I came out of the new exhibition at the Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA) thinking: ‘I’ve got to take a class in California art.’ I had never even heard of Armin Hansen and his works are amazingly powerful. How could I not have known about this man!
While other impressionist painters, particularly those in California, painted beautiful countrysides in pretty pastel colors, Hansen took another route, capturing the world of the sea and fishermen both in the Netherlands where he studied, and later, in and around Monterey where he lived.
His works are not a voyeur’s paintings: he actually signed on as a crew member both in Europe and California. His paintings of the Portuguese sardine fisherman on Monterey Bay are arresting. To quote the PMCA invitation: ‘He rejected impressionism’s gentility by exercising a bolder palette and more rugged strokes that focus on humanity’s relationship with nature.” If I could compare him to anyone, it would be the Winslow Homer’s sea paintings, but Hansen’s works are filled with vibrant color. While his subjects were the sea and fishermen, his real interest was in juxtaposition of colors.
This current PMCA exhibition didn’t stop with Hansen. In the back gallery of the museum are a number of works by Jim Morphesis–an artist I was familiar with.
But, for me the real show-stopper was the installation by Lars Jan entitled ‘Holoscenes/Quaternary Suite’, a video tripych. On three walls of PMCA’s Project Room are larger than life-size videos of people submerged in what appears to be a deep round tank filled with water. There is one person per tank and they do ordinary things like getting dressed, or walking around the walls or sleeping. My description simply does not do justice to this installation. The images are disturbing and mesmerizing. I intend to go back and see this installation again. The artist will be offering insights into his work at a talk on Feb. 22.
About the photos: I used to simply copy a photo from the PMCA website whenever I wrote about one of their exhibitions. Unfortunately, their new website blocks this, so I laid out the invitation to the Opening on my kitchen counter and took photos.
[NOTE: the Pasadena Museum of California Art has closed.]
