Art and Illusion: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
Date: December 10, 2005 – February 19, 2006
Curated By: Billie Milam Weisman
Venue: Carnegie Art Museum
424 South C Street, Oxnard, CA, 93030
Exhibited Artists:
Joon-Sung Bae, Henrietta Barkham, Lia Menna Barreto, Charles Bell, Blake Boyd, Scott Brennan, Roger Brown, Luisa Caldwell, Louisa Chase, James Cobb, John Matos CRASH, Jose De Guimaraes, Lesley Dill, Yrjo Edelmann, Sush Machida Gaikotsu, Michael Gallagher, Jedd Garet, Candice Gawne, Anthony Green, George D. Green, Red Grooms, Howard Kanovitz, Kang-Yong Kim, LA II (Angel Ortiz), Christopher Le Brun, Judith Linhares, Srdjan Loncar, Violise Lunn, Greg Miller, Daniel Oates, Todd Pavlisko, Martin Peregrina, Jessica Rath, Masaaki Sato, Christoph Schmidberger, Mark Sparks, Keung Szeto, Banks Violette, Russell Vogt, Christian Ward, Marijke van Warmerdam, Rob Wynne, Robert Yarber, and Masoud Yasami.
Art and Illusion: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
Art and Illusion: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation organized and generously supported by the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation has shared painting, photography and sculpture that celebrates artists' use of illusion and humor to create new ways of looking at the world. The exhibit included Postmodern, Photo-realist, and Urban art. Over forty American and international artists were represented, including: Red Grooms, Joon-Sung Bae, Crash, Jose de Guimaraes, Anthony Green, Yrjo Edelmann, Sush Machida Gaikotsu, Sidjan Loncar, Violise Lunn, Mark Sparks, and Robert Yarber.
A curtain of candy wrappers, a three-legged feline satyr, and a hot pink motorcycle in the galleries amid an array of realistic paintings and abstract works attested to Frederick R. Weisman's interest as an art collector in illusion. Illusion was to him a form of magical transformation that was the source of all true creativity. The exploration of abstract art in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries did not negate artists' interests in illusion.
Some artists used incredible verisimilitude to produce illusion. New York artist Howard Kanovitz in The Sea with Green Reflection created a canvas door looking out on the sea at sunset/sunrise. Charles Bell's trompe l'oeil painting Marbles XII magnified a childhood toy into large painted orbs. Other have used contemporary materials and nonobjective approaches. Lesley Dill enmeshed wire and dyed horsehair to depict a dress in Blue.
The late Frederick R. Weisman- entrepreneur, philanthropist, and art collector - believed that it was his meaningful obligation to give back to the public who helped enable his business success. With this aim, Mr. Weisman established in the mid-1980s both the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation and the Frederick R. Weisman Philanthropic Foundation. Now under the direction of Billie Milam Weisman, art historian and curator of this outstanding exhibition, and the boards of trustees, the Foundations continue to carry out Mr. Weisman's original mission of social and cultural contribution.