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Nuts and Who’s: A Candy Store Sampler
August 11, 2023
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February 19, 2024
Irreverent, bawdy, the lowest of the low. The 1960s arts scene in Northern California was, according to art historian Peter Selz, defined by its free-spirited “regional attitude.” Distance from and disdain for New York’s art world, with its consumerism-obsessed Pop Art and arts criticism culture, offered artists the freedom to explore unconventional avenues for making art. This regional spirit drew a network of innovative artists—from those linked to California’s Funk and Nut art, to Chicago’s Hairy Who and other regional artists—to the Central Valley and a small Folsom, California gallery called the Candy Store. Adeliza McHugh’s Candy Store Gallery became a site of convergence and exchange for these interregional artists, their colleagues, and their students. The result was an unintentional yet provocative alternative to lauded art movements of the time.
Nuts and Who’s: A Candy Store Sampler focuses on this cross-fertilization of ideas between Funk, Nut, and the Hairy Who in the Bay Area, and their intersection at the Candy Store Gallery from 1968 to 1985. These artists’ introduction into the region gave rise to a potent artistic culture that resonated with artists from across the United States, who sought to transgress the establishment. Drawn primarily from SJMA’s permanent collection, the exhibition brings together works by many artists who contributed to this “regional attitude” at the Candy Store, including Robert Arneson, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Clayton Bailey, John Buck, Roy De Forest, David Gilhooly, Sam Hernandez, Irving Marcus, Tony Natsoulas, Gladys Nilsson, Jim Nutt, Irving Marcus, Ed Paschke, Maija Peeples-Bright, Peter VandenBerge, William T. Wiley, Franklin Williams, Karl Wirsum, and others.
Nuts and Who’s: A Candy Store Sampler
The exhibit playlist includes a collection of videos related to the exhibit and the artists.
Brown Bag video not available
Brown Bag Video URL
Additional Information
A good exhibit with funk art to review. Renegade Humor 2012
Lots of YouTube videos on the artist in this exhibit. Go to the exhibit Playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg9bohYNTKk4_dT06AihUSCZgTPtkUfXJ
ABOUT HERNANDEZ'S ARTWORK
Here's some wall text that was used previously. Note that one of our previous curators didn't want to have translations available to elicit empathy for non-native English speakers:
"Sam Hernandez revisits the exploration of dialogue in Dichos y Bichos II. Created from reclaimed walnut wood planks, gesso, bronze, and wax, the artist uses an imposing size and design to create a moving experience for the viewer. The large, neatly applied script references the horizontal banners surrounding elementary classrooms that provided models of good penmanship. The bronze “bichos” or “bugs” provide playful punctuation to each sentence and may be a nod to the artist’s interest in Paleolithic images. Translations for the Spanish sayings are not made readily accessible in order to allow the viewer to consider the challenges faced on a daily basis by non-native English speakers."
Dichos y Bichos II features a series of Spanish proverbs or sayings that read together constitute a rhyming play on words. The title provides a clue to the work’s meaning: dichos means “proverbs” while bichos means “little bugs,” which colloquially means “little children.” These parables—many of them witty and facetious—explore the nuances of language and culture as they range from the profound to the profane.Initial Public Offering: New Works from SJMA’s Permanent Collection (2014)Primarily known for his innovative work in wood, Sam Hernández creates powerful and poetic abstract sculptures that reference a host of material cultures from Africa to China and Catalonia. He takes actual objects and cast-off parts such as scraps of wood, metal, tin cans, and chairs, and configures them into new works of art that recall the readymades of artist Marcel Duchamp (1887 – 1968). Hernández pays special attention to the aesthetic beauty and unique qualities of each object in order to create elegant, sweeping curvilinear structures.
Translation
If you start poorly, you end poorly.
There is nothing so bad that some good can't come out of it.
One who is knowledgeable is worth plenty.
Tell me who you associate with, and I'll tell you who you are.
To want badly is to acquire.
It's not the one who has the most who is the richest; it is the one who needs the least.
The devil is knowledgeable because he is old, not because he is the devil.
The thief who steals from a thief has I 00 years of pardon·.
If you want the dog, you have to accept the fleas.
There is no two without three.
When one is hungry, there is no hard bread.
It's bad when there is no cure, and it's insane to try to cure it.
He erases with his elbow what he writes with Is his hand.
What doesn't kill you, makes you fat (stronger). A woman's breasts have much power.
A shrimp that sleeps is taken away by the current.
Everything that is utilized wears out.
One who sings and dines wakes up crazy. There are no bald donkeys.
Life is a fandango (party), and if you don't dance,
you're crazy.
Water that shouldn't be drunk should be left running.
Strength comes from union (togetherness).
One who attempts to swallow a bone has a lot of confidence in his neck.
A closed mouth lets in no flies.
One who soils himself never smells it.
For one kiss, or two,· three, or four, or 100, a woman loses nothing, and·a-man stays happy.
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