Curated by Peter Frank, the exhibit of paintings, digital prints, and other works created by the renowned artist—whose career in the arts spans nearly 60 years, and whose paintings bring to life the confluence of physics, light, and energy—will be held in two locations (SMC’s Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery and the Emeritus College Art Gallery), with separate opening dates. Opening reception for larger works at Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery on Saturday, October 25, from 6 to 9 p.m. Opening reception for smaller works at Emeritus Art Gallery on Thursday, November 20, from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
Gallery closed November 27-30.
Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery:
Tue, October 28 – Sat, December 13
Emeritus College Art Gallery:
Thu, November 20 – Sat, December 13
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- Symmetry 1 & 2
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- Concave Convex
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- Density I
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- Facets
Bettina Brendel Resume
Bettina Brendel
Born 1922 Luneburg, Germany
1940 Abitur (B.A.) Hamburg, Germany
1941-43 Kunstschule Schmilimsky, Hamburg-Eppendorf
1945-47 Staatliche Hochschle fur Bildende Kunst, Hamburg
1955-58 University of Southern California (Art History & Printmaking)
1967-72 Hanya Holms School for Social Research, New York (History & Theory of Physics)
1968-69 New School for Social Research, New York
Solo Exhibitions •
1946 Hamburger Griffelkunst (two-person)
1952 Lynn Kottler Galleries, New York
1954 Los Angeles Art Association
1957 Ester Robles Gallery, Los Angeles (two-person)
1958 Comara Gallery, Los Angeles
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
Whittier Art Association, Whittier, CA
1959 Dana Branch Library, Long Beach, CA
Downey Museum of Art, Downey, CA
1960 Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1961 Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1962 Downey Museum of Art, Downey, CA
La Jolla Art Center, La Jolla, CA
Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA
1966 Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
1967 Spectrum Gallery, New York, NY
1968 Spectrum Gallery, New York, NY
1983 University of California, Los Angeles, CA
1984 L. A. Artcore Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1991 Gallery 1634, Santa Monica, CA
1998 Long beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, CA
1999 Galerie am Bahndamm, Giessen, Germany
2000 David Lawrence Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA
Group Exhibitions •
1949 Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany
1950 “Zen 49”, Munich, Germany
1955-61 Los Angeles County Museum of Art Annual Exhibition, LA, CA
1958-61 Long Beach Museum of Art & La Jolla Art Center Annuals, CA
1959 “Arts of Southern California V: Prints”, Long Beach Museum of Art, CA
1960 “Arts of Southern California V: Prints”, Long Beach Museum of Art, CA
1961 “Form Concepts: 10 California Painters”, Downey Museum of Art, CA (Curator)
1962 “Strutture e stile”, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna, Turin, Italy
San Francisco Art Institute 81st Annual Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
1964-65 “Musee-Manifeste”, traveling exhibit in Italy, Austria, & Germany
1966 San Francisco Art Institute 81st Annual Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
1969 “Espaces Abstraits”, Galleria d’Arte Cortina, Milan, Italy
Pennsylvania Academy of Art “Prints & Drawings” Annual
1972 Beaumont Art Museum Annual, Beaumont, TX
1973 Santa Monica College Art Gallery Drawing & Print Annual Exhibition
Downey Museum of Art, (three-person exhibit), Downey, CA
1975 Santa Monica College Art Gallery Drawing & Print Annual Exhibition
1977 “Women Artists “, Santa Monica College Art Gallery
1980 Annenburg School off Communication, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA
1981 Santa Monica College Art Gallery Drawing & Print Annual Exhibition
1987 “Zen 49”, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden, Germany
1994 Galerie Bender, Dusseldorf, Germany
“Molecular Graphics”, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
1995 Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA
Galerie Bender, Dusseldorf, Germany
1996 San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA
“Creativity & Cognition”, University of Technology, Loughborough, UK
2003 “Liebig Konkret”, Galerie am Bahndamm, Giessen, Germany
Work in Public Collections •
Armand Hammer Museum (Grunwald Graphic Arts Foundation)
Downey Museum of Art, Downey, CA
Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkain, Lisbon. Portugal
Long Beach Museum of Art, Long beach, CA
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Max-Planck-Institu, Munich, Germany
Museum fur Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Germany
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA
Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Germany
University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Honors •
1956 Art In America “New Talent” citation
1958 Prizewinner, La Jolla Art Center Annual
1960 Prizewinner, Long Beach Museum of Art Annual
1961 Prizewinner, La Jolla Art Center Annual
1961 Prizewinner, Long Beach Museum of Art Annual
1965 Purchase prize, San Francisco Art Institute Annual
1995 Purchase prize, Palm Springs Desert Museum Annual
1996 Purchase prize, Palm Springs Desert Museum Annual
Teaching and Lectures •
1946-47 Landschulheim, Marienau, Germany
1955-58 University of California Los Angeles, Extension Program
1971 College Art Association of America, Annual Conference, Chicago,
1971 Optics Colloquium, Institute of Optics, Rochester, NY
1976 University of California Los Angeles, Extension Program
1980 “Light, Color, the Optical Illusion,” University of Southern California Thematic Option Program
1985 & 87 “Art, Science, & Technology” conferences, Gulbenkian Foundation, Paris & Lisbon
1988-94 Artist-in-Residence, California Museum of Science & Industry, Los Angeles, CA
1991 Werner Heisenberg Institut of the Max Planck Institut, Munich Germany
1996 “Creativity & Cognition” Symposium, Loughborough University of Technology, England
Excerpt from an article by Bettina Brendel,
…Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle of quantum physics were not without influence on the art and literature of the 20th century – an influence that is growing with the understanding of the principles involved.
New forms of light and energy have expanded our horizon of visual impressions and have changed the image of the physical world. We know now that there is an invisible portion of the spectrum that is also part of our environment: x-rays, gamma rays, infrared light, radio waves, the electron beam of the electron microscope, polarized light as in laser light, are all part of it.
The artist who would want to visualize the mystery of these unseen forces at work would have to create first a metaphor for it. The visual metaphor that I adopted for the representation of particles of matter and energy, electrons and photons, is a short, straight line that intersects with other equal lines at various angles. The concept behind this visual metaphor is the realization that a particle is not a point but a probability of linear energy in time and space.
It is these ideas of modern physics and the philosophy connected with them that interests me as an artist. For example, a series of my paintings deals with the process of ionization: an electrically excited gas, also called plasma, emits radiation of light due to collisions of electrons with atoms. The diffraction of photons and that of electrons shows a similar pattern of concentric rings, thereby demonstrating the wave-particle duality of matter and energy that has been recognized in quantum physics. I expressed this phenomenon in a diptych entitled Diffraction.
A series of paintings depicts the conversion of solar energy ions on the surface of photovoltaic cells. Another group of paintings shows the light of laser beams created by a metal-vapor system that display brilliant colors of the spectrum after having passed through a diffraction grating. In all instance, the space that I am projecting in my work is not based on the old concept, but is created by layers of lines that through repetition, suggest depth and motion.
Modern physics is opening up a new world of ideas to the artist who is part of the nuclear age. Light and energy in the nuclear age have assumed affirmative, but also destructive, potentials. The discovery that some form of light is involved in the communication of our thought processes is of international importance! Let us hope that the light of the human mind- a bio-electric reality- will prevail to lead us to a more peaceful future!
Bettina Brendel,
From the “The Artist as Physicist, “ in Nunes dos Santos, A.M., ed. Arte e Tecnologia, Lisbon: Fundacao Calouste Gulbenkian, 1993, pp. 22-29.
