Perpetual Conceptual: Echoes of Eugenia Butler

For Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945 – 1980, LAND and Corazon del Sol presented Perpetual Conceptual: Echoes of Eugenia Butler, a multi-part exhibition, in collaboration with the City of West Hollywood, focused around Eugenia Butler, Sr. and the conceptual projects that took place at Eugenia Butler Gallery (1968 – 1971).

At the center of Perpetual Conceptual was an ongoing group exhibition that featured artwork and significant ephemera from the gallery’s exhibitions and Butler, Sr.’s personal collection. Serving to capture and convey the sensibility of the moment, the dynamic of the community, and the intertwining dialogues, support, and creativity that stemmed from Butler, Sr. and her gallery, this central exhibition was supplemented by a rotating concentration space highlighting specific artists (the work of Eugenia P. Butler is the first on view). Artists included Michael Asher, George Brecht, Eugenia P. Butler, James Lee Byars, Paul Cotton, Marvin Harden, Douglas Huebler, Dorothy Iannone, Richard Jackson, Donald Karwelis, Ed Kienholz, Joseph Kosuth, Charlie Nothing, Eric Orr, Dieter Roth, Allen Ruppersberg, and William T. Wiley, among many others.

While these presentations explored Butler, Sr.’s history, a series of programs examined her continued influence on contemporary art dialogue. Presented at the exhibition’s performance space and venues throughout Los Angeles, these programs included the presentation of new contemporary artworks inspired by Eugenia Butler Gallery and the dynamic recreation of performances presented there. The first program, the recreation of Eric Orr, Wall Shadow, 1970 (presented as part of the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival organized by LA><ART).

Largely untold, and lost from history when compared to the thorough records held on Butler, Sr.’s contemporaries, Perpetual Conceptual introduces a community to the breadth of her gallery’s vision, the influential exhibitions and performances presented there, and Butler, Sr.’s critical role in shaping the Los Angeles art community.

The Invisibility of Form: Early Works By Eugenia Perpetua Butler

West Hollywood, CA January 25 – February 25, 2012

Eugenia Perpetua Butler (1947-2008), daughter of gallerist Eugenia Butler, Sr. (1922-2001) and lawyer James G. Butler (1920-2005), was a Los Angeles-based conceptual artist and the eldest of eight children. From an early age, artists, writers, and creative-minded individuals surrounded Butler, as they regularly frequented her family’s home in Hancock Park for dinner, lodging, and parties. Her experiences in this environment and their exchange of ideas influenced her profoundly. Recounting one experience, Butler said:

“I am twelve. I walk into the kitchen. James Lee Byars has just arrived from Japan. He is eating lunch at the table with my mother and two other artists. They are talking a mile-a-minute and filling the space with their ideas. I listen quietly and I know I want to be part of this.”

The exploration of ideas became near obsession for Butler, and, at the age of 16, she began to exhibit her artwork. Early works, such as Negative Space Hole (1967), aimed to give shape to the immateriality of abstract concepts and what Butler coined as “pre-thought”. In text works, such as The Continuum Through Which a Thought Proceeds (1967) and Vertical Static Electricity Field (1967-1968), she bridges the divide between thought and form, the physical and immaterial, and the known and unknown. In her quest to understand the dematerialization of art, Butler once boldly asked for permission from Jim Melchert, her art professor at UC Berkeley, to take a semester off from school and receive all “A”‘s so that she could study invisibility, to which he agreed.

Despite her exclusion from much contemporary and conceptual art historical discourse, Butler was part of landmark exhibitions including Prospect 69, Dusseldorf; Konzeption/Conception, Leverkusen; and Documenta 72, Kassel. Additionally, Butler was the first, and one of the only, female artists to exhibit at her mother’s gallery (Eugenia Butler Gallery), and her work was included in significant domestic exhibitions including Conception/Perception and 18’6″ x 6’9″ x 11’2-1/2″ x 47″ x 11-3/16″ x 19’8-1/2″ x 31’9-3/16” at the San Francisco Art Institute.

Adam II, the Late Paul Cotton

Astral-Naught Rabb-Eye in the Reel World in Real Time

The Standard Hotel (West Hollywood, CA) Saturday, February 25, 2012

Performance: Noon – 6PM Reception: 6 – 8PM

Performance Video

Acting as a guest of The Standard Hotel, Hollywood, Adam II, the Late Paul Cotton embodied the persona of the “Astral-Naught Rabb-Eye” while interacting with the guests and staff of the hotel throughout his stay.

Adam II, the Late Paul Cotton (born 1938, Fitchburg, MA) is an Oakland-based performance and multi-media artist who uses the body (as both a sculptural and performative medium) to explore the constructs of religion, mythology, and linguistics. His work is highly influenced by the writings of philosopher Norman O. Brown.

Adam II studied Art History at the University of Rochester and sculpture at UC Berkeley where he met Eugenia P. Butler, daughter of gallerist Eugenia Butler, Sr. After a trip to Los Angeles to meet Butler’s family, Butler, Sr. invited Adam II to participate in Conception/Perception (1969): a group exhibition at Eugenia Butler Gallery featuring the work of John Baldessari, Douglas Huebler, Joseph Kosuth, and others. Thereafter, Adam II was included in two additional exhibitions at the gallery: 18th and 19th Century Tantric Works (1969) and Wester Sun-Day (1971).

After the gallery closed in 1971, Butler, Sr. and Adam II moved to Berkeley where Adam II continued to perform and practice art with Butler, Sr.’s partnership and participation.

Special thanks to The Standard Hotel, Hollywood.

Eric Orr

Wall Shadow

West Hollywood, CA

12 – 9PM

Recreation of Eric Orr’s Wall Shadow (1968): Noon – 6PM

Screening of Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Work of Eric Orr 6 – 9 PM

Coinciding with the opening of Perpetual Conceptual: Echoes of Eugenia Butler and organized as part of the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival, LAND and Corazon del Sol presented a recreation of Eric Orr’s Wall Shadow, 1968.

Originally staged in front of Eugenia Butler Gallery, the performance consisted of four parts: first, Orr constructed a wall of cinderblocks; second, he outlined the wall’s shadow with white tape; third, he painted the shadow in grey paint; and finally, he removed the wall, leaving the shadow as the vestige of light it once blocked. Following this recreation is a screening of Crazy Wisdom: The Life and Work of Eric Orr.

Special thanks to The Eric Orr Estate.

Dorothy Iannone

West Hollywood, CA

March 1 – March 24, 2012

Dorothy Iannone (born 1933, Boston, MA) is a Berlin-based multimedia artist whose boldly sexual works reveal her intimate fantasies of female dominance and erotic freedom. The sexual unions and acts depicted in Iannone’s works portray a spiritual connection between partners in which vibrant colors and bold patterns encapsulate the freedom of her body and psyche.

Iannone graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Boston University in 1957 with a degree in English Literature. She attended graduate school at Brandeis University, and began painting in 1958 after she married painter James Upham.

In 1967, Iannone met Icelandic multimedia artist, Dieter Roth, who became her longtime partner, muse, model, and subject in many of her paintings. While Iannone did not exhibit at Eugenia Butler Gallery, the gallerist actively collected her work.

Due to the explicit content of her work, Iannone’s art was often subject to censorship. Archives from the gallery reveal a letter from Butler’s husband, James G. Butler, a lawyer, giving advice to Iannone regarding her concerns that her work being sent from Düsseldorf would be confiscated at U.S. Customs. Butler writes, “In all probability we can clear customs. If I am wrong, you suffer the possible destruction of the paintings or that they will be sent to the Kinsey Institute [for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction] in Indiana as additional examples of pornography.”

James Lee Byars

West Hollywood, CA March 1 – April 21, 2012

James Lee Byars (born 1932, Detroit, Michigan, died 1997, Cairo, Egypt) was a habitually nomadic multimedia artist, at times residing in Berlin, Egypt, Japan, Nova Scotia, the Swiss Alps, Venice, Los Angeles, and New York. Byars’ ephemeral performances, installations, and text-based works on cloth and paper grapple with concepts such as temporality, transience, and the effect of time and scale on the audience or viewer. Byars often used delicate and decadent materials, such as gold leaf and silk, in his work and everyday life. For Byars, life was to be viewed and treated as art – his daily garb, for example, consisted of lavish silk suits and robes constructed of materials similar to those employed in his objects and installations. He attended Wayne State University and Merrill Palmer School of Psychology, where he studied art, psychology, and philosophy.

Letters and ephemera were a significant element of Byars’ practice and oeuvre. He often wrote elaborately coded letters to James G. Butler, Eugenia Butler, Sr.’s husband. Byars was very close with the Butler family and was a guest at their home in Hancock Park for extended periods of time.

Byars had a two-part exhibition at Eugenia Butler Gallery in October of 1969 entitled Byars at Butler. According to the gallery’s press release, the first part of the exhibition, entitled Shutting Up Genie, consisted of “…sealing Eugenia Butler off from the Gallery exhibition space. Her name comes down from the front of the building, and ‘Shutting Up Genie’ is lettered in red on the wall directly behind the Gallery window, visible from the street. Eugenia Butler is forbidden by the artist to enter the Gallery exhibition space during the five-day period.”

The second part of the exhibition, entitled This is the Ghost of James Lee Byars Calling, transformed the gallery into an entirely red room with a sole light source from a two-and-a-half inch hole cut in the ceiling. The only entrance into the gallery was through a two-and-a-half foot hole, and participants were asked to read various communications (describing Byars) that were sent to the gallery from people around the world to audibly reconstruct the artist.

Matt Greene

Closing Séance

West Hollywood, CA April 21, 2012

On July 19, 1978, Eugenia Butler held a séance as Madam S.S. Houri at Harold L. Glicksman and Mary Ann Duganne’s gallery on 76 Market Street in Venice, CA. Glicksman and Duganne were ordered by the new owner of their gallery to surrender the premises on January 15, 1979. As the closing event for the gallery, Madam S.S. Houri held public and private séances and “x-raye” readings.

Matt Greene (b. 1972, Atlanta, GA) is a Los Angeles-based painter and performance artist known for his dark and otherworldly landscapes that investigate horticulture, vintage pornography, horror films, fairy tales, and 19th Century symbolist art. His work has been exhibited at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles; Peres Projects, Los Angeles; Deitch Projects, New York; COMA, Berlin; and the Kunsthalle Vienna, Austria. Greene’s work is a part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Tribute to Ed Kienholz’s Watercolors (Barter Show)

Barney’s Beanery 8447 Santa Monica Boulevard West Hollywood, CA 90069 Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Special thanks to Barney’s Beanery.

Ed Kienholz’s seminal exhibition at Eugenia Butler Gallery in 1969, entitled Watercolors (also known as “The Barter Show”), consisted of subtle watercolor washes on 12 x 16 in. paper, which he bartered for the sums, objects, or experiences painted on them. Originally, patrons brought the items he requested to the opening and traded them for the works in the show.

For this tribute, a group of contemporary artists were commissioned to create works, following Kienholz’s guidelines, that were bartered at Barney’s Beanery on April 10th, 2012. The commissioned artworks were presented on-site for guests to view and barter throughout the evening. Interested parties brought their barter objects to the event at Barney’s Beanery, and traded for the artwork on-site, as participation in the tribute itself. The works were on display at LAND’s exhibition space through April 21, 2012.

Participating Artists:

Assume Vivid Astro Focus — Walead Beshty — Dike Blair — Liz Craft — Zoe Crosher — Meredith Danluck — Shannon Ebner — Rob Fischer — Brendan Fowler — Eve Fowler — Jonah Freeman — Ellen Harvey — Anna Sew Hoy — Justin Lowe — Shana Lutker — Dave Muller — Ry Rocklen — Amanda Ross-Ho — Corazon del Sol — Cole Sternberg – Landon Wiggs

Check out some great photos from the event on LA Louver’s blog here.

Rudi Gernreich

Rudi Gernreich Fashion Show

The Italian Cultural Institute (Westwood, CA)

1023 Hilgard Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90024 7 – 9PM

LAND, Corazon del Sol, and the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles hosted a presentation of designs by groundbreaking fashion designer Rudi Gernreich. A formal fashion show displayed Gernreich’s designs from the sixties and seventies in celebration of the closing of DEPOSITO: an exhibition featuring a selection of works from Galleria del Deposito (1963 – 1969).

This event was part of the ongoing programming series for Perpetual Conceptual: Echoes of Eugenia Butler, a multi-part exhibition that was focused around Eugenia Butler, Sr. and the conceptual projects that took place at Eugenia Butler Gallery (1968 – 1971). Perpetual Conceptual was presented by LAND and Corazon del Sol, in collaboration with the City of West Hollywood, as part of Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945 – 1980.

Under the auspices of the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles.

Special thanks to Audrey Moorehead.

Hair by Sean James for Rene Furterer/Opus Beauty & Makeup by Sharon Gault for Makeup Forever/Opus Beauty.

Pacific Standard Time was an unprecedented collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Initiated through grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time took place for six months beginning in October 2011. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty.

Special thanks to Walgreen Co.

Support for this project provided by the City of West Hollywood.