2011 | Sushi Gallery, San Diego
We all miss Bob Matheny (1929-2020).
Bob used many pseudonyms, including “almost anonymous,” and he often carried signs forbidding photography. I prepared for this reception by making a wire-span black-out anonymizing tab to mount on my Leica’s accessory shoe. Bob would not be recognizable here, except by his concerned reaction to my lens.
Every visit to his studio, no matter how frequent, was a new experience; he would have cleared the previous work away and had almost filled the place with variations of his latest idea. One time, Bob visualized an exhibition of one-foot-square paintings and ran out of wall space as the series grew to one hundred. He then fabricated a spinning vertical display rack so that the viewer could stand in one place while browsing through all the works.
Bob always had too much art. He displayed work on his back fence, and you could stroll down the alley and find something to take home. He also chartered the San Diego Chapter of the Art Disposal Service.
▷ In 1962, Matheny was the man who audaciously hired the prominent National City artist John Baldessari to join him on the art faculty at Southwestern College.