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Robert C. Bassler
Born1935
Manhattan, NYC, New York
NationalityUnited States
EducationMasters Degree in Fine Arts
Known forContemporary Exploratory Visual Art Exhibitions and Lectures in Europe and the USA
Notable workLenticular
TitleAbstract, Figurative and Constructive Visual Artist

Robert C. Bassler (born 1935) is an American painter and retired sculpture professor from California and has exhibited over 200 combined media works between 1960 and 1997. He studied under Harvey Fite, the creator of the nationally recognized environmental sculpture,[1] Opus 40 and was later recognized for his research using polyester resin as an art medium and his subsequent 1970 European lecture tour and multi media exhibition, "Lenticular".

Early life and education[edit]

Robert C and Robert S Bassler 1937

1938-1944 London, England: Robert C. Bassler’s father, Robert S. Bassler, a story editor for Fox Films, congratulates his son, “Bobbie” Bassler, age 3, on his first sculpture in Wellington Square: a snowman. To escape the escalating air raids of London, Robert S. accepts a transfer to produce films for 20th Century Fox and moves the family to Los Angeles, California, where summers are spent at their Lake Arrowhead house in the San Bernardino mountains. “Bobbie”, now 6, takes pictures of the clear skies and deep blue lake with his box brownie camera and his mother teaches him to draw. His father, Robert S. Bassler goes on to produce: The Black Swan, 1942, with Tyrone Power and Maureen O’Hara; The Snake Pit, 1948 with Olivia de Havilland and Celeste Holm; and “Suddenly”, 1954 starring Frank Sinatra, Sterling Hayden and Nancy Gates among others. As Robert C. grows up, his parents often entertain film writers, directors, composers and actors and he celebrates his birthday with movie screenings and tours of life-sized sets of Paris and New York City on the back lot of 20th Century Fox. Regular trips to Pasadena to visit his grandmother in her American Craftsman styled home give her time to teach him how to paint using watercolors and during one lesson the warped reflections in a shiny key chain.[2] capture his attention.

1945-1952 Los Angeles, California: Praise his paintings in 5th grade, one depicting the pouring of molten metal and the other the Pilgrim’s landing at Plymouth Rock convinces him to pursue an artistic career. A teacher's recommendation enables him to attend the Chouinard Art Institute where he studies advanced drawing techniques using nude models. When memory lapses and test anxiety cause Bassler's grades to fall during his senior year at Beverly Hills High School, he decides to look for a college that will accept him solely based on his artistic skills[3].


1953-1957 Hudson River Valley, New York: Bassler attends Bard College and majors in painting, but Instead of regularly checking in with his professor during his freshman year he hikes into the forest and paints for extended periods of time. Later he regrets these excursions when he gets a C in the class. The next year, Bassler's studies sculpture with Harvey Fite. The professor, who at the time is creating Opus 40, a six acre bluestone environmental sculpture (later added to the National Register of Historic Places) invites Bassler to become an artist in residence. Fite gives him a split log of black walnut to carve and Bassler, inspired by the Greek myth of "Icarus" carves a statue of his idea of a man falling from the sky with sun melted wax and feather wings. Bassler credits this time at Opus 40 with inspiring his artistic approach of using multiple mediums encompassing varying environments. As Fite used to say, "I won't torture a stone into a preconceived shape to conform to my own thinking. I am dictated to by the materials. There are natural forms here and they fall into a certain pattern. You have to permit this growth to take place."[4]Bassler’s senior project is "Seclusion", a figurative fountain sculpture installed on the Bard College campus and later nicknamed “The Bard Nymph[5]". 1957-1960 University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California: Working towards his Master of Fine Arts (MFA) degree, Bassler studies with figurative sculptor Merrell Gage and later that year, Harold Gebhardt[6]. Bassler learns more about wood constructions and welding and completes his thesis & sculpture: "A Figure Related Sculpture for an Architectural Environment"[7] and "Avenger 1".[2]

1960-1964 Los Angeles, California,

Part time sculpture instructor at Occidental College, meets student, Lynn Allen, They marry in 1963, the day that she graduates.

Service[edit]

1954-1957, Annondale-On-The-Hudson, New York

Bassler volunteers as a fireman and a fire chief[8] for the Bard Student Fire Department and a college campus lifeguard.

1958, United States National Guard, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri

He joins the Army Corps of Engineers where he is commissioned to create paintings and murals for the troop barracks.[2]

Work[edit]

"I would not allow commercialism to compromise the development of my artistic path"- Robert C. Bassler

1957-1965 Abstract Figurative

Bassler sharing a studio with former classmate and abstract sculptor, George Baker is Influenced by his approach and welds scrap metal into his own abstract, mixed media sculptures. He enters them into local juried art exhibitions and Art critics from local newspapers and magazines publish reviews of these pieces using phrases like deliberate in their ambiguity[9], forbidding and graceful[10], pieces seem utterly without meaning, evocative, abstract, without the gimmicks[11] and modern sculpture at its best. [12]

1961 Bel Air, Los Angeles, California

Five hundred homes burn to the ground in the Bel Air Fire including Bassler’s parents'. While searching for his mother's wedding ring in the home's remains, Bassler photographs the patterns and textures that he sees and collects his father’s warped Hermes typewriteralong with other objects, and welds them into sculptures. These sculptures become.an exhibit at the Comara Gallery in 1961[13]. Henry Seldis[14], LA Times art critic prints in his column:  “Like the Phoenix, the sculptures he assembled from images and parts charred and twisted by fire are symbols of affirmation rather than defeat” and “Bassler is joining the ranks of our most promising artists.”[15]

1965-1976 Transitions toward Anatomes

Bassler's style continues to change as he sculpts and welds with varying metals and wood to sculpt pieces to evoking feelings of flight, compression and rectilinear containment during the his subsequent Cruciform, Volar, Caryatid, Lignaform and Relief series.



As he starts to sculpt using polyester resin he believes that he is now able to display the inner and outer figurative form simultaneously and this idea is the focus of his "Anatomes" period, but due to the costs involved in working with the resin, his initial sculptures were models of the full size pieces that he hoped to create.

1970, Pasadena, California

California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California

A college grant gives Bassler and fellow artist Helen Pashgian access to the California Institute of Technology "artist in residence" program and the Earhardt Laboratory where they create his "Lenticular" pieces, a series of large, transparent, convex and concave sculptures using polyester resin. Collaboration with music composer Jeff Rona and film editor Robert Brown also create the experiential film Variations[16], based on the patterns of light that seem to come from within the sculptures as they slowly rotate.

Bassler publishes his 1972 article Lenticular Polyester Resin Sculpture: Transparency and Light[17] in "The Leonardo International Journal of the Contemporary Artist". His "Lenticular" series is also referenced in Nicholas Roukes’ book, Sculpture in Plastics[18]. Bassler continues to enter local exhibits. Magazine & Newspaper critics print: an undulating wall triptych whose bright, rippling surface pulls the viewer into its shadowed depths,[19] seem to materialize thoughts of evolution and metamorphosis in a highly subjective and often suggestive way and the spectator is almost hypnotically compelled to keep circling these quiet, stele-shaped structures as each slight change in point of view imbues the static form with changing motion and color.[20]

Learning of overseas interest in his work. Bassler contacts the United States Embassy in London and is invited to exhibit at the embassy and later, the Galerie La Demeure, Musée D'art Moderne, Salon de Mai in Paris and the Amerika House in West Berlin. The “Der Tagesspiegel/Feuilleton”, a local newspaper, prints its impression of Bassler's West Berlin showing of "Lenticular": Well-rounded polyester resin sculptures, such as those produced by Robert Bassler, are more part of the international “beautiful living" repertoire than an art exhibition[21](sic: trans via Google translate)

While driving between exhibitions, Bassler is struck by the subtle way that the European road signs communicate solely using colors and symbols and photographs them for later use in his exhibition, Road Signs.

He lectures at a number of art schools after his return from London, including University of Connecticut where professor of art history, Harold Spencer, hears him speak. and iconicizes Bassler's artistic approach in his 1975 art history textbook, The Image Maker

1976-1987 Cliffwall-Barricade and Terrahedron Bassler seeing irony in a small man made barrier blocking a massive natural barrier in one image from his Road Signs photographs, Cliffwall explores this duality of relationships in the Cliffwall-Barricade exhibitions. The series is shown in 1981 at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in his Cliffwall: Metamorphosis of an Image exhibit. Louise Lewis, art reviewer introduces the pieces: The freely suspended transparent sheets - does take the image off the wall and so what increases both the physical and psychological space of the pieces, it is clear that this developmental process is still going on for Bassler.[22]

Bassler, further envisions his Cliffwall Barricade image moving from the wall onto a tetrahedron or 4 sided pyramid which becomes his next series, Terrahedron. It's exhibited in 1988 at the Wenger gallery in Los Angeles. Media critics print phrases like "light, smoldering acrylics to echo the churning, often violent patterns that earth, water and atmosphere make when viewed from afar[23]", "A tall pyramid of wood slats surrounded by open metal triangles offers a hollow, Minimalism-Shaker simplicity recreated in a cultural vacuum",  "A rusted steel framework of progressively larger pyramids baldly illustrates a geometrical rule, pyramids are neatly wallpapered with NASA photographs"[24] and "Five freestanding painted sculptures called Terrahedrons, are fitted with etched plexiglass encasements, referring to the cloud strata that hover as a protective skin over the globe. Linear steel frames echoing the tetrahedral format imply armor imposed on an Earth who's fragility is often ignored[25]".

1983-1990, Los Angeles Plaza, California

In the bank’s 1983 exhibit, Los Angeles Urban Sculpture - Architectural Concerns[26], Bassler envisions people walking by the plaza fountain seeing moving in the water jets and installs his triangular steel and rope constructivist piece, “Increments of Three"[27]. Critics respond:  Bland structures by Robert Bassler[28] and The piece has a neat internal rhythm and establishes a larger counterpoint with the silvered cityscape.[29] Molly Barnes, a KPFK radio show host of "Art News[30]" describes the 1989 Large Scale Sculpture Exhibit [31] and goes on to ask Bassler about his career path, "You had enormous success at a very early age because you were discovered by Felix Landau. Did you have a feeling when that happened 20 or 25 years ago that it would always be like that art would be easy that you would always be the darling of the art world?"[32] Bassler establishes the "Sculpture Park Associates” to host public sculpture exhibits of guest artists on the CSUN campus.[33]

↵1988-1997 Atmospheres: Gathered Forces, Vortex, Self Portraits


Seeing swirling patterns in the Los Angeles Times' tiny weather satellite photos Bassler begins to paint a series attempting to capture this atmospheric drama[34]. In his Vortex series the series ends with darker and darker successive spirals as he envisions himself pushing closer and closer to the void or the darkest center of the vortex[35]. He is reminded of the seemingly parallel journey of Mark Rothko as his paintings got darker and blacker until his death and the quote: "There is only one thing I fear in life, my friend, one day, the black will swallow the red". After retiring from CSUN in 1997, Basser paints photo accurate, zoomed in views of himself on large canvases using a mirror's reflection as his guide and is struck by the idea that he is actually seeing a reversed view of what others see[36]. Expanding on this concept he concludes the series with "Cosmic" demonstating that we are all ultimately made of stardust. The Orlando Gallery in Sherman Oaks, CA offers Bassler a solo exhibition of these self portraits and critics respond: "It's as if the artist were viewing the scene from some heavenly platform beyond human consciousness[37]", "The paintings teem with swirling visual energy and harness a secret life as abstractions, you can get lost in the illusive space of the canvase[38]s”.

1992-1993, Celtic Cross

While on a 1992 teaching sabbatical Bassler travels to Scotland, the country of his heritage. He is drawn to the many ancient carved stone Celtic crosses he sees on the island of Iona. When a church remodel exposes valuable old growth Douglas fir he decides to use it to build his own cross and places it in the Kirk o' the Valley Presbyterian Church's meditation garden in 1993.[39]

1997, “Changing Light” Retrospective Exhibition, CSUN Art Gallery, Northridge, CA and Orlando Gallery, Tarzana, CA[40]

Bassler completes "Elemental Oppositions" (1996), a mixed media, tetrahedral installation for his 1997 exhibition "Changing Light”.

Local news reports on the exhibit:...Bassler strikes us as an archetypically handsome figure who could be a B-movie matinee idol specializing in sci-fi flicks. He stares intently, if a bit impassively", "In one painting, he is frankly naked, as if an example of a male homo sapiens shipped off in a space capsule...teem with swirling visual energy, nebulous white-on-blue images that we assume refer to galactic activity, but just as easily put us in the mind of raging surf or precipitous clouds. The paintings like most of his work over the years harness a secret life as abstractions. Upon close scrutiny, you can get lost in the illusive space of the canvases. They invite the eye inward...his face is viewed amid the cosmic debris of glittery stars, which wash over his face like a filmy mask. Quite literally, his head is in the stars. More to the point, that's merely the latest place where this exploratory artist has found himself over the past few decades. At this juncture, Bassler emerges as an artist who has taken creative license quite seriously as a license to explore...[41]

In Bassler's view, there's no essential difference between science and art, formula and faith, the concrete and the abstract. Like human DNA or the MilkyWay, Bassler believes, everything comes from the same cosmic dust, a spiritual essence harmonized in art. This artist-as-astronaut perspective - think Carl Sagan with a welder's torch...(Gathered Forces)..a 1987 acrylic painting of spiraling cloud formations, it's as if the artist were viewing the scene from some heavenly platform beyond human consciousness...[42]

1997-2002 Architectural Art


Deciding to fulfill his dream of living inside of his art Bassler, collaborating with local architect Craig Townsend, starts to remodel their home into the shape of two partially rotated rectangles laid on top of each other. For 2 years Bassler and Lynn live in one studio while their 900 square foot home is rebuilt to the new design complete with diagonal, irregular lines, pitched roof and unique upper windows directing light towards the house's center. Bassler, using recycled wood, carves a front wooden and glass door filled with geometric patterns. Opus 40 inspired columns and stones are used in the fireplace and throughout the home. While rescuing a truckload of dirt from the local landfill Bassler designs a stream flowing into a pond filled with Koi fish. The home wins the AIA award in the San Fernando Valley for "Design Excellence in Residential Architecture" in 2002.[43]



1998-2007 The Burst Paintings

From a moving train, Bassler takes a picture of a cloud mostly obscuring a sunset and notices a relationship between these two forces. This develops into his Burst series. Imagining what these two elements would look like from different points of view on Earth or from space he breaks the two entities down further in his painting and envisions them as a shape or pattern of stars in outer space. Bassler deconstructs these symbols further in this painting series into showing a horizon line within a horizon line, attempting to imply that the universe has no end.



2012-present

Bassler hikes and photographs Mammoth, Yosemite and other parts of the High Sierras. In these images, he recognizes repeating patterns and distorted reflections in the lakes and streams. in his subsequent elementally inspired works he artistically explores the abstraction and repeating patterns that he sees in natural and urban landscapes.

Personal life[edit]

He resides in Northridge, California. For those interested you can find out more at RobertBasslerart.net




Bibliography[edit]

A Figure Related Sculpture For An Architectural Environment - FMA Thesis, Robert C Bassler, Pub 1960, USC

Lenticular Polyester Resin Sculpture: Transparency and Light, Robert C Bassler, The Leonardo International Journal of the Contemporary Artist Pub 1972, pp 193-198

Image Maker - Man and His Art, Harold Spencer 1975 Berne Convention, ISBN 0-684-14097-7, pp 48-50

Sculpture in Plastics, Nicholas Rourke, Pub 1978 Watson-Guptill Productions, ISBN 0-8230-4701-6 pp 165,172

Masters in Wood Sculpture, Nicholas Rourke 1980 Watson-Guptill Productions, ISBN 0-8230-3019-9, pp 179

References[edit]

  1. ^ 2012 Bard College Alumni Interview with Robert C Bassler
  2. ^ a b c September 2018 Northridge, California in person interviews with Multi Media Sculptor and Painter Robert C Bassler
  3. ^ 2018 Robert C Bassler Interview Late High School Memory
  4. ^ Joan, Doyle (08-10-1969). "Monolith in the Catskills Opus 40: A Rhapsody in Bluestone". Poughkeepsie Journal. Retrieved 2020-06-01. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. ^ Bassler, Robert (2007). "John Bard Society News". Bardian. Bard College Summer 2007: |pages=78, 79 – via issuu.com.
  6. ^ "Harold Gebhardt, 81; Sculptor, Arts Teacher at USC". Los Angeles Times. May 3, 1989.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. ^ Bassler, Robert (2020-04-16). "Robert C Bassler CSUN Sculpture Professor". California State University. Retrieved 2020-04-16.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. ^ photocopies of original documents presented in 2018
  9. ^ Seldis, Henry (1961-03-10). "Occidental Thorne". Los Angeles Times.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. ^ Seldis, Henry J (1961-03-10). "Rodin's Genius Yet Evident in Beverly Hills Exhibit". Los Angeles Times.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ Nordland, Gerald (December 1963). "Robert Bassler Comara Gallery". Artforum. 2 (6): 14 – via artforum.com.
  12. ^ Dann, Frode N. Dann (1961-03-12). "Outstanding Work Shown at Occidental College". Independent Star News.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ "Robert Bassler and Tio Giambruni". Artforum. August (Volume 2). Artforum. 1963. {{cite journal}}: |issue= has extra text (help)
  14. ^ Wullfson, Jennifer (2008). "'More light and less heat' the intersection of Henry Seldis's art criticism and the career of Henry Moore in America". Sculpture Journal. 17 (2): Pages=45-58 – via online.liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk.
  15. ^ Seldis, Henry (1962-02-09). "Exhibit Boasts Some of Europe's Finest Selections". Los Angeles Times.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. ^ Muchnic, Suzanne (1981-02-27). "A Show of Process by Robert Bassler". LA Times. Retrieved 2020-04-07.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  17. ^ Bassler, Robert C (1972). "Lenticular Polyester Resin Sculpture: Transparency and Light". Leonardo. vol. 5 no. 3, 1972: p. 193-198 – via Project MUSE. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); |volume= has extra text (help)
  18. ^ "SCULPTURE IN PLASTICS revised by Nicholas Roukes 1978". Populuxebooks. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  19. ^ Armstrong, Lois (November 1, 1969). ""Los Angeles"". ArtNews. 68: 51 – via Artnews.com.
  20. ^ Seldon, Henry (1969-09-19). "Molly Barnes Gallery Total Enclave III Exhibit". Los Angeles Times.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. ^ O, H (1972-03-17). "The Amerikaus". Der Taggesspegel.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  22. ^ Ianco Starrels, Josine (01/24/1981). "Cliffwall Metamorphosis of an Image". Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. 01-24-1981: 4. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  23. ^ Donahue, Marlena (March 1988). "CALIFORNIA Robert Bassler Wenger Gallery. Los Angeles". Sculpture Magazine. March–April: 32.
  24. ^ Curtis, Cathy (22 January 1988). "LA Times Pyramidal Wenger Gallery". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 20 July 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  25. ^ Garris, Laurie (30 January 1988). "The Marriage of Art and Science". Art Week Magazine. 30 January 1981: 5.
  26. ^ Security Pacific National Bank (1983-09-09). "Urban Sculpture Architectural Concerns". Gallery at the Plaza. 1983–1984: 1 – via internet.org.
  27. ^ Lubas, Ken (11 December 1983). "Modern skyline". Los Angeles Times Metro. Retrieved 20 July 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  28. ^ Thomas, Kevin (1983-11-08). "Urban Sculpture". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2020-04-17.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  29. ^ Brown, Betty (1983-11-12). "Sculpture in the City". Artweek. 14 (38) – via archive.org.
  30. ^ "TV and Radio". Los Angeles Times. 23 July 2007. Retrieved 20 July 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  31. ^ Burrows, Dick, ed. (April 1990). "Events" (PDF). Fine Woodworking April 1990 Episode 81. 81 (81). John Lively: =104.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  32. ^ Barnes, Molly (October 1, 1989). "KPFK Art News with Molly Barnes". Pacifica Radio. Retrieved January 29, 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  33. ^ Schell, Lisa (1985-04-18). "First Work Acquired for CSUN Sculpture Garden". Daily Sundial. Retrieved 2020-04-21.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  34. ^ //archive.org/details/2018-09-24-robert-bassler-interview-01
  35. ^ //archive.org/details/2018-09-24-robert-c-bassler-interview-02
  36. ^ //archive.org/details/2018-09-25-robert-c-bassler-interview_202009
  37. ^ Johnson, Reed (29 August 1997). "Honing Science to Art Via Bassler". Daily News. Retrieved 22 September 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  38. ^ Woodard, Josef (10 September 1997). "Multiple Personalities". The Los Angles Times. Retrieved 22 September 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  39. ^ Tiso, Len (April 13, 1993). "Kirk o' the Valley Installs New Celtic Cross". Presbyterian News. Retrieved September 22, 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  40. ^ McMillen, Michael (1997). Robert Bassler Changing Light. California State University, Northridge. pp. 1–49.
  41. ^ Woodard, Josef (September 10, 1997). "Multiple Personalities". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 23, 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  42. ^ Johnson, Reed (August 29, 1997). "Honing Science to Art via Bassler". Daily News. Retrieved September 22, 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  43. ^ https://archive.org/details/2002-aia-sfv-design-excellence-award-for-bassler-residence.-fin

External links[edit]

Category:Living people Category:1943 births Category:Artists from Northridge, California Category:Artists from Los Angeles Category:University of Southern California alumni Category:Bard College alumni Category:Sculptors from California Category:Painters from California

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