De Saisset museum has an 'Eye on the Sixties'

By Brittany Benjamin

The turbulent era of the 1960s comes to life through sculpture and painting in the de Saisset's newest exhibition.

"Eye on the Sixties: Vision, Body, and Soul," featuring selections from the Collection of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson, which opened Feb. 2 with a panel discussion, combines California innovation with the artistic freedom associated with the decade.

"One thing about the '60s is there was a lot going on," said Andrea Pappas, curator of the exhibition. "It's like a pot of minestrone -- there's a lot there."

Unlike others housed at the de Saisset, the exhibit was coupled with an upper-division university course in the fall where students assisted in every aspect of putting on an exhibit.

"I'm very proud of my students," said Pappas, who also taught the class. "They did an incredible job in a short amount of time, and they had to meet professional standards in their writing, which is difficult for anyone to do."

While enrolled in exhibiting the 1960s, students had to write artist biographies, exhibition catalogues, object labels and text panels. They also wrote and produced the material used in the "guide by cell" program, which allows viewers to listen to a recorded audio discussion about a particular art piece by calling a telephone number from their cell phones.

Reflecting the trends of the time, the art in this exhibition is best described as experimental and diverse. The exhibit showcases a variety of different artistic medias -- prints, drawing, painting and sculpture.

The majority of the artwork explores the expressive qualities of sculpture. While some pieces, like Bruce Beasley's "Killyboffin," experiment with the medium itself, some motorized sculptures dare viewers to question the commonality of everyday objects, such as an ice pack (Claes Oldenburg's "Ice Bag-Scale B").

Other pieces provide a social commentary of the decade. Like Jess's "The 5th Never of Old Lear," many of the works have social undertones that critique the controversial Vietnam War.

Several pieces even focus on the symbolism of numbers. By painting a lonesome number by itself on canvas, outside of a street sign or address, the art challenges viewers to understand the meaning of numbers alone.

The artwork is on loan from the Anderson Collection of San Francisco, one of the largest private collections of 20th-century American art in the world. The collection was built over the past 40 years by Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson without the assistance of curators.

Pappas said she was drawn to the Anderson Collection because of its emphasis on education.

As a small college, Santa Clara often has to rely on donations for its permanent collection. The Anderson Collection has a philosophy of sharing their collection with schools.

From this exhibit, students who never lived during the era are experiencing the '60s through the works of these artists.

"The period we live in now seems to be the result of changes that started in that period or accelerated in that period," Pappas said, noting the explosion of the civil rights and feminist and gay rights movements that occurred in the '60s.

Along with every other facet of life in the '60s, many artists identified with a renewed sense of freedom that reconfigured art itself.

"In the '60s, there was a way of questioning what art can be and what it can do," Pappas said.

During this decade, artists began experimenting with unconventional mediums. At the exhibit's opening Saturday, Beasley, Fletcher Benton, George Herms and Sam Richardson discussed how the 1960s and California's location contributed to artistic experimentation.

"There was a sense of possibility," said sculptor Beasley, who started experimenting with Lucite, a transparent solid much like plexiglass. "There was a sense of change and impending change and the idea we can be immersed in change."

Beasley was the first artist to cast Lucite in monumental scale -- an accomplishment that Dupont, the producers of Lucite, deemed impossible.

Benton began experimenting with kinetic art in the early 1960s. During the time he produced a series of motorized paintings.

"You're not being blown away by a culture -- I didn't want to be manipulated by an existing art city," said Benton, who added that California provided a more flexible artistic environment than New York.

Pappas sums up her feelings on the exhibition: "Groovy is the only word for it."

"Eye on the Sixties" is on display from Feb. 2 to March 20 and March 29 to June 15.

Correction: The story incorrectly stated the exhibit was donated from the collection of Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson. The collection is on loan. The story incorrectly stated that as a small college, Santa Clara often has to rely on donations to put on art shows. While the de Saisset museum relies on donations for its permanent collection, it does not rely on them for its art shows.Contact Brittany Benjamin at (408) 551-1918 or brbenjamin@scu.edu.