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Indepth Arts News:
"Judith Von Euer: A Retrospective"
2001-04-04 until 2001-04-29
L.A. Artcore at Union Center for the Arts
Los Angeles, CA,
USA United States of America
L.A. Artcore is proud to present a retrospective of Judith Von Euer at both
galleries during the month of April. Referred to as a Renaissance Woman,
Judith Von Euer proves to be an artist who possesses multiple skills and
talents and one who continually explores new avenues of expression. This
exhibition will span four decades of paintings, drawings, prints,
sculptures and performance art.
Perusing a written catalog of Von Euer's work, one is impressed with the
evolution of artistic thought beginning in the 1960's and careening into
the 21st century. A note in the catalogue states: The idea of the table in
my early work is that it provides a kind of playing field for objects,
brushstrokes, and whatever emanations or images one cares to evoke.
Later these ideas would find their way into murals and floor pieces. From
1964-1966 Von Euer worked on her Orchard Interior Series. These pieces
were concerned with the interior of being and fruition of the artist as
creator. Landscapes of the inner self, these paintings are reminiscent of
surrealism. In the late 60's she began the Diana Caretaker Series. Diana
and other symbolic figures express a kind of techno-surreal style. As
William Wilson described, It's combination of visual and personal
psychosexual primitivism is traceable to UCLA and the Ceeje Gallery Group.
The artist, however, covers her tracks well enough to create a funky, acid
distinction...The combination of atonal color and undulating shapes are of
self-analytic flavor, less a dream than a deep mood--viscous, erotic, soft
and ironic.
Some of her most exciting ideas burst forth with her Flow Inversion
Series from 1968-1975. At this time Flow Yard was made (a neat square
filed of dirt interspersed with gray metallic forms which are randomly
placed and whose surface is etched by tire tracks.) The Flow Inversion
Project: Inverted Freeway was constructed, also. This freeway mural
located downtown at 100 North Fremont was a vision of a possibility that is
based on quantum physics. Here she placed shapes that were camouflaged by
other shapes. They became brief openings in the landscape that revealed
themselves to spectators and then disappeared as they sped by. Von Euer had
been influenced in particular by the writings of Heraclitus: Everything
flows and nothing abides, Everything gives way and nothing stayes fixed.
In 1978 Von Euer pulled together her knowledge of art, music, installation
and performance. She is a jazz saxophonist by origin. In her early
childhood she had earned money by playing with groups like the Ina Rae
Hutton Band on KTLA and KNBC, and the Spade Cooley Band on KTTV. She earned
her way through college by her musical talent. She performed in various
Renaissance Ensembles. So it is no surprise that she was drawn to
performance art. In 1975-1980 Von Euer met with Bob Morin and began to work
with him on a multi-media peformance that would become Ornette's Way. The
core of the show, which had many southland stagings, is based on the theme
of the unfolding creative process. It contains six segments: a heraldic
snare drum as the Introduction, a cartoon-like primeval forest of creatures
that quake and inch in from stage right that fall over at any loud noise
representing Fear, Intimidation in the form of huge wooden feet and
music similar to Charles Ives, Pandemonim in which the artist's voice
emerges in the form of a saxophone, Conviction (a sax solo), and lastly
Integration. The characters in this art opera are works of art themselves
who are carried and made to move by hooded prop men.
The public forum is an arena Judith Von Euer is most comfortable in. She
thrives on the interaction of an audience. She has continued to perform,
sing, play, and paint to this day. She has recently begun her Teaching
Walls Series based largely on text, chant, edicts, records, and drawn from
experiences from her teaching days. It is a delight to see so much talent
from this artist integrated, catalogued and presented in this show.
IMAGE:
Judith Von Euer
Flow Inversion Tapestry VI
acrylic/unstretched canvas,
8'4 x 11'5,
1971-72.
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