Sunday, April 7, 1996
By Rodney Tanaka
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Funky little dogs. UCLA professor Joseph Blaustein began
incorporating funky little dogs in his paintings during the last
few years.
"For me they had meanings," Blaustein says. "I saw a picture in
the paper of a woman in Bosnia holding a poodle. The dogs were
Bosnian dogs, they were dogs from the world of the abused,
Greek-chorus dogs, alter-ego dogs, and they were all wacky."
Blaustein’s dogs take center stage in "The Little Dog Laughed to
See Such Sport," his exhibit of works on paper at the First
Independent Gallery open through April 13.
Blaustein talks about his work in a way that puts the listener
at ease. He appears comfortable in blue jeans and a collared shirt
over a black T-shirt. He is hesitant to talk about the iconography
of his work for fear that descriptions will limit the viewer’s
connection with the paintings. The professor inside him takes
precedence, however, and he explains some of the ideas behind the
works.
The painting "Dog Tie" features a white, skull-shaped figure
wearing a tie with a dog on it. Blaustein explains that he
struggled for a week with the painting, constantly reworking the
images. The central image of the death’s head emerged after a visit
with his ailing sister.
"A day later I might draw a stupid, funky dog," Blaustein says.
"It’s like saying, hey, you’re taking yourself too seriously, and
it also speaks to the nutty ambiguity of life."
"Kissie Dog (No. 1)" depicts a scene of Blaustein’s life.
"There’s a dog on the street that wants to kiss me all the
time," Blaustein says. "I drew an old man with a dog and all of a
sudden I took off from that. It’s explaining life."
Blaustein takes a moment to explain his style, despite his
desire to avoid "sounding like a professor."
"If you divide art into the Greek region swings from Apollonian,
like Apollo or classical or structured or ordered as opposed to
Baccus or the god of irrationality or expressionist, many of these
would move toward the expressionist, but to me there has to be some
of both or else it becomes unacceptable," Blaustein says. "Even
though some of them reach a sense of chaos, they suddenly get
ordered."
The creative process behind the paintings take a winding path
from order to chaos. Blaustein says he may like a painting one day
and then reject the idea three days later.
"I tend to draw with an expressionistic kind of energy, so it’s
like taking advantage of accidents," Blaustein says. "A lot of time
the accidents don’t work."
"Some of these (paintings) were done at 3 in the morning and
then I’ll reject it and paint it out," Blaustein adds. "But the
painting out, I suddenly get out myself and the feeling initially
that spawned it. I suppose it’s an interaction between various
formal means and elements."
Sam Amato, a former chair of the UCLA art department, testifies
to Blaustein’s constant reshaping of the works. Amato takes a break
from preparing for his own show at the gallery and points to the
cluster of pin marks in the paper works on the wall.
"See all the pin marks?" Amato says. "(That) means that that
drawing has gone down and been picked up again. He worked about 10
to 15 sessions to make that drawing."
Blaustein’s connection to UCLA has taken less trial and error to
become solid. He earned his master of fine arts in art at UCLA in
the 1950s and joined the teaching staff at UCLA Extension. He has
taught continuously for almost 40 years and now teaches both day
and evening classes.
"I see so many creative students and the thing that’s a
privilege to me is (when) I see a young person who’s working and I
see the nucleus of an idea in their work and I still get excited by
that," Blaustein says. "Teaching isn’t so much a matter of dogma
but of being aware of people’s potential."
"Maybe I’m an enabler because I do that but you know what, it
goes both ways," Blaustein adds. "It gets me excited, it gets me
turned on, not that I’m necessarily copying the student but in turn
there’s an interaction there. They’re primed and hungry and it’s
nice to be around them."
ART: "The Little Dog Laughed to See Such Sport" by Joseph
Blaustein, at the First Independent Gallery in Santa Monica. Open
through April 13. Admission is free. For more info, call (310)
829-0345.
A detail of Joseph Blaustein’s painting "Friends," on exhibit at
the First Independent Gallery in Santa Monica.
A section of Joseph Blaustein’s "Rembrandt."
Joseph Blaustein’s "Licking Dog"