THE LIVELY ARTS | Bruce Conner Exhibit --- Magic in Disorder

September 01, 1959 in assemblage

THERE’S a bearskin on the ceiling and confetti on the floor at the Spatsa Gallery, 2192 Filbert Street, and the black-edged announcement of the current exhibition informs us that it consists of works by the late Bruce Conner, who is actually as undead as you are, or was at last report. This announcement is, of course, subject to symbolic interpretation – we are all deceased – but Bruce Conner is an unlikely name for a philosopher in a Russian novel, and the show demands discussion in a column headed The Lively Arts.

SF BAY WINDOW | Review by R.H. Hagan

June 15, 1958 in assemblage, painting

The bathroom humor on the reverse side of Conner’s collage is in strange but interesting contrast to the studied subtlety of the obverse – with its formalized shapes and textures achieved with materials that can only be described as debris. The duality in the collage – even though Conner may have meant it as a double edged joke – still points up a duality of purpose and of practice which is evident in the other paintings in the show.