Courtesy Hammer Museum, Los Angeles

Eva Hesse, "H+H" (1965). Varnish, ink, gouache, enamel, cord, metal, papier-mâché, unknown modeling compound, particleboard, and wood, 27 x 27½ x 4 7⁄8

   November 2008 Field Guide

William Eggleston

Anton Kannemeyer

The Brussels Dream

Lynne Marsh

Frances Stark

Donald Rodney

Renzo Martens

Dóra Maurer

Munio Weinraub and Amos Gitai

Sharon Lockhart

Stephan Balkenhol

Terence Gower

Jacques Bedel

Christopher Wool Willem de Kooning David Hockney Philip Guston Amy Sillman Paul Klee Mary Heilmann Mark Grotjahn

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“My poem / is finished and I haven’t mentioned / orange yet. It’s twelve poems, I call / it ORANGES. And one day in a gallery / I see Mike’s painting, called SARDINES.” With his frank, affectionate verses on the mysterious triggers of art—which could just as easily be oranges, sardines, or other artists as the biggies: love and loss—the poet Frank O’Hara has inspired a new LA exhibition on abstract painting, a genre he loved and nurtured in his role as a MoMA curator and ’50s artworld papillon. (the poem above, in fact, famously begins: “I am not a painter, I am a poet … I would rather be / a painter.”) the Hammer museum’s show, titled “oranges and Sardines: Conversations on Abstract Painting” by curator Gary Garrels, takes the deft, vivifying works of six contemporary abstract painters—Mark Grotjahn, Wade Guyton, Charline von Heyl, Amy Sillman, Christopher Wool, and grand doyenne Mary Heilmann—and ups the ante. Garrels asked each of the artists to select one of their own paintings as well as a constellation of works by other artists who have inspired their practice. the results—pieces by Paul Klee, David Hockney, Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, Eva Hesse, and Dieter Roth, among others—are sure to generate yet another wave of influence.

"Oranges and Sardines" originally appeared in the November 2008 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' November 2008 Table of Contents.