Mimi Bates Paintings

The artist constructs his spirit animal through mixed media. 48" x 60" Spray Paint, Oil, Construction Paper, Acrylic, Pastel, Marker

Shortly before Walt Esslinger died a few years ago, we talked in his small yellow painted studio in Bakersfield. Sixteen years my senior, he’d been my close friend, mentor and running mate since 1960. “You still writing?” he asked. “Yes,” I answered, taking in the space’s renovations he’d recently sub-contracted. Ninety one years old, and he was thinking ahead. “Do me a favor,” he said. “Write the Andy Warhol story.” Walt was a Central Valley guy, an L.A. guy, a Las Vegas guy. A man who knew his way around. “I want you to put on record what happened back then when I bought the soup can painting.” Back then was the fall of 1962. The two of us had been exhibiting our paintings in the L.A. Art Institute’s gallery for locals only. Walt had given legendary Ad Rhinehardt a story about how he and I had been working in both Edward Kienholz’s and John Altoon’s studios (false—we’d only been visiting). One morning, the Institute’s Director, who hadn’t suspected us to be charlatans yet, introduced us to a reed thin, tow headed young man leaning against the main gallery’s wall. “Meet Andy Warhola,” he said. “Andy is from New York.” “Warhol,” the boy/man said. “Painter?” Walt asked him. “Shoe Illustrator.” The director made a snorting noise I took to mean that Warhola or Warhol’s modesty was posed. He mentioned something about Andy having a show on the La Cienega strip of galleries. We exchanged mumbles about how the art world was in flux, nothing more than that, and Walt and I moved on. If this strange cat had anything to look at, we’d see it. It was a Monday, and La Cienega’s twenty some galleries would be opening new shows and serving champagne that evening. North La Cienega Avenue, laid over a network of oil veins decades before, had become the street for the Cool School, a group of artists and gallery people trying to bring Los Angeles’s art scene to life. The galleries were small but proud. Sure, Jazz was born on the Delta and raised in New Orleans, St, Luis and Chicago, but L.A. had fifty-three jazz joints according to Chet Baker, who’d blown with the best. Why then should the West Coast be lagging behind New York in the other truly American expression, abstract art? At the Ferus Gallery that night we found Warhol’s exhibit. “Shit,” I said. Walt grinned. “You no like?” “Not exactly my can of soup,” I said, peeking into the small space, loaded now wall to wall with paintings of Campbell’s Tomato Soup. Walt stepped into the space. “How about the idea of it?” I made my way through spectators looking at once to be confused, amused, enthused and abused. When I came back to Walt he was still smiling. “Why didn’t he silk screen ‘em?” I asked. “That’s probably his next move,” Walt said. “You wanna stay?” Walt’s keen eyes cased the joint. “I see Irving Bloom over there,” he said. “Believe I’ll stick around and talk with him.” Bloom had been operating this popular gallery for some time now. “One hundred a month,” he’d told me. “It’s not like I’m getting rich.” I stood around for a bit, heard a fellow abstract expressionist I’d met tell a young lady who looked to be lost, “Okay that’s the soup. Come with me, baby, and I’ll show you the juice.” Two doors down I stopped at the Primus-Stuart Gallery. A group of people had gathered around a display of soup cans, stacked grocer’s pyramid style in the window. All Campbell’s. All Tomato. A sign leaning against the grouping stated: “Get the real thing. Thirty cents each.” That’s the way it was. Twenty-four galleries forming a gauntlet between La Cienega’s 300 block, all the way up to Barney’s Beanery at the corner of Santa Monica. Hollywood types dressed to the nines, Beats dressed for the times just gone. Champagne popping...

"New Move 8" Oil on Canvas is a mix of blues and greens with chrome yellow accents. Frank Arnold is thought by many to be one of the foremost abstract figurative painters and sculpto...

Stuart Bigley is an artist based in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley. He has been making and showing his artwork for over 40 years. During this time he also co-founded and ran the ...

Stuart Bigley is an artist based in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley. He has been making and showing his artwork for over 40 years. During this time he also co-founded and ran the ...

A very good large 20th century Abstract Expressionist oil circa 1975. Stanley Smith (b. 1923) British. oil on board 61cmx 122cm. Gallery frame 65cmx 126c...

Stuart Bigley is an artist based in New York’s beautiful Hudson Valley. He has been making and showing his artwork for over 40 years. During this time he also co-founded and ran the ...

Parallel Construction, oil on canvas, 48 x 54 in. Oonju Chun’s large abstract expressionist paintings delightfully employ the basics of good, nonobjective ...

“OTL 8” is 60”x 60”. Central figure of Vibrant to deep reds on a split field of warm beige/coral and deep red/black. The foreground exhibits heavy strokes and Arnold’s “8” and “X” fi...

“Moving 5” is 60”x 48”. The vibrant yellow surface tones of this piece are broken in several places allowing random glimpses of Arnold’s dreamlike underpainting for a multi-dimension...

Leap of Faith, Oonju Chun, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 in. (unframed, gallery-wrapped canvas), $4,900 Oonju Chun’s large abstract expressionist paintings deligh...

Binyamin Basteker The Mighty Waves, 2023 oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm 24 x 31 in Binyamin Basteker was born in Mumbai in 1953. Growing up in a family of artists, his unique talent was discovered at a very early age. He perfected the art of portraiture and color while still living in India. Following his immigration to Israel in 1969, he studied with the modern Israeli masters and was considered to be one of the promising young abstract artists of the 1980s. In the mid-1980s he became observant and ceased to exhibit his work. The artist’s inaugural solo exhibition of oil paintings entitled “Stones that Speak” set Basteker apart from the mainstream of “modern” Jewish, religious painters. Whereas in many instances the theme of the painting, whether it be the Kotel or Jerusalem or the wealth of themes available to the observant artist, becomes the goal of the artist, Basteker relates to the “theme” as the “excuse” for the painting. Basteker searches for balance and harmony in his life and translates this to color and texture and motion. Nothing is his work is arbitrary. Every stroke and splash, every line and curve contribute to the perfect composition. The artist’s selection of tools, a result of an immediate inspiration, greatly affects the application of the color and texture. His works are sophisticated and worthy of deep examination. Tremendous layers of thought and spirituality are engraved in each and every work. Yet to the casual viewer, the paintings are aesthetically pleasing on a very simplistic level. On first glance, we see a beautiful bouquet or garden. Yet as the viewer’s eye travels and dissects the composition, we might imagine a maestro conducting a symphony orchestra or a pianist’s graceful fingers dancing over the keyboard. “Jerusalem Flowers” are unique to the Holy City...