Carnwath at the Oakland Museum of CA

Currently on display at the Oakland Museum of CA is a selection of paintings by Squeak Carnwath, curated by Karen Tsujimoto.

Let’s talk about the show, overall. This retrospective of Squeak Carnwath’s paintings covers the last 20 plus years of her career, grouping a few works from memorable series into individual rooms of the main visual art gallery at the Oakland Museum of California. Titled Painting is No Ordinary Object, the exhibition presents Carnwath’s work as (in Carnwath’s own words) “a philosophical enterprise.” Translated, the viewer is given an opportunity to witness Carnwath working through a combination of personal anecdotes, literary interests and thoughts on culture via grids, through surface/flat compositions of symbols and motifs, or via a possessed intensity of non-objective mark-making. Squeak Carnwath’s paintings, all large format and oil on canvas, are conceptual paintings in a raw voice. Borderline confessional and sometimes filled to the brim with wild associations, each canvas shows a skilled artist who can tempt us with the cult of the personal yet remain non-committal; depict known objects and substantial text, yet remain open to interpretation. The show, overall, successfully illustrates the artist’s diverse interests and investigations over the years, as evident within the paintings themselves, as each grouping of work easily transitions into the next, as the viewer traverses the exhibition hall.

Let’s next talk about the exhibition-related consumer products, because I have to get it out of the way. Now, I’m not entirely opposed to artists finding alternative methods to make a buck off their art, because reality dictates that to fund the art making process, we need the funds first. So, if an artist in today’s market can create a beautiful circle of creation, marketing, product and support, then by all means, please do. However, I say “by all means” with the caveat that there is a line. And in my humble opinion, I think that line was crossed in regard to the offerings at the Oakland Museum shop just outside Carnwath’s show. In the mini-store, there are a number of Squeak Carnwath’s signature style marks applied to obvious attempts at shameless self-promotion and marketing: Carnwath decorated sketchbooks(!), Carnwath decorated bags, clocks (really?), etc.

Carnwath stakes a personal claim in the art world with her paintings, with her concepts, with her extroverted public psycho-analysis…but to reduce these attributes to boutique items seems a bit overblown. As this retrospective is an attempt to solidify Carnwath’s place in the history of art of the Bay Area (and beyond), to use her craft as an improvement on consumable goods lacks a certain class, something I would otherwise not expect from the Oakland Museum.

Let’s now talk about Carnwath the painter. I didn’t view this show alone: I was accompanied by a woman who is a painter/printmaker and graphic designer, with knowledge of the Bay Area scene since the mid-eighties, when she received her MFA. She has been viewing and appreciating Carnwath’s work since that time. That said, very soon after entering the exhibition, both she and I turned to each other and asked the same question: “What is the reason to be looking at the work of Squeak Carnwath, here and now?” This question stirred a debate that lasted 2 hours in the gallery, and by some means we managed to come to a conclusion, although this question continued to drum up reaction between us for 2 weeks to follow:

It is obvious that Carnwath is being considered by the Art Establishment for inclusion in the lineage of movement-defining woman painters of the Bay Area, namely Jay De Feo, Joan Brown, etc. Carnwath’s influence on the Bay Area scene is palpable, and not only because she has been an art professor for decades: any artist who manages a constant career of exhibitions and binds themselves to a region, by default, gains stature. But how do the paintings sit apart from the artist herself? The answer is: they don’t, and this is the conclusion to big question which my viewing partner and I came: Carnwath’s contemporary position—in her paintings—provides the viewer with a vicarious moment in the life of the tortured artist, the crazy thinker, the sensitive who can bare their sole while simultaneously questioning the fundamentals of reality that most take for granted, or just wholly accept in their day-to-day life.

Carnwath’s paintings are cathartic, a physical manifestation of what could be considered confession. This is not negative, per se. An artist’s artwork is more often than not an introspective product. However, Carnwath’s internal-turned-public dialogue is the make-it or break-it aspect of appreciating her work: you must go along for the single-voice ride, Carnwath’s voice, and let that lead you to any destination of her choosing…and you can’t disagree. This is both her strength and weakness in the paintings. To disagree would be to ask: why these words, why this repetition, why this iconographic image, why this disparate assemblage of pieces and why this conclusion? Granted, a viewer might ask that of any artwork, but Carnwath’s work is a full-frontal assault of these issues, without illusion, without much allegory, and without, in her own words, a precise knowledge of the end result for each work, which is why she must paint in her signature style of working and reworking a canvas until the painting completes itself. Carnwath’s paintings—at least evident in this exhibition—are the utmost, upscale manifestation of what I can imagine exists in the artist’s sketchbook…or maybe there is no need for her to keep one.

Carnwath’s paintings therefore seem to be most powerful to the non-artist. A non-artist can “live” the paintings for the moment, as they stand in the gallery. They can be the soul-bearing Carnwath-for-a-day, and I say again, live vicariously as the artist in both the extreme and quiet moments evident in the paintings themselves. But, at the end of the day, they can put down the brush, forget the paradoxes of life, and return to a “normal” life (read: a non-artists life). In contrast, if you the viewer are an artist, then you know that your own artwork is your own confession, your own publicly presented window into your secret thoughts, and you control how open and closed you wish to be…and if you are practicing and busy with this journey, Carnwath’s paintings help to confirm your own practice, but can never provide objective answers, nor satisfy the voice that drives you. Therefore, as all artists are more or less communicators, it is in the end a matter of which voice you want to listen to: hers or your own.

April 25 – August 23, 2009
Squeak Carnwath: Painting Is No Ordinary Object
Great Hall High Bay

Oakland Museum of California
1000 Oak Street
Oakland, California