7321 Beverly Boulevard • Los
Angeles California 90036 • (323) 933-5523 Fax: (323) 933-7618
web site:
www.tobeycmossgallery.com
•email: tobeymoss@earthlink.net
GORDON WAGNER
(1915-1987)
The Passion of
Assemblage
November 17th through December 30th, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday,
November 17th - 12 to 5 pm
Californian GORDON WAGNER was a leader in the
progression of American assemblage and collage in the 20th century.
Wagner earned a degree in engineering and art from UCLA, attended the
Chouinard Art Institute, and worked in the aerospace industry for over
twenty years. He began exploring art through easel painting and
drawing while his engineering job paid the bills. In the late
1940s/early 1950s, he traveled through Mexico and the Southwest,
continuing the influences of his childhood experiences as a beachcomber.
The assemblages he began in the 1950s reflected his sensitivity to his
travels, interests, and personality. Piece of Pieces from the Sea
testifies that, from age 12, he was an inveterate collector of washed
up debris near Redondo and Venice Beaches. The Mexican Night Clerk (1960-65)
reveals Wagner’s responses to his travels, while the Shrine Box (1961/64) confirms his
fascination with the mystical. Wagner perspective evokes a sense
of nostalgia unique to his work, Our
Lady of Guadalupe (1985) shows reverence to Native American
cultures. He juxtaposed elements of childhood with mystical
rituals and indigenous cultures that he combined with wit, social
commentary and satirical storytelling.
Wagner exhibited widely in a number of important shows in the United
States and Europe. He showed at the Los Angeles County Museum of
Art, as well as surrounding Los Angeles art galleries, including the
Ferus Gallery. His work was included in the seminal exhibition
Forty Years of California Assemblage at UCLA’s Wight Gallery in 1989,
which brought together the most important California assemblagists, and
reinforced Wagner’s influence on the Assemblage movement. He also
exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC and the Pratt
Institute Gallery in New York City, as well as galleries in England,
Belgium, The Netherlands, and Sweden. Towards the end of his career,
Wagner worked and exhibited at the Angel’s Gate Cultural Center in San
Pedro, California. Currently, Wagner’s Between Heaven and Hell is
displayed int LACMA’s “So Cal” show through March 2008.
Gordon Wagner’s assemblages combine elements of surrealism and abstract
expressionism, and he is undeniably present in every piece he created.
Click on
individual images for
more information.
For more images and biographical
data, email
us at tobeymoss@earthlink.net
Also showing:
...And
Friends (a complement to
Gordon Wagner)
