Billy Al Bengston

Various Small Fires Los Angeles will host a “sorta” memorial and exhibition of works by Billy Al Bengston (b. 1934 – d. 2022) opening July 1, 2023. Featuring an abundant feast of Bengston’s circa 1980’s Kahuna and Pa’ Pepa watercolor collages surrounding the artist’s 1971 installation Lumberjack Luncheon, this “sorta” memorial is an exhibition and ode to the artist’s generous, joy-filled, and irreverent approach to life and art.

In 1971, LA Times food writer Rose Dosti approached Bengston for a story about young, local celebrities and artists who enjoyed cooking. Bengston found the proposition somewhat dull but was not eager to turn down the chance to have a little fun. He presented Dosti and notably cantankerous photographer, Mary Frampton, with a pine-sap perfumed lunch menu suited more to termites than human tastes. Hammered together in a very short time, Lumberjack Luncheon includes grainy delights like plank steak, mixed dust soup, standing log roast with aspen chips, and a bottle of retsina to wash it all down. Frampton was unamused and refused to photograph the work, leading to a lively verbal showdown with Bengston on the subject of professional integrity; Dosti was delighted, describing the lunch as “absolutely divine… not only a sculpture in its own right but an artistic performance, in costume and everything.” The work went on to be included in exhibitions at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the MoCA Annex at the Pacific Design Center, and most recently in 2009 at the Samuel Freeman Gallery. When not on offer to select guests in an exhibition context, the luncheon is semi-permanently installed in Bengston’s home and studio in Venice, CA.

A selection from Bengston’s Kahuna, Pa’Pepa, and Lost at Sea works surround the welcoming and fragrant table. The Kahunas and Pa’Pepas reflect Bengston’s return to a more-handmade aesthetic – these fanciful paper collages are made from water-colored paper, cut, and then re-assembled into compositions resembling masks, figures, and platters of fish and sashimi. The Kahunas, which Bengston began making after he started spending substantial time in Honolulu, reflect the artist’s fondness for Hawaiian culture and landscape. While usually translated as something akin to “head honcho,” in Hawaiian Kahuna means “priest, sorcerer, magician, wizard, minister, or expert in any profession.” Bengston’s Kahunas err on the side of sorcerer, magician, wizard, or artist--exuberant, wily, and psychedelic. The Pa’Pepa collages use similar materials to the Kahunas, but rather than these trickster spiritual guides, each collage shows a platter of fish, sushi, or sashimi and often has three-dimensional elements to the composition.

Bengston’s Lost at Sea paintings bring a quiet moment of meditation to this raucous dinner party. Sensitively colored, with thin layers of paint to capture the subtleties of sky and water, these paintings of the horizon line refer to a morning fishing excursion that turned into a 12-hour adventure in the Sea of Cortez in 1996 when Bengston’s friend shot-gunned the new boat out into the water with such gusto that the gas tank ran dry. As they floated, untethered from certainty about their location or control over their locomotion, Bengston’s pals became frazzled and anxious. Meanwhile, Bengston spent his time lost at sea, lost in the horizon, remarking to the group, "Don’t worry. The worst thing that can happen is we can die.”

The artist’s cheeky spirit lives on in this exhibition of works that have been largely unexhibited for over a decade.  Humorous and playful, the presentation is an undeniably fitting homage.