Art Reviews

The Louis Stern Fine Arts Gallery

“János Mattis Teutsch and the Hungarian
Avant-garde” The Louis Stern Fine Arts Gallery (310) 276-0147
Through July 20

An eclectic blend of colors, styles and moods makes this small
exhibit worthwhile to visit. Now at the Louis Stern Fine Arts
Gallery is an interesting collection of Hungarian avant-garde
pieces, featuring the works of János Mattis Teutsch alongside
a handful of those by other artists. Among the several reasons to
see the exhibit, this smaller collection mirrors LACMA’s
current exhibition, “Central European Avant-gardes: Exchange
and Transformation” and anyone interested in that show will
find the offers at the Louis Stern Gallery a fascinating
complimentary exhibit. Also, art audiences interested in comparing
several styles ““ cubist, impressionist and abstract ““
will find an example of each in a single gallery. It’s hard
to describe the collection in its entirety because the works vary
so much from each other. Teutsch’s 1922 composition, called
“Composition,” uses oil on cardboard to match primary
colors and shapes to give off the impression of a sunrise over
greens hills troubled by contrasting reddish hues. Another of his
pieces, “Sensation” (1920), adds jewel tones to primary
colors and uses dark and light color contrasts to create what feels
like far-ranging emotions coming into contact with one another.
Also displayed are charcoal drawings from Teutsch done earlier in
his career. These use strong lines, void of much of the shadowy
blending of other charcoal pieces, and the same blend of angles and
arcs that become more brazen in his later oils. In the case of this
exhibit, judging whether the art itself is good or bad is less
interesting than comparing several artists’ use of color and
shape. “János Mattis Teutsch and the Hungarian
Avant-garde” is a wonderful opportunity for casual
gallery-goers to make such comparisons.

-Kelsey McConnell

“The Sacred Spaces of Pieter Saenredam” J.
Paul Getty Museum (310) 440-7300 Through July 7

The exhibit of Pieter Saenredam’s work at the Getty is
both illuminating and repetitive, as it clearly breaks down how the
Dutch painter, billed as one of the foremost artists in his country
in the early 17th century, created his depictions of medieval
churches in Utrecht, Holland. At first, the paintings’
elegant beauty and preparatory sketches draw the viewer in, but
eventually all the churches start to look the same (having been
essentially built in the same style). An interesting focus of the
exhibit is the method Saenredam used to create detailed and
spirited representations of the town’s churches. Starting
with mathematically-drawn sketches, he would eventually add and
alter architectural elements. Cards next to the works (which mostly
consist of preliminary drawings) point out details like the eyes he
often drew in the background to show his perspective vanishing
point, to the rounding of arches in a painting that were actually
pointed in reality. Other times Saenredam added people to show the
scale of the enormous columns and high ceilings, or take out pews
or walls to show more of church and eliminate clutter. The finished
pieces are the exhibit’s gems. While the construction
drawings are educational, they lack the play with light and often
the additional characters that make his final paintings so
appealing. Unfortunately, there are not enough examples of these
works. Given the selection of pieces on view, there is too much
emphasis on theory and process and not enough on the results. The
Getty’s Web site (www.getty.edu) gives a fairly good idea of
what the viewer will see at the museum. Rather than make the trip
up the hill, it might be safer to check out the online version
first.

-Mary Williams