Bill Radawec

© Copyright 2007 Bill Radawec, All Rights Reserved

William (Bill) W. Radawec Memorial/Scholarship Fund

April 16, 2012

Shaheen Modern and Contemporary in Cleveland honors the Bill Radawec legacy

Published: Sunday, November 20, 2011, The Plain Dealer By Steven Litt

The late Bill Radawec, a nationally admired Cleveland artist who died in July at age 59 after a yearlong battle with lymphoma, was a miniaturist who practiced a gentle art of nuance and fine distinctions.

A retrospective of Radawec’s work, now on view at Shaheen Modern and Contemporary Art in Cleveland, is full of delectable microphenomena, which attune the eye and the mind to small visual events that might easily be overlooked.

A tiny, copper-painted bird lies on its side on a square piece of plywood painted to resemble a piece of turf, which is in turn mysteriously set on the floor in a corner of the gallery. Another bird, this one painted silver, sits in a small wire basket suspended from the gallery ceiling.

On the walls, two small video cameras whir quietly on their mounts, turning this way and that, scanning the interior for some inscrutable purpose not revealed to the visitor. Also on the walls are pastel-hued geometric paintings inspired by paint chips and images of contrails left behind by jetliners in patches of clear blue sky.

A collection of small, wooden boxes mounted on the walls at oddly differing levels might escape notice entirely. But if you get close and peek inside, you’ll be treated to bizarre miniature tableaux, including one in which a woman strips naked at what appears to be an open-air tea party, while a construction worker stands nearby with a coil of cable in his hands and another fellow guzzles a bottle of wine.

The show is an eclectic mix of objects and images resembling the visual equivalents of Zen Buddhist koans, or riddles, that could produce effervescent moments of intellectual bliss if understood properly. Taken as a whole, the show is a fitting introduction, and tribute, to an artist known for having an odd, quirky and eccentric sensibility, liberally spiced with a well-developed sense of whimsy.

Born in 1952 in Parma, Radawec grew up there as the son of William Radawec, a firefighter, and Irene Radawec, a homemaker. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea in 1974 and pursued a master’s degree at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque in 1975 and 76, but he ended his studies short of completion.

Radawec taught in Berea schools from 1979 to 82 and then spent the following decade teaching in Cleveland public schools. It wasn’t until he moved to Los Angeles in 1992, however, that he began attracting serious attention as an artist and as a promoter of works by other artists.

Radawec’s widow, Ibojka Toth-Radawec, explains that in 1992, commercial galleries were closing in Los Angeles because of a recession. Radawec responded by inaugurating a series of exhibitions in the apartments or homes of friends, under the rubric “Domestic Setting.”

The shows caught the attention of the noted critic and curator Peter Frank, who gave Radawec a plug in LA Weekly, which in turn helped turn the shows into something of an underground movement.

“He loved to promote other artists,” Toth-Radawec said.

Radawec returned to Cleveland in 2000 to care for his aging mother after his father’s death. And he continued to produce art and to participate in exhibitions that caught the eye of reviewers from Art in America and other publications.

The show at Shaheen, assembled and installed with the assistance of his widow and friends, is characteristically oddball, with works hung high or low on walls or stuck in corners, as if to require extra effort and to encourage the viewer to take nothing for granted.

The cumulative effect is that of a quiet sense of joy and delight. Radawec never swings for the fences in any individual work but seeks instead to prick the conscience and tickle the funny bone.

Radawec was a conceptual artist, motivated more by ideas than by a drive to fashion imposing objects. His work pulls you in close and asks you to attend to fine details, like a comedian with a flat affect who tells short, droll stories with enigmatic punch lines.

At times, Radawec’s work is autobiographical. One framed panel re-creates a section of plaster wall in Radawec’s Los Angeles apartment, which formed a crack after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The images of jet contrails were inspired by the arcs of jetliners changing course on Sept. 11, 2001, after terrorists took control. It’s not strictly necessary to understand the personal meanings behind Radawec’s work in order to enjoy it. It casts a spell, even if you don’t know the back stories.

The most important personal narrative is that of the artist’s romance. He met Toth-Radawec at a gallery opening in Kent in 2004, four years after he returned to Northeast Ohio from Los Angeles. They married on Sept. 16, 2010, on the intensive-care floor at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, where Radawec was undergoing treatment. Toth-Radawec says the ceremony was a first in the history of the unit.

The show at Shaheen is a first attempt to come to grips with Radawec’s artistic legacy. It admits the viewer into an aesthetic world shaped by one of the gentler artists who have worked in the region in recent decades. And it shows that Radawec’s unusual sensibility lives on in the body of work he left behind.

February 14, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day!

Ibojka Toth- Radawec
xo, bill
2012
Digital print
8 x 10 inches

Today, is the anniversary of our first date. Bill was a brave man to make the most romantic day of the year a first of many more! The LA kiss describes how it all began.

February of 2004, I met Bill at the Downtown art gallery opening. Upon first meeting, Bill talked non-stop about his L.A. adventures of earthquakes, past stormy relationship, crossing paths with movie stars and connections with the L.A. art scene. He shared how all these influences played a part in his work of the color chips, birds, walking sticks, crack-ups, retro fittings, and soul patches.

Time flew and the gallery closed but this did not discourage Bill's storytelling. Since the gallery closed for the evening, Bill inviting me to join him for drinks at Ray's bar around the corner to continue his stories. Transported back to reality with Ray's bar closing, Bill walked me to my car.

He surprised me with a big smooch on the lips. Caught off guard, I took a step back. "This is a L.A. tradition" immediately stated Bill, "after art openings we always kiss each other." Still in shock, I reminded him that this was not L.A. and he owed me a drink for this one. Bill with his beaming Radawec of a smile quickly agreed to buy me a drink at our next art opening.

A week later at MOCA's opening Bill true to his word, presented me with a glass of wine. After another entertaining evening, he walked me to my car. There he took my breath away with that notorious LA kiss of his. And we have been inseparable ever since. I love you, Bill

-Ibojka M. Toth-Radawec

April 16, 2011

Bill Radawec explores a master's territory in 'Donald Judd Remix' @ Fe Arts Gallery

Pittsburgh Tribune: TribLive
Kurt Shaw: Four artists get a chance to explore a master's territory in 'Donald Judd Remix'

Posted: Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Radawec takes the notion of Judd's smooth, sterile boxes quite a bit further with his installation piece, "A Study" (2007).

Attached primarily on one wall in the gallery, 10 small, simple wooden boxes, set at sporadic heights, look more like barnacles than anything else. Hugging the wall, they otherwise don't look like anything much. But get closer and you will see they are anything but simple. Inside, if you look from above, you will see all kinds of scenarios playing out via tiny little figures -- people the artist has arranged inside these simple environments, but posed in rather complicated ways. Some of the scenarios are violent, some are erotic, and some are both. Quite a surprising piece for a minimalist art show, in more ways than one.

Read more: Four artists get a chance to explore a master's territory in 'Donald Judd Remix' - Pittsburg Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com

Email your comments to billradawec@gmail.com

May 8, 2010

L. Kent Wolgamott's Review of Bill Radawec's Exhibition at ProjectRoom

Lincoln Journal Star: journalstar.com
L. Kent Wolgamott: Radawec show is fun and smart

Posted: Saturday, May 8, 2010 11:00 pm

"We're Not in Kansas Anymore" is, of course, one of the most famous lines from "The Wizard of Oz." It's also now the title of an intriguing, highly entertaining Project Room exhibition by Bill Radawec that uses the film as a launching point for its series of tiny tableaux set in small wooden boxes.

Populating the tableaux are "little people," a takeoff on the Munchkins from Oz. But it's not the Frank Baum story or its filmed version that fascinates Radawec. Rather it is the tales of debauchery by the Munchkins at the hotel where they were housed during the filming of the movie that has drawn his interest.

Whether those tales of orgies and drunkenness are true is beside the point - Radawec's narratives in a box mix fact and fiction, blending references to real people and events (including the Parma, Ohio, artist himself) with imagined occurrences.

The narratives take place in a series of small, smoothly sanded wooden boxes, no more than 5 or 6 inches long, 2 or 3 inches wide and about 3 inches deep. Viewing the handpainted "little people" (actually HO model train figures) and their constructed world comes from above - which means you have to get next to the work and to the wall to see inside.

The world they inhabit is primarily the art world, specifically galleries where work is on display and a very odd mixture of patrons is doing all sorts of things in the space around the art.

One tableau, for example, finds a busty woman in a Santa outfit sharing the space with an Orthodox Jewish man and a monk in a robe. What would bring such a group together and what are they doing? That's left to the imagination of the viewer, but the juxtaposition of the "people" and what they represent is all Radawec.

Even stranger is a scene in which a man is holding a woman hostage with a gun pointed at her head. In front of them stands another female figure, lifting her shirt to flash her breasts. The questions of what is going on, etc., in that little grouping are heightened by another, more practical query: Who knew that model train figures were so violent and sexual?

A couple of the boxes make direct references to contemporary artists. One reproduces in tiny fashion the giant butterfly paintings of Damien Hirst, a very tempting target. There's a man being videotaped there - perhaps a shot at the publicity-obsessed Hirst - along with a trash bin (more commentary?) and, at the end of the tiny gallery, a naked man and boy and a chimpanzee. You figure it out.

Another box makes a nod to Richard Prince, a man on a horse galloping through the space referring to his Marlboro Man series, while Radawec reproduces his own work in two of the tableaux.

Those tiny blue- and- white "contrail" paintings were part of "Act or Observe," a January show at Project Room. While they could be random views of the jet contrails against the sky, they are based on the turnaround of United 93 above Parma on Sept. 11, 2001 - another story in an exhibition full of stories.

Even the boxes themselves are art references - first to Donald Judd in their smooth-surfaced minimalism, then, in a way, to Joseph Cornell, who filled boxes with complex imagery. Radawec, however, adds narrative that wasn't presented by either Judd or Cornell.

"We're Not in Kansas Anymore" also includes three laminated wood "drawings" that mimic the boxes and, thereby, emphasize the minimalist connection and some "studies" for the boxes that remove three of the four sides to place a figure against a wall.

While they're likely necessary for Radawec to figure out how to place the little people and small paintings, the studies feel like architectural models and almost detract from the boxes because they contain no narrative or visual challenge.

Even so, "We're Not in Kansas Anymore" is an exhibition that is as entertaining as it is challenging, both fun and smart, and, if you get all the references, a good-natured critique of the art world that comes out of "The Wizard of Oz."

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 402-473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/KentWolgamott.

Email your comments to billradawec@gmail.com

May 7, 2010

Bill Radawec's opening at ProjectRoom

"We're Not In Kansas Anymore"

with an essay by Vicky A. Clark

Opening: Friday, May 7th, 7 to 10 PM

Duration: May 7 to May 30

Hours: Saturdays 12:00 to 4:00 (or call for appointment)

402-617-8365
projectroom.us@gmail.com
www.projectroom.us

We' re Not In Kansas Anymore

Cleveland based Bill Radawec, brings a world of bawdy intimacy to the likewise small confines of ProjectRoom. Mounted on the walls are what appear to be tiny wooden Donald Judd-like boxes. Taking liberties with minimalism's cool & restrained conventions Bill lets the viewer peek into a world within each box containing dissolute scenes of HO scale people engaging in acts that one's imagine is free to take liberties with. In Bill's boxes we find references to Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, art world groupies, the paparazzi, and Bill himself. Juxtaposed against these little gallery worlds within a gallery are 3 framed laminate wood drawings that smartly mimic the minimal appearance of the boxes.

Bill Radawec has had over two dozen solo shows and has been included in over 150 group shows across the country. Bill's work is in more then 250 private collections. Just this January for ProjectRoom's "Act or Observe" group show Bill contributed six of his pristine, sky blue, jet contrail paintings (watched over by security cameras) that spoke of the turnaround of Flight 93 over his home town of Parma, Ohio on that fateful day on Sept. 11, 2001.

Bill is a storyteller, a creator and a natural at creating and inserting compelling narratives into seemingly benign objects. In fact, The Wizard Of Oz, from where Bill got the title for this body of work "We' re Not In Kansas Anymore", was in a circuitous way the inspiration for this series and the peculiar goings on within the boxes. Bill was intrigued by reading about the legendary orgies and parties taking place in the Culver City Hotel where the cast of Munchkins were housed during the making of one of America's great classic films, so he decided he needed to explore that world in a way that only Radawec can.

Bill has been an exhibitor, curator, collector and facilitator of the arts since his career took off in Los Angeles during the 1990s. Bill Radawec is a complex and constantly evolving artist. Just the type of artist Projectroom was meant to embrace.

Email your comments to billradawec@gmail.com

May 6, 2010

Bill Radawec "We're Not In Kansas Anymore"

"We're Not In Kansas Anymore"

with an essay by Vicky A. Clark

Opening: Friday, May 7th, 7 to 10 PM

Duration: May 7 to May 30

Hours: Saturdays 12:00 to 4:00 (or call for appointment)

402-617-8365
projectroom.us@gmail.com
www.projectroom.us

Email your comments to billradawec@gmail.com

May 3, 2010

Bill Radawec's exhibition at ProjectRoom from May 7 - 30, 2010

Vickyaclark.com
Bill Radawec - The Man Behind the Curtain
By Vicky A. Clark
2010

An old-fashioned storyteller transported to the dysfunctional now, with a little bit of magic realism and absurdist theater thrown in, Bill Radawec feeds on information like most gobble McDonalds. For instance, did you know that Frank Lloyd Wright’s original middle name was Lincoln and that his son invented Lincoln Logs after being fired by his father? Bill did, and he made a work of art about it. Did you know that Frank Lloyd Wright designed the dinnerware for the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo which was demolished in 1968, the same year that the Beatles released the White Album? Bill did, and he made a work of art about that too, in a white-on-white work, linking the two unrelated events that occurred in the same tumultuous year. He connects the dots as he spins yarns like no other, a skill clearly evident in his boxes containing“his” little people.

Everyone loves a good tale, and everyone loves the dioramas in the natural history museum. Radawec combines the two in small tableaux that encourage intimacy, close looking, an uncomfortable yet enticing form of voyeurism, and above all, curiosity. In fact, Bill is like the wizard of Oz, a contemporary behind the scenes/behind the curtain mastermind who orchestrates scenarios for his little people who are inspired by/connected to, of course, the munchkins. But he is equally comparable to Scheherazade, the master storyteller (mistress/storyteller?). In person, he talks non-stop, regaling visitors with stories that hinge on sometimes bizarre connections, our “six degrees of separation.” In a recent conversation, for example, he wondered why we eat beef and not cow, pork and not pig while we do eat chicken and lamb. That’s how the mind of Mr. Bill works.

I would love to see a PET scan of his brain; I bet it would light up with multi-colored synapses firing rapidly and constantly in complex patterns. And then he could add names to each color, referencing the made-up names for house paint just as he did for a series of works where he strung together those weird names to create enigmatic short stories. He recognizes our fascination with synchronicity and serendipity, currently reveling in them in little worlds composed with little people placed in little boxes. Just to make it interesting, he installs these pieces across a wall at different heights, making some scenes visible, others invisible, and some awkward to view, making us work to be voyeurs. We could just look at the entire wall as a study in abstraction, a series of Judd-like boxes arranged according to aesthetic conventions, but once we glimpse one tableau, it is impossible not to look at each and every one of them, studying them as we do the complex boxes of Joseph Cornell. Radawec inserts the personal into the impersonality of minimalism.

Bill constructs a diorama-like world with the little people encased (trapped? contained? presented? preserved?) in a small box. Who knows what brought his characters to this particular moment, and who knows what will happen next? For like the childhood games, snap the whip/statue, these figures are frozen at an arbitrary moment in time, just like the preserved animals in natural history museum dioramas. Think of the story told with the lions in the diorama at the American Museum of Natural History, where the father goes out to get food for his family, a lovely analogy to the American family. Ah, but what a fiction that turned out to be, as revealed by Donna Haraway in her fabulous article “Teddy Bear Patriarchy.” For in the real world—whatever that means—the mother lion is the killer while the father lion relaxes, secure in the knowledge that his mate will provide what the family needs. But I am already on one of my own tangents; I just can’t help myself when thinking about Bill and his work. In my defense, there is a connection; Bill’s stories mix fact and fiction just as the dioramas do.

There are so many things to consider about Bill’s work. Many are postmodern queries— what is reality and whose reality is it? what is the relationship between fact and fiction? what’s public and what’s private? —layered in the work though they never impose themselves arbitrarily or dominate because Bill’s little people are themselves a demanding lot.

The connection to The Wizard of Oz is part of the backstory of this body of work. When living in Los Angeles, Bill became fascinated with the Culver Hotel, the site of munchkin shenanigans during filming. Stories of their supposed debauched behavior in the hotel were widely circulated, supposedly by an adult Judy Garland, even though several participants have refuted their veracity, which did not prevent them being retold in the 1981 film Under the Rainbow. Did the munchkins really trash the hotel because they feared they would not be paid? Were they swinging from the chandeliers? Did a little person need to be rescued after falling into a toilet? Who cares? The stories have become part of the lore, part of our fascination with the lives of little people, evidenced currently by yet another reality tv show. Their stories are exactly the kind of fact/fiction inversion that fascinates Bill.

Adding to the popular culture backdrop is a more personal source. The basement of Bill’s childhood home in Parma, Ohio, was flooded, destroying many of his childhood possessions. He began to recreate that claustrophobic space complete with the watermarks left by the flood in room-sized installations, just as he painstakingly recreated the cracks left in his LA residence after an earthquake in minimalist drawings. This personal mapping references systems and autobiography, actualizing the obsessions of both. Soon he began to make small models of his memory-laden space and decided to populate them with figures in order to give a sense of scale. And then the work exploded.

Bill’s little people are actually HO train figures, readily available in catalogues for model train buffs. The range and variety of these figures is absolutely amazing, which naturally caught Bill’s attention leading him to move beyond using them just for scale. There is the tableau where a naked woman is on her knees before a man who holds a gun to her head while another woman flashes her boobs, performed before a miniature reproduction of one of Radawec’s contrail paintings, which reference the gestures marking the perfect skies on 9/11. There are others where a variety of characters seem to be waiting, for what we don’t know. The peep- show aspects are enhanced by his discovery of odd figures that don’t seem to belong to a model train buff’s repertoire, figures that seem to be lifted from mass media accounts and images of unsavory activities. Still there is also a sweetness and sadness about them, especially in their miniaturization. As Bill has said, “while some of the ‘little’ people are having fun in the basement models, they’re also getting caught in the act.”

These narratives with their curious connections take us on a wondrously fanciful journey, comparable, I believe, to stories by South and Latin American magic realist writers or the plays of the absurdist group. Radawec is grounded in the now where information dissemination has become an overwhelming deluge that we struggle to sort, organize, and understand. We no longer can be assured of accuracy, and we no longer believe in universal truths as we have become skeptics par excellence. We are, to borrow a phrase from one of my favorite authors A.S. Byatt, ‘theoretically knowing.” Yet we remain naïve as we continue trying to understand the world and our place in it. Some do this by a process of simplification while others, like Bill, add layers to a point of excess.

This is obvious in the small worlds created by Radawec—am I the only one hearing the Disney tune “It’s a small world,” in the background? He does not give us concreteness; instead he gives us a fragment, a figment of his imagination. As history has become more than just facts and stats, as we insert anecdotal material like journals and diaries, Bill presents us with similar moments as contemporary parallels to characters from Moliere and/or comic books. In an absurdist way that still tugs at our heartstrings, Bill’s “cockeyed history” lessons reveal more than we could ever imagine as truth is stranger than fiction and fiction is strange enough itself.

Email your comments to billradawec@gmail.com

January 25, 2010

L. Kent Wolgamott: Art show is write on

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2009
Acrylic on masonite
12 x 12 inches
www.billradawec.com

JournalStar.com
Art show is write on
By L. Kent Wolgamott
January 22, 2010

"ACT or OBSERVE" is the title of the latest provocative show at Project Room, this one using the work of four artists, Ibojka Toth, Bill Radawec, Santiago Cal, Dennis Michael Jonesto confront the question raised by its title.

While the writers were acting, they were being observed by a pair of video cameras mounted high on the gallery wall, provided by Bill Radawec, a Parma, Ohio, artist who also contributed a series of paintings that put a different spin on the exhibition title.

Called "Out of the Blue, the Turn Around," the six, small, acrylic paintings of a gorgeous blue crossed with white streaks of various lengths and forms are, theoretically, what the contrails of United 93 looked like when it turned over Parma and headed back east on Sept. 11, 2001.

The passengers on that flight also were faced with a choice to act or observe. They chose to act, crashing the plane in Pennsylvania.

Radawec, who will have a solo show at Project Room later this year, often deals with tragedies in his work, and these small, simple paintings are powerful and evocative, carrying greater resonance than most of the oft-reproduced, more literal 9/11 imagery.

More at: http://www.journalstar.com

Email your comments to billradawec@gmail.com

January 14, 2010

'ACT or OBSERVE?' Images from Opening Night at ProjectRoom

Opening: Friday, January 8th, 7 to 10 PM
Duration: to January 31st
Hours: Saturdays only: 12:00 to 4:00 (or anytime by appointment)
402-617-8365
projectroom.us@gmail.com
www.projectroom.us

click here to follow ProjectRoom on FACEBOOK

ProjectRoom invites the public to come and partake in 'Act Or Observe', a one-month only installation of work by four artists that creates a triangulation of inquiry into the relationship between audience, artists, and works of art.

Attendees are encouraged to write directly on the word drawings of Dennis Michael Jones while surveillance cameras watch overhead. Those camera's actions are responsible for inspiring Bill Radawec's blue sky & jet contrail paintings of the turn around over Parma, Ohio of United Flight 93 as it headed back East on that fateful 9-11 day. Present is Ibojka Toth's exquisitely detailed, sliced and diced, carefully observed rendering of Bill Radawec (the artist), while Santiago Cal's 'Ooh-La-La' calmly watches over it all to remind us of the fascination of creation, discovery and participation.

A note of interest; three of the four artists came to ProjectRoom through Facebook. Do I smell the future here?

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

January 8, 2010

'ACT or OBSERVE?' Opening at ProjectRoom

Opening: Friday, January 8th, 7 to 10 PM
Duration: to January 31st
Hours: Saturdays only: 12:00 to 4:00 (or anytime by appointment)
402-617-8365
projectroom.us@gmail.com
www.projectroom.us

"Act Or Observe" exhibition at ProjectRoom presents the work of Ibojka Toth, Bill Radawec, Dennis Michael Jones and Santiago Cal. These are four artists, three who came to ProjectRoom via Facebook, who come together to create an installation that provokes audience members to draw on drawings, while being monitored by surveillance cameras, revisit 9/11, and contemplate the creative act, the role of the artist, and that of the observer and the observed.

Email your comments to billradawec@gmail.com

January 1, 2010

Bill Radawec in Group Exhibition at ProjectRoom

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2009
Acrylic on masonite
12 x 12 inches
www.billradawec.com

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2009
Acrylic on masonite
12 x 12 inches
www.billradawec.com

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2009
Acrylic on masonite
12 x 12 inches
www.billradawec.com

December 22, 2009

Happy Holidays

Ibojka Toth
Bill Radawec, Miss TRa, and The EB
2009
Digital Print
8.5 x 11 inches

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

Novemeber 8, 2009

Early Bill

Bill Radawec
Early Bill
2009
Colored Paper
18 x 12 inches

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

July 4, 2009

Music, Money, Madness, The Mob, Peace, Love

Bill Radawec
Music
Money
Madness
The Mob
Peace
Love
2009
(two parts)
Acrylic on canvas
Colored pencil on paper
20 x 20 inches
9 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches, framed

4th of July "ONE WEEK ONLY" exhibition curated by Tom Jancar and Mery Lynn McCorkle at the Jancar Gallery in Los Angeles. www.jancargallery.com

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

June 23, 2009

Bill Radawec's Birthday

" I see you..."

Ibojka Toth
Bill, pencil on museum board (detail view)
2009
10 x 8 inches
ibojkatoth.com

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

May 31, 2009

Bill Radawec's Slightly Altered installation presented by The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center from May 25 - 31, 2009

On the left side, is my personal check, I replicated John Lloyd Wright's signature. Next is the replicated vintage Lincoln Logs ad work that has my signature added to it as the purchaser. This is representing the fake transaction between John Lloyd Wright and myself.

The right wall houses a label of the Imperial Hotel and a white on white painting called 1968 which is the pattern replication of the hand-carved stonework ornamentation originally found in the now demolished Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.

These are placed together because John in his design of the Lincoln Logs used a similar unique foundation of interlocking beams as his father, Frank Lloyd Wright did at the Imperial Hotel to make the structure "earthquake proof." It worked since the Imperial Hotel survived the magnitude 7.9 Great Kanto earthquake when many other buildings were demolished. In addition, John worked with his father on the Imperial Hotel too.

Displayed on the left side of the wall is a black white photocopy named History of Tokyo’s Imperial Hotel built in 1890 by Frank Lloyd Wright. Placed next to it is a relief replication of John Lloyd's signature.

Sitting on the pedestal is the replicated Lincoln Logs sculpture that has a fake John Lloyd Wright's company address stamped on it. This is giving John Lloyd Wright full recognition for his design. Although Lincoln logs have always been a very popular toy, many are not aware that John Lloyd Wright, the son of the very popular architect Frank Lloyd Wright was the inventor.

In the above installation called the Slightly Altered series I am building connections utilizing the themes of Frank Lloyd Wright and Lincoln Logs. The inspiration for Slightly Altered body of work started when I discovered Frank Lloyd Wright’s real middle name is Lincoln and his son John invented the Lincoln Logs toy. In contemplation of what is real and what is fake, I am pushing the envelope to find kinship between the real artifacts and my replications. For example, I am purchasing vintage Lincoln Toys from the 20’s and combining them with my work of replicating various autographs like John Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright, and even good old Abe. The ideas for the signature pieces are my connections to the famous autographs at the Mann Chinese Theatre in LA. By making the connections between my work and the historical artifacts, I would like viewers to contemplate what defines real and the fake. We all have a unique signature that defines us, and a copy is not quite the same.

As I sift, measure, and weigh through the creation of drawings, paintings, sculpture, along with the real artifacts, I invite the audience to contemplate something real, something fake, and something almost too personal, very historic, and decidedly universal.

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

May 30, 2009

Bill Radawec's Slightly Altered installation presented by The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center from May 25 - 31, 2009

The Suburban presents Bill Radawec's Slightly Altered exhibition installation inside of their exact replica of their original Oak Park gallery space at the Hyde Park Art Center.

Sitting on the pedestal is the replicated Lincoln Logs sculpture that has a fake John Lloyd Wright's company address stamped on it. This is giving John Lloyd Wright full recognition for his design. Although Lincoln logs have always been a very popular toy, many are not aware that John Lloyd Wright, the son of the very popular architect Frank Lloyd Wright was the inventor.

A replicated red square with Frank Lloyd Wright's signature is displayed on the wall. As a child, Wright had an encounter with the color red. Wright stated in a third person singular, "Wending his way along the ridges of the hills gay with Indian-pinks or shooting stars, across wide meadows carpeted thick with tall grass on which the flowers seemed to float.... The field-lilies stood there above the grass like starts of flame... Always he was the one who knew where the tall, red lilies could be found afloat on tall meadow-grass. The spot of red made by a lilly on the green always gave him an emotion. Later, the red square as spot of flame-red, became the crest with which he signed his drawings and marked his buildings."

The signature pieces along with the Lincoln logs are metaphors of the relationship between Frank Lloyd Wright and his son, John Lloyd Wright. Reading John Lloyd Wright's book called My Father Who is On Earth inspired my Slightly Altered work to not only focus on the father and son relationship but also on our own personal, historic, and universal connections..

Bill Radawec's Slightly Altered exhibition runs from May 25-31, 2009 Check it out...

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

May 29, 2009

Bill Radawec's Slightly Altered installation presented by The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center from May 25 - 31, 2009

The Suburban presents Bill Radawec's Slightly Altered exhibition installation inside of their exact replica of their original Oak Park gallery space at the Hyde Park Art Center.

What is real? Bill Radawec has chosen to define reality by connections. Dyslexia allows Radawec to have a unique perspective, and synapses are rapid fire when he is at work making these connections. Instead of functioning in a linear fashion, Radawec tends to bounce from point to point to create a more holistic understanding for others and himself. His work has a personal connection, a historical connection, and a universal connection. For example, a sense of connecting to Radawec's life long interest of the Civil War and his hero, Lincoln, he used a plain white pillow from Goodwill and transformed it into a bloody artifact through the magic of paint. As a young boy he saw one of Lincoln’s bloody pillows lying on a fake bed. Lincoln’s real bed where he died is at the Chicago History Museum. For an article in the New Observation Magazine, Radawec contacted Ford’s Theatre to try to obtain an image of Lincoln’s bloody pillow. He was informed that due to the pillow’s rapid deterioration, it had to be packed and sealed in a place called MARS. Hopefully, someday Radawec's fake, bloody pillow will be displayed on the Peterson’s fake bed of Lincoln and not just as a photograph in a magazine. So this is where Radawec's art career of where the real meets the fake was born.

In the Slightly Altered series Radawec is working on building connections utilizing the themes of Frank Lloyd Wright and Lincoln Logs. The inspiration for Slightly Altered body of work started when he discovered Frank Lloyd Wright’s real middle name is Lincoln and his son John invented the Lincoln Logs toy. In contemplation of what is real and what is fake, he is pushing the envelope to find kinship between the real artifacts and my replications. For example, Radawec has been purchasing vintage Lincoln Toys from the 20’s and combining them with his work of replicating various autographs like John Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright, and even good old Abe. The ideas for the signature pieces are his connections to the famous autographs at the Mann Chinese Theatre in LA. By making the connections between his work and the historical artifacts, Radawec would like viewers to contemplate what defines real and the fake. We all have a unique signature that defines us, and a copy is not quite the same. As he sifts, measures, and weighs through the creation of drawings, paintings, sculpture, along with the real artifacts, Radawec invites the audience to contemplate something real, something fake, and something almost too personal, very historic, and decidedly universal. Excerpts by Nadine Dalton Speidel

Bill Radawec's Slightly Altered exhibition runs from May 25-31, 2009 Check it out...

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

May 28, 2009

The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center on May 25-31, 2009

Bill Radawec's Slightly Altered exhibition is shown inside The Suburban at the HPAC Artist Run Chicago show. The Suburban has created an exact replica of their original Oak Park gallery space at the HPAC and are hosting revolving one person projects throughout the run of the show. Bill Radawec's Slightly Altered exhibition runs from May 25-31, 2009 Check it out...

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

May 25, 2009

Bill Radawec's Slightly Altered Exhibition presented by The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center on May 25-31, 2009

May 17, 2009

TRa, a fan of the Late Show with Dave Letterman...

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May 16, 2009

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

Bill Radawec
Lincoln Logs sculpture on pedestal, Slightly Altered
2009
Ink on Lincoln Log
5 3/4 x 4 1/8 inches

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

The above work is one of the pieces that will be shown at my Slightly Altered exhibition at Hyde Park Art Center. The replicated Lincoln Logs sculpture has a fake John Lloyd Wright signature stamped on it. This is giving John Lloyd Wright full recognition for his design. Although Lincoln logs have always been a very popular toy, many are not aware that John Lloyd Wright, the son of the very popular architect Frank Lloyd Wright was the creator.

By working with his father on the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, in which they used a unique foundation of interlocking beams to make the structure "earthquake proof", inspired John to use a similar interlocking system in the designing of the toy logs.

Reading John Lloyd Wright's book called My Father Who is On Earth inspired my Slightly Altered work to not only focus on the father and son relationship but also on our own personal, historic, and universal connections.

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

May 14, 2009

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

Bill Radawec
Slightly Altered, Wright, Ad
2009
Two parts: ink on Check and ink on Lincoln Logs Ad, colored photocopy
Check, 10 7/8 x 8 7/8 inches framed Lincoln Logs ad, 12 1/4 x 9 1/4 inches, framed

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

The above work is one of the pieces that will be shown at my Slightly Altered exhibition at Hyde Park Art Center. The replicated vintage Lincoln Logs ad work has my signature added to it as the purchaser. Then on my personal check, I replicated John Lloyd Wright's signature. This is representing the fake transaction between John Lloyd Wright and myself.

By making the connections between my work and the historical artifacts, I would like viewers to contemplate what defines real and the fake.  We all have a unique signature that defines us, and a copy is not quite the same.  As I sift, measure, and weigh through the creation of drawings, paintings, sculpture, along with the real artifacts, I invite the audience to contemplate something real, something fake, and something almost too personal, very historic, and decidedly universal.

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

May 4, 2009

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

Bill Radawec and I.M. Toth
Room 184 from the Slightly Altered series
2009
Inkjet print collaged on paper
10 3/8 x 20 5/8 inches framed

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

Lincoln Logs were invented in 1916 by John Lloyd Wright, a son of the notable architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1918, they were marketed by the Red Square Toy Company and by John Lloyd Wright, Incorporated of Chicago, Illinois. Lincoln Logs originally came with instructions on how to build Uncle Tom's Cabin as well as Lincoln's log cabin.

The architecture of the Imperial Hotel basement in Tokyo, designed by John's father, which used a unique foundation of interlocking beams to make the structure "earthquake proof", assisted in the designing of the toy logs.

The toy can easily produce a structure resembling a log cabin, hence the association with American president Abraham Lincoln (who spent his childhood in a log cabin). The toy's name may have been influenced by his father's birth name, which was Frank Lincoln Wright. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Logs

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

April 19, 2009

The Mob

Bill Radawec
The Mob from the Slightly Altered series
2009
Vinyl on Paper
10 3/8 x 20 5/8 inches framed

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

“The mob is the degeneration of humanity...” - Frank Lloyd Wright

The Mob is one of the pieces that will be shown at my Slightly Altered exhibition at Hyde Park Art Center. The above work is inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright calling the masses, "the mob" which is part of the degeneration of humanity.

The main concept for the Slightly Altered installation is combining artifacts along with my replications or slightly altering relics, to push the envelope of what is real and what is fake.

View the videos below two-part Mike Wallace & Frank Lloyd Wright interview brought to you from the University of Texas at Austin and The Harry Ransom Center. (Also available through the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation at www.franklloydwright.org) and Youtube.

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April 15, 2009

Exploring Connections between Frank Lloyd Wright and John Lloyd Wright

Bill Radawec
1968 from the Slightly Altered series
2009
Acrylic on canvas
18 x 24 inches

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

This white on white 1968 painting is the pattern replication of the hand-carved stonework ornamentation originally found in the now demolished Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.

The upcoming exhibition, Slightly Altered installation is about building connections between Frank Lloyd Wright and his son, John Lloyd Wright. As a result, I have replicated stonework design from the Imperial hotel to link John's work with his father.

John in his design of the Lincoln Logs used a similar unique foundation of interlocking beams as his father, Frank Lloyd Wright did at the Imperial Hotel to make the structure "earthquake proof." It worked since the Imperial Hotel survived the magnitude 7.9 Great Kanto earthquake when many other buildings were demolished. In addition, John worked with his father on the Imperial Hotel too.

This work is part of the Slightly Altered installation that will be shown at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

April 14, 2009

Slightly Altered will be shown at Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago on May 25 - 31, 09

Bill Radawec
1968 (detail view) from the Slightly Altered series
2009
Acrylic on canvas
18 x 24 inches

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

This design for the 1968 painting, (detail view) is the pattern replication of the hand-carved stonework ornamentation originally found in the now demolished Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.

This work is part of the Slightly Altered installation that will be shown at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

April 11, 2009

Imperial Hotel

Tokyo's Imperial Hotel was the best-known of Frank Lloyd Wright's buildings in Japan. The original Imperial Hotel in Tokyo was built in 1890. To replace the original wooden structure, the owners commissioned a design by Wright, which was completed in 1923. Time took its toll, and in 1968, the facade and pool were moved to The Museum Meiji Mura, a collection of buildings (mostly from the Meiji Era) in Inuyama, near Nagoya, while the rest of the structure was demolished to make way for a new hotel on the site.

The Frank Lloyd Wright version was designed in the "Maya Revival Style" of architecture. It incorporates a tall, pyramid-like structure, and also loosely copies Maya motifs in its decorations. The main building materials are poured concrete, concrete block, and carved oya stone. The visual effect of the hotel was stunning and dramatic, though not unique; in recent years, architectural historians have noted a marked similarity with the Cafe Australia, Melbourne, Australia (1916) designed by Prairie School architects Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin.

While the Imperial Hotel was originally owned and partly funded by the imperial family, the current owner of Imperial Hotel, Tokyo, the new hotel on the grounds on which Wright's Imperial Hotel once stood, is Imperial Hotel, Ltd., which runs a chain of luxury hotels in Japan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Hotel,_Tokyo

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

April 9, 2009

John Lloyd Wright, Father of Lincoln Logs

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

Lincoln Logs are a toy consisting of notched miniature logs, about 3⁄4 inches (1-2 cm) in diameter. Analogous to real logs used in a log cabin, Lincoln Logs have notches in their ends so that small model log buildings can be built. In addition, a Lincoln Logs set has windows and doors to make the buildings more realistic. More modern sets also come with figures of humans and animals that match the scale of the buildings.

Lincoln Logs were invented in 1916 by John Lloyd Wright, a son of the notable architect Frank Lloyd Wright. In 1918, they were marketed by the Red Square Toy Company and by John Lloyd Wright, Incorporated of Chicago, Illinois. Lincoln Logs originally came with instructions on how to build Uncle Tom's Cabin as well as Lincoln's log cabin.

The architecture of the Imperial Hotel basement in Tokyo, designed by John's father, which used a unique foundation of interlocking beams to make the structure "earthquake proof", assisted in the designing of the toy logs.

The toy can easily produce a structure resembling a log cabin, hence the association with American president Abraham Lincoln (who spent his childhood in a log cabin). The toy's name may have been influenced by his father's birth name, which was Frank Lincoln Wright. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Logs

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

April 8, 2009

Just Not, Wright

Bill Radawec
Just Not, Wright
2009
Mixed Media
4 x 6 inches
www.billradawec.com

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

While working on building connections between Frank Lloyd Wright and his son, John Lloyd Wright project for the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago, I discovered that Frank's real middle name was Lincoln and that John invented the Lincoln Logs toy. This discover put my creative energies into motion.

The connections continue to expand outside of the father and son relationship to all the firings that took place. For example, Frank was fired by Louis Sullivan for bootlegging homes on the side. Then later, Frank fires both his sons, John and Lloyd over money issue. This spills into Frank's mistress firing their help in which she pays with her life.

The above work is one of the pieces that will be shown at my Slightly Altered exhibition at Hyde Park Art Center. This work is a replication of John Lloyd's signature that will be shown along with his father's fake signature. The ideas for the signature pieces are my connections to the famous autographs at the Mann Chinese Theatre in LA.

By using artifacts along with my replications or slightly altering relics, I am pushing the envelope of what is real and what is fake.

This work will be shown at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

April 6, 2009

Not FLW

Bill Radawec
Not FLW
2008
Mixed Media
5 x 5 inches
www.billradawec.com

Slightly Altered installation shown at The Suburban at The Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago on May 25 - 31, 2009

I am currently working on building connections utilizing the themes of Frank Lloyd Wright and Lincoln Logs. The inspiration for Slightly Altered work started when I discovered Frank Lloyd Wright’s real middle name is Lincoln and his son John invented the Lincoln Logs toy. In contemplation of what is real and what is fake, I am pushing the envelope to find kinship between the real artifacts and my replications. For example, I am purchasing vintage Lincoln Toys from the 20’s and combining them with my work of replicating various autographs like John Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wright, and even good old Abe. The ideas for the signature pieces are my connections to the famous autographs at the Mann Chinese Theatre in LA.

This work will be shown at Suburban in Chicago next month.

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

April 5, 2009

"When I look up in the sky, it is like viewing my work on a daily basis." --- Bill Radawec

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on masonite
12 x 9 inches
www.billradawec.com

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April 4, 2009

Overhead

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2007
Acrylic on canvas
25 x 12 inches
www.billradawec.com

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April 3, 2009

I see you

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on canvas with fake security camera
24 x 24 inches
www.billradawec.com

On September 11, 2001, United Flight 93 was hijacked, turned from its original flight plan to San Francisco, and subsequently crashed near Shanksville, PA. The plane was above Cleveland when it drastically changed directions. I consider this moment in my series, Out of the Blue, the Turn Around, in which I portray a vibrant blue sky stippled with a line of sparse white clouds. Read in context, this line represents the vapor trail of United Flight 93 as it turned toward Washington D. C. The functioning fake video security camera that flashes its red light accompanies the painting adds to its political implications and protection.

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April 2, 2009

It's the end of the world as we know it

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on canvas
14 x 11 inches
www.billradawec.com

My acrylic paintings titled "Out of the Blue, the Turn Around" depict the cloud trails of United Flight 93. It attempts to capture the fleeting marks of the doomed plane as it turned around over in Parma, Ohio, my hometown. During exhibitions, fake surveillance cameras are placed at navel heights angled downward and at eye level. This juxtaposition suggests the heightened surveillance and loss of privacy since 9/11.

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April 1, 2009

What is Real?

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 24 inches
www.billradawec.com

On September 11, 2001, four airplanes were hijacked and two of them were crashed into the Twin Towers in New York, the third into the Pentagon. The fourth crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after passengers attempted to retake the plane. Popular mythology surrounding the event says that the plane turned around in the Cleveland area from its intended flight to the Capital, possibly over Ridge Road in Parma, my hometown.

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March 31, 2009

Special nod to Barnett Newman

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2006
Acrylic on canvas
18 x 24 inches
www.billradawec.com

With a special nod to Barnett Newman, the Out of the Blue series culminates on a grand scale, the ideas of loss, death, and what is truly real.  Flight 93 flew over my house in Ohio, on a clear beautiful day.  I took my personal connections to the subject matter, seeing all the contrails, and the experience of death to pay homage to the historic theme, and remind us all of the universality of it all.  In all my work I used humor to dilute strong subjects, which are respectfully absent, and the power of the contrails called Out of the Blue, the Turn Around series, is more focused.  Like the earthquake series called the Crack-Ups, I see the contrails as automatic paintings and drawings against a blue screen background.  When I look up in the sky, it is like viewing my work on a daily basis. 

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

March 30, 2009

Out of the Blue, the Turn Around

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Colored pencil on paper
11 x 14 inches
www.billradawec.com

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March 29, 2009

U-Turn

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2009
Pencil on paper
11 x 14 inches
www.billradawec.com

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March 26, 2009

Are you feeling blue?

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Colored pencil on paper
11 x 14 inches
www.billradawec.com

March 25, 2009

Nose Dive

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on canvas
12 x 9 inches
www.billradawec.com

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March 20, 2009

Two Cool Cats

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March 19, 2009

Bluescreen/Contrail

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 23 inches
www.billradawec.com

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March 18, 2009

TRa watching President Barack Obama at town hall meeting in Costa Mesa, CA

TRa better known as t--t, (my little Siamese cat) watching President Obama's town hall meeting on MSNBC news.

Hello my name is TRa and I enjoyed listening to President Obama's town hall meeting. And you are invited to come back to view more of Bill's paintings.

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February 12, 2009

Happy Birthday Abe

February 3, 2009

Coming Soon To California

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on canvas mounted on museum board
10 x 8 inches
www.billradawec.com

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January 11, 2009

Ohio to Pennsylvania, 9/11

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on canvas
8 x 8 inches
www.billradawec.com

Scene
Out of the Blue
By Zachary Lewis

Out of the Blue -- A bright, cloudless blue sky marred only by a faint white curving contrail. Clevelanders gazing upward on 9-11 might have seen something like that, if it's true that the fourth hijacked plane did indeed turn around over Northeast Ohio on its way toward Washington.  Launching into another completely new line of work, Parma artist Bill Radawec here imagines how that patch of sky might have looked in a size and shape vary considerably, from notebook- and poster-sized to narrow horizontal strips.  The rest is nothing but white pencil, depicting various arcing jet exhausts from different perspectives.  There are 30 examples here and many more in storage.  Most hang near the ceiling, forcing viewers to participate vicariously by looking up.  Simple, perhaps, but the overtones are complex, and the interpretive potential is as boundless as the possibilities a blue screen represents.  It's a strange exercise, pondering Cleveland's oblique relationship to such a momentous event.  And Radawec himself has long been fascinated by these sort-of-close encounters with tragedy (the first being the suicide of his artistic idol).  More important, no one who noticed one of these contrails that day would have suspected the horrible reality.  In fact, they may even have smiled, assuming they'd seen a stunt plane. How wrong they would have been.

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December 12, 2008

Asterisk Gallery Benefit

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on canvas
10 x 8 inches
www.billradawec.com

Support Asterisk Gallery in Cleveland by bidding on great works of art .   All proceeds from this event go directly to keeping the gallery open to the public and to help subsidize future events.

Silent Bidding begins on Friday Dec 12, 5-10 pm through Sat Dec 13, 6-11pm

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

December 6, 2008

Postcards From the Edge: A Benefit for Visual AIDS

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Colored pencil on paper
4 x 6 inches
www.billradawec.com

Visual AIDS
Postcards From the Edge: A Benefit for Visual AIDS
Hosted by Metro Pictures
January 9-10, 2009
visualaids.com

Q: What is Visual AIDS?
A: Postcards From the Edge benefits Visual AIDS. Founded in 1988 by arts professionals as a response to the effects of AIDS on the arts community and as a way of organizing artists, arts institutions, and arts audiences towards direct action, Visual AIDS has evolved into an arts organization with a two-part mission.

The first part, through the Frank Moore Archive Project, the largest slide library of work by artists living with HIV and the estates of artists who have died of AIDS, Visual AIDS historicizes the contributions of visual artists with HIV while supporting their ability to continue making art and furthering their professional careers. The second part, in collaboration with museums, galleries, artists, schools, and AIDS service organizations, Visual AIDS produces exhibitions, publications, and events utilizing visual art to spread the message "AIDS IS NOT OVER."

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November 27, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

Bill Radawec
Wired, (Another Basket Case) from the Birds series
1996
Steel, chain, hardware, epoxy chrome, wood
Dimensions variable
billradawec.com

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November 20, 2008

For Pete's Sake, the Sequal

November 14, 2008

For Pete's Sake

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November 2, 2008

U - Turn

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around Installation
2008
Installation with security camera
www.billradawec.com

Free Times
Turning Point:  Bill Radawec Remembers Flight 93
By Doug Max Utter
www.billradawec.com

Movement is identity. Each twitch, every decision and reaction leaves a trace, a track inscribed - If only in the molecules of the air - as a stroke in the universe's ongoing self-portrait. We all do our part.  Interpretation is harder, though, like the recent NASA photos of a "mudslide" on Mars that may be evidence of subsurface water, or may just look like that. The dots we connect sometimes are a match only in our imagination.

For instance, when United Flight 93 was hijacked on that fateful September morning, it was somewhere in the airspace over Parma, Ohio, perhaps directly over the artist Bill Radawec's house. On that lovely, clear, late-summer morning, the sky was blue and the 757 jet would have left a huge curving contrail as it abruptly turned and headed toward its doom, ultimately falling to earth in a strip mine near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

In the 30 small paintings and drawings that make up his solo show Out ofthe Blue, Radawec imagines walking out his door not far from Ridge Road and looking up, just at that moment of turning, forming a line-of-sight connection with history. The paintings are hung at different heights around exit's two galleries; some are less than five feet up from the floor, others hover near the ceiling, and all are spaced fairly far apart, conjuring the wide expanse of open sky. In the paintings the blue is rendered in acrylic, but the contrails themselves are meticulously drawn in dense accumulations of white-colored pencil marks. The illusion is nearly perfect. Radawec has depicted straight sections of vapor, heading right toward the ceiling, and strong, thick ones that cut boldly across the canvas like one of abstract expressionist Barnett Newman's famous "zip" paintings. Others are seen as if at a greater height, sharp and clear ending with ominous abruptness. It's as if the mystery of 9/11 and its decisive events were written on the sky. Extrapolating from Radawec's reverie, every contrail since has been commentary on that day's tragic text.

Over the past two decades Radawec has engaged in various projects that sketched a relationship between mark-making a deliberate expressive activity, and accidental aesthetics that time and nature inscribe. It's worth mentioning that these are by no means his only concerns. Speaking to a group of students recently, he came up with a list of words and subjects that sample his own interests. Running from "atomic bomb" and "cooking" through "fireman" and "stand - comedy," it also mentions growing up in the 1960's, Hieronymous Bosch and Vermeer. There are 72 entries, all of which have been part of his thinking and process at one time or another, and no doubt he could easily add as many more. Probably that's not unusual for an artist in these intellectually engaged, polymorphic times, but the list does serve to remind us that everything we do and make is constructed from layer upon layer of intention and experience.

Also known as a curator here and in Los Angeles, Radawec pioneers informal exhibition spaces with a highly innovative exhibition style, like the series of shows he mounted in friends' homes in the Los Angeles area. Collectively called Domestic Setting, those exhibits garnered some national interest, Art News, Art Forum, Flash Art,and Art in America. Later, in the fall of 2002, a couple of years after his return from a decade on the West Coast, the artist/curator began to put together exhibits in a gallery the size of a child's bedroom, built for him by Cleveland artist Matt Dibble in a corner of "superior, a gallery space," it offered Cleveland audience in art communities and university departments around the country.

During these past seven years he also mounted several shows of his own work, first at Shaheen Contemporary and Moderndowntown, and later at Per Knutas' raw & co in Tremont. Crack - ups at Shaheen showed elaborate pencil and paper reconstructions of sections of Radawec's apartment walls in Venice, California. Each was an exact replica of damage caused by the Northridge earthquake, which shook Radawec and a few million other Californians awake early in 1994. As in Out of the Blue, the artist is obsessively reliving a moment in time over and over again, like a diamond stylus running in the same groove on an old LP. It's hard to tell whether the analogue experience he generates is intended to close a cognitive gap caused by a catastrophic moment in time, when everything suddenly veered, damaged, toward a different destiny; or perhaps these works aim to put themselves between the wound and the weapon, reconfiguring the real.

Either way, Radawec proposes a hall of mirrors to the mind. A post - minimalist/conceptualist in orientation, he seeks the essence of things, but with an autobiographical slant that usually accompanies a more expressive manner; post - minimalists tend to park the personal at the gallery door. The late Fred Sandback, for instance, whose work would figure prominently on any list of Radawec's influences and mentors, become famous over the past 40 years for his deceptively simple geometric constructions made with strands of string and yarn, transforming the way audiences perceive interior space. Those extraordinary sculptures steadfastly refuse to be either two or three - dimensional, instead suggesting the pure volumes of a transcendent realm, magically translated to real space and time. The constructions at Crackups and the paintings at Out of the Blue do something similar as they recollect the subjects - death - and the sort of transcendent space that death occupies in relation to ordinary, daily life.

Another of Radawec's themes is what he calls "fake nature" and the way that nature imitates art when it invades man-made structures. Much of the landscape of Los Angeles is notably a conversation of that kind, between cosmos and cosmetics - but of course that could be said of any contemporary city, even Cleveland. Things like the contrails of modern jets, which are nothing if not fake clouds, are another case in point. That the coin of art is always forged is half of Radawec's ongoing thesis; the other half is the disturbing fact that the reality we buy with it is death.

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

November 1, 2008

like a feather out of a cap

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on masonite
12 x 9 inches
www.billradawec.com

West Side Leader
Sky's the limit
By Roger Durbin
www.billradawec.com

As the Akron Art Museum is set to reopen its doors after its expansion and remodeling project, its neighbor, Summit Artspace, is doffing its artistic hat with the exhibit Kiss the Sky, which will be on view through Aug. 4.  The title of the exhibition nods to Akron Art Museum's architectural firm, Coop Himmelb(l)au, where in German "himmel" means heaven or sky and "blau" means blue.  As curator Laura Ruth Bidwell said, the new museum "building soars off into the sky as well." Artist Radawec reads the sky altogether differently. His seemingly evenly divided drawings on paper and acrylic works on canvas are arranged in an arcing pattern around three walls in a separate room in the Summit Artspace facility.  Each image in the series "Out of the Blue, the Turn Around" has a background of clear sky blue from edge to to edge on which he dipicts through meticulously crafted pencil marks the wisps of vapor (or contrails) that trail back from high - flying aircraft.  As inspiration for this collection, Radawec wondered about the fateful day of Sept. 11, 2001, When Flight93 (which ended up destroyed in a field in Pennsylvania) turned its course somewhere above his house before it headed back toward Washington D.C. He imagines in his art that he walked out his door that day, looked up and saw the 757 jet leaving a huge contrail as it veered its course.  It would have been for him "a line-of- sight connection with history"  in the making.  The idea perhaps gains most moment in one work where the white line of smoke looks as though it is plummeting directly toward the ground.  Sept. 11, 2001 aside, the images can lead a viewer who knew nothing of that day into all sorts of imaginings.  Many things come to us "Out of the Blue" and amount to a great "Turn Around" in our lives.

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October 31, 2008

a nice view...

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around Installation
2008
Installation view
www.billradawec.com

Scene
Out of the Blue
By Zachary Lewis
www.billradawec.com

Out of the Blue -- A bright, cloudless blue sky marred only by a faint white curving contrail. Clevelanders gazing upward on 9-11 might have seen something like that, if it's true that the fourth hijacked plane did indeed turn around over Northeast Ohio on its way toward Washington. Launching into another completely new line of work, Parma artist Bill Radawec here imagines how that patch of sky might have looked in a size and shape vary considerably, from notebook- and poster-sized to narrow horizontal strips. The rest is nothing but white pencil, depicting various arcing jet exhausts from different perspectives. There are 30 examples here and many more in storage. Most hang near the ceiling, forcing viewers to participate vicariously by looking up. Simple, perhaps, but the overtones are complex, and the interpretive potential is as boundless as the possibilities a blue screen represents. It's a strange exercise, pondering Cleveland's oblique relationship to such a momentous event. And Radawec himself has long been fascinated by these sort-of-close encounters with tragedy (the first being the suicide of his artistic idol). More important, no one who noticed one of these contrails that day would have suspected the horrible reality. In fact, they may even have smiled, assuming they'd seen a stunt plane. How wrong they would have been.  billradawec.com

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October 28, 2008

Bill Radawec's Out of the Blue

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on masonite
8 x 10 inches
www.billradawec.com

Scene
Out of the Blue
By Zachary Lewis
www.billradawec.com

Out of the Blue -- A bright, cloudless blue sky marred only by a faint white curving contrail. Clevelanders gazing upward on 9-11 might have seen something like that, if it's true that the fourth hijacked plane did indeed turn around over Northeast Ohio on its way toward Washington. Launching into another completely new line of work, Parma artist Bill Radawec here imagines how that patch of sky might have looked in a size and shape vary considerably, from notebook- and poster-sized to narrow horizontal strips. The rest is nothing but white pencil, depicting various arcing jet exhausts from different perspectives. There are 30 examples here and many more in storage. Most hang near the ceiling, forcing viewers to participate vicariously by looking up. Simple, perhaps, but the overtones are complex, and the interpretive potential is as boundless as the possibilities a blue screen represents. It's a strange exercise, pondering Cleveland's oblique relationship to such a momentous event. And Radawec himself has long been fascinated by these sort-of-close encounters with tragedy (the first being the suicide of his artistic idol). More important, no one who noticed one of these contrails that day would have suspected the horrible reality. In fact, they may even have smiled, assuming they'd seen a stunt plane. How wrong they would have been.  billradawec.com

Email your comments to Bill Radawec at billradawec@gmail.com

October 24, 2008

Red, green, yellow, and out of the blue...

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October 7, 2008

Bill Radawec's Contrail series, Out of the Blue, the Turn Around

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on canvas mounted on museum board
10 x 8 inches
www.billradawec.com

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September 25, 2008

a little to the left...

Bill Radawec
Out of the Blue, the Turn Around
2008
Acrylic on canvas
24 x 24 inches
www.billradawec.com

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September 11, 2008

9/11

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September 6, 2008

The fake crack makes it into Art in America

Art in America
Bill Radawec at Shaheen Contemporary - Cleveland
Thomas McEvilley

Bill Radawec was living in Los Angeles when the big earthquake of 1994 hit.  His apartment developed cracks in the walls at about 40 places.  He decided to make an art work of the earthquake damage.  Ascending a ladder, carrying a drawing board, he drew each of the cracks in detail and measured the depths of the various parts of each fissure, which were between one and five millimeters deep.  He marked the corresponding parts of each drawing with a number, 1 through 5, to indicate the depth of the fissure at that exact point.  Then he took sheets of paper one millimeter thick.  On the first one he drew the uppermost layer of a crack and cut it out with an X-acto knife.  Putting another sheet underneath that one, he drew the parts that were one millimeter deep, and cut them out.  Then, with another sheet, he drew the parts that were two millimeters deep, cut them out, and so on.  The drawing was done with pen, pencil and Wite-Out.  Finally each crack was represented by a stack of five sheets that replicated it in three dimensions.  In each case the uppermost sheet was painted the color of his walls at the time, a pale tan.  The 40 or so obsessive drawings were then framed. The result is a series of trompe I'oeil representations of earthquake damage rendered so precisely and convincingly that, upon seeing them, one at first thinks the artist removed the sections of plaster and framed them.  Even upon close inspection they do not reveal themselves as representations, but seem real.  The glimpses of damage are esthetically appealing.  Each drawing turns out to have a particular allure that is unique.  Yet, despite their credibility and charm as drawings, they clearly partake of the spirit of conceptual art.  In fact, they treat a classical theme of conceptual art that might be called the problem of the wall.  In the 1960s and early `70s, conceptual artists in general regarded the wall with suspicion, as the site of painting, which seemed polluted by its long-standing complicity with the market system. Earlier, Duchamp had responded to this feeling by placing his works on the floor or hanging them from the ceiling, avoiding the ideologically saturated wall.  In the early conceptualist period many variations on this theme were rung, by William Anastasi, Lawrence Weiner and others.  Radawec has produced an elegant variation on this theme 30 years later, when many of the concerns of classical conceptualism are being reinvestigated.  His version has traits that show the passage of years and the softening of the austere, earlier principles. Radawec's works, for example, are made by hand rather than by a mechanical method; being drawings, they represent the most traditional of art-school disciplines; they are framed like more traditional art works, although they show only the wall itself; and so on.  This elegant and intelligent show encapsulated a good swath of recent art history.  The fact that the works show earthquake damage--and in fact enshrine it - suggests the deep damage that the quake of conceptualism wrought to the tradition of the artist's hand and its touch.  Yet, with an ironic circularity that is another classical conceptual theme, they represent this deep fissure in art history through the very qualities of drawing, hand and touch that the original conceptualists hoped to destroy forever.

www.billradawec.com

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September 5, 2008

David Letterman - Northridge Earthquake in Los Angeles

www.youtube.com

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September 4, 2008

Real or Fake?

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September 3, 2008

Coming soon on shaky grounds...

Bill Radawec
Crack-Up (bathroom, below window)
1997
Latex gloss Navajo paint, correction ink on paper
21" x 15"
www.billradawec.com

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September 2, 2008

History of the city of Sawtelle

A streetcar on Santa Monica Boulevard in Sawtelle, 1890.  At the time, Sawtelle was an independent city midway between Los Angeles and Santa Monica.

Sawtelle existed as a separate city for many years up to 1922.  According to "Police Seizure of City Hall Starts Sawtelle on Exit Path" by reporter George Garrigues in the Los Angeles Times (Westside section) of January 10, 1963, the following events took place:

In 1918, the voters of Sawtelle decided by a margin of three votes to merge their city with Los Angeles.  The vote was 519-516.  But the Board of Trustees, equivalent to a city council, refused to accept the decision and "ordered a challenge in the courts."

The city of Los Angeles, however, did not wait for a court decision but instead "rounded up a squad of policemen and 'swooped' down upon the Sawtelle City Hall, as one account put it at the time."

Sawtelle city officials were locked out of the City Hall and L.A. people took over all the municipal and school activities.

In the meantime, the ousted Sawtelle trustees continued their case in the courts, and on September 15, 1921, the California Supreme Court decided the consolidation had indeed been illegal because the voters "had not been told on their ballots that they would have to pay a proportionate share of all Los Angeles debts for bonds."

"Thirty-two days later the city of Los Angeles moved out of Sawtelle as quickly as it had moved in.  Nine policemen packed up the records and left; eight firemen abandoned the fire engine and reported for work elsewhere."  The city of Sawtelle was back in operation.

In 1922 another election was held, and once again Sawtelle voters decided to join Los Angeles.  This time the merger was permanent.  Sawtelle was the fourth city to be merged with Los Angeles, after Wilmington and San Pedro in 1909 and Hollywood in 1910.

Since the early 1950s, members of the street youth gang Sotel 13 appeared at Stoner Park in Sawtelle.  The gang members, who appeared at the park around 3 P.M. every weekday, had very few members in 2002 due to gentrification of West Los Angeles.  Many West Los Angeles gang members moved to the city of Inglewood.  More at http://en.wikipedia.org

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September 1, 2008

Sawtelle Boulevard

Sawtelle Blvd. Los Angeles, 90025

Sawtelle Boulevard is a north/south street in Los Angeles of important cultural significance. Sawtelle Blvd's northern end is at Ohio Avenue adjacent to the Veteran Administration, and its southern end is at Overland Avenue, a few blocks past Sepulveda Boulevard. Sawtelle Blvd is the major thoroughfare for the West Los Angeles neighborhood of Sawtelle.

The portion of Sawtelle Blvd from Santa Monica Boulevard to Olympic Boulevard is a trendy spot for the newer Japanese American community in Los Angeles,[1]. Often called simply "Sawtelle," this neighborhood is occasionally called "Little Osaka" - not to be confused with downtown Los Angeles' older Little Tokyo, or the larger Japantown, San Francisco, California (which has also been called Little Osaka)[2]. Sawtelle is relatively near UCLA, Santa Monica, and Culver City. Twenty years ago, Japanese immigrants operated botanical nurseries here. Today, businesses found on this street include Japanese fast food (curry and ramen), upscale sushi bars, hair salons, neighborhood Japanese grocery stores, three Boba tea shops, anime, Japanese artisan stores, temples, and a few historic nurseries. One interesting site is the consulate of Saudi Arabia, located next to a ramen restaurant and an esoteric Japanese magazine store.

Homes south of this portion of Sawtelle Blvd are inhabited by a large Japanese American population. Many of the homes exhibit gardens and landscapes true to Japanese tradition.

After passing Olympic Blvd, Sawtelle Blvd continues as a four lane boulevard running parallel to the San Diego Freeway and Sepulveda Boulevard. After entering Culver City, Sawtelle Blvd swerves east, crosses Sepulveda Boulevard and ends at Overland Avenue in Culver City. More at http://en.wikipedia.org

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August 31, 2008

Bill Radawec's Soul Patch Series

Bill Radawec
Soul Patch, the Sequel
1998
Colored pencil, paper mounted on wood
8 7/8"x 8 7/8" detail and angle views
www.billradawec.com

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August 30, 2008

Bill Radawec's Soul Patch Series

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August 29, 2008

Soul Patch can be defined as the hair under the lip or on top of a grave...

The soul patch is a small patch of facial hair just below the lower lip and above the chin.  It came to prominence in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was a style of beard common among jazzmen.  It became popular with beatniks, artists, and those who frequented the jazz scene and moved in literary and artistic circles.  Jazz trumpeters in particular preferred the soul patch for the comfort it provided when using a trumpet mouthpiece also made famous by Frank Zappa.   Wikipedia

In addition to to the small patch of beard common to jazzmen, my “Soul Patches” series were inspired by fondness of cemeteries and the many walks through them.  Although Marilyn’s grave could easily be found, it was always a frustrating experience when I could never find Natalie Wood’s grave.  As a result, of looking at the grass for long periods of time inspired me to create the Soul Patch paintings and then bury it under fake grass.  Playing with the idea that painting is dead, I thought it should have a proper burial.  By Bill Radawec

Bill Radawec
Soul Patch
1996
Fake grass, acrylic on wood
10 13/16" x 10 13/16" detail and side view
www.billradawec.com

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August 28, 2008

How do you define the hair under the lip?

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August 27, 2008

It's time for a fall walk but don't fall...

Bill Radawec
Walking Stick
2000
Fake tree, fake grass, wood, and acrylic
42 1/2" x 6" x 5 1/2"

My Walking Sticks series invite the viewers to explore our connections to this earth. This series was inspired by the presentation of a gift to the late Pope John Paul II, a gift of tennis shoes and a walking stick. It was amusing to me about the need for support in the rough terrain, the walking stick insect which uses its camouflage to secure its existence in nature, and the behavior of hikers who adorn their own walking sticks with talismans from successful hikes through natural environments. Who would present the Pope with a walking stick and tennis shoes? What kind of a gift is this? And, why would people who experienced the reality of the breadth and depth of the natural environment bring back a small piece of it attached to their walking stick? How do we work through our own conceptions of what is real and what is fake, and why do we need to own a part of "it", be it an attachment to a stick or an insect caught in amber? What are the connections here?

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August 26, 2008

Walking Stick, the sequel

Bill Radawec
Walking Stick, the sequel
2000
Colored Pencil and Wood on Paper
30 5/8" x 3"

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August 25, 2008

Walking Stick

Bill Radawec
Walking Stick
1998
Fake Tree, Fake Grass, Wood and Acrylic
43" x 41/2" x 5 1/2"

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August 16, 2008

Sideburn Burnside

Ambrose Everett Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was an American soldier, railroad executive, inventor, industrialist, and politician from Rhode Island, serving as governor and a U.S. Senator.  As a Union Army general in the American Civil War, he conducted successful campaigns in North Carolina and East Tennessee but was defeated in the disastrous Battle of Fredericksburg and Battle of the Crater. His distinctive style of facial hair is now known as sideburns, derived from his last name.

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August 15, 2008

Do I look familiar?  My sideburns are considered a fashion statement.

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August 14, 2008

How to Trim Sideburns

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August 13, 2008

I am the Hooker...  My name is Joseph Hooker

Joseph Hooker (November 13, 1814 – October 31, 1879) was a career U.S. Army officer, fought in the Mexican-American War, and was a major general in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Despite Hooker's reputation as a hard-drinking ladies' man, there is no basis for the popular legend that the slang term for prostitutes is derived from his last name because of parties and a lack of military discipline at his headquarters.   Some versions of the legend claim that the band of prostitutes that followed his division were derisively referred to as "General Hooker's Army" or "Hooker's Brigade."   However, the term "hooker" was used in print as early as 1845, years before Hooker was a public figure.  The prevalence of the Hooker legend may have been at least partly responsible for the popularity of the term.  From Wikipedia

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What Kind of Hooker Looks Like This?

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August 12, 2008

Frank Lloyd Wright called the 1939 Lincoln Continental  “the most beautiful car ever made.”

http://www.ultimatecarpage.com

Lincoln Continental

Article by Wouter Melissen

After the Lincoln Zephyr's successful launch, Edsel and his chief designer began work on a new Zephyr-based model. As legend has it, Edsel was on a tour of Paris in 1939 when he became enamored with the elegant sophistication of European cars. Upon his return to the United States, Edsel commissioned Lincoln design chief E.T. 'Bob' Gregorie to build a car for his personal use - one that would have a 'continental' style and be ready in time for him to drive it to Hobe Sound, Fla., during his 1939 winter vacation. The car created by Ford and Gregorie so impressed the social elite of Hobe Sound that Edsel returned to Michigan with nearly 200 orders in hand and the conviction to produce the car.
The Continental is now considered as one of the best looking American cars ever built. In 1951 it was exhibited with just seven other cars in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Production stopped in 1942 as the US and the Lincoln factories concentrated on the second world war. The Continental had a second production run after the war with a slightly different front. Production finally ceased in 1948 and with the Continental production of the V12 engine stopped as well.

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August 11, 2008

Who brought us the Lincoln and Cadillac?

History News Network
The Man Who Brought Us the Cadillac and Lincoln
By Yankek Mieczkowski

Few Americans know the name of Henry Leland. But they know the two automobile companies he founded, Cadillac and Lincoln. The high quality and standards that Leland demanded of his cars still resonate today, as Detroit faces stiff competition from automakers around the world.

The importance of Cadillac and Lincoln in upholding the reputation of American automakers was driven home in July 2003, when marketing research firm J. D. Power and Associates released the results of two surveys. In its Vehicle Dependability Study, a yardstick for quality and reliability, only four American nameplates made the list's top ten (in order of placement: Buick, Cadillac, Lincoln, and Mercury; a Japanese brand, Lexus, came in first). In its Customer Service Index Study, which measured consumer satisfaction with dealers, again, just four American brands ranked in the top ten (in order: Saturn, Lincoln, Cadillac, and Buick; another Japanese company, Infiniti, topped the list).

1939 Lincoln Zephyr toy model

1938 Cadillac V16 Fleetwood toy model                                               

Cadillac and Lincoln made the top ten in both surveys.  The quality of these two renowned American lines can be traced to Henry Leland. Perhaps the country's most underrated automaker, Leland focused on precision manufacturing and put American automobiles on the world stage.

Leland's early work as a machinist introduced him to the idea of precision manufacturing.  Born in 1843 in Vermont, he made guns during the Civil War at a federal arsenal in Springfield, Massachusetts, and then at a Colt factory in Connecticut.  Later, he found work at a Rhode Island company that made machine tools and micrometers.  "Tolerance" is a machinist's term meaning the variation that part sizes will permit, and Leland's jobs involved using extremely low tolerances, just fractions of an inch.

Restless, Leland wanted to strike out on his own and start a factory.  He moved to Chicago to chase his dream, but in a twist of fate, he arrived there on what became one of the city's most notorious days, May 4, 1886. It was a time when workers bristled against the power of industrialists, and on that day, a labor demonstration in Chicago's Haymarket Square turned violent.  Someone threw a bomb into police ranks; officers fired into the crowd, and when the smoke cleared, policemen and civilians lay dead.  Alarmed by the riot, Leland packed his bags and left.  The bloody day may have cost Chicago a place as a prime site for automobile manufacturing, as Leland's companies later became formidable forces in the field.

Leland decided to settle in Detroit, and he founded a firm to make gears, machine tools, and gasoline engines.  His company's products had tolerances as low as 1/2,000th of an inch, a spectacular achievement for the time.  Word spread of Leland's high-quality products, and his customers grew, among them early automobile manufacturer Ransom E. Olds, who used Leland's gears and engines in his cars. 

Henry Leland and his 1905 Cadillac

The Cadillac Automobile Company recruited Leland, and two years later he took over the company and reorganized it as the Cadillac Motor Company, becoming its first president. By 1905, Cadillac was one of the world's leading car makers.

Cadillacs became known for their innovations.  They sheltered passengers from the elements with closed sedans--in contrast to the open, window-less bodies that were standard at the time--and also featured self-starting motors.  (Tragedy inspired the latter, as one of Leland's friends had died from injuries sustained while cranking a car.)  Moreover, Cadillacs were revered for their quality, all the more remarkable because they used mass-produced parts.  Henry Ford's assembly line was several years away, and cars were still built manually.  Workers also used hand-made parts with gross tolerances, employing a tedious process of filing and grinding pieces to make them fit together.  Such hand-made parts carried a talisman of refinement and precision, or so many people believed. Leland knew better.  He felt that manually built components lacked the precision of mass-produced, standardized parts, and he wanted to prove it.

In 1908, Leland got his chance. England's Royal Automobile Club challenged automakers to test the precision of standardized parts during a special competition.  Three Cadillacs, the only cars that entered the contest, were shipped to England, and officials completely disassembled them, mixed up their parts, and then reassembled the cars.  All three ran perfectly.  On the strength of this performance, Cadillac became the first American company to win the prestigious Dewar Trophy, awarded to the company that introduced the year's greatest automotive innovation. Leland helped to dispel the notion that machine-made components lacked the quality of their hand-made counterparts.  After triumphing in England, Cadillac adopted the proud advertising slogan, "Standard of the World."

Henry Leland and son Wilfred C.

In 1909, the General Motors Company bought Cadillac for almost $6 million, and GM President Walter Durant asked Leland and his son, Wilfred, to stay and run the division.  Cadillac soon became GM's prestige brand, and its reputation loomed larger in 1912 when it became the only company ever to win a second Dewar Trophy, this time for its electric starting and ignition system.

In 1917, when the U.S. entered World War I, Leland wanted Cadillac to produce airplane engines, and when Durant refused, Leland left.  But at 73 years old, he stood on the cusp of another great achievement.

Leland formed a new company, and friends urged him to name it after himself.  Had he done so, the name "Leland" would probably be a familiar one today.  Instead, Leland decided to honor one of his idols.  Since the Civil War, he had deeply admired Abraham Lincoln; his personal library was stocked with books on the sixteenth president, and a portrait of Lincoln graced his office. 

Henry Leland's Lincoln Motor Company

In 1917, the Lincoln Motor Company was born, and for the rest of the war the firm produced airplane engines.

After the war, Leland turned again to car manufacturing, unveiling a new Lincoln automobile with a powerful V-8 engine.  His new company, however, stumbled on financial difficulties, as Leland struggled to repay loans; the Treasury Department also wrongly sued him for owing more than $5 million in war profits taxes (it later dropped the charges).  Henry Ford provided a way out for Leland when he bought Lincoln at the fire-sale price of $8 million.  But Leland never got along with Ford, whose leadership he considered truculent and intrusive.  In 1923, he left Lincoln and automobile manufacturing for good.  By the time Leland died in 1932, Lincoln was firmly ensconced as Ford's luxury division.

Leland remains a little-known yet crucial pioneer in automaking, a man who parlayed his experience in tool casting into luxury automobile manufacturing.  At a time when American car makers yearned to establish themselves against European manufacturers, Leland won international acclaim and championed innovations and precision engineering.  Today, at a time when the domestic automakers face even more worldwide competition, the companies that Leland founded still attract attention for quality.  hnn.us/articles

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August 10, 2008

"An architect's most useful tools are an eraser at the drafting board, and a wrecking bar at the site."  By Frank Lloyd Wright

August 9, 2008

Marion Mahony Griffin and not FLW

A Virtual Tour - The "Residence"

http://www.henryfordestate.org/tour.htm

The tale of how Fair Lane came to be is a complex one. In late 1909, Henry Ford approached Frank Lloyd Wright to discuss a commission for the design of a new country house. The home was to be built on a dramatic 1300-acre site Ford had acquired alongside the Rouge River, just two miles from where he had been born.

Marion Mahony Griffin's original "Prairie School" design.

A few days after meeting with Henry Ford, Frank Lloyd Wright eloped to Europe with the wife of one of his clients.  Fair Lane's design was taken over by Marion Mahony Griffin, a former student of Wright who was with the Chicago architectural firm of Van Holst & Fyfe. Griffin's plans closely embodied Wright's "Prairie School" design philosophy.

As the story goes, Mr. Ford noticed that the Van Holst people were being quite extravagant with the use of materials in the construction of Fair Lane's footings and foundation.  It has also been said that Clara Ford and Griffin were at odds over certain aspects of Fair Lane's design.  In 1912, the Fords returned from their first trip to Europe with a new found appreciation for English manor houses.  Henry Ford soon dismissed the Van Holst & Fyfe firm and hired the Pittsburgh concern of William H. Van Tine.  Under Van Tine, Fair Lane's design was greatly modified.  The result was an eclectic mixture of English castle elements juxtaposed with Wright-Midwestern prairie features.

Constructed of Ohio Marblehead limestone the "Residence," as Mr. Ford liked to call it, contained over 31,000 square feet divided into 56 rooms. Its outer walls were from 18 to 24 inches thick. They surrounded seven bedrooms, fifteen baths, a kitchen, service and storage rooms, a "field "room, an indoor swimming pool, a bowling alley and a billiard room.  Rare roseleaf mahogany paneling graced the home’s Palladian dining room, while heavy carved oak adorned its 25 foot tall main entry staircase. Light and airy sun porches extended the living spaces into the outdoors.

Fair Lane's design, in many ways, reflects the complex personality that was Henry Ford. In truth, the stately mansion and its gardens were the province and passion of Clara Ford. It was at the Powerhouse that Mr. Ford reined ...

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August 8, 2008

Touched is from my Birds series that is part of the Susan and Michael Hort collection

Bill Radawec
1994
Touched
cast iron, steel
3" x 3 1/2" x 4 1/2"

http://www.newarttv.com
Producer: NewArtTV

New York collectors Susan and Michael Hort share a passion for contemporary art and discovering new talents.  Over twenty years they've assembled a collection focused on emerging artists that now numbers over 2,000 works.  Every year during the New York art fairs, they make a selection of newly acquired works, install them in their 10,000 square-foot, downtown triplex, and invite hundreds of friends and art-world people over for a brunchtime viewing.  In this first episode of the NewArtTV profile of the Horts, we drop in as Susan and Michael and their curator Simon Watson put together the installation and share their thoughts on the pleasures of collecting, and how they turned to art to make "something good" out of the untimely death of their daughter Rema.

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August 4, 2008

Which is Abraham Lincoln's original deathbed?

   Bed in Petersen  House 

                          Bed in Chicago History Museum                           

Abraham Lincoln Deathbed

On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated while watching a play at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Doctors who attended him recognized he was dying and moved him across the street to a boarding house owned by William and Anna Petersen.  He was placed in a bedroom rented by William T. Clark, a Union soldier who was out for the evening.

Lincoln's Last Moments

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles entered the rear bedroom of the Petersen house soon after Lincoln arrived and saw "the President lay extended on a bed, breathing heavily."  The doctors explained to Welles that Lincoln could not recover but might linger for several hours.

In his diary Welles wrote, "The giant sufferer lay extended diagonally across the bed, which was not long enough for him.  He had been stripped of his clothes.  His large arms, which were occasionally exposed, were of a size which one would scarce have expected from his spare appearance.  His slow, full respiration lifted the clothes with each breath that he took. His features were calm and striking.  I had never seen them appear to better advantage than for the first hour, perhaps, that I was there."

Early on April 15 Welles stepped out for a walk, but returned in time to see Lincoln die.  He watched Lincoln's wife and oldest son struggle with sorrow. "Robert, his son, stood with several others at the head of the bed.  He bore himself well, but on two occasions gave way to overpowering grief and sobbed aloud, turning his head and leaning on the shoulder of Senator Sumner.  The respiration of the President became suspended at intervals, and at last entirely ceased at twenty-two minutes past seven."

After Lincoln's body was removed and visitors to the Petersen House left, an upstairs boarder set up a camera and photographed the bedroom. This evocative image, now part of the famed Meserve Collection, shows a woven coverlet strewn across the bed and a pillow soaked with Lincoln's blood.  The picture was taken by Julius Ulke, who had furnished hot water to the doctors throughout the night.  Abraham Lincoln Online

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