PALETTES OF THE PAST

EIGHTIES REMIX: R.C. Gorman and Patrick Nagel were everywhere you looked in the Eighties.  Was there an office or lobby without one?  Gorman was Native American in tone and subject, earth and sky fairly exude in his hues. Nagel  was a more foreign and remote remeninsce , a native LA, on the edge of the Pacific Rim, looking west to what we call  the Far East,  decorative women often in the style of Deco.  Native American or native Los Angeles: those native to neither might aspire to either as a mark of who they might be, if only in an office or a lobby.  Some art we only see in passing. And sometime art’s time has passed.

SOME ART SPEAKS quietly within, other art displayed is meant to mark you without words.  A Nagel might sign you as slick and sharp in a coke jagged style and way. The molars grind at the thought.  A Gorman in contrast could you were a hemp loving highboy who respected indian as much as space cowboy?

IS A NAGEL owner a Republican and R.C. Gorman the suff of Democrats alone?  Is the art that looks wistfully backwards the art of self described but perhaps deluded progressive, forward thinkers?  Is there something retro in those who loved the Nagel of the Eighties when it was now?  Nagel died in his time, in 1984 of a heart attack at age thirtyeight.  Is that odd but apt?  Gorman died much later, just this month, some say well past his time.  Judging art after its time is too cruel and easy for those who see caricature where others see soul.

Comments

[Craig McDonough]

"Progressive" here.

And I prefer Nagel.

Even though I'm told it's "old and sexist"

[Nagelphile]

If you would like to check out some rare Patrick Nagel images, please come to a new forum set up by some of his fans:

http://patricknagel.lefora.com/forum/