SAN JOSE, California (February 22, 2012)—The San Jose Museum of Art will showcase its collection of works by Bay Area artist Frank Lobdell in a new exhibition to open March 10. Frank Lobdell: Wonderland comprises five paintings and ten works on paper by Lobdell, dating from the 1960s to the 1990s. The exhibition features Lobdell’s monumental painting, 2.22.93-4.8.93 Bleeker (1993). Also included are several works, never before seen at SJMA, which were recently given to the Museum by Morgan and Betty Flagg and The Morgan Flagg Administrative Trust. The exhibition will examine the evolution of the artist’s work and the ways in which he organizes his forms in space.
“Lobdell’s vibrantly colored and fantastical images are simultaneously mechanical and anthropomorphic,” said Rory Padeken, curatorial assistant at SJMA. “His complex system of signs and symbols gives his work a uniquely personal quality of expression. His paintings and prints suggest spirituality and reveal the reflective manner in which he worked.”
The exhibition will also focus on a common characteristic of Lobdell’s work: ascension. Ascension is the upward, often diagonal, movement from one part of the canvas to the next. It is often associated with other abstract expressionist artists, but Padeken posits that Lobdell made the concept completely his own. The exhibition will also explore the relationship between Lobdell’s works on paper and his paintings.
Frank Lobdell: Wonderland will be on view from March 10 through August 5, 2012.
About the Artist
Best known for his intense and brooding paintings, Frank Lobdell is one of the most compelling artists to emerge from the San Francisco school of abstract expressionism. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1921, Lobdell left art school in 1942 to serve in the U.S. Army during World War II. After the war, Lobdell relocated to the Bay Area and resumed his education at the California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute) with the benefit of the G.I. Bill. There, he encountered the community of artists who would later form the San Francisco school of abstract expressionism. His art was greatly influenced by the brutality of the war; in the decades that followed, his work had a tormented and burdened quality. In recent years, color has taken on primary importance in his work, and his paintings have a more joyful approach.
Lobdell’s work is in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, the National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and other museums nationwide. He was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1998. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions, including 2004’s Frank Lobdell: The Art of Making and Meaning, which toured to the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, the Portland Art Museum, Oregon, and the Fresno Art Museum, California. Lobdell taught at Stanford University from 1966 to 1991. He currently lives and works in San Francisco.
SAN JOSE MUSEUM OF ART
The San Jose Museum of Art celebrates new ideas, stimulates creativity, and inspires connection with every visit. Welcoming and thought-provoking, the Museum rejects stuffiness and delights visitors with its surprising and playful perspective on the art and artists of our time.
The San Jose Museum of Art is located at 110 South Market Street in downtown San Jose, California. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for students and senior citizens, and free to members and children under 6. For more information, call 408-271-6840 or visit www.SanJoseMuseumofArt.org.
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Programs at the San Jose Museum of Art are made possible by generous operating support from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, the Lipman Family Foundation, the Richard A. Karp Charitable Foundation, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation, the Koret Foundation, a Cultural Affairs grant from the City of San Jose, and, with support for exhibiton development, Yvonne and Mike Nevens.