Jonas Wood Curator. George Grosz's Disappointed Heirs

In 2023,  Jonas Wood (b.1977) had a show of drawings that he had made from 2000 to 2023 in a New York gallery.

Wood’s drawings are the underpinnings of his paintings and prints. He attributes his drawing skills to Denzil Hurley (1949–2021), a professor he was fortunate to have  studied with while completing his MFA at the University of Washington in Los Angeles. Wood said, “Maybe it wasn't Denzil’s actual words that had an impact on me, but the idea of what he was trying to convey: Always keep pushing yourself forward. Practice painting. And practice drawing, because if you're good at drawing, then you're good at painting.”

Wood has curated an exhibit, at the Gladstone Gallery in Los Angeles, that combines the work of Hurley alongside the work of Brian Sharp, a fellow student who also studied with Hurley.

 

In a dialogue between Wood and Sharp, published in Cultured Magazine, Wood gives us a glimpse into the way Hurley’s style had an impact on his art: “Denzil had a very assertive, smart, and intuitive teaching style where he challenged us to keep thinking.” Wood said, and went on to describe Hurley’s ‘box class’: “Long story short, you’d make a box out of cardboard, about 20 x 24 inches, and you’d paint the box one color. Then you'd make a painting of that box, learning how to slow things down and figure it out. Next, you'd put things inside the box and make a painting of that. Then, finally, you’d deconstruct the box and make a painting of that.”

 

The works of Jonas Wood can be found in the permanent collection of The Met, MoMA, the Whitney, the Guggenheim, the Centre Pompidou and many other venues around the world.

 

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The heirs of artist George Grosz (1893-1959) asked the German government for legal title to two of Grosz’s paintings, which were done just before Grosz left Berlin for New York to avoid persecution by the Nazis. 

 

Grosz was labeled a “degenerate artist” by the Nazis, along with Marc Chagall, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian and many other artists of the time, whose works were considered ‘too modern’. Many of their works were confiscated, many lost their teaching positions and other jobs.

 

The request by Grosz’s heirs was denied by a German advisory board, claiming that there was not enough evidence to support the claim that the two paintings in question were confiscated because of Grosz’s persecution. 

 

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David Hockney has traveled to Paris, with his dachshund, Tess, to attend the opening of a retrospective of his work at Foundation Louis Vuitton.

 

Hockney, who is 87, and has been under 24/7 medical care, helped to curate the show from his home in London. The more than 400 works are on view in the exhibit, done from 1955 to 2025, The retrospective fills the entire Foundation building.

 

 

Visitors will be greeted by the words, “Do remember they can’t cancel the spring” written in bright neon letters, in Hockney’s handwriting, at the entrance of the building.

 

David Hockney 25 will be on view at Foundation Louis Vuitton from April 9, 2025 though August 31, 2025.

 

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April 10, 2025