Always Sunny in California Part 3 : MOCA

Salvatore Scarpitta

Shozo Shimamoto

"I make a hole in the canvas in order to leave behind me the old pictoral formulae,

the painting and the traditional view of art and I escape the prison of the flat surface."

— Lucio Fontana

"The thrill and excitement that destruction invokes is common to us all ...

Even though destruction itself may be the opposite of creation, in this age,

the boundary between the two no longer exists. Despite our refusal to emphathize

with destruction, we must consider it as a constructive site in order to move forward." 

— Shozo Shimamoto

"I annihilate the picture, the majestic white surface, and thus the old order of the world,

pushing it toward its demise, but you could also say: its completion."

— Otto Muehl

"For them, destruction was not just a nihilistic act, and the void was not just a

black hole of despair and anxiety; rather, they saw destruction as a mode of creation

and the void as a space of potentiality."

— Paul Schimmel

< Destroy the Picture: Painting the Void 1949-1962 > was by far the most fantastically visceral — or viscerally fantastic — show that is PERFECTLY aligned with my recent urges of making work. I was feeling complete and helpless catharsis in every step that I was moving in the space. I truly believe that it was God's intervention that I saw the work of SCARPITTA. I had my head buried in a book of his the whole semester, and it is unbelievable that I got to see it in person. Not only did MOCA have an exhibit that marks a significant point in my lifetime, but it also had an amazing permanent collection. I'm talking about roomful of Rothko's...