Art with a hard edge
Mike Sciacca
The Huntington Beach Art Center will show its hard edge Saturday when
it debuts a dual contemporary exhibition in its main galleries.
The exhibit, “(Un)Taped,” will feature the works of artists Karl
Benjamin and Mark L. Emerson, each known on an international scale
for their hard-edge painting.
Adjacent to the main galleries in The Art in Store Project Room
Series will be an exhibit featuring the paintings of Thomas Pathe.
The paintings of the three artists will be housed at the art
center Saturday through Nov. 8.
Benjamin and Emerson are schedule to attend Saturday’s opening.
For Benjamin, a resident of Southern California, the exhibit in
Surf City, he said, allows his work to become known on the local art
scene.
“I understand the Huntington Beach Art Center is a very good
gallery and puts on good shows,” said the 76-year-old, who was a
painter for the past 50 years but is no longer painting. “Having a
good space to have your work put on exhibit is very important and I’m
glad to share this exhibition with Mark.”
The main exhibition will display 12 works by Benjamin, paintings
that were completed between 1979 and 1980, and eight new offerings by
Emerson.
It is the first time their works will be exhibited together.
“To get to show 12 pieces of work by one artist in one exhibition
is incredible,” said Darlene DeAngelo, curator of
exhibitions/programs at the art center. “This exhibit is special in a
lot of ways and to have Karl trust me enough to get 12 of his
paintings, well, that in itself is truly special. He’s always trusted
my eyes.
“What I really wanted to get across with this contemporary
exhibition is to show what happened early in the hard edge painting
movement and where it is heading.”
Hard edge painting focuses on line and color and Benjamin had the
name “hard edge” painter attached to him by an art critic when his
work was part of a 1959 four-West Coast painters exhibit at the Los
Angeles County Museum of Art and San Francisco Museum of Art.
His work is included in numerous major museums and private
collections in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Emerson, who has been influenced by Benjamin, paints layers upon
layers, so much so, DeAngelo said, that he sometimes “obliterates the
color he began with.”
“But with Karl, he’s about pure color or specific shape,” she
said. “He puts color next to color and that creates a new color
visual.”
Benjamin’s 6-foot-by-4-foot oil on canvas paintings to be featured
at the art center have never been exhibited in Southern California.
His paintings contain thin, vertical stripes of color and hues
ranging from subtle, to brilliant.
Emerson, a professor or painting at California State University,
Sacramento, has had several solo exhibitions and his work is included
in numerous private and public collections.
His eight new paintings, done specifically for the Huntington
Beach Art Center exhibition, are composed of vertical, horizontal and
diagonal stripes -- each within a single painting.
His large, polymer on panel paintings measure 6-foot-by-6-foot.
Pathe’s monochromatic paintings have soft, fuzzy edges, DeAngelo
said, consisting of multiple layers of a singular color overlapped
several times between coats of varnish.
“There’s something here at this exhibit for everybody and although
each artist is different, their works compliment each other,”
DeAngelo said. “We’ve been putting this exhibit together for the past
year and we’re excited to have it finally here.”
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