The Art Institute of Chicago

The Annunciation, 1957-59 by Jay DeFeoAuthor(s): Stephanie SkestosSource: Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Vol. 25, No. 1, Modern and ContemporaryArt: The Lannan Collection at The Art Institute of Chicago (1999), pp. 18-19+99Published by: The Art Institute of ChicagoStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4112978 .

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Jay DeFeo (AMERICAN; 1929-1989)

The Annunciation, 1957-59 Oil on canvas; 306.7 x 189.2 cm (1203/4 x 741/2 in.) [see p. 89]

Y

he eccentric, visionary artist Jay DeFeo cease-

lessly challenged the artistic standards and trends of her time. Although she received little national

attention during her career, she had a momentous influence on San Francisco Bay Area artists, such as Bruce Connor, Craig Kauffman, and Ed Moses, and on the California Beat and Funk art movements of the 195os and I96os.

In 1951, after earning a degree in painting from the

University of California, Berkeley, DeFeo won a presti- gious fellowship to study in Spain, France, Italy, and North Africa. While abroad, she became intrigued by prehis- toric and Renaissance art; and the painter Sam Francis (see p. 16), with whom she had studied in California and then visited in Paris, exposed her to Abstract Expressionism. Upon her return to the United States in I953, DeFeo stopped in New York to view the work of Philip Guston and other New York School artists. She then went back to California, where she executed her first monumental, Abstract Expres- sionist compositions. She immersed herself in the Beat movement that was evolving in San Francisco, and associ- ated with artists, poets, and jazz musicians who strove to unite the intuitive and intellectual components of creative

activity.' In 1959 DeFeo was included-along with Johns, Kelly, Nevelson, Rauschenberg, and Stella-in the impor- tant "Sixteen Americans" exhibition, held at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. She continued to show her paintings in several West Coast galleries until 1963, when she with- drew completely from the commercial art scene to concen- trate on the completion of a legendary, colossal painting, entitled The Rose (1958-66; San Francisco Art Institute).

In The Annunciation-a large-scale composition depicting a winged torso suggestive of an angel-white, feathery brush strokes, overlaid with brown, blue, and sil-

very tones, ascend into a dark background. DeFeo used a

palette knife to apply thick paint across the canvas, creat-

ing a dense surface texture. While her working method was

expressive and spontaneous, it was also highly controlled and restrained: she spent months, and even years, reworking and building up the surfaces of her compositions. Like many of her paintings, The Annunciation is explosive and vol- canic, while retaining an aura of vulnerability and fragility.

In 1959 the artist described The Annunciation in a let- ter to J. Patrick Lannan, Sr., in a way that underscores the universal yet intensely personal spiritual themes invoked in her paintings of the mid-to-late i95os:

I painted this kind of winged vision which announces in my eyes or promises some realization of all that is good in this existence, and more specifically it is a promise to me of the reali- zation of certain powers creatively-and when I say that, I make some association between the words creative and spiritual or divine. Or at least I feel this way when I am doing my best.... I don't choose such titles with any narrow Christian interpreta- tion in mind. It doesn't have to do with any specific religion at all. It is only a symbol. I have to make my own philosophy or

religion in my life and I'm too young to understand it as yet.2

S. S.

18 Museum Studies

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Museum Studies 19

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Explosion at Sea, 1966, pp. 30-31

I. Philadelphia, p. 15.

2. According to David McKee (McKee to Lisa Lyons of Lannan Founda- tion, Los Angeles, 1992), Explosion at Sea is based on a photograph of an unsuccessful Kamikaze pilot attack on a United States aircraft carrier, the Suwannee, which took place in October 1944 in the Pacific theater of World War II.

3. On the relationship of the series to Celmins's childhood, see Los Angeles; and Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art, Vija Celmins, exh. brochure (i993).

4. Celmins, quoted in Philadelphia, p. 15.

CLOSE, CHUCK

Close, Chuck. The Portraits Speak: Chuck Close in Conversation with 27 of His Subjects. New York, I997.

Guare, John. Chuck Close: Life and Work, 1988-1995. New York, 1995. Lyons, Lisa, and Robert Storr. Chuck Close. New York, 1987. Minneapolis, Walker Art Center. Close Portraits. Exh. cat. by Lisa Lyons

and Martin Friedman. 1980. New York, The Museum of Modern Art, et al. Chuck Close. Exh. cat. by

Robert Storr et al. 1998.

Alex, 1991, pp. 74-75

I. The Lannan Collection contains several objects related to the I991 Alex painting, including a Polaroid of Alex Katz (Checklist no. ii) and a Polaroid used as a maquette (Checklist no. 12).

2. Close, pp. 316-17.

3. Both paintings actually contain a range of blues and browns despite their grisaille effect.

4. Close, p. 319-

5. Ibid.

Alex/Reduction Prints, 1991-93, pp. 76-77

I. Linoleum was originally composed of linseed oil, cork, and binding agents. It is much easier to cut into than modern synthetic linoleums, which are all plastic-based. Battleship linoleum, which dates back to the turn of the twentieth century, came in huge sheets used for the decks of ships. Linoleum manufactured with the original formula is hard to find nowadays, but especially so in battleship-sized sheets.

2. Deborah Wye, "Changing Expressions: Printmaking," in New York, p. 8o.

DEFEO, JAY

Berkeley, University of California, University Art Museum. Jay DeFeo: Works on Paper. Exh. cat. by Sidra Stich. 1989.

New York, Whitney Museum of American Art. Beat Culture and the New America: 195o0-965. Exh. cat. 1995.

Philadelphia, Moore College of Art and Design, Goldie Paley Gallery. Jay DeFeo: Selected Works 1952-1989. Exh. cat. 1996.

San Francisco, Museo ItaloAmericano.Jay DeFeo: The Florence View and Related Works 1950-1954. Exh. cat. with essays by Klaus Kertess, Constance Lewallen, and Robert A. Whyte. 1997-

San Francisco, San Francisco Art Institute. Jay DeFeo: Selected Works, Past and Present. Exh. cat. by Thomas Albright and David S. Rubin. 1984.

The Annunciation, 1957-59, pp. 18-19

i. Philadelphia, p. ii.

2. DeFeo to J. Patrick Lannan, Sr., 1959; published in ibid., pp. 12-13-

FRANCIS, SAM

Paris, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume. Sam Francis, les annies parisi- ennes, 195o0-961. Exh. cat. 1995.

Selz, Peter. Sam Francis. Rev. ed. New York, 1982.

In Lovely Blueness, 1955-56, pp. 16-17

i. Francis, quoted in Selz, p. 20.

2. Friedrich H6lderlin, Hymns and Fragments, trans. by Richard Sieburth (Princeton, N.J., 1984), p. 249.

FRIEDMAN, TOM

Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago. Affinities: Chuck Close and Tom Friedman. Exh. brochure by Madeleine Grynsztejn. 1996.

New York, The Museum of Modern Art. Projects 5o: Tom Friedman. Exh. cat. and interview by Robert Storr. 1995.

St. Louis, The Saint Louis Art Museum. Currents 70: Tom Friedman. Exh. cat. by Rochelle Steiner. 1997.

Untitled, 1993, pp. 80-81

I. Friedman started with a small, glue-infused core of stiffened string, so that the work would withstand the rigors of being moved.

2. According to Friedman, the connection to "Cousin It" pleases him not only for the linguistic suggestion of vagueness carried by the name and subject, but also for the somewhat corny humor and pop familiarity of the television show. Friedman, conversation with author, Mar. 8, 1999.

3. Ibid.

GONZALEZ-TORRES, FELIX

Gonzalez-Torres, Felix. Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Interview by Tim Rollins; essay by Susan Cahan; short story by Jan Avgikos. New York, i993.

Graz, Switzerland, Neue Galerie Graz. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Rudolf Stingel. Exh. cat. by Jan Avgikos. 1994.

Hannover, Sprengel Museum, et al. Felix Gonzalez-Torres. 2 vols. Exh. cat. and cat. rais. by Dietmar Elger. Ostfildern-Ruit/New York, 1997.

Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art. Felix Gonzalez-Torres. Exh. cat. 1994.

Munich, Sammlung Goetz. Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Roni Horn. Exh. cat. 1995. New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

Exh. cat. by Nancy Spector. 1995.

Museum Studies 99

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