JANCAR/KUHLENSCHMIDT GALLERY - History 1980-1982

May 02 - June 26, 1982

Jancar/Kuhlenschmidt Gallery 4121 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite C-9, Los Angeles, CA 90010 ------ 1980 -- -Kim Hubbard - May 2, 1980 -Susan Rosenfeld in association with Foundation for Art Resources -Paul Tzanetopolous - June 8 - July 6, 1980 -Jane Reynolds - July 18 - August 10, 1980 -David Amico - August 22 -Lena Rivkin - October 24 - December 7, 1980 ------ 1981 -- -David Askevold- - January 9 - February 1981 -Louise Lawler -Jerry Brane -"Thrift Store Paintings" - April 24 - May 3, 1981 -Morgan Thomas - May 15 - June 6, 1981 -David Amico - September 4 - September 28, 1981 -Richard Prince -Lori Leckman - November 13 - December 12, 1981 ------ 1982 -- -Jerry Brane -William Leavitt -Christopher Williams -"Jancar/Kuhlenschmidt Closing Exhibition" - June 4 - June 26, 1982



Jancar/Kuhlenschmidt Gallery was a contemporary art gallery located in Los Angeles that was open from May 1980 through June 1982. Tom Jancar and Richard Kuhlenschmidt opened Jancar/Kuhlenschmidt Gallery in May of 1980 and were more interested in showing important work that was not shown anywhere else and not necessarily for sale, which according to Winnifred Oak, set them apart from commercial art galleries that were driven by sales. Jancar/Kuhlenschmidt showed works by Los Angeles and New York artists who had little previous exposure or were little known prior to their solo exhibitions at the gallery. Artists exhibited include David Amico, David Askevold, Jerry Brane, Kim Hubbard, Louise Lawler,William Leavitt, Lori Leckman, Richard Prince, Lena Rivkin, Susan Rosenfeld, Morgan Thomas, Paul Tzanetopoulos, and Christopher Williams. Jancar/Kuhlenschmidt primarily hosted solo exhibitions with the exception of two group shows, a thrift store painting show and their last exhibition in which they featured works by all of the artists who had shown with them. The gallery held its last exhibition in June 1982. It was located at 4121 Wilshire Blvd. in the basement of the Los Altos Apartments. The Gallery and its Exhibitions in Print Many of the gallery's exhibitions were written about or reviewed in local and national newspapers and art journals as well as a few books by a variety of art critics, some of which are still actively writing today. In his book The Los Angeles Art Review, which provided an overview of art in museums and galleries throughout Los Angeles in the early 80s, Hank Baum indicates that the works shown at Jancar/Kuhlenschmidt varied in style from paintings to conceptual works to installations.[8] Judith A. Hoffberg reviews Lena Rivkin's work and likens them to electroencephalography because they seem to emerge and disappear from the paper.[ Howard Singerman reviewed David Askevold's solo exhibition "Delville's Visit", after Jean Delville, in Artweek stating that the work is intentionally ambiguous and makes the viewer contend with the mysticism of Symbolism that still permeates his art. These sentiments were echoed in Howard Singerman's Artforum review of this same exhibition published three months later but this time Singerman goes a step further to suggest that Askevold's work actually tries to position the Symbolists in relation to Postmodernism because they offer a critique of Modernism, just as Askevold does with his installation "Delville's Visit". Matt Groening announced the "Thrift Store Painting" exhibition stating that there were around 100 paintings and highlighted a portrait of Carol Burnett in the calendar section of the Los Angeles Reader. Tricia Crane writes about the "Thrift Store Painting" exhibition mentioning certain works where the unknown artists made portraits of celebrities such as Jimi Hendrix and Carol Burnett, even signing the painting with C.B. at the bottom corner, as though it was the actress' own self-portrait. She mentions that Tom Jancar and Richard Kuhlenschmidt met while working at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana in which they would go to thrift stores during their lunch breaks to collect paintings from thrift stores. Hunter Drohojowska selected David Amico's solo exhibition as pick of the week and reviews it describing the artist as a romantic who is also challenging traditions by making paintings that reference the past while presenting figures in absurd contemporary situations. Within a few weeks Christopher Knight reviewed Amico's solo exhibition stating that the works recall Pop Art as the figures represented in his paintings come from popular culture but that they also look back to the solitary and solemn figures found in the works of Caspar David Friedrich. In 1981, Melinda Wortz describes Morgan Thomas' installation as being sensitive to the small space of the gallery by inviting the viewers to sit and interact on an intimate scale with her work. Hunter Drohojowska selects the solo exhibition by Richard Prince for pick of the week discussing how he represents images that already exist in the world, much like Pop Art but different in that Prince's images make us feel uncomfortable. Christopher Knight reviews Prince's show referring to the works as appropriated imagery because he reframes advertising images and he compares Prince's works to that of two other shows that concurrently show appropriated imagery. Kathy Norklun selected Christopher Williams' work as pick of the week explaining that the artist created a show that focused on the play between the imagery and the text asking the viewer to draw connections between the two to understand its larger meaning. Andrea Fraser writes about Louise Lawler's work and mentions how Lawler's work was a representation of institutional critique because she reiterating the name of the gallery by spelling out each letter of their names in photographs across from where she required the gallerists to stand showing photographs of hers from a small black box. Louise Lawler's solo debut at Jancar/Kuhlenschimdt was highlighted as one of the shows to have seen by David Rimanelli who in 2003 wrote an Artforum article looking back at the most important shows of the 80s. Catalog L.A. Birth of an Art Capital 1955 - 1985, which accompanied the exhibition Los Angeles 1955 -1985: Birth of an Art Capital and was organized by Catherine Grenier in 2006 at the Centre Georges Pompidou, includes a timeline highlighting various art exhibitions including five that took place at Jancar/Kuhlenschmidt Gallery: the opening of Jancar/Kuhlenschmidt Gallery in May of 1980; David Askevold's solo exhibition in January 1981; the group exhibition titled Thrift Store Paintings in 1981; William Leavitt's solo exhibition in 1982; and a featured spread on Christopher William's solo exhibition titled Source, The Photographic Archive, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in 1982.