LORSER FEITELSON (1898-1978)

AN ANALYSIS OF THE ARTIST'S WORK

"A culture cannot exist without deep adhesion to a formal order, and the avant garde, the more it adventures the more it must create its own order. The great artist doesn't destroy order he makes it over." - Lorser Feitelson (Lorser Feitelson Drawings On Classic Themes and Others)

Feitelson established himself as a truly independent artist from an early age. While studying art during his childhood, Feitelson gained a lifelong appreciation for the Renaissance Masters. He studied their draftsmanship techniques, composition, and made thousands of figural studies, which would become the foundation of his life's work. In 1913, Feitelson viewed The Armory Show and quickly became fascinated by the use of kinetic motion within the works displayed. The complex relationship between the Old Masters and the progression of Modern art that he was exposed to in his youth would play out within Feitelson's career.

When he relocated to Southern California in 1927, Feitelson described the region by stating that "no one ever heard of Modern Art. If you even talked about Van Gogh you were a radical of the worst kind, a dangerous guy. So I felt very much alone" (Artforum 21). Feitelson;s artistic sensibilities thrived on the absence of a structured art environment. His work began to push the boundaries of how internal states could be communicated.

In 1934, Feitelson and Lundeburg coined the term "Subjective Classicism" also known as the Post-Surrealist movement. Their manifesto was made in direct contrast with the dreamscapes of European Surrealists. Feitelson used a classical figural and structural context to express a universal theme to his audience, such as life and death. He desired to send a conscious message that would be accessible to the viewer, which differentiated Feitelson from his European counterparts because Post-Surrealism supported the conscious use of materials rather than the unconscious. Rationality, particularly the fascination with biology, psychology, and their connection to philosophy became the springboard for the Post-Surrealist movement.

Feitelson categorized Post-Surrealism by its "theatrical intensity, the insistence on strange encounters between objects, the clarity with which chosen fragments of reality are represented, and the depiction of deep space" (Anderson 183). Thus, unlike Surrealism, Feitelson's work presented images that did not distort reality, but instead created a mystical quality through the juxtaposition of objects in visually possible space.

In the 1940s, Feitelson's art would undergo a notable change. He realized that "certain kinds of events unexpectedly take one beyond the usual way of experiencing things" and began to depict abstract forms that were no longer rooted in concrete objects (Anderson 202). Feitelson called these works "Magical Space Forms" and their ominous forms most likely reflected the psychological duress surrounding the World War II era.

His work would continue to express his interest in structural dynamic by experimenting with the relationship between color and form, creating motion between positive and negative spaces. Symbolic imagery was abandoned, but the relationship to figural form remained within the curvilinear forms throughout his work. This pronounced change would grow into Feitelson's "hard-edge" abstraction, coined by art critic Jules Langsner, which further emphasized geometry.

The last shift in Feitelson's style would move him into minimalist compositions. Solid backgrounds of a single color would typically have single, solitary lines sliding through the color plane. Art Historian Diane Degasis Moran insists that"nowhere else in the history of painting has a single line been invested with such vitality" (Moran 8). Feitelson was able to create this flowing, rhythmical movement by curving these lines through flat fields of color.

Feitelson described his later work, stating:"Space, with its expressive possibilities of monumental magnificence and mystery, and linear rhythm, with its limitless potentialities for harmonic and emotional experience, are the two principal elements in my hard-edge paintings" (Art Inc.). Thus, throughout Feitelson's career, there is a clear progression, not only toward increasing abstraction, but also in the ability of abstracted forms to communicate an inner state of being or emotional form lying on the outskirts of visual reality.

AWARDS & AFFILIATIONS

Los Angeles Art Association
Salons of America
Society of Independent Artists
Woodstock Art Association
Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project

COLLECTIONS

Public Collections:
Atlantic Richfield Company, Los Angeles, CA
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY
Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Honolulu Academy of Arts, HI
Industrial Electronic Engineers, Los Angeles, CA
James B. Lansing Sound Inc., Los Angeles, CA
Joseph H. Hirshhorn Collection, Washington D.C.
Library of Congress, Washington D.C.
Long Beach Museum of Art, CA
Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg Feitelson Arts Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA
Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, TX
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis, MO
Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
National Bank of Omaha, NE
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, UT
Oakland Museum, CA
Palm Springs Desert Museum, CA
Phoenix Art Museum, AZ
Richard and Roselyne Swig Collection, San Francisco, CA
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, NE
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.
University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ
University of Virginia Art Museum, VA
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Xerox Corporation, New York, NY
Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ

Private Collections:

Herta and Paul Amir, Beverly Hills, CA
Francie F. Brody, Los Angeles, CA
The Buck Collection, Laguna Hills, CA
Mr. And Mrs. Harry Carmean, Santa Barbara, CA
Dr. and Mrs. J. Thomas Chess, South Pasadena, CA
Gloria Ellwood, Los Angeles, CA
Betty Freeman, Beverly Hills, CA
Murray Gribim, Beverly Hills, CA
Mr. And Mrs. Victor Haboush, Brentwood, CA
June Harwood, Studio City, CA
Allan Marion, Beverly Hills, CA
Mr. And Mrs. Alan C. Moss, Los Angeles, CA
Mr. And Mrs. James Ries, Beverly Hills, CA
Mark Seldis, Los Angeles, CA
Mr. And Mrs. Russell Dymock Smith, Palos Verdes Estate, CA
Gary Snyder, New York, NY
Roselyne Swig, San Francisco, CA

CHRONOLOGY

1898 Born February 11 in Savannah, Georgia
1910 Begins painting in oils
1919 Takes first trip to Paris, studying at the Academie Colorossi
1920 Contributes to a wall hanging created by some of the Eight at the request of John Sloan.
1925 First one-person exhibition at the Daniel Gallery
1927 Moves to Los Angeles
1928 First one-person museum exhibition at the California Palace of the Legion of Honor
1929 Becomes instructor of modern painting at the Chouinard Art Institute
1930 The Los Angeles Times publishes Feitelson's article "Eclecticism - What Is It?" on January 26th.
1932 Teaches a painting and composition class with The Art Students League
1933 Opens the Centaur Gallery in Los Angeles, CA
1936 Begins painting the Los Angeles County Hall of Records mural
1937 Appointed Supervisor of Murals, Paintings and Sculpture for the New Deal's Federal Art Project until 1943
1944 Begins teaching at The Art Center School of Design
1947 Becomes director of the Gallery of Mid-20th Century Art in Los Angeles
1956 Begins television series "Feitelson on Art" or NBC
1963 Begins first paintings of pure lines
1969 Awarded honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts from the Art Center College of Design
1973 Honored by the Otis Art Institute, Los Angeles as a Distinguished American Artist
1978 Dies of heart failure on May 24

BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Anderson, Susan M. “Journey Into the Sun: California Artists and Surrealism.” On the Edge of America: California Modernist Art, 1900-1950. Berkeley: University of California Press: 1996.
2. Art Inc.: American Paintings From Corporate Collections. Montgomery, Alabama. Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts: 1979.
3. â€œFeitelson, Gerchik, Schifrin.” Artforum. Vol 1, No 2. July 1962. pg 21.
4. Longstreet, Stephen. Lorser Feitelson Drawings – On Classic Themes and Others. Los Angeles Art Association: 1979.
5. Moran, Diane Degasis. “Lorser Feitelson.” Lorser Feitelson and Helen Lundeberg: A Retrospective Exhibition. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art: 1980.
6. Smith, Richard. “Modern Art and Oral History in the United States: A Revolution Remembered.” Journal of American History. Vol 78, No 2, pg 601-602.