George Herms

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George Herms
Born1935
Woodland, California
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley
Known forassemblages, works on paper, and poetry

George Herms (born 1935) is an American artist best known for creating

Beat movement, Herms said that Wallace Berman taught him that "any object, even a mundane cast-off, could be of great interest if contextualized properly."[4] "That’s my whole thing," Herms says. "I turn shit into gold. I just really want to see something I've never seen before."[5]
George Herms lives and works in Los Angeles.

Early life and education

George Herms was born in 1935 in Woodland, California.[6][7] His grandfather was an entomologist and one-time mayor of Berkeley, California, and his father was an agronomist. During World War II, Herms was sent by his parents to the College of Engineering at Berkeley, which he left after approximately six weeks when "the football season was over."

Subsequently, he worked for Remington Rand, on the Universal Automatic Computer (UNIVAC), before leaving for Mexico and other travels. His parents offered him $100 per month to return to college, so he took the money and "bought some jazz records and lived on $13 per month," and returned to Los Angeles, living for some time in Topanga Canyon, where he met the artists Wallace Berman on the occasion of his 20th birthday.

Rat Bastard Protective Association.[10]

Teaching and residencies

Herms has been a lecturer in Studio Art at University of California, Irvine, and University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); Sculpture at UCLA and University of California, San Diego; and, Public Art at the Santa Monica College of Design, Art and Architecture. From 1977 to 1979, he was a Visiting Artist at California State University, Fullerton. In 1981, Herms was an artist in residence at the University of Denver in Colorado, and in 1991 an artist in residence at The Robbins Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1994, he was an artist in residence at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles.[7]

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

One of George Herms's earliest solo shows, "Secret Exhibitions," was mounted in 1957 in

OHWOW Gallery in Los Angeles (2013); "George Herms: On and Off the Wall" at Louis Stern Fine Arts in Los Angeles (2013)[4][5][7]: 55 [12]

Group exhibitions

George Herms's work has been selected for group exhibitions, beginning with the "Gangbang" exhibition in 1960 at the Batman Gallery in San Francisco.[7]

The following year George Herms was included in the ground-breaking exhibition "The Art of Assemblage" at the

University of California at Irvine chose Herms's works for "Assemblage in California."[7]

Following his participation in other major group exhibitions in the 1960s, Herms continued to be selected for major group exhibitions in the 1970s, including: "Tableaux d'Aujourd'hui" at Maitre Binoche in

Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, California; "Other Voices" at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts (1975); "Assemblage' and "3 Los Angeles Sculptors" at the Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (1975); "Great Egg Sale" at the Newport Harbor Art Museum (1976); "Painting and Sculpture in California: The Modern Era" at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (1976–77), which traveled and was catalogued; "3 Generations-Studies in Collage," Margo Leavin Gallery in Los Angeles (1978); and "100 + Directions in Southern California Art, Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (1978).[7]

Herms was included in a number of important group exhibitions in the 1980s, including "Recent Acquisitions" at the Newport Harbor Art Museum (1980); "Major Works" at L.A. Louver Gallery (1980); "Sculpture in California 1975–80" at the San Diego Art Museum in

bill bissett, George Herms, Jess and Al Neil)" at Vancouver Art Gallery in British Columbia, Canada (1989), which produced a catalogue; "Artists Against AIDS" at Pacific Design Center (1989), which produced a catalogue; "The 'Junk Aesthetic': Assemblage of the 1950s and Early 1960s" at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Fairfield County Branch in Stamford, Connecticut (1989), which traveled; and "Forty Years of California Assemblage" at the Wight Art Gallery at UCLA (1989), which traveled and produced a catalogue.[7]

Herms participated in major group exhibitions in the 1990s, including "The Denim Jacket Show" at the Newport Harbor Art Museum (1990); "Novel Ideas" at the

Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco (1992).[7] In 2011, Herms was the focus of a group show at the Museum of Contemporary Art at the Pacific Design Center in Los Angeles entitled "Xenophilia (Love of the Unknown)."[13] Herms work was included in the 2016-2017 exhibition "Based on a True Story: Highlights from the di Rosa Collection" at di Rosa, Napa, curated by Amy Owen.[14]

Public art

George Herms has had public art commissions, including "Clock Tower Monument in Unknown" at the MacArthur Public Art Program in Los Angeles (1987); "Moon Dial" in

Citicorp Plaza in Los Angeles (1989).[7]

Visiting artist, artist residencies and teaching

  • 2009 Lecturer in Drawing and Painting, California State University, Fullerton, CA
  • 2006 Artist-in-Residence, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Madison, ME
  • 1991-98 Taught Sculpture, Santa Monica College of Design, Art and Architecture, Santa Monica, CA
  • 1994 Taught Sculpture, Otis Parsons, Los Angeles, CA
  • 1991 Artist in Residence, The Robbins Foundation, Philadelphia, PA
  • 1987-94 Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
  • 1987 Taught Sculpture, Otis Parsons, Los Angeles, CA1985 Lecturer, University of California, San Diego, CA
  • 1981 Artist in Residence, University of Denver, CO.
  • 1980-81 Lecturer, University of California, Los Angeles, CA
  • 1977-79 Visiting Artist, California State University, Fullerton, CA
  • 1976 Lecturer in Studio Art, University of California, Irvine, CA

Awards and honors

In 1962, artist

John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Sculpture from 1983 to 1984. In 1987, he was awarded a Working Grant from the Pollock Krasner Foundation and, in 1989, he was a Finalist in the "Pico Seagate" competition.[7]: 58  Herms also received the 1998 Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Award and a Fellowship at the Getty Research Institute in 2000.[15]

Notes

  1. The Getty Center
    . Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  2. ISBN 1-88-2299-00-0
    .
  3. ^ a b "Play Anything You Want: Mark Allen and George Herms in Conversation". East of Borneo. October 10, 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  4. ^
    Santa Monica Museum of Art
    . 2005. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  5. ^
    W Magazine
    . Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  6. ^ Karlstrom, Paul. "Oral history interview with George Herms, 1993 Dec. 8-1994 Mar 10, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution – Tape 1, Side A". ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART – RESEARCH COLLECTIONS > ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  7. ^
    ISBN 1-88-2299-00-0
    .
  8. ^ Bollen, Christopher (December 15, 2010). "George Herms". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  9. ^ Karlstrom, Paul. "Oral history interview with George Herms, 1993 Dec. 8-1994 Mar 10, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution – Session 2, Tape 1, Side A". ARCHIVES OF AMERICAN ART – RESEARCH COLLECTIONS > ORAL HISTORY INTERVIEWS. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  10. ^ Its members included Jay de Feo, Michael McClure, Manuel Neri and Joan Brown. See Rebecca Solnit, ‘Heretical Constellations: Notes on California, 1946–61’, in Sussman, ed., Beat Culture and the New America, 69–122, especially 71.
  11. S2CID 194871538
    .
  12. ^ Swed, Mark (February 4, 2011). "Jazz Opera Review: 'George Herms: The Artist's Life' at REDCAT". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 10 March 2014.
  13. ^ Duvernoy, Sophie (July 11, 2011). "George Herms, Beat Artist, on His New MOCA Show 'Xenophilia'". L.A. Weekly. Retrieved 18 March 2014.
  14. ^ "Based on a True Story:Highlights from the di Rosa Collection | di Rosa". 17 July 2017.
  15. ^ "Profile: George Herms". ArtSlant. Retrieved 11 March 2014.

External links

  • George Herms papers at the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Accession No. 2009.M.20. The bulk of the papers comprise full documentation of Herms's life and work from 1960–2000.
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