THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 9, 1996 TAG: 9605090034
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 120 lines
LEADING GRAHAM NASH and David Crosby through a rock 'n' roll exhibit could have been seen as a kind of acid test.
The curator of the show, David Rubin, did just that when his touring exhibit of recent art with rock themes premiered in Cincinnati last November.
As it turned out, the '60s-era rock stars were fascinated by the same pieces as the average American gallerygoer. Who could pass up that wacky Beatles pillow or turn away from the gruesome painting of Kurt Cobain with his face blown off?
The Sandow Birk painting of Nirvana singer Cobain, who shot himself in 1994, ``really affected David Crosby,'' Rubin recalled. ``It made him realize how many rock stars have been lost to tragedy. He commented on how moving the piece was.''
Nash really liked the pillow crocheted from audiotape of Beatles music. The 1989 work is titled ``The Beatles,'' and was made by the conceptual/performance artist Christian Marclay.
So far, Crosby and Nash are the only rockers who have toured ``It's Only Rock and Roll: Rock and Roll Currents in Contemporary
Art,'' which opens Saturday at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts. A preview rock 'n' roll dance party will be held Friday night.
``It's Only Rock and Roll'' may sound like a frivolous outing. Like, where are the Peter Max day-glo posters, and those psychedelic, truckin' Grateful Dead scenes?
In fact, ``It's Only Rock and Roll'' is among the most significant shows the center has ever mounted. ``This is the first exhibition to really take a look at this theme in a comprehensive way, going back four, five decades,'' Rubin said.
The show includes 150 works by nationally known and cutting-edge artists such as Terry Allen, Laurie Anderson, Jean-Michel Basquiat, John Chamberlain, Red Grooms, Mike Kelley, Annie Liebovitz, Robert Longo, Dennis Oppenheim, Nam June Paik, Robert Rauschenberg, Edward Ruscha, Andy Warhol and William Wegman.
These are serious heavyweights in the art world. There are even three portraits by the late, infamous photographer Robert Mapple-thorpe. But, these are straightforward pictures of rock stars, with a zero lewdness factor.
In selecting works for the show, Rubin opted for those with ``substance and meaning. If it's vacuous and meaningless, I'm not interested.''
Rubin was eager to explain the meaning and substance behind his choices.
The three 1964 John Chamberlain paintings used automobile lacquer on Formica to create abstract grids of squares; each work is named after a music group, from the Beach Boys to The Shangri-Las. What's the point?
``The titling is arbitrary, which was common in that period,'' Rubin began. ``In this series, Chamberlain used his titles to recognize the music that influenced him.''
How about that 1989 Beatles pillow?
``One of the more prevalent trends in art today is for an artist to build or find metaphors in their choice of materials. It's conceptually very clever to have crocheted a pillow from the actual music of The Beatles. The message is, this is very comfortable music, mellow music.''
The 1994 painting of a dead Kurt Cobain was based on an 1856 painting depicting the death of a poet named Chatterton who committed suicide at age 17, Rubin said. The artist added a halo over Cobain's head, signifying his martyr status among his fans.
It's a horrid sight, Cobain's face blown off and scattered. ``It comes right out of the news, if you think about it. What do we see on the news every day?''
Rubin began organizing the show in the early 1990s, when he was chief curator at the Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art. He knew that Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum was in the works, and he wanted to prepare a related exhibit.
When he moved to the Phoenix Art Museum in Arizona a few years ago, he took his ``Rock and Roll'' project with him.``I have an ongoing interest, as my exhibitions reveal, in the relationship between cultural icons and symbols and contemporary art,'' he said.
Another such exhibit organized by Rubin is ``Old Glory: The American Flag in Contemporary Art,'' which has drawn protest and national media attention since it opened in March at the Phoenix museum. In one work, an American flag unfurls from a toilet.
``People are talking about art and the First Amendment, which is part of what the exhibit is about,'' Rubin told an Arizona reporter last month.
``It's Only Rock and Roll'' is Rubin's love child. Rubin, 46, is a baby boomer who grew up in Southern California. ``I received my first transistor radio at age 9. I used to fall asleep with it under my pillow.''
The first two songs he remembers hearing on that radio were ``Witch Doctor'' and ``Purple People-Eater.'' In high school, he danced to The Rolling Stones.
Art about rock 'n' roll first surfaced in 1956, ``the year that Elvis broke through with his stardom,'' he said.
In London, a 1956 show called ``This is Tomorrow'' included an installation by artist Richard Hamilton with a jukebox playing Top 20 hits. That same year, Andy Warhol showed a painting called ``Rock and Roll''; it consisted of a woman leaning back in a chair, smiling while listening to the radio.
From 1956 up to 1985, art with rock themes was sporadic and marginal. Warhol made photosilkscreen portraits of Mick Jagger and Aretha Franklin. Beat artist Wallace Berman made copier collages that sought meaning in the new media and music frenzy.
The New York club scene of the late '70s and early '80s fostered many artists with a passion for music, including Robert Longo. Among those who emerged from this scene and entered the mainstream were Laurie Anderson and David Byrne.
By the mid-'80s, however, ``there was just an explosion in terms of the numbers of artists influenced by rock and roll culture, one way or another,'' Rubin said. ``Today, it's extremely common. To baby boomers and Generation X and younger, rock and roll and its influences are so much a part of their lifestyle.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color art
Christian Maclay's "Recycled Records" are vibrant collages made from
records of varing colors and patterns.
Color photo
["Willie," a 1984 ceramic by the late Robert Arneson...]<
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