Ron Linden (born 1940, Chicago, Illinois) is a California abstract painter, independent curator, and associate professor of art at Los Angeles Harbor College, Wilmington. He lives and works in the San Pedro area of Los Angeles.
In 1972, Linden relocated to California. He worked as a scenic artist in the Hollywood film industry for 25 years. He helped establish artist communities in Pasadena, downtown Los Angeles and San Pedro, California.
In 1978, Linden received the individual artist's grant in painting from National Endowment for the Arts.
Criticism and commentary
In 1975, Jeff Perone wrote in Artforum magazine about Linden's work in "Both Kinds: Contemporary Art in L.A.":
"... Precious objects are precious objects and my personal preferences from Diebenkorn 1945, to Linden 1975 means the same thing; the works resemble each other closely, only Linden's a little more loose in technique and tighter in concept. It does not matter how far the distance traveled, chronologically or psychologically. The new looks like the old, and the good things, new or old, are tradition, as in the new tradition, a tradition that looks good. Linden is expressing himself, goddamnit."[1]
Also writing on the "Both Kinds: Contemporary Art in L.A." in Artweek, Judith Dunham observes: "Linden works with acrylic and graphite, combining both to make a sooty, crusty, intentionally rough and ugly surface. He limits color to graphite blacks and grays, warm acrylic neutrals so that the motions of painting are paramount in the final products."
In the Los Angeles Times, Suzanne Muchnic writes:
"We read them but can not be sure we grasp all their meaning. (The artist draws on literary sources but does not reveal them.) Instead of putting us off, Linden pulls us in to wonder. If all else fails, the paintings work as abstract compositions. They are built of various combinations of acrylic, wood, and fabric in gray, black and ochre."[2]
"Ron Linden is a significant painter because he resists convenience and, sometimes, even himself. But integrity will out. In the end, Linden makes the difficulty of making the difficult look easy," writes Peter Plagens in the catalog essay for the Cue Foundation.[3][4]
From Mario Naves' article "Picasso's Ghost," about paintings by Ron Linden exhibited at the CUE Foundation, in the New York Observer, January, 2008:
"Riddled by the ghosts of Cubism and Pop's cool ironies, painter Ron Linden's milky investigation of surface, space and denuded biomorphism are only nominally sensual paint-as-stuff chases after painting as intellectual pursuit. Mr. Linden's gift is that brainy impatience doesn’t quell a fractured and elusive poetry - if anything it engenders it."[5]
In 2016, Los Angeles art critic Mat Gleason wrote, "One Southern California art veteran, Ron Linden, is also curating in the South Bay. His TransVagrant / Warschaw Gallery in San Pedro has hosted exhibitions for almost a decade now, specializing in rigorous, almost scholarly shows, primarily of painting. Be they solo or group shows, Linden’s space has a severe eye for the reductive, the historical and the dedicated. Fearlessly championing Modernist forms and playing the long game with art history, TransVagrant and Warschaw exists in a context free from art world tropes that chase what was on the cover of last month's ArtForum. It is one of the crowning achievements of the South Bay, inspiring and informing the whole scene."[6]
Influences
Early in his career Linden was highly influenced by other contemporary artists in his sphere. The abstract expressionism of Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, the neo-dadaist Jasper Johns, and in particular Richard Diebenkorn, permeates the minimalist style that Linden is known for. Artweek Magazine wrote that Linden's work has been compared to Diebenkorn to the extent that the work of both artists is both intellectual and emotional.[7]
In literature, Minds Meet by the meta-fiction writer Walter Abish has been cited as influencing Linden's experimental style, as well as the work of novelist/playwright Samuel Beckett, and that of the poet Charles Olson.
In the field of music, the experimental composer John Cage was influential with his 'chance related' form of music, challenging assumptions of musicianship and musical experience. Linden also cites Philip Glass, Brian Eno, John Cale, Frank Zappa, and Don Van Vliet as influences.
Exhibitions
Solo
2016: Warschaw Gallery, in the MEANtime, San Pedro, California
2014: Stone Rose Gallery, Long Beach, California
2013: California State University, Dominguez Hills, Ron Linden with Craig Antrim
2010: Gallery 478, San Pedro, California
2008: Cue Project, Cue Art Foundation, New York City, New York[8]
2007: Jancar Gallery, Los Angeles, California
2002: Storage, Santa Monica, California
2001: Storage, Santa Monica, California
2000: Gallery 478, San Pedro, California
1989: Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1987: Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1986: Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1985: Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1983: Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1982: Downtown Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1981: Downtown Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1979: LAICA (Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art), Los Angeles
Group
2015: Warschaw / Winter, San Pedro, California
2014: Warschaw / Winter, San Pedro, California
2014: Kamikaze @ POST, Los Angeles, with Elizabeth Medina
2014: ex-cerpt, Craig Antrim & Ron Linden, Warschaw Gallery, San Pedro, California
2013: 14:...Featuring, Warschaw Gallery, San Pedro, California
(Southern) California Drawing, Orange Coast College Arts Pavilion Gallery, Costa Mesa, California
2012: PSST: Art in San Pedro, 2000 – 2012, Warschaw Gallery, San Pedro, California
2009: Mt. St. Mary's College, Brentwood, California, "Insight/Inside LA"
2007: Warschaw Gallery, San Pedro, California
2006: Riverside Art Museum, Riverside, California, Driven to Abstraction: Southern California and the Non-Objective World, 1950-1980
2006: The Brewery Project, "praxis", Los Angeles
2004: Santa Monica Museum of Art, "Incognito"
2002: Arts Manhattan, "Close Proximity", Manhattan Beach, California
1999: Pasadena Armory Center for the Arts, Radical Past: Contemporary Art & Music in Pasadena, 1960 - 1974
1998: Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California
1992: Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California
1991: Fine Arts Gallery, University of California, Irvine
1990: Angles Gallery, "Squaresville", Santa Monica, California
1989: Riverside Art Museum, "The Metaphoric Chair’, Riverside, California
1988: Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1987: Fine Arts Gallery, University of California, Santa Barbara
1986: Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1985: Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1985: Design Center of Los Angeles, "To the Astonishing Horizon", L.A. Visual Art '85
1984: Ovsey Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1982: Laguna Art Museum, "Changing Trends: Content/Style", Laguna Beach, California
1982: Mt. St. Mary's College, "3 Painters", Los Angeles, California
1982: Orange Coast College, "Painting", Orange, California
1982: MoMA PS1, "Critical Perspectives", Long Island, New York[9]
1981: Art Center College of Design, "Decade: L.A. Painting in the Seventies", Pasadena, California
1978: Baum-Silverman Gallery, "The Subject is Object", Los Angeles, California
1975: University Art Museum, "Both Kinds: Contemporary Art from Los Angeles", Berkeley, California
1973: Fine Art Gallery, California State University, Northridge
Gallery positions
Curator / Director, TransVagrant Projects, Los Angeles (2009–present)[10]
Curator / Director, Warschaw Gallery, a project partly funded by the California Redevelopment Agency, San Pedro, CA (2005–2016)[6]
Gallery Director, Los Angeles Harbor College, Wilmington, CA (2000–present)[11][12]
Awards and citations
1978: National Endowment for the Arts, individual artist's grant in painting
Academic positions
Los Angeles Harbor College, Gallery Director and adjunct faculty (2000–present)
Long Beach City College, adjunct faculty (2002–present)
University of California at Irvine, graduate faculty (1989-1993)
San Francisco Art Institute, visiting artist (1978-1979)
Vancouver College of Art, visiting artist (1977)
Art Center College of Design, faculty, Pasadena, CA (1974-1976)
California State University, Northridge, adjunct faculty (1972-1973)
Bradley University, Assistant Professor of Art, Peoria, IL (1966 - 1972)
References
^Jeff Perrone, "Both Kinds: Contemporary Art from Los Angeles", Artforum, Summer, 1975
