The Frank Lloyd Gallery is pleased to present an online exhibit of selected drawings and watercolors from the Craig Kauffman Estate's holdings. Throughout his career, Kauffman used line drawing to define form. A distinctive and highly improvised line was repeated in sketchbooks, single drawings, and paintings. In this survey of nine works, we also see the use of pastel and watercolor, a transparent medium which reflects Kauffman's interest in luminous color.
This diverse group of works on paper represents several periods of Kauffman's career, from the early 1950s through 1994. In all nine drawings, there is a loose, skipping line which defines form. Previous researchers and writers have often noted the direct relationship of this drawn line to the forms in Kauffman's paintings.
Nearly all of these works were contained in a late career drawing retrospective, organized by Jay Belloli, which featured an illustrated catalogue and essay. Regarding the drawings which appeared in that 2008 show, Belloli wrote:
"A delicate abstract pastel from Kauffman's years at UCLA is included in the exhibition. While still a student, at the age of twenty, Kauffman received his first solo exhibition at Felix Landau, at the time one of the most prestigious modern art galleries in Los Angeles. The works included in the Landau show seemed to be influenced by Paul Klee as well as contemporary abstract painting, possibly French as well as American. In the Armory exhibition, two similarly sized, loose compositions marked with black and red ink recall aspects of European Abstraction, which he was exposed to on a trip to France shortly after he graduated from college."
At another point in the late 1950s, Kauffman developed a group of paintings with forms drawn from multiple sources, none of which were prevalent in then-current West Coast abstraction. The paintings were shown at Dilexi gallery in San Francisco, but were preceded by a series of ink drawings. In an essay Belloli explained: