MATT BULT: COLLAGE
AT PAUL THIEBAUD GALLERY, SAN FRANCISCO

San Francisco, California: Paul Thiebaud Gallery presents Matt Bult: Collage from July 7 through August 22, 2009. This show marks the third exhibition of Bult’s work at the Paul Thiebaud Gallery. His collages pay obvious homage to Joseph Cornell and Kurt Schwitters, both in their approach and final result.

Though more widely known as a painter and printmaker exhibiting professionally since 1983, Bult began experimenting with collage in the late 1980s. Over the past few years, he has intensively pursued the medium as a body of work. Bult’s collages often begin with a magazine clipping. To that base, he adds other paper-based images, graphite, inks, and acrylics. The collages are often sanded and abraded, then worked with water-based media so that they have a multilayered effect, a depth evocative of paintings.

Bult’s collages combine seemingly disparate subjects to create a polished final product. The artist focuses on a breadth of subjects including: birds, butterflies, maps, and reproductions of artworks from the art historical canon. His inspiration comes from varied sources as well. He names Jimi Hendrix, Paul Cézanne, Italian writer Umberto Eco, Art Historian and UC Davis Professor Jeffrey Ruda, and Russian composer Shostakovich, along with the collage artists, Lance Letscher, and Hannah Höch, amongst his many muses.

According to the Sacramento-based artist, the collages are composed of somewhat meaningless fragments that, when united, become metaphors for possibly something poetic and magical. Bult states, “Joseph Cornell referred to his boxes and collages as ‘poetic theaters.’ I like to think of mine as ‘operas of referential knowingness.’ (Not really!).” Bult holds a B.A. from the University of California at Davis.

Public Reception –– Tuesday, July 7, 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm; open to the public.

****SPECIAL EXHIBITION on view concurrently in our second floor gallery. From the Collection of Paul LeBaron Thiebaud: An Owner’s Sale. In the spirit of a truly ecclectic collector, Paul LeBaron Thiebaud’s interests are terrifically varied and vast. His passion for collecting and his endless delight in accumulating often result in an exceptionally large number of works of art, cultural objects, and ephemera. Occassionally his collections are winnowed to make room for the future finds. This is one such opportunity. The show includes works by: Jeff Hester, Joe Kievitt, Robert M. Kulicke, Pam Sheehan, Christopher Brown, and many others.