There are many reasons to appreciate the sculpture of William Calfee (1905-1995), an American University art department chair who, with a group of mid-century mavericks, explored modernist paths outsidethe Washington Color School movement — the precarious yet confident balances, the contrasts between polished and roughed-up surfaces, the transit between simple and complex compositions, the juxtaposition of muscularity and grace like a powerful bird readying to launch into flight, and the mix of classical iconography with phantasms from his far-ranging imagination.
And simply put, because Calfee’s works are such a pleasure to view.
From “Kwan Yin,” his inimitable take on the Buddhist goddess of compassion, to “Beasts (Symbols of the Evangelists)” … from “Horse Costume” to “Centaur Surprised,” he infuses his compact heavy metals with animation, enchantment and wit for enduring appeal.
It’s the type of fine art you secretly yearn to have as your own; after all, what great daily touchstones they would be. But at least we have until January 21 to enjoy “William H. Calfee and the Washington Modernists” during its brief run at American University’s Katzen Arts Center.
Among the Calfees populating the bright, wending first floor gallery spaces are “Vierge Ouvrant,” an unsettling but riveting bronze shrine of dueling ideas modeled after the Virgin Mary reliquaries of the Middle Ages.
Calfee could adroitly conjure his visions in two dimensions, as shown by the tempera “Three Horses” and other paintings by this master of 20th-century expressive representational style.
Holding their own among the Calfees are works from his colleagues, all of whom worked with or influenced Jefferson Place Gallery and other key Washington art centers of the times. Worth contrasting are two vivid paintings by Karl Knaths — a lively Cubism-inspired glimpse of sharp “Card Players” and the darker “Deer,” which echoes German expressionist Franz Marc’s gift for beautifully abstracting worlds of nature beyond man’s roam.
The AU/Katzen’s concurrent eyebrow-raiser, “High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975,” showcases artists up north who aimed to take that medium where it hadn’t gone before. Their tactics taxed muscle as well as mind: raking, sponging, weaving painted fabric, applying color on color, subtraction, moving paintings off the wall and onto the floor, spray painting (bear in mind this was before graffiti was deemed an art form by more mainstream art proponents).
Optical illusions? Check. Feminist stitchery? Check. Filmmaker dousing her naked body in glue before rolling in fluff? Check.
An abundance of then-audacious artworks time-tunnel us back to pop art’s uncommercial underbelly.
Cynics will find ample evidence that underground artists’ conviction not to sell out was not the sole reason such psychedelia didn’t make indelible marks in the mainstream like Warhol’s soup cans.
Check out the body painting videos (parental discretion advised). This sub-subculture of flower-powered abstraction and experimental film surely helped spawn disco nights, raves and performance art. Some may deem this an unforgivable sin. Those inspired to laugh may ponder the future guffaw factor of the labors of today’s avant garde.
Meanwhile, the comparatively understated Washington modernist exhibition reveals that plenty of fresh artistic ground was being covered in our own, still very fertile, backyard.
‘William H. Calfee and the Washington Modernists’ and ‘High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975’
On view through Jan. 21
» Venue: American University’s Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Ave. NW
» Info: 202-885-1300; american.edu/cas/katzen/museum
» Reception: 5 to 8 p.m. and gallery talks at 4 and 5 p.m. Saturday
