I've been doing a lot of research on artist Kim MacConnel lately, since a career retrospective of his work opens at MCASD this weekend. The exhibit will survey four decades of paintings by MacConnel, who has long explored ideas of abstraction and decoration. Bold graphics are a common feature in his work, which are inspired by everything from Near Eastern textiles to Chinese clip art books.
MacConnel is often cited as a founding artist of the Pattern and Decoration Movement of the 1970s. In 1994, he told the LA Times: "Minimalism, the reigning Modernist style when I was coming of age as an artist, ruled life out--there was no room for it in that work--and I saw Pattern and Decoration, which uses Third World motifs and images from everyday life, as a means of breaking down the hermeticism of the New York school. Unfortunately, that strategy led to my being labeled kitsch and a cultural imperialist."
More on MacConnel over the next couple of months (and hopefully an interview on These Days!). In the meantime, check out this very cool time-lapse video of an installation of a MacConnel public artwork in La Jolla. Here's more on the piece.
The entire work is a multicolor, large-scale mural on three walls on Girard Ave. This video was shot by photographer Rebecca Joelson.
