Private Spaces: An Exhibition of Small Scale Sculpture

Edited by Melinda Wortz
Published by © 1975 University Art Gallery, UC Irvine

The title of the 1975 University of California, Irvine exhibition Private Spaces "refers to the involvement of the viewer in the spaces of his or her own mind, as well as the artists’ use of personalized imagery in small enclosed spaces."  Anthony Berlant, Joseph Cornell, David Furman, Robert Graham, Roland Reiss, and Horace Clifford Westermann, the six artists featured in "Private Spaces," can be seen as rejecting the "heroic tradition of Western sculpture," while simultaneously incorporating aspects of the Surrealist tradition in their pieces.  For example, Anthony Berlant's work can be seen as recalling aspects of Marcel Duchamp's work in his use of readymades and found objects.  The artists of the featured work are interested in poetic metaphor and mystery rather than the abstract, intellectual dialogue present in earlier collage / readymade works such as those by artists like Picasso.  It can be said that the works in this exhibition speak to the "Jungian, collective symbologies in each of our psyches."  It is also possible, given the "unorthodox uses of media and imagery," that they "exemplify provocative extensions of the language and structure of art-making."