhibitions at Cal State Long Beach coincidentally suggest a walk through the American century in art. “Graphic Abstraction in America: A View From the First Century” can be read as tracking the rise of nonobjective imagery to aesthetic dominance. By contrast, “Centric 6: Kim L. Cridler” presents the work of one young artist who exemplifies a post-modern return to figurative and ornamental motifs.

“Graphic Abstraction” encompasses some 50 prints and works on paper. They range across the century from John Marin’s 1911 etching “Brooklyn Bridge” to a particularly juicy untitled 1988 monotype by L.A. artist Charles Arnoldi.

The great strength of the ensemble is its inclusiveness. A historical giant like Jackson Pollock is on board with a 1942 etching. Unfortunately it proves the great dripper wasn’t at his best in this resistant medium, but that’s interesting in itself. At the same time we’re faced with half-forgotten artists such as William Zorach, whose now-campy “Swimmer” is an unexpected delight.

This ecumenical touch laces the whole show. It’s undoubtedly an extension of the aesthetic philosophy of the lender, the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution in Washington, one of my favorite institutions. It’s a straight-forward Noah’s Ark operation where, by gum, you see the representative artists of every period even when they’re dismally out of current fashion. It’s an admirably informative way to run an honest museum.

Everybody should be pleased to learn that this exhibition is but the first of six installments that will combine graphic works from Cal State Long Beach and the National Museum of American Art between now and the end of 1999. Having registered present and anticipatory pleasure at this encyclopedic largess, one encounters a befuddling puzzlement.

Marina Freeman, the University Art Museum’s curator of collections, chose not to hang this historical show in chronological order. That’s fine if you’ve got a better idea, such as making telling juxtapositions. There seem to be stabs in this direction. Marin’s bridge hangs next to a later version by Cy Twombly, but so what? Setting nesting squares by Frank Stella and Joseph Albers next to one another suggests some interesting ideas about structure and color. If that’s the point, however, why not move an Ad Reinhardt from the next room to include ways of using flat shapes to create atmosphere?

On the other hand the installation looks pretty. Works are arranged so there are nice splashes of dramatic color. But is this art or interior decoration? Work this intrinsically interesting doesn’t need its lily gilded.

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Kim L. Cridler is a 28-year-old artist who grew up on a hog farm in western Michigan and was trained as a silversmith. According to brochure notes by Cal State Long Beach’s new Curator of Exhibitions Meg Linton, Cridler’s art was partly inspired by “countless hours of mending and polishing the household’s heirlooms.”

Evidently such activity causes small things to loom large. “Pendant,” for example, looks like three pairs of delicate crystal earrings out of “Gone With the Wind.” Cridler, however, rendered each 6 feet tall. Their facets aren’t glass but welded steel. They look like some weird hybrid of precious Victorian memorabilia, ironwork garden furniture and caging.

The artist, in short, expresses radically contradictory feelings about treasured private possessions. “Spout” is the business-end of a teapot also fashioned of steel grid with silk and wax additions, all enlarged to resemble a decorated Dumbo elephant trunk. Similar treatment is accorded the lip of a creamer, a curtain and an urn 8 feet tall.

Preparatory drawings on view show Cridler draws vigorously with a rich, meaty line. It might, in fact, be said that her sculpture grew out of the idea of making her drawn line three-dimensional in metal. The world she creates simultaneously broadcasts the enchantment of Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland and a suspicion there is something monstrous about possessions that require one to be forever polite, careful and affectionate.

Stylistically the work absorbs Surrealism into Oldenburg-style Pop and filters both through a Minimalist sensibility that likes to laugh at itself.

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* Cal State Long Beach, University Art Museum, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., Long Beach; through March 1, closed Mondays, (562) 985-5761.