As
we took a break from our conversation, Shaw, the Southern gentleman, offered me
a glass of lemonade. We then ascended the stairs, where on the next floor I was
able to view Shaw's output from the early 1970s. It was from the period when
Shaw was active in the Pattern
and Decoration movement (P&D), along with Joyce Kozloff, Robert Kushner, and Miriam
Schapiro.
The
next level up brought us to Shaw's studio. He spoke about the panels he was
working on with the help of his assistant, David Vigon. "I want a reaction from
the work," he said. "A provocation of feeling. It's about making something
alive." While he searched for a specific work in his flat files to illustrate a
point, I looked at his painting, Another
to Care For, his 2011 version of the Garden of Eden. It featured small,
coupled figures of various sexual combinations. "Painting is very mysterious,
like life," he pronounced.
One
of Shaw's teachers was Ralston
Crawford. From him he learned, "You can't fight every battle. Choose your
weapon. And most importantly, have convictions and stick with them." Shaw told
me that he chose painting as a reaction to Crawford's advice.
Similar
to the great jazz musicians of New Orleans that Shaw admires, he went from riff
to riff -- on art, life, and
politics for hours. It was a jambalaya of stories. He said pensively, "We grow
as people. We're such complex personalities. Our culture isn't dying. It's just
transforming."
It had grown dark and it was time for me to go. Then, as if to leave me with one more thought to contemplate, he said,
"Art can take me out of my hell -- to heaven. Art is about freedom."
Photo: Courtesy of Kendall Shaw
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