Westside, Los Angeles
Tony Berlant
Houses
L.A. LouverInspired by the recent discovery of a cache of sculptures in the Tony Berlant studio, L.A. Louver is delighted to make this surprise presentation Houses. Dating from the early 1960s to the late 2010s, most of these sculptures are seen here for the first time. The house form emerged early in Berlant’s oeuvre (see Untitled, c. 1963-64) utilizing materials that would become his signature medium: printed tin (in this instance featuring brightly colored red apples) cut into shapes and affixed to a plywood base using steel brads. The artist’s hand is key, not only in the application of hundreds of tiny nails, but also in his thought-provoking juxtapositions of images on the cut tin fragments. Notably, the sculpture’s base becomes a part of the entire experience when the house form is presented in “up ended” orientation. Berlant’s houses relate to his renowned temple works, The Marriage of New York and Athens (1966-68), which were first shown at the Whitney in 1973; later at the studio of Frank Gehry, Los Angeles (2004), and which now reside in the permanent collection of the Chatêau La Coste, France. Similarly, in our presentation several sculptures offer interior tableaux (Adam and Eve, 1966, Untitled, 1966-67, Prisoner of Love, 1967 and Down East, 1986). By contrast, most of Berlant’s houses have no such opening: existing as resolute three-dimensional objects enrobed with images. In the contemporary western world, the house has overtaken the temple as a fundamental architectural form and is universally recognizable from children’s drawings and computer icons alike. Yet, each of our relationships to the house and home is deeply personal and, like each of Berlant’s sculptures, exists in its own world of referents and images.