The late American artist H.C. Westermann (1922-1981) preferred to stroll on his arms on a regular basis, and pals keep in mind that change would usually come spilling out of his pockets. The previous acrobat additionally loved shocking individuals in “critical” areas (like museum galleries the place his work was on show) by coming as much as them along with his ft within the air—generally with a cigar in his mouth for added impact. That is how he first met Frank Gehry, on the Los Angeles County Museum of Artwork (Lacma) within the late Nineteen Sixties. “Even when he began speaking, he didn’t put his ft on the bottom,” the architect remembers within the new 3D documentary Westermann: Memorial to the Concept of Man If He Was an Concept, “so I immediately fell in love with him”.
Westermann (“Cliff” to his pals) usually had this type of impact on individuals. His uncommon but endearing mannerisms, coupled along with his unwavering devotion to craftsmanship, gained the hearts of a plethora of main art-world gamers. A lot of them seem in his new documentary—Ed Ruscha, William T. Wiley (1937-2021) and Billy Al Bengston (1934-2022) amongst them. A real “artist’s artist”, Westermann stays beloved greater than 40 years after his demise. KAWS served as govt producer on the documentary, and director Leslie Buchbinder, enamoured of each Westermann’s distinctive life story and the meticulous element of his sculptures, determined it could be finest to movie the complete film (her second movie) in 3D. “This was my first 3D film and will probably be my solely 3D film,” she tells The Artwork Newspaper.
Buchbinder, previously knowledgeable dancer, labored on Westermann for a complete of 9 years. She was initially impressed by Wim Wenders’s 2011 3D documentary, Pina, concerning the dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch. “The 3D brings dancing to life,” Buchbinder says, equating Wenders’s dancers to “shifting sculpture”. In her personal movie, she sought to “have sculpture dance as a lot as attainable”. The result’s a whole lot of close-up footage of slowly rotating Westermann works coming out of the display. “You possibly can see the sculptures with an intimacy you may’t see even standing in entrance of the piece,” she says. Westermann’s acrobatic background added to the attraction of the 3D format, Buchbinder provides, as did the artist’s distinctive worldview. “Perspective is a big a part of the movie”, she says, “each actually and metaphorically.”
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Westermann enlisted within the US Marine Corps when he was 20, serving as an anti-aircraft gunner through the Second World Warfare aboard the USS Enterprise, which fought within the Battle of Halfway. Westermann would later make a sequence of “demise ships” regarding the trauma he skilled throughout this time, particularly when the USS Franklin was downed by a kamikaze pilot, killing 2,300 individuals.
Nonetheless from Westermann: Memorial to the Concept of Man If He Was an Concept (2023). One of many artist’s “demise ship” drawings
After the warfare, he spent a while touring East Asia as an acrobat with the USO (United Service Organizations, which give leisure for members of the army and their households). When he returned to the US, Westermann enrolled on the College of the Artwork Institute of Chicago (SAIC), however he left his research and reenlisted when the Korean Warfare broke out. In Korea, he grew to become utterly disillusioned with the army, watching fellow troopers die in a dropping warfare that solely dragged on. (Years later, Westermann can be extraordinarily distraught when his son volunteered to combat in Vietnam.) He returned to SAIC to finish his research and began woodworking for cash.
In 1957, Westermann bought his first sculpture—to the architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The next 12 months, he had his first solo exhibition in Chicago. And in 1959, Westermann confirmed a number of works within the groundbreaking New Photos of Man exhibition at New York’s Museum of Trendy Artwork. In 1959, he married the artist Joanna Beall (1935-1997); the couple moved to Connecticut, the place they constructed their very own home and two artwork studios. In 1968, Westermann had his first main museum retrospective at Lacma, the place he first walked as much as Gehry on his arms; the architect was designing a Bengston exhibition. Westermann had a serious retrospective on the Whitney Museum of American Artwork in 1978, resulting in different exhibits across the globe. In 1981, he died immediately of a coronary heart assault at age 58.
Buchbinder’s movie takes its identify from Westermann’s 1958 sculpture Memorial to the Concept of Man If He Was an Concept. The work is a pine field with arms akimbo and a castle-like head (with a single eye) stuffed with bottle caps, an acrobat and baseball participant on the highest stage with a sinking ship beneath. “It’s the Cyclops from The Odyssey,” Buchbinder says. “It’s myopia as one of many best risks, particularly relating to warfare and obeying orders.”
Though Westermann’s works usually seem playful, there’s a darkness behind them—similar to the person himself, who playfully walked on his arms whereas dwelling with melancholy and survivor’s guilt. Buchbinder sees Westermann as a “cockeyed optimist, issues otherwise than different males of his period”.
The lads (and ladies) of his period who seem in Buchbinder’s movie had been thrilled to take part within the documentary, the director says, largely as a result of Westermann “meant a lot to them—it wasn’t a tough ask”. And though they seem in a relatively easy, talking-head interview type—a lot of Westermann, other than the 3D filming, is pretty conventional for a documentary, together with studying aloud the artist’s letters to his family and friends—Buchbinder particularly had them place objects of significance on the tables in entrance of them, in order that items Westermann had given them and numerous different odds and ends pop to the fore.
“I inspired present and inform through the interviews,” Buchbinder says, stating a few objects on the espresso desk in entrance of Martha Westermann Renner, the artist’s sister: a picket sculpture of Westermann as an acrobat made by his uncle (“artistry within the household on show”) and a commemorative Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Membership Band plate—Westermann’s head peeks out proper behind George Harrison (Peter Blake, who helped design the Beatles album cowl, was a fan of the artist). In the meantime, in Gehry’s studio, the maquettes behind him are what come out in 3D. And in entrance of Ruscha stands a wonderful picket field that Westermann made for his buddy and carved the phrases “Ed’s Varnish” onto; towards the tip of the movie, Ruscha lovingly exhibits it off to the digicam.
Whereas Westermann’s life and artwork are so fascinating that any documentary about him can be extraordinarily watchable, the small print offered by his letters and the heartfelt interviews along with his household and pals (well-known and in any other case), coupled with the 3D concentrate on his handcrafted objects, right here present a novel form of intimacy with the topic. “One of many best items artists give one another is the present of comradery,” Buchbinder says. Westermann, who was identified for making way more items for pals than works on the market, seemingly would have agreed.
Watch this unique clip from Westermann: Memorial to the Concept of Man If He Was an Concept:
Westermann: Memorial to the Concept of Man If He Was an Concept will display on the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, on 3 October (adopted by a Q&A with Frank Gehry, Ed Ruscha, and Leslie Buchbinder) and on the Artwork Institute of Chicago on 19 October
