"Bella Pacifica: Bay Area Abstraction 1946 to 1963" reviewed by Jonathan Griffin

This period is typically historicized as a tussle between two styles: New York-influenced Abstract Expressionism (of which Still was the West-Coast progenitor) and a dissenting, expressly local brand of figuration. In fact, they are impossible to disentwine. Many artists flip-flopped back and forth: Diebenkorn, for example, who had hitherto made landscape-based abstract canvases, became the prime exponent of Bay Area figuration between 1955 and 1968 (influenced by Bischoff and Park) before abruptly returning to expansive, light-filled, geometric abstraction. Jay DeFeo, a major Abstract Expressionist, also produced graphic drawings such as The Eyes (1958). Her husband, Wally Hedrick, later recollected that the painters themselves used to mock this bogus rivalry by organizing softball matches between the two camps; Hedrick, espousing a wildly mercurial approach, was the artist they entrusted as umpire.

July 1, 2011