ART-PRESENTATION: Craig Kauffman

Craig Kauffman is an artist internationally recognized for his sensuous use of color and new materials. Often cited as a seminal figure in the Los Angeles art world during the ‘50s and ‘60s, Craig Kauffman first rose to the attention of critics and collectors with his first solo exhibition of paintings at Felix Landau Gallery in 1953.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Sprüth Magers Gallery Archive

In the exhibition “Works from 1962-1964 in dialogue with Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp” at Sprüth Magers Gallery in Berlin, are on presentation a selection of early works on paper and plastic from the ‘60s that examine diagrammatic and fragmented abstract female forms as a precursor to his later three-dimensional wallworks. The influence of Duchamp and Picabia upon Kauffman is evident, particularly during the early stage of his career as he navigated the transition from figuration to abstraction. The fragility of the glass was frustrating for Kauffman, and he investigated the use of a new medium, acrylic plastic. After an initial group of works with flat plastic, Kauffman discovered the industrial process of vacuum forming, and proceeded to translate his sensuous forms to wall reliefs, painted on the reverse with sprayed acrylic lacquer. During the early ‘60s, Craig Kauffman began to experiment with painting on transparent surfaces, having been influenced by seeing Marcel Duchamp’s “The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even” at the Pasadena Art Museum during a 1962 retrospective. Similarly, “Nude Descending A Staircase” represents the body in motion with the tessellated planes appearing like polished pistons. Francis Picabia’s “Portrait of a Young American Woman in a State of Nudity” strips down the tradition of the female nude by presenting only a linear diagram of a spark plug. The form is functional yet phallic, and simultaneously mimics the contours of a woman’s body. Kauffman’s early works were among the very first works to articulate what quickly came to be known as the “Los Angeles Sensibility”.

Info: Sprüth Magers Gallery, Oranierburger Strasse 18, Berlin, Duration: 30/4-25/6/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 11:00-18:00, www.spruethmagers.com