FEATURE COLLECTION:
Reverence for All Things American
By Stacey Holzer
A family owned island on the Eastern seaboard provided the perfect place to begin collecting objects of art for Janet Blocker. There decoy ducks were carved or canvassed and set to sea convincing birds there were others feeding in the water. She began to amass a collection which sparked a passion for collecting of all sorts of things seashells, furniture and eventually she saved to purchase her first impressionist painting by Gertrude Fisk
Fisk an important artist of the Boston School led women of her time as an extraordinary example of achievement. A direct descendant of Governor William Bradford, Fiske developed a career as an Impressionistic painter and was most active from 1915 -1935. Bathers at the beach are depicted in Janet’s classic American Impressionist scene. Janet continued to collect American Impressionism and period furniture early on. Becoming a docent at Bayou Bend provided the possibility of studying American furniture in depth. Purchasing the best of what was available and affordable at the time she continued to expand her collection travelling to New Hampshire or Rhode Island in search for the best pieces. A Boston Slipper chair with an exquisite shell motif atop is a fine example of an Early American piece in her collection. A rare find she purchased while looking for chandeliers at Norbert French Antiquities.
Mckay Otto developed his work by covering the material world in an attempt to escape it. The result a veil to peer through into a spiritual realm that guides and comforts. His mentor Agnes Martin allows insight in the following quotes “A great painting must do two things transport the viewer and transcend the material.” ”If you ever answer anything you might as well stop doing art” In other words Otto’s work lives in the question and continues to evolve beyond the objects found in beginning to minimalism and the work of light play.
Madeline O’Connor’s body of work is derived from an intense study of natural beauty. As a steward of the land her work was influenced by the layers of beauty revealed subtlety in varied context of all things around her. Mixed media collage was a form chosen to convey layers of expression early on. Depth of knowledge articulated in the truest simplicity of form. Clearly an honoring of the aids cause in the piece pictured here the bold red ribbon in the central form carries a clear expression. .
By the mid 1960’s Robert Rauschenberg had already cemented his place in Art History by combining images and objects that reflect popular culture. By the early 70’s he was experimenting with silkscreen transfers on Plexiglas printing onto aluminum, moving Plexiglas disks, clothes, and other surfaces. Opal Gospel (pictured above in the righthand corner) in the Blocker collection is an example of a work designed to interact with the viewer engineered to challenge the artist as auteur. Engineers were engaged in the creative process to generate an interactive response. Ten Lucite panels were silkscreened with various words and images. The piece can be viewed in multiple contexts taken apart and reassembled by the viewer.
Hans Hofmann (1880-1966) clearly one of the most celebrated members of the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States and Europe. Hofmann is noted for his exploration of pictorial structure, spatial tension and saturated bold use of color. An instructor of art for nearly four decades Hofmann carved his place in art history amongst the movers and shakers on the world stage. A rare reversible Hofmann is represented in the Blocker Collection
A talent for designing living spaces has been a trademark of Janet’s career as a designer and collector. Her love of beauty is unmatched only by an astute eclectic sense of design. Creatively adding walls to a contemporary space with an outer wall of windows, Janet invented interior walls to hang her Impressionism collection. The space created a turning point and a taste for contemporary art that refined in time with her husband John as they began to discover the art of collecting from a completely different point of view.
Granite sculpture pieces by Jesus Moroles were amongst the first acquired in her contemporary collection. Working directly in response to granite that forms his sculpture, Moroles has become a revered artist throughout the state of Texas and beyond.
Museums and galleries became favorite places to see on trips and at home and the Blocker collection grew into a world renowned phenomenon. Texas artists Mckay Otto, Madeline O’Connor, Joseph Cohen, and Robert Rauschenberg took their place amongst Hans Hofmann, Jules Olitsky, Peter Lobello, and Ron Davis. New Orleans artists Radcliffe Bailey, John Scott, and Ida Kohlmeyer also comprise her collection. Two recent acquisitions are a John Henry sculpture piece and a Joseph Marioni painting.
A large square color field painting holds a prominent place in the Blocker collection likely from the late 1960’s this painting by Jules Olitsky was stained with a green body color and air brushed with an unconventional spray gun. A process that generates a textural tone in the surface of the painting alters the tone throughout. Canvas is split searching for a formalist representation of color field. Olitsky once said his pictures should look like, “ Nothing but some colors sprayed into the air and staying there” A gray textural Olitsky is also part of the collection, it likely dates from the mid 1970’s based on the gels and polymers that were new developments at that time. Clement Greenberg placed Olitsky amongst the most prominent color field painters of the time including Morris Lewis, Helen Frankenthaler, and Kenneth Noland.
Clifford Still, Kenneth Noland and Morris Lewis continue to inspire and influence in the work of Ron Davis who defines himself as a “geometrician and an expressionist” The volumetric shaped canvases in the Blocker collection play with the optical illusion of space engaging the viewer in a playful experience. Bold color informs each piece with specificity like no other.
Frenetic energy abounds in a mammoth Peter Lobello painting that stretches twenty feet horizontally. Perfectly fit it spans an entire wall of the Blocker collection. Dramatic, colorful, and bold it possesses the energy of animosity a chagrin that is acted out with stabilo sennilier sticks. A creative process that landed a commission for Bill Gates in the late 1990’s was a highlight of Lobello’s illustrious career.
Based in constructivism John Henry’s visual vocabulary is focused on the integrity of steel. His public sculptures have been commissioned both throughout the US and Europe and his career has evolved from the late 60’s to the present.
What marks the Blocker collection more than any other quality is the love of art with which each piece has been carefully selected, protected and admired. Revered and remembered the Blocker collectionwithstands the test of time as an honor to the creative process.
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Judy Chicago known for her feminist often controversial works is represented in the collection by this lucite paneled work that is a study in color and light play.
Joseph Cohen’s work exposes, explores and pushes the envelope of the material itself, Cohen works with the laws of gravity. The viscosity of the paint affected by gravities pull builds up stalagtites which create three dimensional elements that build upon paint as the surface itself. Cohen asks the question "what can paint do as vehicle to express itself, within the confines of its own limitations"? Cohen utilizes found materials in an attempt to give them a second chance. A new life in a painting that will combine with other colors of his found palette to reinvigorate a new life. Layer by layer by layer each hand brushed and left for a whole day to dry the paintings are developed slowly taking as long as two years or more from start to finish.
Janet Blocker was born and raised in Virginia and made Texas home some years ago. Her love of travel, history and art has influenced the careful selection of her collection over time.
