Last Sunday Exhibition: K.P.F.A. & Pacifica

It’s KPFA‘s sixtieth birthday in April.  I went out on the street this last week and painted a small canvas of the headquarters appropriately located at 1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way in Berkeley. (Martin was born in 1929 and this first listener supported station in the world was founded  by pacifists.)

KPFA at 1929 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Berkeley

I will be donating 50% of the sale price of this painting as well as 10% of all sales for the next three Last Sundays to KPFA. My next three Last Sunday exhibitions are March  29, April 26 and May 31. Also, I will donate 10% of sales from this website for the next three months.

Please pass by. I will be serving wine, cheese and cappuccinos, showing new work and I’m sure we will  share some lively conversation.

Like most institutions these days, KPFA is having financial difficulties though they do not appear to be anywhere near as grave as those facing mainstream media. As an artist and a progressive I find it impossible to imagine the San Francisco Bay Area without KPFA. Would we have some of  the largest political demonstrations in the country without this institution as a cataluyst??

The arts, especially music and literature, would suffer without this eclectic public forum for writers and musicians.

Sculptors, painters, graphic and conceptual artists would find their silent studios bereft without the disquisitions on science by Dr Michio Kaku, the exposition of the Middle Eastern conflict by our generation’s most dedicated and eloquent journalist, Robert Fisk, the smorgasbord of literary luminaries like Isabel Allende, and Alice Walker who appear on Cover to Cover… well,  I could go on and on. Those of you who  listen to KPFA are already  aware of these riches.

Those of you who aren’t familiar with KPFA should tune your radio dial in Northern California to 94.1 FM or listen online at KPFA.org. What you hear will amuse, shock, irritate and enlighten you as no other radio station can, because this is the voice of our community by turns brilliant, informative and just plain crazy.

When the  history of our time is written, KPFA and the national network Pacifica, will emerge as one of the most important forces of this period. With public radio and television severely compromised by corporate underwriters, KPFA , and the Pacifica network which it spawned, are a principal independent source of news and culture – an essential nerve center for activism and the arts.

Three weeks in Cuba a Painter’s Perspective

In 2001 the Oakland Museum of California commissioned me to create a painting of Oakland  as a gift to Oakland’s sister city Santiago de Cuba. This painting ‘Desde las Calles Abajo’  (‘From the Streets Below’) now hangs in Santiago.

Desde Las Calles Abajo, oil on canvas, 2001, in the collection of UNEAC Santigo de Cuba

The next year my wife, son and I were invited to a family wedding in Havana. We jumped at the opportunity to travel and paint in Cuba for three weeks, and to visit Santiago. To give you a taste of what it is like on the street in Cuba I have posted two paintings along with diary excerpts that relate to these paintings.

U.S. relations with Cuba are again being hotly debated. It is impossible to make sense of this debate without an understanding of our tangled history with Cuba.  One of the most qualified sources is film maker and writer Saul Landau.  His extensive series of films documenting the Cuban revolution can be found on DVD at Round World Productions. He is also syndicated with both Counterpunch.org and Progreso-weekly.com

My travels in revolutionary Nicaragua in 1984 and 1985 (See Video From Oakland to Nicaragua ) convinced me that painting on location is one of the best ways to gain an in-depth understanding of another culture. To set up an easel on a street corner and begin painting is a passport into local culture. I am not taking a picture and leaving. I am composing a painting from start to finish under the watchful eyes of the community. Everyone gathers around and shares their stories. Since I return to a location over several days I  become familiar with the texture and rhythm of daily life. .

Some of you may want to download the complete diary: Anthony Holdsworth and Beryl Landau Three Weeks in Cuba Diary’ (PDF)

Morning on the Malecon, Havana, Cuba, oil/canvas, 18 x 24, 2002

Excerpt from “Three Weeks in Cuba” that relates to the painting above:

Wed  Aug 14:  On the Malecon near Hotel Deuville  I started painting a view west down the Malecon. A bunch of kids, seven to ten years old, gathered around me. While I was laying out my design, I pretended not to speak any Spanish and ignored them. A policeman hovered on the periphery. There’s a policeman on nearly every block in old Havana. The kids are real toughs. They scuffled, fist fought and threw stones at one another. The officer pretty much ignored their quarrels. Finally a street cleaner with a broom and small wagon, who’d stopped to watch me, admonished them that I was trying to work and they retreated across the street. A tall, black man hung around for a long time. I noticed that he was holding a small canvas. Turns out he’s a painter. He wanted to know what colors I used and was very surprised to learn I painted with black, which he never uses. He showed me his painting: a primitivist portrait of a woman in a tropical landscape.

Thurs  Aug 15:  This morning I finished-my view down the Malecon. The painter from yesterday returned this morning with a gift of a drawing. I asked him if he would pose for me for a few minutes in the colonnade.  Afterward I got his address so that I can send him a reproduction of the painting. We talked while I worked. He told me that it was his birthday today. That he was forty, and that he’s a professor of mathematics, but his first love has always been painting.

The Framboyan Tree, Tivoli, Santiago de Cuba, oil on canvas, 18" X 24", 2002

Wed   Aug 21:  Barrio Tivoli

Anthony:  I started my second painting several blocks southeast of the historic center beyond the Escaleras de Padre Pica in the Tivoli district. There are several spectacular views here. I picked the simplest because I’m afraid of getting bogged down. Ramshackle housing high up on the right descends by steep steps, down to a street that plunges towards the bay. On the left stands a lovely red flowered framboyan tree, the national tree of Cuba. A freighter is moored in the distant slice of bay. I was immediately surrounded by kids, much better behaved than their counterparts in Havana. A handsome Rastafarian came down from the house above the steps. He was delighted to learn that I was from Oakland because he was interested in the Black Panthers. He invited me in for coffee but I demurred until tomorrow because it was nearly time for me to leave and rejoin Beryl.

Beryl (Beryl Landau) :  This was our best day so far in Santiago. Anthony went off painting after breakfast and I started another view from the balcony. Anthony returned, and we had to leave to meet the artist Pagan; so I didn’t have time to finish my watercolor. Pagan took us to visit two artists who live nearby. En route to the first one, Jose Horruitiner, it started pouring and we had to wait under an overhang until it subsided…

Thurs, Aug 22

Anthony:  I feel very comfortable in Barrio Tivoli away from the center of town. I was joined by my new Rastafarian friend who lent me a pair of powerful binoculars to examine the bay. His girlfriend brought me a demitasse of sweet espresso. He told me that his two passions are painting and poetry. Whenever he needs money in Havana he paints pictures. A backup source of income are his necklaces. He told me he used to like to smoke a joint first thing in the morning followed by a cup of strong Cuban coffee. Then he would paint and string beads for hours. His friends would ask him where he found the patience, but he considered it a better activity than running in the streets and fighting. I observed that there are thousands of people in the U.S. in jail for dealing or using marijauna. He said it was the same in Cuba.. He had spent six months in jail for smoking. I put his grandmother in my painting as she stood on their balcony.

Thurs, Aug 23

Back in Bario Tivoli for a few last touches to my painting. A man sweeps the street with a large bristle broom. People with buckets loudly hawk avocados and yucca.

“La yucca! La yucca! Caliente la buena yucca!”

Men and women hurry to work, some with briefcases, from shacks so run down they’d be condemned in Oakland. A man pulls his vintage motorcycle with sidecar up against the curb below the embankment where I’m standing. He takes our a bucket of yellow paint and a brush and begins retouching his vehicle. My rastafarian friend descends from his home with another brush and lends a hand. After they’ve finished, the man’s wife,small child in her arms, gingerly climbs into the sidecar trying to avoid contact with all the wet paint. Like most Cuban drivers who are always trying to conserve gas, they coast down the hill towards the bay.

My friend brings me a cup of coffee. The kids gather round. One of them throws a stone across the street and is gently reprimanded by adults who are watching from their balconies. A skinny old man with a hawk-like face stops and asks me where I’m from. He brightens when I say the U.S. and breaks into impeccable English. I ask him how he learned to speak so well.

“In the streets. I was a guide for American sailors. I showed them
where to drink and find a good fuck. I was a boy then. Now I’m an
old man.”

I move up onto my friend’s balcony. The three young women
who had been staying as his guests all kiss him goodbye and exhort
me to paint him “el mas feo,” the ugliest man in the neighborhood.

Taller Luis Diaz O
This afternoon Pagan took us out to the Taller ‘Luis Diaz 0.’ in the Vista Allegre district. The administrator Idalmnis Reyes Dominguez explained that this was a hybrid organization, principally a series of small studios for more than twenty painters, sculptors, ceramicists and printmakers, but also a small gallery and cultural center. Pagan who does not have a space here avails himself of the printmaking studio.

It’s surprising how many museums, galleries and artists’ organizations there are in this town. UNEAC even publishes a couple of quality art magazines…

Some of you may want to download the complete diary: Anthony Holdsworth and Beryl Landau Three Weeks in Cuba Diary (PDF).

Joaquin Torres: ‘In the Next Room’ at the Berkeley Rep

If you haven’t yet done so, follow Jon Carroll‘s advice and see “In the Next Room” at the Berkeley Rep. It closes March 15th. This delightful new play by Sarah Ruhl, set in the 1880′s, is less a historical reconstruction of that period than a bemused examination, from our 21st century vantage,  of the mores of our predecessors. The denial by the nineteenth century medical establishment that the use of electric vibrators to treat ‘hysteria’ was connected in any way with normal sexuality or, god forbid, might serve as a tool for liberating female sexuality strikes us as extremely odd.  Sarah Ruhl probes this conundrum with gentle humor.

Joaquin Torres becomes a painter

So of what truths is our ‘enlightened age’ in complete denial? I can think of one or two that will undoubtedly provide grist for future generations of playwrights – if we’re still around in a 125 years! .

I had the pleasure of being shadowed for a couple of afternoons by actor Joaquin Torres who was preparing for his role in the play as the English oil painter, Leo Irving, just returned from Florence.  My son remarked wryly when we viewed the play that I was the perfect object of study for this role – being an English oil painter obsessed with Florentine culture!

Madelaine Oldham ( Berkeley Rep’s ‘dramaturg’) put me in touch with Joaquin who expressed a desire to observe me in action. I gave him my street painting schedule. He caught up with me at the Old Oakland Farmers’ Market one Friday as I was working on this painting.

Old Oakland Farmers' Market # 4

Joaquin didn’t betray his presence until he’d  had the opportunity to study me surreptitiously for some time. When he introduced himself I was impressed both by his charm and his penetrating intelligence. It was an odd experience for someone who spends his time observing and delineating others to be the object of such intense scrutiny.

He  joined me for an afternoon on Bernal Hill where he grilled me on technique and art history.

On Bernal Hill # 1

At my suggestion he also attended a painting class. He proved to be a ‘quick study’ mastering basic concepts in a nonce. We were both sorry that his rehearsal and performance schedule didn’t allow him to continue his painting.

I didn’t recognize much of myself in Joaquin’s portrayal of the flamboyant Leo Irving though my son claimed that he’d adopted several of my mannerisms in the painting scene. I was impressed by his complete assumption of the role of painter. I also appreciated the way Sarah Ruhl had made this willfully eccentric artist the catalyst who precipitates a moment of clarity that frees Cathrine Givings to speak and act her truth.

A Conversation with Spain Rodriguez: L. A. Paint at the Oakland Museum of California

When the rains drove me off the streets a couple of weeks ago, I proposed to  Spain Rodriguez, that we paint each other. The resulting works are still incomplete, but I am posting them anyway because one of our concurrent conversations dealt with a show at the Oakland Museum of California that closes March 8th. I’m hoping we will inspire some of you to visit the exhibition ‘L.A.Paint’. It will be worth your time.

Spain Rodriguez by Anthony Holdsworth, Work in Progress, oil/canvas

Spain was in the midst of a project illustrating the life of the American soldier, Smedley Butler. Smedley’s career enforcing America’s global power is a perfect example of why the world needs heroes like Ché Guevera.  There is  poetic symmetry to the fact that Spain’s last published work was Ché: A Graphic Biography which he wrote and illustrated himself.  It is is already being published in seven languages.

Working with Spain for a couple of afternoons was a great experience. We share a passion for history – history in the Italian sense of the word ‘storia’ which in Italian signifies both history and story. Spain inhabits history in an immediate and personal way.  A long time ago, he rode with a motorcycle gang. He chronicles that period  in the same way he chronicles the life of Ché or Smedley Butler. These are all  men of action. Spain may prefer one to another. But he doesn’t let on. He permits them to tell their story. The stark elements of his design: white and black add verve and depth to his riveting compositions.

Portrait of Anthony Holdsworth by Spain Rodriquez, Work in Progress, Pencil and ink on canvas

Somewhere in the middle of the afternoon Spain grabbed his paper and pencil and began sketching me. He’d been waiting for an image to gel in his mind.  I’d been painting him all along. While we worked we talked about Zap Comix and one of Spain’s partners in that enterprise, Robert Williams, who is currently showing paintings with ten other L.A. artists at the Oakland Museum of California.

Phil Linhares, who curated this show, writes that Robert’s work was denigrated as ‘illustration’ by the faculty of the Chouinard Institute. Spain and I both chuckled over the strictures of the contemporary art establishment. I remarked that Giotto was criticized  for his illustration of the biblical stories which brought religion down to earth, drawing on local models rather than stylized Byzantine traditions. The local congregation  flocked to the Arena Chapel in Padua to see themselves depicted as biblical figures on the walls.  Their donations enriched the Vatican’s coffers.  The Vatican, consequently, sided with Giotto against his critics.  In our time, Robert Williams and other gifted artists side stepped the art establishment and made a living producing underground comics. Spain and I agreed that comics are direct descendants of Giotto’s frescos.

Esther Pearl Watson was another favorite of ours. I was impressed by her use of color which creates an atmosphere at once mundane and magical; a perfect foil to the story of her eccentric father obsessed with building backyard spaceships. This story delighted Spain who is also familiar with her comic illustrations.

Spain also praised Steve Galloway’s work.

“It’s a little too polished for me, lacking grit…It isn’t derived from direct experience. It’s  an alternate reality.” I responded

“But I enjoy alternate realities.”

“Well I suppose we’re going to need alternate realities to escape into, soon.” I admitted.

“Yeah, the way our present reality is collapsing.”

I showed him the reproduction of Hyesook Park’s work. He shrugged.

“Look, I studied abstract work at school. I know what it’s about. Maybe they’re right. But I’ve never wanted to do it.’

“I feel much the same. It definitely has an effect. But to take up so much space achieving this effect. I’ve never wanted to work like this either.”

We both agreed that Don Suggs concentric circle paintings are riveting. Even though his process of selecting his colors from western masterpieces struck us both as absurd, neither of us could argue with the results. I noticed when I was visiting the exhibition that middle school children were equally struck by Suggs’ work.

The school kids had a very different response to Loren Holland’s work.

“What’s that lady doing without her clothes?” one of them asked as they all hurried on to Robert William’s work.

Spain liked the juxtaposition of the female figure with all the modern consumer detritus.

We both agreed that this was an excellent and thought provoking exhibition. Try to find the time to see it before it closes.

Global Warming and the United States of Denial

Global Warming Triptych, New Montgomery and Market, San Francisco, each oil painting about 4.5 ft square

My father, Dennis Holdsworth, who was one of the principle developers of airborne radar in England during the war, introduced me to the concept of global warming in the late 50′s. In those days it was called ‘the greenhouse effect’. The long term effects were not as clear then as they are today, but the scientific community was already aware of an impending crisis.

So with more than fifty years notice, why has the world’s preeminent power still not grappled with this issue? Why have we, who have benefited the most from science and technology dragged our feet on  the issue of Global Warming?

Saul Landau tackles the issue in a hard hitting piece in the ‘progresso weekly‘ titled ‘The crisis unseen‘. He asks rhetorically if “…President Obama need(s) a ‘Department of Future Planning and Office of Dealing With the Crisis of Climate Change’ to assemble a team of thinkers to put questions to the public and challenge lawmakers to deal with the overarching crisis that threatens the future of life?” I think the answer to this question is a resounding ‘yes!’

But we need more than a government agency guiding policy at the top. In an age where science and technology are changing the fabric of life on this planet, citizens need to be educated in science and alert to the effects of our technology. Clearly science needs to be placed front and center in our public education and national discourse.

But there is another dimension.  Artists, whose role it is to open peoples eyes, need to address this issue in a way that will awaken people to the emerging reality. My Global Warming Triptych is my first effort in this direction. I’m following it up with Global Warming Triptychs for Oakland and San Jose.