Back to Basics at Cal State LA

To see the world anew and unconstrained by history is the theme of Back to Basics, featuring a diverse international roster of contemporary artists from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in Los Angeles. Many powerful images are born of basics: Josef Albers’ square, Anish Kapoor’s concave circles, Sol Lewitt’s precise stripes of color, Frank Stella’s iconic protractor series, Ellsworth Kelly’s saturated panels, and Donald Judd’s boxes of color and space. Other artists in the exhibition, such as Eric Freeman, Joe Lloyd, and Gary Stephan, use imprecise freehand strokes to create simple yet provocative explorations of form, color, and light. The exhibition at the Ronald H. Silverman Fine Arts Gallery runs May 28 – July 27, 2024 with an opening reception on Sunday, June 2, 2024 from 2 – 5 pm.

Back to Basics deals with the geometry of mind in the entropy of nature—such constructions as circles, spheres, squares, and lines—shown generally in primary or monochromatic color, evoke a sense of being both within and transcendent of nature. Elemental shapes convey the immensity of man’s feelings and his limits in a vast and incomprehensible universe. Back to Basics is the simple evolution of universal artistic sensibility through the essential exploration of color, medium, and space.

This exhibition features works by phenomenal artists such as Jason Adkins, Josef Albers, Saradell Ard, Tim Bavington, Charles Biederman, Isaac Brest, Casper Brindle, Tom Burr, S. Byrne, Ronald Davis, Tim Ebner, Ned Evans, Paul Gadegaard, Betty Gold, Daniel Jackson, Donald Judd, Anish Kapoor, Ellsworth Kelly, Melissa Kretschmer, Sol Lewitt, Valdmir Llaguno, Joe Lloyd, Pard Morrison, Andy Moses, Kenneth Noland, John Pearson, Brian Porray, Kevin Reinhardt, Michael Rey, Dorothea Rockburne, David Ryan, Robert Schaberl, Arthur Silverman, Frank Stella, Gary Stephan, Jeremy Thomas, and Victor Vasarely. The show is curated by Billie Milam Weisman.