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Group Show
Sculpture from the Sixties
November 4-December 30, 2006
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The Frank Lloyd Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of historically significant sculpture by six legendary Los Angeles artists. Works by Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, and Larry Bell will be presented along with sculpture by John Mason, Ken Price and Peter Voulkos. All pieces in the show were made in the early to mid-1960s, and represent some of the most innovative approaches to American sculpture of that time. During the decade of the 1960s, West coast sculpture emerged on the international art scene, and has been exhibited widely ever since. In the past four decades, these artists have been exhibited together in various institutions. Most recently the Centre Pompidou in Paris organized Los Angeles 1955-1985: Birth of an Art Capital.


Robert Irwin's discs from this period are the most recognizable work by the artist. This exhibit will include a 46 inch diameter translucent disc from 1968. As author Lawrence Weschler wrote in his biography on the artist, "Irwin's discs are otherworldly. They seem to float ambiguously. Is the disc seeming to dematerialize or the shadows taking on volume?"


Craig Kauffman (born 1932 in Los Angeles), will be represented by a vacuum-formed plexiglass work most often referred to as a "bubble". The untitled work is the exactly the same configuration as the work that was included in the Pompidou show. The translucent and sensuous work is technically innovative and dynamic. "By all accounts, one of the most gifted and precocious of the Ferus artists was Craig Kauffman, "wrote Susan C. Larsen in an essay titled Los Angeles Painting in the Sixties.


Larry Bell, (born in Chicago in 1939) emerged in the mid-1960's, and is often included in major exhibitions of Minimal art. His work was shown in the first exhibit to focus on Minimal art, Primary Structures, at the Jewish Museum in 1966. Bell's work was also included in the seminal Museum of Modern Art exhibit, The Responsive Eye in 1965. He is represented in this show by an exquisite glass cube with mirrored ellipses.


John Mason's Geometric Series, Dark from 1966 has been included in his survey exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, as well as the Whitney Museum's landmark exhibit of 1982 titled "Ceramic Sculpture: Six Artists". The dark monolith has a commanding and mysterious presence.


Ken Price produced several remarkable series during the early and middle 1960s. Painted with acrylic lacquers over a substrate of fired clay, the intimate sculptures combine the artist's interest in sensuous color, immaculate finish, and strange imagery. Price has recently exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in a room filled with works from the Edward Broida collection. He has also been the subject of a major survey exhibit at the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas.


Peter Voulkos is perhaps the West coast's most influential sculptor from this period of time. He is represented by an extraordinary work that has not been shown since the early 1960s. As Peter Plagens has noted in Sushine Muse, "Voulkos's reputation as the West coast's major sculptor is at least equaled by his influence as a teacher at both Otis and Berkeley."