Nut art movement was an artistic consciousness movement centered in

Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...

, that flourished primarily in the late-1960s and early-1970s.

History

The term "Nut art" was coined by artist

Roy De Forest Roy De Forest (11 February 1930 – 18 May 2007) was an American Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor, and teacher. He was involved in both the Funk art and Nut art movements in the Bay Area of California. De Forest's art is known for its quirk ...

(in conversation with writer David Zack) to describe an approach to art making which embraced humor along with the phantasmagorical. According to De Forest, Nut artists sought to create fantasy worlds reflective of their own quirks and eccentricities. As such, Nut art placed a high degree of emphasis on evolving visions, of which specific artworks were produced as part of the ongoing process of self-definition, or in service to creating new

persona A persona (plural personae or personas), depending on the context, is the public image of one's personality, the social role that one adopts, or simply a fictional Character (arts), character. The word derives from Latin, where it originally ref ...

s and personal mythologies. (Among these personas was that of Ralph "Doggy" Dinsmore, a persona used by De Forest.) As with

Conceptual art Conceptual art, also referred to as conceptualism, is art in which the concept(s) or idea(s) involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic, technical, and material concerns. Some works of conceptual art, sometimes called insta ...

, the idea or underlying concept with Nut art was paramount. As a result, the creation of the Nut artist was not restricted by style or medium, allowing the movement to embrace emerging formats such as performance, text pieces, and appropriation, in addition to more traditional two and three dimensional mediums such as drawing, photography, and sculpture. Because of the emphasis on

concept Concepts are defined as abstract ideas. They are understood to be the fundamental building blocks of the concept behind principles, thoughts and beliefs. They play an important role in all aspects of cognition. As such, concepts are studied by s ...

and

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

, Nut art welcomed contributions from participants without formal artistic backgrounds as well as those with advanced technical skill and training. Nut art also reflected the importance of process over product, which had been a central tenet of the Action painters a generation previous. Besides De Forest, other key practitioners of Nut art included

Robert Arneson Robert Carston Arneson (September 4, 1930 – November 2, 1992) was an American sculptor and professor of ceramics in the Art department at University of California, Davis for nearly three decades. Early life and education Robert Carston Arn ...

Clayton Bailey Clayton George Bailey (March 9, 1939 – June 6, 2020), was an American artist who worked primarily in the mediums of ceramic and metal sculpture. Early life and education Clayton George Bailey was born on March 9, 1939 in Antigo, Wisconsin. In ...

(as well as Bailey's alter-ego Dr. Gladstone),

Victor Cicansky Victor Cicansky, DFA (born 1935) is a Canadian sculptor known for his witty narrative ceramics and bronze fruits and vegetables.Ferguson, Bruce and Phillips, Carol A. ''Victor Cicansky: Clay Sculpture.'' Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery: Regina 1983. ...

(alter-ego Victor Ceramski), Robert Cumming,

Lowell Darling Lowell Darling is an American conceptual artist most notable for a series of performances in the 1970s that included nailing cities to the earth, conducting "urban acupuncture" by placing oversize needles in the ground, and stitching up the San A ...

Betty G. Bailey Betty Graveen Bailey (née Betty Joan Graveen; November 13, 1939 – March 20, 2019) was an American multidisciplinary artist. She lived and worked in Contra Costa County, California, and was part of the Nut art, Nut art movement. Artistic practi ...

, Jack Ford,

David Gilhooly David Gilhooly (also known as David James Gilhooly III) (April 15, 1943 – August 21, 2013), was an American Ceramic art, ceramicist, Sculpture, sculptor, Painting, painter, Printmaking, printmaker, and professor. He is best known for pioneer ...

, Jerry Gooch, Linda Renner,

Peter Saul Peter Saul (born August 16, 1934) is an American painter. His work has connections with Pop Art, Surrealism, and Expressionism. His early use of pop culture cartoon references in the late 1950s and very early 1960s situates him as one of the fa ...

, Sally Saul, Harold Schlotzhauer, Richard Shaw, Irv Tepper, Chris Unterseher, Peter VandenBerge, Franklin Williams, Maija Zack (alter-ego Maija Woof), and David Zack. David Zack, who was also a poet and art critic, reviewed many of the group's exhibitions. The first major exhibition of Nut art took place in 1972 at the University Art Gallery of

California State University, Hayward California State University, East Bay (Cal State East Bay, CSU East Bay, or CSUEB) is a public university in Hayward, California. The university is part of the 23-campus California State University system and offers 136 undergraduate and 60 post ...

. The show was co-curated by Clayton Bailey (then art faculty) and Gallery Director Irene Keil. The show produced a catalog which included a preface written by De Forest.

References

{{reflist

External links

A Short Chronology Of The Artist's Life - Clayton Bailey
Nut art Art in California Contemporary art movements Modern art Art in the San Francisco Bay Area Outsider art