Rhythmic Abstraction: The Art of Arthur Monroe
Featuring Arthur Monroe
October 11, 2024 - January 20, 2025
BLAC; 15 East Pennington; Tucson, AZ 85701
Virtual Show
About the Artist
Arthur Monroe, 1935 - 2019
“If you are a painter you have to start solving problems.” Arthur Monroe
The late Oakland-based artist Arthur Monroe was born in the Bedford Stuyvesant District of Brooklyn, New York in 1935. His art reflects his participation within some of the most influential cultural movements of the twentieth century.
Monroe was first exposed to Abstract Expressionist concepts in the 1950s by friend and fellow artist Harvey Tristan Cropper, who was studying at the Art Students League in New York. In defiance of prevailing conventions of technique and subject, Abstract Expressionism placed emphasis on the physical process of painting, thereby allowing the artist to be in-and respond to-the moment. This was aptly summarized by the influential art critic Harold Rosenberg in 1952: “What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event.”
The movement appealed to Monroe for its potential to express new and personal visual truths. Working directly on the canvas without preliminary sketches or premeditation, he painted what came to his mind. His initial concepts were transmuted into visual images, symbolic representations of inner truths. He adhered to those artistic roots, which continually provided him with a means of expression in his search for personal pictorial realities.
Monroe was committed to working on a grand scale, electrifying the space between the artwork and the viewer. Through enlarged forms, amplified color and emphatic brushwork, the monumental canvas became an expression of the artist’s psyche. Paint was applied with directness and immediacy across the picture plane, pulling in or pushing away or redacting. Brush strokes are visible, even in areas that initially seem to be solid blocks of color, and accelerate the overall movement on the canvas.
Art—non-objective art in particular-is defined by form, color and gesture. Monroe’s pure expressions rely very little on overt form, but form clearly underlies the composition. He uses vibrant color to express and evoke emotion. His expressive gestures and energetic spatial improvisations demonstrate a balance of structure and chance, control and chaos within the physical action of painting.
His close friend, the eminent jazz saxophonist Charles Lloyd, recalled, “Arthur was a great painter, philosopher, sage, and seer. Every corner, every surface of his studio held a layer of his consciousness, and in the pure white light of the East Bay, his ‘knowingness’ was revealed.”
THE OAKLAND CANNERY LIVE-WORK ARTIST STUDIOS
Arthur Monroe was living in San Francisco’s North Beach in 1975 when he saw a newspaper ad for studio spaces in Oakland. “I jumped in my car and scooted over to the place,” he said. It was a 2,800 square-foot, vacant warehouse, no dividing walls, plumbing or amenities. “I opened the door, looked inside, and right away I said, ‘T’ll take it!”; For the next forty years he quietly produced a large body of work from his Oakland Cannery studio. During most of that time he worked as Chief Registrar at the Oakland Museum of California.
The Oakland Cannery was built in the 1930s as a fruit cannery, and later hosted haberdasheries and other trade-related businesses. In 1975, the owner decided to lease out the upper floor of the warehouse complex to artists.”It wasn’t a live-work space at that time,” said Monroe. “I had to go to the City Council and work out a deal. We really had to fight for our space.” The Council eventually relented and allowed the artists to stay on the condition that they make the place livable. Monroe then made it his mission to help convert warehouses into legally permitted artists’ live/work studios.
But the fight did not end there. It continues with his son, Alistair Monroe, who is struggling to protect and preserve the Oakland Cannery Live-Work Artist Studios. In 2016, a cannabis company purchased the building and issued eviction notices to the tenants; the business ultimately failed, leaving behind dozens of lawsuits, $51.5 million of debt, and a toxic legacy of diesel pollution. The Oakland City Council retroactively tried to protect the housing by passing legislation in 2018 that banned cannabis companies from operating within live-work units like The Cannery. But the law still allowed the company to use the lower floors of the building to grow pot. Despite the disappearance of the weed company, the current owner has persisted in the eviction fight.
Undaunted in his determination, Alistair believes The Cannery should serve as a venue for affordable housing, organic farming, arts programming, music studios, and performance. He has further stated, “This should remain a historic landmark and be recognized for the importance of my father’s legacy of activism. To erase this history should be considered criminal to the African American community at large!”