arts & entertainment

One-Man Showcase

New local museum honors work of former Detroiter.

Suzanne Chessler

Contributing Writer

A

rtist Arthur Secunda, in a build-
ing 200 yards from his Colorado
apartment, daily toils on a cata-
logue of his artwork and a memoir of his
far-traveled life.
Regardless of wanting to complete the
writing projects, he strays two hours each
day to create additional color imagery.
Before people can fully access both
texts, they will be able to access the art-
istry that has defined him professionally
— essentially paintings, prints and collag-
es — through a permanent display in the
new Arthur Secunda Museum being dedi-
cated Sunday, Oct. 7, at Cleary University,
a business school in Howell.
Secunda, who attended classes at Cass
Technical High School and the Detroit
Institute of Arts as his talents were unfold-
ing, will be at the opening event.
"I'm honored and delighted that my
work will be exposed to greater audiences
and hopefully be inspirational and helpful
to students and the general public," says
Secunda, 84, in a phone conversation from
his home.

"There are so many feelings I have
about being honored this way, and I want
to thank everybody who has made this
happen. I'm coming [to the dedication
with my two sons and grandchildren],
and there's no greater joy than being hon-
ored in the presence of grandchildren.
There's a line of generational continua-
tion."
Secunda, who built an international
following, connects to Cleary through the
people most involved in developing the
museum, which is directed by Lee Jean-
Gilles of Pierre Paul Design in Ann Arbor
and lists initiating collectors as C. Edward
and Mary Ellen Wall, ultimately donating
500 of Secunda's works.
"I've known these people very well over
a period of 40 years," says Secunda, whose
artwork is now in the collections of the
DIA, Museum of Modern Art in New York
and Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.,
among many other display centers span-
ning the United States and overseas.
"Lee Jean-Gillis has had a gallery where
I have exhibited, and he is an art lover
and promoter. Ed Wall has commissioned
work from me."
The museum, to be established in four

phases and feature rotating
pieces, starts out with "Deja Vu:
The Graphic Works of Arthur
Secunda, 1948-2005." It contains
about two-thirds of his 355
limited editions and will cor-
respond with the publication of

ti

Catalog Raisonne of Secunda's
A self-portrait by Arthur Secunda
Graphic Works, 1948-2005.
"I initially worked in a rather
geometric style," Secunda says in recalling
the evolution of his approach. "My work
has been derived from collages, which I
made into silkscreens or were the basis
for lithographs. Over the years, I've gotten
a lot looser and used more brush work
and less geometry.
"I've lived all over the world, and each
culture where I lived affected my work.
I lived in France for about 20 years, and
[that experience along with time in] Italy
and Spain were influences:' says Secunda,
who was born in Jersey City, N. J.
Arthur Secunda: Deja Vu; "My work
Secunda also was motivated by 20th-
has been derived from collages, which
century artists in New York as he spent
I made into silkscreens or were the
some of his younger years there. His fam-
basis
for lithographs," says Secunda.
ily, after the death of his father when he
"Over
the years, I've gotten a lot looser
was 4 years old, moved among New York,
and
used
more brush work and less
New Jersey and Michigan.

geometry."

'304*41**Pnii----Auer --arats-,t 4 firtAtie

East Coast/West Coast

Birmingham's David Klein Gallery shows
two artists with very different visions.

Suzanne Chessler

Contributing Writer

wo artists have traveled their
works from different ends of the
country to set up very different
displays at the David Klein Gallery in
Birmingham.
Watercolorist Kim McCarty, based in
California, shows muted impressions of
the adolescent figure at the same time
video sculptor Asya Reznikov, based in
New York, is represented by imposing
expressions of repetitive movement.
Both exhibits will be on view through
Oct. 27.
"These watercolors are new works, and
I think of them as showing the interior of
souls:' says McCarty, 56, whose render-
ings are in the collections of the Museum
of Modern Art in New York and the
Hammer Museum of Art at the University
of California, Los Angeles.
"With the transparency, immediacy
and unforgiving qualities of watercolor, I
am forced to dig deeper into my subjects

60

October 4 2012

to evoke the sense of uncertainty, ambiva-
lence, anxiety and loss with which we
view today's generation."
McCarty was motivated to capture
youthful subjects by watching her own
children. The idea of fleeting expanses
of time entered into her approach, and
sometimes only a single color is seen.
Instead of actually using live models,
McCarty works from photographs to cap-
ture a gaze or gesture. The eyes command
her attention before she finishes the rest
of the figure.
"Watercolors are translucent so they
express the flaws and imperfections in
life," says McCarty, who has shown other
images at the Klein Gallery. "I work on
the floor, kneeling down because of the
[consistency] of the paint."
McCarty, who always felt the need to
paint and thereby create her own lan-
guage, grew up in Geneva, Switzerland,
where her father was a salesman and
chemical engineer.
After earning her bachelor's degree
from the Art Center College of Design

in Pasadena, Calif., and her
master's degree from UCLA,
she came to divide her time
between artistic interests
and her husband's restaurant
interests, Michael's in Santa
Monica and New York City.
He had been associated with
Detroit's Rattlesnake Club.
McCarty, raised in a Jewish
home, celebrates religious
Kim McCarty's
holidays and has introduced
translucent
Jewish-style dishes into her
watercolors express
husband's restaurants. She
the flaws and
recalls how her stepfather, from imperfections in life.
Israel, helped locate Russian
relatives in the United States.
Gallery," says Reznikov, 38, who gets tech-
McCarty's art projects are completed in a nical assistance from her husband, Michael
home studio.
Rosenthal, a computer specialist. "I see the
"I have so many influences:' she
pieces as paintings with motion, exploring
explains. "Primarily, I am fascinated by
how objects reference people."
Giacometti's sculptures and paintings. He's
Dream, a looped video in a gilded frame,
a master of the human condition:'
is reminiscent of Jacob's Ladder. The figure
Like McCarty, Reznikov spent part of
is constantly running up and down stairs.
her childhood outside the United States.
Kitchen Sink is an installation projecting
Like McCarty's extended family, she was
cardboard boxes. Every item in the room
born in Russia, immigrating with her fam-
is going into a container accommodating
ily as a 5-year-old.
more than the size should allow. Circadian
Themes of travel, language, identity and
Rhythm is a diptych with two flat screens
immigration recur throughout Reznikov's
in gilded frames. One has a suitcase being
projects as experiences penetrate her work. packed, and the other has the suitcase
Stories from Hebrew school have stuck
being unpacked.
with her and also have had an impact.
"All my videos have the humor of the
"I'll be showing three works at the Klein
absurd," says Reznikov, who works in a

