Home  Paintings  Books  Prints  Drawings  Watercolors  Photographs  Cafe  Contact WHAT'S NEW? Scenes of American Labor An exhibition of the art of American labor, tracing its development from the Ashcan school, through the WPA, to today. Dan and Arlo Namingha: New Works An exhibition of contemporary Native American sculptors whose abstract sculptures call on traditional iconographies.			I. LITHOGRAPHS - IMAGES No. 1 Street Car Yard: The tone of Street Car Yard, Los Angeles with its Regionalist sense is similar to most of the other Lutz lithographs. This particular image is on Raisinwerk Parchment and, like many of his lithos, is unsigned. No. 2 River Jordan: Lutz was always interested in the life of Black Americans. His niece, Annette Sutherland, in her 80's at the time of her interview for this Catalogue Raisonne, forcefully stated that the artist had a sympathy for the conditions under which black people lived. This lithograph eulogizes the refrain from the spiritual tune Swing Low Sweet Chariot...which recalls "angels coming across the River Jordan to carry me home." The Black Americans pictured here are presumably headed for heaven; but there is no pride in their posture. They row for the final promised land with bowed heads. No. 3 Going To Heaven On A Cloud: No other of the artist's lithographs so empathizes with the plight of the Black American of the 1930's. Here a family of four are plaintively beseeching the heavens for their salvation. The dark background and ogerous shadows seem to move toward the slender figures of the family. < No. 4 Reclining Male: No other lithograph of Lutz is so difficult to understand. The central figure looks to be a reclining male. The figure's grotesque head is proped up at an awkward angle. He is shown in a field of round objects that appear to be melons. The reclining male is shoeless and the central object would appear to be a slice of watermelon. The crudeness of this work and its crossover into a surreal statement are compounded by the reference to the stereotype of a Black Man's dream of a watermelon. This image is so jingoiestic that it is hard to reconcile with reports of a person known for his kindness to people of all races. No. 5 Fish'n: This lithograph is more sypathetic than No. 4 Reclining Male above, but still an oversymplified view of the life of a Black man. The featured fisherman is relaxed, well dressed and contemplative. There is every sense that he is comfortable in this task. For Lutz the cross hatching and darkened foreground add contrast to the starkness of the man's white shirt. No. 6 The Gospel Train: Clearly this work was inspired by the artist's interest in the Spiritual and Gospel music, subjects he approached many times in several media. He named several of his works after popular hymns and spirituals. For Lutz these works unified his love of music and his interest in the culture of Black Americans. This lithograph is titled in the lower left in the artist's hand and signed in the lower right. For Lutz The Gospel Train called only for Black riders. It is driven by a steam engine and each car is drawn as a car from a carnival ride. The vortex like circuitry of the tracks and the small dog chasing the last car add to the carnival atmosphere. No. 7 Riding The Red Car: Difficult to make out, the central character is a large black woman with a child seated next to her riding the Red Car, a Los Angeles trolley which reached its peak between the 1920's and the 1940's. The seat in front of her is occupied by a traveler reading a newspaper and behind her and to the right are three other passengers. In the Red Car window above the child is lettered with the mirror image of the word "cars." No. 8 Industry: How like the prison scenes of Piranesi (1720-1778) is this interior of a powerhouse turbine. The two characters in the foreground are dwarfted by the looming cog. The shadowy mass of machinery further emphasises a sense of omnipresent power, much larger than the human subject matter. No. 9 Downtown: Featuring a cluster of downtown buildings, this lithograph has an unusual perspective for Lutz who usually confronted his subject matter at eye level. It this image he is looking down, almost omnisiciently, like Thomas Moran or Albert Bierstadt would have done in their landscapes of the Grand Canyon or the Yosemite. Rooftops, fire escapes, chimneys, elevator rooms and the buildings themselves seem to frenetically merge at the lower center where a hook and ladder is raised to upper floor of an apartment building. No. 10 Night Club: Lutz and his wife were both respected musicians. Lutz played the basson; his wife, Dorothy, played the oboe and piano. While in Chicago and Los Angeles they frequented jazz clubs, including those which featured black musicians, a topic Lutz often employed in his art. This dark lithograph features a couple, not necessarily a happy couple, having drinks while a volcanic jam session takes place in backround. The odious nature of the central figure is obvious as he seems to be mixing several drinks together. There are several references within the composition to the work of Max Beckman, an artist Lutz was known to admire. No. 11 Samson: There are two views of Samson. One view is the Samson strong enough to topple the temple pillars. The other is the Samson who, shorn of his locks, can no longer achieve expectations. This image is of the first Samson. The muscular. The powerful. The conqueror. Muscles rippling, forearms bulging, feet firmly planted, this Samson is at the top of his game. But he is a very human Samson, who's framed by his distructive abilities. This Samson has one foot on the base of the column he is overturning. He is not Samson the creator; he is Samson the destroyer. It is estimated that this lithograph was created in the mid 1940's when Lutz was himself at the top of his game, only to be stricken by bouts of depression in the late 1940's. No. 12 Fire At The Skating Rink: Somehow this depiction rings true. The fire truck, firemen, bystanders, and the raging fire at the skating ring look like a journalist's photograph. The lithograph was completed in the late 1930's or 1940's. As there were no skating facilities like this in Los Angeles, this must have have taken place in the Midwest. No. 13 Mermaids: Within Lutz' ouevre there is a segment referred to as his Fantasy and Surreal period. These two mermaids and single male have the feel and texture of paitings from this period, during the late 1940's and early 1950's. No. 14 Riding Academy: There is no other lithograph by the artist with such a lyrical and pastoral quality as this one. The tone is evening. The horses are resting. The barnyard is empty of human activity. But the riders have only just returned form the day's efforts...the saddles are still on the horses. There is a sense of quiet and peace throughout the composition. So many of the artist's works are full of a swirling activity; this one seems to form the other side of the artist's world. o. 15 Three Horses At Lake: Being the largest of the artist's lithos, this is also the only true landscape. Using the lithographers crayon, the artist scrabbled in the tree trunks, used a childlike looping for the tree bower and foreground and sketched in the small sailboat with three or four strokes. The image has a freshness or "plein aire" quality to it. No. 16 Harpist: One of the larger of the artist's lithographs, this print also has the largest number in its edition. Lutz obviously enjoyed the image having made fifty numbered impressions. Copies are known to exist in the Collection of Annette Suthland and in the collection of the estate. Some of the images were printed in the traditional black ink and there are also two known copies in a blue-green ink. No. 17 Sailor's Dream: Perhaps the most troubling of the artist's lithos this image depicts a Sailor on a grassy knoll with a book or box at his left elbow and a bottle in his right hand. In the background his boat seems moored perilously close to shore. The entire composition has a dreamlike quality about it. The crisscrossing of the lithographer's crayon, the use of low contrast and the looseness of the composition all contribute to the sense of dream. The main character seems poised in the trance of a daydream. No. 18 Mexican Band: Fortunately one of the extant copies of this lithograph is dated 1957. The three previous lithos in the Catalogue Raisonne are on the same paper and it is surmised that all three would have been done in the mid to late fifties. The papers are clearly not as old as the previous 14 images. Lutz definitely achieved a mark of success with this lithograph. Where some of the others were drawn quickly and have an unfinished quality to them and were inked unevenly, this image is crisp. The blacks are rich and completely shaded. The whites are more limited and the contrast is much more stark. Where some of the artist's images require a measure of creativity on the part of the viewer; this one is quickly realized. The image requires little second viewing. Lutz loved Mexico, the Mexican lifestyle and the Mexican people. This brass and percussion Mariachi band must have provided considerable pleasure to its listeners.
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