Sacramento Bee Logo

Dalkey: Jack Ogden at b. sakata garo | The Sacramento Bee

×
  • E-edition
    • Customer Service
    • SacBee Rewards
    • About Us
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Apps
    • Mobile & Apps
    • Twitter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube
    • News in Education (NIE)
  • Newsletters

    • Sacramento Region
    • Arena
    • City Beat
    • Crime
    • Local Govt Salary Database
    • The Homeless
    • Marcos Bretón
    • Transportation
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health & Medicine
    • Traffic Conditions
    • Weather
    • Communities
    • Elk Grove
    • Folsom/El Dorado
    • Roseville/Placer
    • Yolo
    • Sports
    • Kings
    • NBA News
    • 49ers
    • Giants
    • Oakland A's
    • High School Sports
    • Joe Davidson
    • More Sports
    • Raiders
    • NFL News
    • MLB News
    • River Cats
    • Soccer
    • Colleges
    • Golf
    • Autos Racing
    • Politics
    • Capitol Alert
    • State Workers
    • The California Influencer Series
    • Local Elections
    • PoliGRAPH
    • State Worker Salary Database
    • Legislative Gifts
    • Local Elections
    • California Elections
    • Election Endorsements
    • Election 2018
    • Voter Guide
    • Investigations
    • Data Tracker
    • Public Eye
    • Afghan Refugees
    • Nursing Homes
    • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Election Endorsements
    • Viewpoints
    • Influencers Opinion
    • California Forum
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Submit a Letter
    • Jack Ohman
    • Editorial Board
    • Entertainment & Life
    • Arts & Theater
    • Books
    • Home & Garden
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Outdoors
    • Pets
    • Travel
    • More Entertainment
    • Events Calendar
    • Horoscopes
    • Comics
    • Puzzles
    • TV Listings
    • Sacbee Rewards
    • Food & Drink
    • Restaurants News & Reviews
    • Restaurant Directory
    • Cooking & Recipes
    • Beer
    • Wine
    • Appetizers Blog
    • California
    • Big Valley
    • Marijuana
    • Wildfires
    • Water & Drought
    • Lottery
    • Business
    • Real Estate
    • Market Summary
    • Cathie Anderson
    • Nation & World
    • National
    • World
    • Technology
    • Family
    • Celebrities
    • TV news
    • Weird News
    • Video Break
    • News Obituaries
    • Death Notices
    • FAQ
    • ObitMessenger
    • In Memoriam

    • The Sacramento Bee Store
    • Golf Card
    • Farm to Fork Dining Card
  • Jobs
  • Moonlighting
  • Cars
  • Homes
  • Classifieds
  • Legal Notices
  • Place an Ad
  • Advertise
  • Mobile & Apps

Living

Dalkey: Jack Ogden at b. sakata garo

By Victoria Dalkey - Bee Art Correspondent

    ORDER REPRINT →

October 17, 2013 12:00 AM

Tough, gritty, uncompromising. These words come to mind in looking at Jack Ogden’s recent paintings at b. sakata garo.

You need to have a little bit of “art brut” to make a painting work, Ogden said at the gallery. “Otherwise it’s too soft, too sentimental and ingratiating.”

No one would ever characterize Ogden’s work as ingratiating. It’s hard-core and hard-worked. Many of the canvasses in this show have been worked over and over, building up layers of paint while seeming to be slam-bang quick.

The artist in the studio is one of Ogden’s main themes, and “Step by Step” is a major work on that theme. Here we see the painter in his studio, sketches and small paintings tacked up on the wall, the canvas with an amorphous patch of paint, the tools of his trade – paint cans and brushes – wittily limned on the floor and on a shelf.

Sign Up and Save

Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

#ReadLocal

The subject, said Ogden, is a kind of last resort.

“There’s nothing left to paint but yourself,” he remarked. “It’s about the agony of trying to fill up the space as you go mano a mano with the blank canvas.”

In “Sez Me” the canvas functions as a door, an opening into the unknown. “Clean Sweep” gives us a pair of paintbrushes in front of a blank canvas, animated with the gesture and attitude of human actors. “Object” is a single fat brush in a can, a painting as blunt as any of Philip Guston’s late works.

“Paint Job” is a mysterious painting of a man in a yellow shirt, presumably the painter backed up by a male and female figure, the whole framed. as many of the works in the show are, by thrift-store finds he has sanded and painted on.

“Phiz” is more clearly a self-portrait in an arch with a kind of religious overtone that might have been called “Saint Jack.” It has some of the freshness and rich painterliness of ancient Egyptian fayum portraits.

“E” is a portrait of his striking wife, Eblis, in an elaborate frame the finish of which he has sanded away in places. It’s a bravura painting in which he uses a few broad strokes to set down the essence of Eblis’ face.

Of works like these, Ogden said, “It’s about how the game is played, how to make a mark function, to make a gesture works as a face.”

These marks take on an almost lyrical quality in “Modest Infanta,” a painting of a nude who covers herself modestly. In the background are shadowy figures of men in hats, and off to the right, the painter hides behind his canvas. It pits the private nude against the public men, who have an ominous though insubstantial quality.

Women again appear in “Finale,” a large painting based on a photograph in an old Life magazine of a 1940s Chicago burlesque house. It portrays a chorus of strippers in exotic costumes vigorously rendered in jarring colors.

Also based on photographs but not beholden to them are a trio of strong paintings:

• “Fire,” based on a picture in the San Francisco Chronicle of restaurant workers watching a fire, is dashingly painted and portrays the odd casualness and boredom of the witnesses to the fire.



• “Father’s Day” is a portrait of 19th century workers, perhaps miners or cowboys, each wearing a hat and staring at the camera. They are placed against a background of violent violet from, Ogden said, an old tube of paint that was eating away the metal of the tube.



• “Stagehands” takes center stage in the exhibit, a deadpan painting of figures based on photographs of German spies during World War II. The men, with their sickly green shadows, stand as if in a police lineup, their clothes rendered with bravura brushstrokes, their faces ranging from expressions of innocence to sly evasiveness.



Asked if his work was taking a new direction, Ogden described his approach as “directionless.”

“In an age of pluralism, everything goes, and nothing goes,” he observed. “You do what you can do. I’m not in the iPhone or iPad world. (These paintings) are not going to be seen on YouTube.”

Indeed, the 80-year-old painter seems more at home in the eras of the 1940s and 1950s and in the vast reaches of art history.

It’s gratifying to see a painter whose work gives strong evidence of the hand and mind at work. Don’t miss this show.

What: Jack Ogden at b. sakata garo

Where: 923 20th St., Sacramento

When: Through Nov. 2; noon-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays

Cost: Free

Information: (916) 447-4276; www.bsakatagaro.com

  Comments  

Videos

Watch couple get engaged at Disney on Ice at Golden 1 Center

Watch the Sacramento Zoo’s newest animal gallivant around its new exhibit

View More Video

Trending Stories

Raiders mock drafts: Focus remains on defense, except for one ‘electric’ prospect

February 17, 2019 10:50 AM

49ers mock drafts: Still between two at No. 2, but one candidate is edging the other

February 17, 2019 10:48 AM

Authorities remove cougar from tree outside California home

February 17, 2019 12:56 PM

What the NBA did to bid a fond farewell to Wade and Nowitzki at All-Star Game

February 17, 2019 09:34 PM

Did Colin Kaepernick beat the NFL? Some feel that’s the case, others aren’t so sure

February 17, 2019 11:45 AM

Read Next

Oakland, California diocese names 45 accused of sexual abuse

Religion

Oakland, California diocese names 45 accused of sexual abuse

The Associated Press

    ORDER REPRINT →

February 18, 2019 11:45 AM

The Catholic Diocese of Oakland, California has released the names of 45 priests, deacons and religious brothers who officials say are "credibly accused" of sexually abusing minors.

KEEP READING

Sign Up and Save

#ReadLocal

Get six months of free digital access to The Sacramento Bee

SUBSCRIBE WITH GOOGLE

MORE LIVING

Sex abuse survivors to meet with Vatican summit organizers

Religion

Sex abuse survivors to meet with Vatican summit organizers

February 18, 2019 05:30 AM

Travel

Hermitage Club puts you in center of private ski resort

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM

Religion

Oakland diocese names 45 priests accused of sexual abuse

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM

Health & Fitness

Slow start, but it’s not over yet: 5 things to know about this year’s flu season

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM

Health & Fitness

Study: High-fat Western diet could increase risk, severity of sepsis

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM

Travel

American Airlines’ flight attendants union wants investigation of ‘sexist’ skit video

February 18, 2019 12:00 AM
Take Us With You

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand.

Icon for mobile apps

The Sacramento Bee App

View Newsletters

Subscriptions
  • Start a Subscription
  • Customer Service
  • eEdition
  • Vacation Hold
  • Pay Your Bill
  • Rewards
Learn More
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletters
  • News in Education
  • Photo Store
Advertising
  • Place a Classified Ad
  • Place a Legal Notice
  • Place a Digital Ad
  • Place a Newspaper Ad
Copyright
Commenting Policy
Corrections Policy
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service


Back to Story