Two Upcoming Exhibitions

Anthony Holdsworth March 15, 2018

1. Paintings of Nicaragua and Mexico

Alley Cat Gallery, 3036 24th Street

April 2 - April 29, Reception: April 6, 7 - 9 PM

The Festival of Diriamba, Nicaragua, 1984    Un Rincon de la Plaza Grande, Patzcuaro, Mexico — The Festival of Diriamba, Nicaragua, 1984 Un Rincon de la Plaza Grande, Patzcuaro, Mexico

Paintings created over many years based on travels in Nicaragua and Mexico. Some have never been exhibited before.

Special guests at the reception: Nina Serrano and Francisco Herrera. I will also be screening a short video at 8 PM entitled "Mexico en mi Corazon" Join us: www.alleycatbookshop.com

2. San Francisco in Transition:

Anthony Holdsworth and Beryl Landau

Luna Rienne Gallery, 3318 22nd St

April 28 - May 28, Reception: April 28 7 - 9 PM

We have both been painting San Francisco for decades. This is only the second time that we have shown exclusively together. Join us: www.lunarienne.com

Mission Series Part 4 - Upcoming Exhibition

Anthony Holdsworth February 16, 2014

The Mission District Series at Alley Cat Books: April 4 - 28, 2014

Alley Cat Books has a large, well lit, art gallery at the back of the store. I will be showing my Mission District Series here from April 4th - 28th, 2014. To accommodate all the paintings in this Series, the exhibition comprises two shows. There will be two receptions:

1st Reception: Fri, April 4, 6-8 pm. At 7 pm singer, songwriter organizer Francisco Herrera will sing.

2nd Reception: Fri, April 18, 6-8 pm. At 7 pm Alejandro Murguia, poet laureate of San Francisco, will read excerpts from a work in progress titled 'Mission Noir'

This show is dedicated to the memory of my friend and neighbor, the late, great, underground cartoonist, Spain Rodriguez. / Ten percent of proceeds from sales will be donated to Accion Latina.

MISSION DISTRICT PART 4

It was during the memorial for my friend and neighbor, Spain Rodriguez, at the Brava Theater that I decided to start this Mission District Series. So he was on my mind as I set up to paint this picture of the Brava Theater.

As if on cue, a fight between women erupted inside "Pops" bar next to where I was painting. As the fight reached a crescendo, I saw three Amazons running down York Street towards the bar, long, dark hair streaming behind them. They charged inside. Things got even louder. Then there was an uneasy silence, followed by, "You won't try that again, bitch!"

They were out the door, running back up York when I heard one of them shout, "I hope they don't say nothing about Samoans!" The police arrived a few minutes later. No one seemed to know who these women were.

The whole event was pure Spain Rodriguez.

The homeless hang out on York. It's near their encampment under the freeway. Three of them found their way into this first painting.

There's a lot of history on this corner. The Brava used to be the York Theater, many locals still call it that. The St Francis Cafe (founded 1918) attracts a large crowd of young adults. It is where "the Morabito brothers who owned a lumberyard nearby often lunched ... and, as legend goes, hatched the idea there in the late 1940s to buy the franchise forthe Forty-Niners." (Courtesy of Mission Local)

Pops which offers bacon in its Bloody Marys is a popular hipster dive. Improbably, right next door is the excellent and attractive Mexicana Bakery

I did three paintings at this intersection as one short, rainless, winter day followed another. I could have done more. But I decided it was time to move back up 24th.

I returned to La Palma. In this second painting I decided to focus more on the small truck painted with the eagle bearing a Mexican Flag. It parks on this corner every weekend. The owner sets up a long table crowded with used tools and other items. He approved of my painting. "You have painted my truck with a big smile!" he observed.

In the mornings before working on La Palma, I passed by Rene Yañas' house. Rene, who is a important cultural figure in the Mission (see Mission District Series #3, below), has lived in this house on rent control for 35 years. He is facing eviction under the Ellis Act. The house is set back behind a screen of vegetation. " I used to enjoy caring for this garden." Rene told me, "But since the eviction order I've really lost interest."

He posed for me so I could put him in the painting.

I noticed Mike Ruiz's installation of a skeleton and crosses commemorating the demise of Latino institutions in the Mission, some time ago. I decided to capture this scene before it was removed, especially since Accion Latina is a major force in the Mission. Home to the bilingual newspaper El Tecolote, it also promotes youth and cultural programs including the Encuentro del Canto Popular which takes place early December every year at the Brava Theater.

Please click on the word 'OLDER' below to the right to access earlier blogs .

Balmy Alley: on the Red Road

Anthony Holdsworth August 25, 2013

As I turn onto Balmy Alley from 24th Street the dulcet tones of Violeta Para singing "Gracias a la vida" drift from a backyard. Her voice transports me back more than thirty years to a time of great solidarity between the artists of the San Francisco Bay Area and Latin America. In those years, the Nicaraguan Cultural Center was located in a low building at this entrance to the alley (Deep blue wall on left). I stop on my way down the alley to talk with Andrés. Sculptor, painter, bicycle and car repair man extraordinaire, he is always so busy in front of his garage that I chose to paint him twice into this first picture.

Further along, I stop in front of the first of twenty-three murals that were painted in 1984 to protest US intervention in Latin America, and to welcome the refugees from these conflicts who were pouring into the Mission. This mural by Miranda Bergman and O'Brien Thiele illustrates the conflict in El Salvador and the the triumph of the Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. It is the only one of those twenty-three murals that has survived into the present.

Balmy Alley # 3: Miranda Bergman and O'Brien Thiele restore their mural.

Miranda and Brian are restoring it. I've spent several enjoyable afternoons painting across from them as they begin by stabilizing the old wooden surface. We lament the fact that, even though the national solidarity movement in the eighties did succeed in blunting US aggression in Central America, our foreign policy today is even worse. Indeed, some of the same people who instituted the death squads in El Salvador were enlisted to establish "the Salvador option" in Iraq.

Miranda and O'Brien are seeking funding for this major restoration. I recommend that you go to indiegogo and make a contribution, no matter how small, to this extremely worthwhile project.

Perhaps one of the reasons this mural survived all the others from that period is that it is painted on two massive sliding doors of a hundred year old stable. In the days when horses were the principal form of transportation, Balmy Alley was lined with stables. It is said that the alley was named after a race horse called Balmy. The alley opens out onto Garfield Park where they used to hold the races.

Further along, on the right hand side, is a recent mural that deals directly with the current issue of gentrification. Its gritty, darkly humorous style is reminiscent of underground comics.

I find it ironic that this mural is almost directly across from a nine unit apartment building that is evicting its approximately sixty tenants under the Ellis Act. A foreign investor has the bought the building and plans to convert it to condominiums. The tenants, many three generation families who have lived under rent control in this building for thirty years, were given three months notice.

Balmy Alley # 2: Three months notice for around sixty tenants.

Three bright youngsters lament the fact that they will have to forgo scholarships to private schools in the city if their family has to move to the East Bay to find affordable housing. Another gentleman tells me that his wife and daughter cry each night at the thought of leaving their apartment and their jobs in the Mission.

Painting the Mission District

Anthony Holdsworth July 12, 2013

I was inspired to start a series of paintings of the Mission District during the memorial for Spain Rodriquez at the Brava Theater, when his wife, Susan Stern, showed her film of his work which included many cartoons set in the Mission.I don't know why it took this event to get me started. We live only 5 blocks from 24th St and, over the years, our family has participated in many cultural events in the Mission. I exhibited paintings created on two trips to Nicaragua at the Casa de Cultura Nicaraguense in 1986. The cultural center was on the corner of 24th and Balmy Alley. After my exhibition, I painted several pictures of the alley, and one or two nearby, but I never explored the Mission extensively. This time, I sketched around the Mission District for several days before I settled on 24th and Alabama as my starting point for a an major series.

Lft: La Victoria Bakery and St Peter's Church, Rt. Dominquez Bakery

Looking south down Alabama the tower of St Peter's rises against the slopes of Bernal Hill. Three of the four corners of the intersection are anchored by businesses with a long history in the Mission. I ate my first Mexican meal in San Francisco at La Victoria Bakery in 1965. Across Alabama Street is the Dominquez Bakery.

As I write this, I've just finished a group portrait which includes a fifth generation member of the Dominquez Bakery family: four year old ' Little Consüelo' with his parents. They live above Taqueria El Farolito which occupies the third corner.

All three businesses reflect a taste for bright colors. The Dominquez family commissioned a lovely series of murals that cover the walls of both their bakery and El Farolito across the street. Spain Rodriguez is credited with creating the first mural in the Mission in 1971. He sure started something!

I planned to paint a couple of pictures at this intersection but I kept discovering new vantage points. To date I've finished nine paintings. Despite gentrification which is displacing many of the Latino residents, this intersection retains a strong Latin American flavor. There is a welcoming and tolerant spirit on the street, it reminds me of painting in Mexico and Nicaragua. Some of the locals have posed for small street portraits. I'll use these portraits to paint them into a large, studio painting (around 40" X 120") of this intersection. I am giving the little portraits to my models as a 'thank you' for posing.

I've had some great conversations here. Perhaps the most extraordinary was a chance encounter with Richard Montoya ( "Culture Clash" , "American Night" and "The River").

Richard enjoyed my paintings so much that he included me in a scene of a movie he's making in the Mission titled "The Other Barrio". I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my 10 seconds of fame doesn't end up on the cutting-room floor!

Gentrification: Should Money Trump Community? Neighborhoods change, in the fifties and early sixties the Mission was a largely Irish and Italian neighborhood. As these residents moved elsewhere, Mexicans replaced them. They were followed in the Seventies by refugees from America's interventionist policies in Latin America. Argentinians, Chileans, Nicaraguans and Salvadorans came in especially large numbers until the Mission became a hub of Latin American culture and activism. Centers like Galeria de la Raza, and the Mission Cultural Center blossomed. Low riders cruised Mission Street while Carnaval and Day of the Dead became two of San Francisco's most vibrant celebrations.

Beginning in the mid Nineties a new wave entered the Mission. This was not immigrants fleeing poverty and war, but affluent dot-comers lured by the neighborhood's good weather and proximity to Highway 101. Their wealth began to drive up property values and rents. Today only 37% of the Mission is Latino. Much of this remaining population purchased their homes years ago or have rent control.

Many Latinos I met on the street said they were raised here and that they return regularly to visit friends and relatives and to hang out. "I'd like to live here, but I can't afford the high rents." was a common refrain.

Musician, and band leader Camilo Landau who works at Acción Latina, next door to El Farolito observes," People talk about stopping gentrification, but we should have started ten years ago. It's already happened. I was raised around here but I live in Oakland, because I can't afford to live here anymore." He adds that the Merchants Association and the 24th Street Cultural Corridor Committee are organizing to protect the community that remains.

I am posting all these paintings, as I finish them, to my Gallery under the title 'In the Mission'.

East Bay Open Studios 2012: View my Golden Gate Series and Other Recent Works.

Anthony Holdsworth March 18, 2012

Saturday and Sunday June 2 - 3 11 am to 6 pm

351 Lewis St, West Oakland 94607

Six Golden Gate Series paintings will be featured along with other recent works.

This is an opportunity to have a lively conversation with me and other guests. I will be serving bread, cheese, wine and cappuccinos. Go to 'Visit Studio' on this website for directions to my studio.

Postcards and Archival Prints:

Postcards of Oakland and Occupy derived from some of my favorite paintings will be available, as well as archival prints of many of my works.

The Golden Gate Bridge from Kirby Cove, oil/canvas, 20" X 36". 2012

"The Golden Gate Bridge from Kirby Cove' (above) will be among those on view at my Open Studio.

Other Exhibitions:

George Krevsky Gallery The painting below, titled 'The Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands' is on exhibition at the George Krevsky Gallery. 77 Kearny St., San Francisco until June 9th. It is also included in the gallery's gorgeous catalogue for the exhibition 'Artistic Visions of the Golden Gate Bridge' available through ePressBooks,Inc.

SFMOMA Artists' Gallery, Fort Mason

Four other paintings from my 'Golden Gate Series' will be on exhibition at the SFMOMA Artists' Gallery from May 26 - June 28th. Including this panorama :

Golden Gate Bridge from Below the Palace of the Legion of Honor

About the Golden Gate Series:

When I started these works, I thought “Painting this bridge is akin to painting the Eiffel Tower. It's been 'done' so many times!” However, I soon discovered that this particular marriage of high technology and landscape is archetypal. What began as a few paintings became a series.

From an outlook below the Palace of the Legion of Honor (See above) the bridge appears improbably delicate. A fine web of steel spanning two headlands. It is an expression of pure physics. As beautiful as a spider's web and almost as minimal.

Up close - from the waterfront approaching Fort Point - the bridge overwhelms with it's scale and with the muscular grace of it's art deco details. The swells rounding Fort Point roll past the orange towers that rise from the ocean to conduct a steady flow of pedestrians and vehicles effortlessly across the watery chasm.

Where I stand painting this engineering marvel the waves crash up against the waterfront, splashing me and my painting and, on one occasion, drenching my truck.

The bridge embodies in its design the conviction of the nineteenth and early twentieth century that technology could overcome nature, extract great benefits from it, but exist in harmony with it. It took the horrors of modern warfare, the nuclear age, environmental degradation and climate change to tarnish this conviction. From a visual point of view the bridge expresses this antiquated aspiration perfectly.

But from the point of view of function the bridge is a conduit for an enormous amount of internal combustion traffic-hooked on fossil fuels. The Golden Gate Bridge Commission could help break this addiction by offering owners of electric cars three, toll free years. This would be a great incentive to go electric.

The bridge also embodies the optimism of the Roosevelt period. Amadeo Giannini, the founder of the Bank of America, in the midst of the Great Depression purchased all the bonds for the construction of the bridge so as to provide employment for workers in San Francisco. It is impossible today to imagine a banker with such a sense of social obligation!

View this video of me painting at Fort Point courtesy of Diane Harrigan "Postcards from SF"

About the artist

Anthony Holdsworth was born in England in 1945. He was introduced to oil painting in high school by the New England painter, Loring Coleman. Holdsworth embarked on a painting career while working as Head of Outdoor Restoration for the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy after the flood of 1966. He continued his studies at the Bournemouth College of Art in England where he studied with master draftsman Samuel Rabin and color theorist Jon Fish and at the San Francisco Art Institute where he studied with Julius Hatofsky, Bruce McGaw and Fred Martin. He has shown with major galleries in Oakland, San Francisco, Sacramento and Los Angeles. He has participated in two exhibitions at the Oakland Museum. He was included in the California Cityscapes exhibition at the San Diego Museum. He was a recipient of WESTAF-NEA fellowship in 1990. His work is in corporate and private collections worldwide.