Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Jay DeFeo Retrospective; MoMA, SF, 12/31/12

Disaster Amnesiac first saw Jay DeFeo's The Rose in the late 1990's, when it was being displayed at SF's Legion of Honor. I can recall being blown away by its physical presence, the effect it had on my perceptions as I viewed it.
Suffice it to say, I was eager to take in the current DeFeo retrospective at SF MoMA. It was not disappointing.
The lasting impression that Disaster Amnesiac took away from viewing Jay's collected works is that of the deeply spiritual nature of them. It seems to me she was tapped into deep wells of perception and spirit. Her work exudes the kind of vibes that one can get from cathedrals or illuminated art. There is so much going on below the surfaces of work, from those of the mid-1950's to her later efforts from the 1980's. When one lets their perceptions become immersed in her paintings, her sublime use of painterly techniques, the way she blended shades into sheer patterns of light, the architectural weight of pieces like The Rose and The Jewel, one must surely feel something. I was also struck by the ways in which her paintings from the early 1980's seem to prefigure work being done by post-Graffiti Writer artists in the 2000's.
If this show comes to a gallery near you, allow yourself some time be illumined by its VIBRATIONS.

No comments: