BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE MAGAZINE: LOS ANGELES

BUREAU : ART

KENT TWITCHELL

By Joshua A. TRILIEGI

September 25th 2012

Kent Twitchell' s subjects usually stand up.They always seem to look directly at us,

making an intimate kind of eye contact. Twitchell' s character portraits allow us to

see who they are by simply being there. Sometimes alone, as in his portrait of

Jesus located in an obscure parking lot wall in the central portion of L. A. Other
times in a group, such as The Musicians along the 110 freeway in the Downtown
Area. If you are a native Angeleno or someone simply paying attention than you
are already familiar with his work.

You may have even seen it birthed, lived with it for a while, sometimes for
decades and then quite suddenly seen it vanish. As we experienced with the Ed
Ruscha portrait that stood boldly on the side of a north facing wall downtown for

so many years. A striking portrait of our local L.A. artist and at this point, thanks
to Kent, a sort of icon of the West Coast Cool Boys Art Club.Wearing a striking
scarlet gabardine shirt, clever smile, knowing, somewhat reserved, humble, but
cool.

When the city painted over this immaculate portrait,they ended up shelling out
about a million dollars for that little discrepancy. It's often heart breaking to be an
artist in today's world. The journey itself is harrowing. Artist's biographies often
eclipse the craft itself, sometimes adding to the story, creating a context,a value,
a perspective in which allows us a window into the art, man, woman or the very
expression itself.

One thinks of any number of artists storyline' s in which the events occurring
created a story to be told concurrently within the work. On the extreme : Van

Gogh, Basquiat, Pollock, Kahlo, Claudel. Sometimes it's a loss, other times it's
a find. Many artists have sometimes toiled in total obscurity their entire lives

only to be discovered late, such as Thornton Dial.Or even posthumously, Darger
for instance. Kent Twitchell' s work does not fall into any easy category.There
are not many master technicians working today that would allow for an easy
comparison. When it comes to craft, accuracy and depth of process, one may
thinkof Chuck Close. That is once you have entered Mr. Twitchell' s world and
his extremely complicated process.

The attention to detail is rather extraordinary. His work has an extremely
detailed topographic aspect to it. Each face is mapped out like a surveyors
drawing of a piece of land. Seventeen different color pinks for instance would
be considered : P1,P2,P3,P4,P5,P6 etc ... Most of those colors might look the
same to the average viewer, but Mr. Twitchell is no average viewer, nor is he

an average artist. We spent an afternoon together some years ago, prior to the
Ed Rushca debacle. I was glad to help carry his bags and boxes for a small exhibit
at LosAngeles City College. The BUREAU ran video and gladly documented the
hanging of that exhibition. Spending a few hours with Mr Twitchell, his technique
and the drawings created, you quickly realize that you are in the presence of a
master technician, not only of light, scale and of realistic portraiture, but also a
deep understanding of the skins surface, values and decades of dedication to

craft as well as a patience when it come to preservation.

Mr Twitchell' s subjects are a mix of the populist at large: The Construction Worker,
The Clerk, The Elder Lady, The Artist, The Marathon Runner, The Doctor, The Jesus,
The Actor, The Newly Married Couple, real people. A majority are rendered in full
color other times a monotone version. Often they are taken out of their world with
a neutral back ground such as the first first work I had ever seen on a nondescript
wall on Torrance Boulevard, a flat black background.The subjects actually stare at
the viewer as you drive past, it is beautiful, haunting and an interesting mix of types.

By taking his subjects out of their environment, Kent allows us to see them more
fully. And when we see each other more fully, we understand one another, and when
we understand one another, than we make social changes together. Kent has done
more than create paintings, murals and art, he has indeed created a world of ideas
that relate directly to L.A.and who we are. He's damn important and quite frankly,
Ilove him, his work and his legacy for Los Angeles. You know why, because he has
made us important, the average Angeleno.He looked at a fifty foot wall years ago
and saw a space for ART. Which makes him a precursor to a lot of graffiti Artists

that work today. A message to the new kids in town : DO NOT EVER DISRESPECT
A LONG STANDING MURAL IN L.A.

Now for the sad news. With the proliferation of L.A. Murals,Kent is more busy
suing, fundraising and relocating works than he is creating new ones. We need
to create a dialogue between the younger generation and the Kent Twitchell' s
of L.A. We can and we will. Lets face it, these new artists deserve a wall too.
There are a multitude of LA Murals, L A Muralist' s and LA Artists. We are here
to bridge the gap, we call on a truce between the aerosol and the brush,
between the New and the Old, between the Established and the newer artists
in L.A. Honor the elders. Give opportunities to the youth and together let us all
celebrate what a incredible city, state, country and world that we all live in.

BUREAUofARTSandCULTURE.COM

VISiT THE ART PAGE FOR LINKS TO MR TWITCHELL'S SITE ...

WHY JIM HARRISON IS NOT DEAD

Tap Image to Read The Article Honoring The "LEGENDS OF THE FALL" Writer and Poet: Jim Harrison came from a family that adored and revered Literature: "My Family were obsessive readers…" The famous story goes, that, at a dinner table discussion, his family were talking about Norman Mailer's first success on the world stage and his book, entitled, " The Naked and The Dead, " young Jim responded to the conversation with the quick and curious question, "Does it have Illustrations ?" Laughter ensued and the beginning of his particularly curious, yet grounded, stoic, although humorous, celebratory whilst at the same time cautionary literary style is born.

THE IRVINE WELSH INTERVIEW

Author of TRAIN-SPOTTING on Writing, Politics + More/ Photo Essay By Walter ROTHWELL: "One of the things that happens with success is that you need to balance being a writer with an author. Writers write, while authors promote and talk about their work. So you learn that you have two jobs, which generally compliment each other, but can often get in each others way. This confusion is compounded by me working in film and TV; you need to think differently on screenplay as you are an architect rather than a builder, and once a work goes into production, you (appropriately) fall quite far down the food chain. So I now wear different hats, which I usually like –life gets boring doing the same thing."

The Nathan Walsh Interview

Tap to Read The New York Based BUREAU Guest Artist discussing his work, technique and the future of Realism in ART with Bureau Editor Joshua TRILIEGI: "I started collecting art related books as a student. This has served as daily form a of inspiration and guidance for my own practice. Looking at significant artists and paintings of the past can often be intimidating but can also suggest ways forward. My inspirations are numerous and varied from Piranesi’s engravings to the decorative tiles of William De Morgan. What connects all of these interests is a strong sense of structure and pattern. Most of the artists and designers I admire had or have a rigorous approach to composition and commitment to process perhaps more than outcome. I often think my own work as “sampling” these inspiring figures, whether it be the palette of Bonnard or the dynamism of a Bernice Abbott photograph. " - NATHAN WALSH

THE MUSIC EDITION

Tap To Read and or Download The FREE Music Edition INTERVIEW Painter CHRISTOPHER STOTT . This New Edition Contains The BUREAU MUSIC ICON Essay: HANK WILLIAMS . PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAYS and ARTICLES BY THE INFAMOUS MR. ART SHAY . MATHEW BARNEY at MOCA LA Plus BUREAU PROFILE : ANDREW HOLDER . The BUREAU PHOTOGRAPHIC INTERVIEW with LAURA STEVENS in PARIS . BUREAU FILM : BLUE VELVET at THIRTY . ART of MILES DAVIS "The SHAMAN" . PRINCE TRIBUTE plus MUSIC INTERVIEW with Singer-Songwriter: JOSHUA TATE . SOUND ARTIST : CÉLESTE BOURSIER - MOUGENOT with CHRISTOPH COX . DESIGN : ITS ABOUT WALLPAPER . COMEDY INTERVIEW with Andre HYLAND . John DOE . Aimee MANN . Chris STAPLETON . BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL : KWAME BRATHWAITE'S New HARLEM RENAISSANCE . DANNY LYON at THE WHITNEY MUSEUM + R. CRUMB at SEATTLE MUSEUM . TUPAC + ICE CUBE PHOTOS Mike MILLER . "LEGENDS OF THE FALL," WRITER : JIM HARRISON .

The ALEX HARRIS Interview

Tap To READ Alex HARRIS : "When I had the idea to photograph the landscape of northern New Mexico through the interiors of the cars of people who lived there, I’d been living in northern New Mexico on and off for almost 15 years and working in color there for about five years with a view camera. I saw myself as making the portrait of this region without including any actual people in the pictures. So I photographed extensively inside homes, whose decoration was primarily the domain of women, and the outsides of homes and in the fields, which was primarily the domain of men. In photographing these spaces, in a sense I was portraying the people who had created or shaped those spaces over the years. I wanted to represent the younger generation, and the spaces they controlled and decorated were the interiors of their cars."

Read The LITERARY 2016 Edition

TAP TO READ The John STEINBECK ICON Essay By J.A. TRILIEGI : "Question : What is it, that makes a good writer ? There are over a million answers to that question, simply ask a million writers. Each have their own rules, codes and exercises. John Updike adhered to writing three pages a day, before lunch. Charles Bukowski enjoyed a nice bottle of wine and the peaceful patter of classical music, deep into the night. According to John Steinbeck, in his Nobel Prize winning speech, there are many things a writer cannot think, be or do, to be considered, one of the gang. 1-You may not be Exclusive. 2-You may not be Separate. 3-You may not lack passion..."

ROBERT FRANK: THE AMERICANS

An APPRECIATION PIECE by Joshua TRILIEGI: "Photographers around the world revere Robert Frank's contributions to the image pool. Museums of the National and International variety create anthologies, catalogues and booklets attempting to put into perspective the precise importance of Mr. Frank's work. Art galleries and private dealers invest tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in reproducing and reselling the Robert Frank catalogue to new collectors at higher and higher prices each year. Robert Frank's photographs have become iconic, the images are American to the core and yet, he was an outsider, a beatnik, an immigrant, a visual poet... " TAP IMAGE TO READ ARTICLE NOW

REDFORD'S QUIZ SHOW at 20

Tap to READ BUREAU FILM : "This is a large film, with a brilliant cast, a flawless tone and leading actors that include John Turturro as the whistle-blowing contestant Herb Stempel and Ralph Fiennes as Charlie Van Doren, a wealthy second generation Columbia University teacher who gets sucked into cheating himself, the public and his families reputation simply by allowing the network's television producers of The Quiz Show entitled, "21" to, "… give him the answers." Which are said to be, "… sealed in a bank vault." Enter investigating lawyer and Harvard graduate at the top of his class, Richard Goodwin, played here brilliantly by Rob Morrow. A former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Frankfurter, who is on the legislative subcommittee for oversight..."

ON THE FILM SET : Raging BULL

Tap To READ J. A. TRILIEGI ON THE SET: A Man in a hooded, leopard skin robe walks down a long hallway while a group of men push aside those standing in his path. We hear a crowd of thousands cheer the man on, "Jake Jake Jake …" they begin to chant. He is wearing boxing gloves, this is a championship fight, the crowd is dressed in their finest, the men are wearing suits and hats, the women are wearing jewelry, the place is filled with cigar and cigarette smoke, sailors, businessmen, middle aged characters scream the man's name over and over, the women smile as he passes by, his trainers walk in front of and behind the man as he walks down the pathway toward the ring, the volume of the crowd amplifies as the man gets closer and closer to the large roped off square canvas at the center of the arena. The man in the leopard skin robe enters through the ropes, a nondescript fellow with a microphone introduces the man in the robe, the crowd goes wild with frenzy, people are shouting, clapping, everyone is yelling something and then, suddenly, a quiet gent behind a camera yells, "cut" and the place goes silent, the action ceases, everyone settles and a pensive discussion between the crew behind the camera ensues.

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN: ICON ESSAY

Tap To READ: Bruce Springsteen tells stories. He knits a good yarn. He knows how to handle the crowd. Like most artists, he was a few steps ahead of the audience. Looking back to his debut album, entitled, "Greetings from Asbury Park," it is now clear that, Bruce Springsteen is not just a great singer, performer and musician, Mr. Springsteen is that rare and individual voice, both on the stage and more importantly: on paper. He is a poet. When the world was still reeling from Vietnam, from the end of The Beatles, from the shadow of Richard Nixon and the slow, but steady death of the once powerful 1960s cultural revolution, this artist released an album that was miles and miles, ahead of his audience.

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE ICON

Tap To READ The BUREAU ICON ESSAY: Georgia O'Keeffe, as a person, was precocious, defiant, intelligent, unwavering and spirited. Throughout her education and early years as a painter, she produced an original abstractionist style that had preceded a group of New York painters of the male variety that has, to this day, remained wholly original, breathtakingly expansive and sexually charged in a way that empowers feminine energy and iconography. O'Keeffe rejected analysis of her works from start to finish, from her early years in New York, to her later years in The West, everyone seemed to get it wrong. So then, let us look again at the paintings and life of Ms. Georgia O'Keeffe and see if we can put this incredible body of work into a new and contemporary context with a fresh eye and revisionist look at this phenomenally bold American.

Pages

BUREAU : ART

KENT TWITCHELL

By Joshua A. TRILIEGI

September 25th 2012