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Funny Money: Weisman Welcomes New Pop Art Exhibit
With money on the minds of many Americans these days, the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art will showcase a fitting new exhibit this spring that puts currency on the canvas. "Robert Dowd: Pop Art Money" will open Saturday, Jan. 17, with an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Malibu campus museum. The exhibit runs through April 5.
This is the first posthumous museum exhibition devoted to the late Dowd, an American artist best known for his imaginative, whimsical paintings of money and stamps. His money paintings were and still are celebrated for capturing the essence of the Pop Art movement, and he is considered one of the original Los Angeles Pop artists.
The enlargements of U.S. paper currency were large-scale, some 10 feet wide. They often had humorous alterations, such as substituting portraits of famous artists for the presidents. In 1962, curator Walter Hopps included Dowd-along with Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Phillip Hefferton, Joe Goode, Ed Ruscha, and Wayne Thiebaud-in the landmark exhibition New Paintings of Common Objects at the Pasadena Museum of Art. This important, historic show was the first museum exhibition of Pop Art in the nation.
"Dowd was part of a generation that includes some of California's best known contemporary artists, such as Ed Ruscha, Billy Al Bengston, and Joe Goode, but his work has been unjustly overlooked in recent years," said Michael Zakian, director of the Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art. "I hope that this exhibition fosters a positive reappraisal of his achievement and career."
Dowd's work was not without controversy. Despite the success of these paintings, the FBI accused him of counterfeiting and by 1970 he had shifted his attention to paintings exploring scientific atomic theory. This exhibition is the first in-depth examination of the currency paintings and related work by this seminal Los Angeles modernist.
"When he died in 1995, he had been virtually forgotten by the art world," Zakian says. "I hope that this exhibition and accompanying catalog will give him the attention he deserves."
For a fun, free way to spend your Valentine's Day, Pepperdine University Center for the Arts and Target will sponsor a Family Art Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 14. Participants will have the opportunity to take a special tour of the Robert Dowd exhibit at the Weisman, as well as participate in fun art projects for all ages in the Gregg G. Juarez Palm Courtyard. All are welcome to attend and the event is free of charge.
The Weisman is open Tuesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and one hour prior to most performances through intermission. There is no admission charge and the museum is open to the public. For more information, call (310) 506-4851, or visit http://arts.pepperdine.edu/.
