嘿嘿视频

More at the Museum

include 鈥淎n Artist鈥檚 Perspective鈥� conversation, Hoof & Foot panel discussion, A Pot for a Latch Exchange Days, drop-in art studio for children and their grown-ups, and a lecture by 嘿嘿视频 law professor Karima Bennoune on 鈥淒efending the Right to Culture.鈥�

The University of California, Davis, hosts back-to-back talks next week by artists and writers Peter Plagens and Laurie Fendrich, the former speaking about 嘿嘿视频鈥� early art faculty, and the latter addressing 鈥淭he Downside of Art.鈥�

Plagens and Fendrich, who are husband and wife, have speaking engagements as follows:

• Plagens at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 15, at the new , where one of the inaugural exhibitions is about 嘿嘿视频鈥� early art faculty.
• Fendrich at 4 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 18, in the Chancellor鈥檚 Colloquium Distinguished Speaker Series, to be held in the Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at the .

Admission is free and open to the public, for both talks. RSVPs are requested for the Fendrich talk, and can be arranged online: .

A closer look at art department founders

Plagens, art critic for The Wall Street Journal and formerly for Newsweek magazine, wrote the essay 鈥淥f Serendipity and a Secret Sauce鈥� for the Manetti Shrem Museum鈥檚 grand opening catalog in November. In the essay, he noted how the 嘿嘿视频 Department of Art, during its formation, flew in the face of critics who said great art could be created only in major metropolitan areas and primarily in New York.

A number of 嘿嘿视频鈥� early faculty artists would go on to national and international prominence, including Wayne Thiebaud, Robert Arneson and William Wiley. They are among the more than a dozen art faculty pioneers whose works are on display as the premier inaugural exhibition at the Manetti Shrem Museum. The exhibition, , runs through March 26.

Being away from major metro areas 鈥渨as actually a big benefit to faculty and students,鈥� wrote Plagens, who himself lives in New York. 鈥�(There was) no pressure to keep in step with fashion. 鈥� 嘿嘿视频 was way ahead of the curve on artists drawing on other disciplines and turning to materials not usually common in art to make their work.鈥�

Plagens will go into some of this in his talk, but will aim primarily at providing a more intimate look at the art.

鈥淚鈥檒l take examples of each of these artists and talk about it 鈥� why is this stuff any good?鈥� he said. 鈥淚 want to talk about what was going on in art at the time in different places and where this work falls. That鈥檚 what I (and museum Director) Rachel Teagle think the community wants to know.鈥� 

Especially important will be shedding light on the lesser-known 嘿嘿视频 artists, such as Ralph Johnson and Ruth Horsting.

One of the few female faculty members, Horsting stopped making art in the 1970s, 鈥渁nd that was a real loss for sculpture because her work is really good,鈥� Plagens said.

Plagens, who studied at the University of Southern California, wrote Sunshine Muse: Contemporary Art on the West Coast (published in 1974 and reissued in 2000 as Sunshine Muse: Art on the West Coast, 1945-1970), still considered a definitive book on the era and its art. His book Bruce Nauman: The True Artist (2014) is a deep examination of the artist and his work 鈥� the artist being a Master of Fine Arts graduate of 嘿嘿视频 (1966) and one of the best-known artists to come out of the program.

A painter talks about art鈥檚 value

Fendrich鈥檚 talk, 鈥淭he Downside of Art,鈥� has a catchy title, but the topic sounds quite heady 鈥� it is about Jean-Jacques Rousseau鈥檚 1758 鈥淟etter to M. D鈥橝lembert on Spectacles,鈥� in which the philosopher Rousseau attacks the arts.

鈥淭he (essay) is totally off the wall and hilarious,鈥� Fendrich said. 鈥淩ousseau says the arts in general are destructive to human happiness. I鈥檒l talk about my ongoing intellectual and emotional struggle with what Rousseau says and give a painter鈥檚 rebuttal to it.鈥�

Fendrich first read the essay 30 years ago as an undergraduate student and said it has given her food for thought and counterargument ever since.

鈥淗e was a crazy misogynist artist so it鈥檚 not boring,鈥� said Fendrich, who included the essay in her curriculum as a teacher, including 25 years at Hofstra University where she retired as a professor in 2014. 鈥淪tudents tear out their hair trying to refute it 鈥� but they really love it.鈥�

Fendrich started writing about the arts in 1990, often for The Chronicle of Higher Education, where her essays have included the widely read (2016).

Joint exhibition close by

Plagens and Fendrich don鈥檛 normally write about each other鈥檚 art, they have never lectured in the same vicinity (although they served as visiting artists at the San Francisco Art Institute in the fall of 2015), and they have never exhibited together even though both are abstract painters whose works have some affinities and concerns.

鈥淥ur work doesn鈥檛 go together,鈥� Plagens said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like salsa and marinara sauce 鈥� they look alike and have similar things in them and can be used in many ways, but they鈥檙e awful together.鈥�

That said, they鈥檙e having their first joint show, Black White Color Life: Recent Works on Paper by Laurie Fendrich and Peter Plagens, Feb. 15-March 12, at the .