art show for week 3

just got back from an art show at the santa barbara museum of art. the main exhibit is on Charles Garabedian, a modernist era artist whose main medium is paint. Garabedian's paintings all encompass the themes of love, life, war, and death as well as greek mythology, poems, and what i can only think of referring to as "timelines" (not literal but figurative). before becoming an artist at the age of 32, Garabedian worked as a staff sergeant in the US airforce and for the union pacific railroad; you can see the many experiences he has lived vividly and illustratively in all of his work. he began his career as a surrealist and expressionist artist. then in the 60s and 70s he did much more radical work that was extremely experimental and included installations. his paintings range in sizes but the majority are large, including 2 that are composed of panels pushed together that create a 8-9 by 15 ish ft painting (they are totally mesmerizing).

the piece below is titled Calendar, 1995, and is one of my favorite paintings that i saw in this exhibit (i have a lot of favs though). this painting's theme is essentially history and time periods. the bottom right there is a brown circular area with minimal elements within that represent a more primitive period as well as the last supper. the middle portion of the painting mirrors egyptian hieroglyphics as well as religious frescos. to the left there is a small area that represents manifest destiny and the western idealist conquest. there is a lot to be interpreted in this painting as in all of his others!

one of my other favs is called In Anticipation, The Watchers, 1985-1988. there are many elements in this painting that are depicted including Chinese guardian lions called "fu dogs," etruscan heads, animal heads, faces of women, lips, geometric patterns, etc. my favorite portion of this painting is the middle where all of the women faces are overlapping and facing one another. on each side a few share a certain type of hair before the next few share another type and so on so forth. it's really cool i spent a long time looking at this image.

Garabedian's series of Prehistoric Figures, 1978-1980, reminded me a lot of a modern version of the statues surrounding the stadium at the Foro Mussolini in Rome, but with some bones and women thrown in. i bet he was inspired by these, consciously or sub-consciously, see the similarities:

this first pic is just so you can get a sense of what they look like all together, i know you can't see the paintings at all, but this is so you can see how it relates to the Foro Mussolini stadium and then i will post close-ups...

some of them zoomed in:

and now the Foro Mussolini stadium:

then my fav of fav 2: