MoCA exhibit celebrates modern artist Moses’ multi-faceted career

Thursday, May 30, 1996

Show collects UCLA graduate’s works since 1950sBy Michelle
Nguyen

Daily Bruin Contributor

Ed Moses constantly surprises his fans. The artist rarely stays
with the same style or theme in his paintings for too long.

"This has to do with people’s desire to be productive in a
narrow way," John Yau, a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art,
asserts. "We don’t want our cars to change radically from year to
year. So, we don’t want our artists to change radically from year
to year."

The exhibit, titled "Ed Moses: A Retrospective of the Paintings
and Drawings, 1951-1996" will be at the MoCA through Aug. 11. It
consists of 64 paintings, which represent Moses’ artistic diversity
and the impact that modernism, Southern California’s culture and
European and American abstract art has had on his work. The show
also highlights the UCLA graduate’s desire to make the artistic
process one of creating light and space.

The exhibit includes paintings that span Moses’ lifetime. It
begins with early drawings from the beginning of his career in the
1950s. They were influenced by the architecture that he had seen as
a technical draftsman in a Southern California aircraft plant. In
them, he uses the diagonal grid, geometric and interlocking shapes
that he has used throughout his career.

The ’60s were marked by graphite drawings, some of which had
repeated patterns of roses embedded in a camouflage of shadings.
Moses also literally breaks through the surface of his canvas with
the paper relief constructions that he created during this
time.

During the ’70s, Moses used resin and powdered pigment on
canvas. In the piece "Ill. Hegemann 107 B," a great deal of yellow
resin creates an irregular border for the canvas that resembles the
Southern California sun or the finish on a Southern California car.
The artist found Southern California’s obsession with cars
fascinating, and this inspired him to put the resin finish in
paintings like these.

In the late ’80s, Moses painted many works using brush trails he
calls "worms." According to Yau, these "worms" were a way for Moses
to leave an artistic signature.

"He was combining two parts of his personality," Yau says, "his
interest in structure and his interest in gesture."

Most recently, Moses included images of heads sticking their
tongues out and phalluses in his paintings. This group of work is
called the Ror Shock paintings because of their similarity to the
Rorschach ink blots that psychologists use to test a subject’s
personality and intellect. These paintings reveal his awareness of
approaching old age.

For example, in the piece "Ranken #2," there is a set of two
deformed heads sticking their tongues out at each other like a
mirror reflection. These images of heads give the feeling of
looking at death and seeing your own reflection.

"His face is about sediment, decay and entropy," Yau says. "You
get a sense of a downward pull, sense of something settling and not
wanting to get older."

"His career can be seen as an attempt from the mid-’60s until
now to overcome the grid, go beyond the grid-like in the Ror Shock
paintings."

Moses’ interest in Southern California is continually revealed
in his abstract paintings. For example, there is an abstract piece
titled "Racko #2," a canvas of black and white intermingling with
each other, reflecting Southern California light.

"It’s in the light, the way the black bleeds into the white,
showing the intensity of Southern California," Yau says. "It’s not
a soft light. It’s a harsh light. Southern California light has
this certain harshness to it."

But Moses’ representations of his surroundings do not reflect a
negative view of living in Southern California.

"I don’t think it’s a negative view at all," Yau asserts. "He
just recognizes his environment."

According to Yau, Moses sees the environment of Southern
California as being both harsh and calming; calming because its
more relaxed way of life resembles that of its neighbor across the
ocean, Japan.

"You have to realize that Southern California faces Japan while
New York faces Europe," Yau says. "The difference between Southern
California and Japan is much more calming than between New York and
Europe. There’s a more calming feeling being a Southern California
artist than a New York artist."

Moses paints the harsh side of Southern California light with an
unusual use of colors. His color scheme is characterized by using a
homogenous group of colors and then splashing it with some
unexpected color like hot pink. Yau believes this reflects the
influence of Southern California on the artist.

"He wants a painting to irritate you, but you accept it," Yau
says. "California has a light that may be bright and calming, but
irritating. He doesn’t want you to look at a painting passively. He
wants you to look at it actively."

Yau was met with the difficult task of selecting which work
should be showcased to highlight the vitality of Moses’ career.

"(The works) gave a general sense of the artist’s change
throughout his career, based on central concerns," Yau says. "They
show his way to explore different possibilities."

Moses continues to redefine himself in his work, which is what
distinguishes him from other post-war West Coast artists. His
career began with structured architectural drawings and turned to
abstract paintings. He has influenced many artists because of his
obsession with his craft.

Although influential, this internationally renowned artist is
sometimes seen as an outsider because of his desire to continually
work in unexpected directions.

"I think he’s made really radical statements," Yau says. "He was
pushed to an extreme place that other artists learn from. Once he
gets to that extreme place, he doesn’t stay there."

ART: "Ed Moses: A Retrospective of the Paintings and Drawings,
1951-1996" at the MoCA through Aug. 11. TIX: $6, $4 for students
and seniors. For more info, call (213)626-6222.

Ed Moses’ ‘Ranken #2’ is part of an exhibit

devoted to the artist at the MoCA.

Although influential, this internationally renowned artist is
sometimes seen as an outsider because of his desire to continually
work in unexpected directions.