Richard Jackson’s ‘alleged paintings’ come to the Crocker, bringing a humor and a challenge to traditional art

Richard Jackson says his artworks are paintings, though he says his critics tend to disagree. Funny, inventive and often vulgar, his works challenge what the word “painting” means by incorporating engineering and sculpture and upending the norms of “proper” painting.

In a new exhibition at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, Jackson returns to his hometown for his first show in nearly 30 years. A Sacramento native, Jackson grew up delivering The Sacramento Bee as a paperboy and attended Sacramento State; he has been based out of Southern California for decades now and shows his art all over the world.

“Big Ideas: Richard Jackson’s Alleged Paintings” opened Sunday at the Crocker Art Museum and will be on display through Aug. 25. You have to see it to believe it – a rainbow row of grizzly bears standing at urinals, some with urinals for heads, is just the tip of the iceberg.

Walking through it feels a little like a fever dream, and every work comes across as something that had never been thought of before Jackson dreamed it up. Some of it is beautiful, some of it is funny and some of it is confusing.

Trained as an engineer, many of Jackson’s works are huge feats of metal and electronics. Often, the sculptures are designed to “activate” and spray or leak paint, often to imitate bodily fluid. Most of the sculptures can only be activated once, in order to create the final products viewers see in galleries.

This whirlwind of abstract works is especially impressive because Jackson doesn’t focus on making the end result impressive. Instead, he said he enjoys having something to develop and create.

“It’s not about the outcome as much as it is about the process,” Jackson said.

For example, one of the works at the exhibition features 1,000 canvasses that have been painted and stacked together facedown, while still wet, to create a huge wall of paintings. Jackson didn’t just paint the 1,000 canvasses and stack them together; he also hand-stretched and primed each canvas.

A standout at the exhibition is “Little Girl’s Room,” a large piece set up to be viewed through a doorway. The floors and walls are splattered with paint and larger-than-life versions of children’s toys are set up throughout. A jack-in-the box hangs over a rafter; a baby doll is surrounded by bottles full of paint. In the center, a unicorn standing on its horn spins, a little girl embracing it.

Jackson included a sentimental touch outside “Little Girl’s Room.” Hanging on the wall near the doorway is a painting done by Lizzy, the 10-year-old daughter of a friend. The painting is genuinely good, especially for a young girl, Jackson said. And he loves it because it portrays ducks, an animal that that he has often used in his works, and dogs.

Jackson believes his art should be temporary. That’s why one of his most iconic styles, which he just calls “the wall paintings”, are made at each exhibition and destroyed afterward.

“You can say they’re beautiful, or you can say they’re messy, or whatever, but what they really are is an attempt to change painting,” Jackson said. “That it’s more of an experience, it’s evidence of an activity, and it’s also temporal. It’s not something you can move around.”

“What it really is, it’s more of an attitude than it is an object. It’s still a painting, but in order to have one or want one you have to change the way you think about painting and that’s what I’m trying to do. I’m trying to expand it, make it bigger.”

To create them, Jackson paints canvasses and places them facedown on the wall while the paint is wet, rotating the canvasses to create colorful arcs. No two wall paintings are the same, and they’re impossible to move. Jackson leaves the canvasses with their backs facing out, a literal inversion of traditional painting.

“I think art should be temporary, because we are all temporary,” Jackson said. “Everything’s temporary, no matter how long they try to preserve and restore and conserve and whatever they do to art. It’s gonna go away, in the long term.”

If you go

What: “Big Ideas: Richard Jackson’s Alleged Paintings”

Where: The Crocker Art Museum, 216 O Street

When: April 28 to August 25 (Note: the Crocker Art Museum is closed on Mondays.)

Tickets: $12 for adults, $8 for seniors, students and military, $6 for youth ages 6 to 17, and free for children 5 and under. Every third Sunday is Pay What You Wish Day. (Note: Some of the pieces in this exhibition may be considered inappropriate for young children.)