Strips of Stripes
9.15.2023 - 10.14.2023
Cronyism is when…eh…nevermind.
Barbara Stauffacher Solomon (b.1928 in San Francisco) is a legendary artist and graphic designer who, at 94 years old, is having a bit of a moment. Public commissions, museum exhibitions, interviews in glitzy magazines, the works! She has pieces held in major permanent collections (MoMA, LACMA, the Walker Art Center) is represented by a prestigious Swiss gallery (Von Bartha), and has had recent solo shows at major innovative art spaces (LAXArt and The Graham Foundation.)
So when she asked us if she could show some drawings at Bass & Reiner we immediately said “Why?” Her earnest answer was something about having “waited too long to ask anyone else, and anyway, you aren’t too busy and it’d be good for you right?” So here we are, showing the newest works by an old friend.
Strips of Stripes is a series of drawings that puzzle out the ways that lines become language, design, direction, and characters. Made as sketches for and companion pieces to her new monumental installation encompassing SFMoMA’s Schwab Hall, they’ve also been organized into a book published by Colpa Press.
