Don Sorenson
A Retrospective
Works from 1976 to 1985
Marks Center for the Arts
College of the Desert
February 13-March 28, 2008

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This 2008 exhibit of Don Sorenson's works, 1976 to 1985, at the Marks Galley, College of the Desert, began as a simple request to speak with a gentleman, Jim Sorenson, about how and where to donate a painting by his brother. Upon hearing the name, Don Sorenson, my memory gave me that, "I know that name" message. A few more minutes of conversation, and an afternoon in 1978 at Nicholas Wilder's Gallery in Santa Monica came into view. On that afternoon, I was introduced to one of the hottest young painters in Los Angeles, Don Sorenson. Don and I were both beginning our professional careers. Curating this exhibit has been an emotionally powerful experience. I have been given the opportunity to retrace my professional steps and be reintroduced to the extraordinary and timeless works of Don Sorenson. Twenty-three years since leaving this world, the artist Don Sorenson continues to remind us thru his work that Art reveals with clarity, power and unvanquished energy. Art is a depository- a place for the maker to place philosophies, emotions, images and a portion of their soul. Don Sorenson speaks to us all. He takes us on a personal journey and we converse with him silently, intimately.
The Los Angeles art scene in the 1970 and 80s was well populated with innovators- artists who had learned to believe in themselves and began making works that became the foundation for Los Angeles' international identity as a cultural center. It seems as though each week was energized by several openings where new works by the likes of John Baldessari, Sam Francis, Martha Alf, John McCracken, Ed Moses, Robert Irwin, Joe Goode, Ron Davis and others kept the creative atmosphere electric.
Surrounded by talents, a young Don Sorenson stepped up and made himself known. Sorenson's commitment was to painting and his talent as a painter was recognized. Unlike others who branched off toward narrative, conceptual and installation art, Sorenson relied upon Modernist structure- a grid and geometric forms- and fused it with his personal signature of layering, splattering and a color palette soon to be recognized as Sorenson. Don's search for a new structure in painting created works that consisted of spatial images which forced the work from the world of flat to the world of visual three-dimensionality. Each work gave the viewer a world to inhabit and traverse. Although painted more than twenty years ago, Don Sorenson's works remain vital, mysterious and energizing.

In her 1978 catalogue essay for a retrospective of works by Don Sorenson, art historian and writer Melinda Wortz wrote: "With regard to content, Sorenson involves himself with painting because of its potential for spiritual metaphor. In this regard he recalls Agnes Martin's lecture at the Pasadena Art Museum in the early 1970s as a pivotal influence, together with his art historical study of writings by 20th century painters like Kandinsky, Malevich and Mondrian. Raised in a strict Lutheran family, Sorenson had experienced ecstatic religious visions when he was a student and more recently when practicing Zen meditation." Unknown to Wortz at the time, Sorenson's "ecstatic religious visions" resulted from his experimentation with mind altering drugs. Similarly, many creative people in the 1970s experimented with such drugs in search of the next creative plateau. On one particular occasion, Don's experimentation resulted in a seriously physical adverse reaction. Typical for any human, Sorenson called out to God to stop his painful situation. As if written for and taken from a film sequence, Don's physical reactions to the drugs ceased. Although he never subsequently described himself as religious , his work possessed such levels of visual complexity they could be seen as examples of one artist's beliefs, layer upon layer until they became one mesmerizing image.


Sorenson's early paintings illustrate his understanding and need to challenge the formal theories of abstraction. Sorenson made works of spatial illusions that minimized the generally held notion of critics such as Clement Greenberg, that paintings should acknowledge the inherent flatness of a picture plane. Sorenson's overlapping images, layers of paint and use of order/chaos illusion set him aside and gave his work elements that have been described by critic Michael Duncan as "not representing or delineating a specific space, they assume a role as fully-fleshed abstract objects- thus achieving a kind of "pure" abstraction similar to that desired by Malevich and Mondrian."
In the late 70s, Sorenson's curves evolved into deliberate, straight lines weaving themselves into zigzag designs reminiscent of traditional design motifs used by Navaho weavers in their extraordinary blankets. Earlier works were composed of the zig-zag in combination with the curved and diagonal lines. The paintings began with a dark monochromatic but multi-valued background which then received a series of taped and painted diagonal lines of alternating warm and cool hues. A third set of thick and thin zig-zag motifs were added just before the artist added painterly twists, splatters and drips. The taped lines often bled into one another, adding to Sorenson's idiosyncratic palette and an obvious collaged element to the work. Later zig-zag paintings saw the artist eliminate the collage aspect and create illusion from complex layers of lines intertwined until the viewer is challenged to discern a distinction between figure and ground. In order to give the viewer a "subject", Sorenson applied the last zig-zags, usually in a saturated color chosen from the artist's unorthodox palette. Even the "zig-zag" paintings that seemingly are more monochromatic, are made from colors being mixed with others, thus creating a range of hues.
In the early 1980s, Sorenson's complex zig-zag paintings began hiding phantom figurative images. The artist firmly appreciated the classical figures from the Greeks and had convinced himself that unless he was adept at creating a figure in the classical mode, he would not be taken seriously as an artist. He began making works that were blatantly classical in imagery, combined with geometric designs. His canvases often times were shaped as temple facades. Always aware of the public, he continued to incorporate his signature, the "zig-zag" into his more classical compositions.
A year in New York between 1981 and early 1983, produced predominately figurative works. Sorenson spent extensive periods of time refining his skills as an artist who could draw in a more classical manner. Diagnosed with the HIV virus, his paintings took on a fierce emotional energy. Some works portend scenes of "judgment day" imagery. Many drawings Sorenson completed at this time remained lyrical and optimistic, some contained anguished male figures. All continued to allow the viewer to savor the artist's ability to speak with imagery.
Sorenson's zig-zag paintings had established him as one of the most promising artists in Los Angeles. Winning the 1984 Los Angeles County Museum of Art Young Talent Award solidified his position in the Los Angeles art community. Subsequent to receiving the Young Talent Award, Sorenson seriously concentrated on yet another creative phase. The "Ring" and "Mask paintings were jammed with a vocabulary of images, literal and hidden. The "Ring" paintings were the artist's personal interpretation of the Wagner masterpiece of the same name. The "Mask" paintings were filled with geometric shapes that intertwined in such a complex manner, the final piece gave the viewer both literal and hidden images to contemplate and discover.


In 1985 at the age of 36, Don Sorenson left this world, a victim to AIDS. At the time of his death, he was respected as an artist and yet still found himself in what has been described as an "aesthetic upheaval". His continual search for a new visual vocabulary in order to communicate was suddenly ended.
Sorenson's talented ability to make the tension between order and chaos be appreciated were gifts. Don Sorenson believed that" art can continue to present the unknown in a manner that allows us to discover ourselves through new perceptual experience".

This 2008 exhibit of works by Don Sorenson made between 1976 and 1985 allows us all the unique and privileged opportunity to experience self-discovery emanating from art works made by a man who perceived the world in a superior way.
My appreciation to Jim Sorenson for his initial contact concerning "a painting by my brother". A special thank you to Jim and Mrs. Sorenson for their generosity in gifting painting #2279, 1979, to the College of the Desert. Don Sorenson was a gifted teacher. He must be pleased knowing his work will be studied and become a tool for learning. Thanks to Lisa Soccio, Gallery Director, The Marks Gallery for her cooperation and enthusiasm for this project. Robert Berman and the staff of the Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica have provided pivotal works for this exhibition and allowed my tasks to be completed smoothly.
My personal thanks to Mike Sorenson cannot be overstated. Mike's dedication to preserving his brother's art works is remarkable. Mike provided me access to rows of Don's paintings and portfolios filled with drawings and collage. Our conversations provided me access into the life of Don Sorenson.
My memory of meeting the young, boyishly handsome artist in 1978 has been given a vitality and wealth of knowledge I could not have ever expected. I am more complete as a professional, but more importantly, as a human.

William Schinsky
Curator
13 February 2008