Dr. Seuss: Fingerhut Gallery, Sausalito, CA

One of my favorite Dr. Seuss books is the amazing collection of "secret" (read: more mature) art, which employ his cute whimsy art depicting nude females and cats, lots of evil-looking cats, meaner looking than The Grinch. There are also some amazing sculptures of weird critters by him in the book. So, so, so, imagine the news when I came up north that he had a show at The Fingerhut Gallery in Sausalito (which sounds like Solla Sollew, whoa).

One of the bizarre facts to be gleaned from the show was that when Seuss was a Lil' Sneetch his Dad, who worked at a zoo, would bring home beaks, claws, and other disembodied animal parts for him to use to make sculptures. Kinda gives "Green Eggs and Ham" a whole new context.

The show did not disappoint, the animal sculptures were in proud display, looking just as great in person as they did in the book The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss. Also present were preliminary rough sketches for The Cat In The Hat, a bronze sculpture of Yertle The Turtle, The Lorax, and a bunch of Horton stuff. And lots of naked chicks! Some riding a fish, some bathing in the sun, some cooking a dish, and some having big fun.

Gary Baseman: La Noche De La Fusion

Gary Baseman’s wild new book “Dying of Thirst” was recently released, and to celebrate its publication his work was on display at the Corey Helford Gallery under the title “La Noche De La Fusion”. The Saturday night opening was high concept, a Brasilian style carnaval with a mambo band, fire-eaters, and Baseman critters in outfits a la Disneyland, some cartoony and some sexy. Rebecca was instrumental in designing and fabricating outfits for the show.



Three spaces were used at the opening: the gallery itself for the display of his paintings, the parking lot where the carnaval took place, and a little warehouse on the other end of the block where the Baseman critters put on their outfits, and in the case of the sexy critters also had hair and make-up done.



The turn-out was huge, and from what I understand was Facebook RSVP only or some crap like that. Since I don’t belong to Facebook I got in via my “plus one” with Rebecca, but just barely. The guest list I was supposed to be on didn’t have me on there, and had to call Rebecca to get me in. The security guards were way over the top, insufferably so; in fact, there were even guards regulating how many people could go up to the balcony to look at paintings. I think the gallery took themselves way too seriously, to the point of placing a slight damper on the fun of the proceedings.



I had a good time at the opening but silently thanked God that these things don’t happen very often. I think Baseman’s a cool artist and his critters are fun to look at but by the end of the night I kind of wondered what Robert Williams would have done with the same budget.