Magdalena Suarez Frimkess / LACMA
Picking up the two Frimkess pieces last weekend reminded me that I never did a post on LACMA's exhibition on Magdalena. I saw it in September of 2024.
Magdalena Suarez Frimkess: The Finest Disregard was the first museum exhibition dedicated to Magdalena. Although she is mostly known for her ceramics, the Venezuelan-born, Los Angeles-based artist was trained in painting, printmaking, and sculpture in Venezuela, Chile, and New York. Spanning more than five decades, the exhibition features ceramics, paintings, and drawings, including works created with her husband, Michael Frimkess.
Magdalena was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1929. She was orphaned at seven years old when her mother passed from cancer. After being raised by nuns, she moved to Chile at 19. She moved to the US when she was 33 after she was offered a residency at the Clay Art Center in New York. That is where she met her future husband Michael. They moved to Los Angeles in 1964 and they opened there studio in Venice in 1971.Image: Mary Wigmore’s short film Magdalena
In the Whitmore documentary Magdalena says cartoons are fun for her and relaxing to make. They are the masters of everything and know all the answers because they make fun of everything.
Mercado Persa, 1996. Her husband Michael threw the pot and Magdalena decorated it.
Michael's daughter is blond, hence the Blondie. The figures are a mixture of people from her personal life, cartoon characters and even Tito Puente makes an appearance
The pot in their home.
Source: Mary Wigmore’s short film Magdalena
The exhibition included this Jonas Wood work depicting the vase. Wood is a longtime collector of her work. In fact, many of the lenders to this exhibition were L.A. artists, like Jonas Wood, along with Mark Grotjahn, Ricky Swallow and Leslie Vance. My guess is that much of their collection came from South Willard, whose owner, Rayan Conder, was also a lender.
In 2013, when she was 84, she had her first solo exhibition at South Willard. Earlier that year she was included in the group exhibition, Grapevine, at David Kordansky.
This is a photo I took at South Willard in 2016. While now South Willard is mostly an art space, back then it was also a clothing store. I used to to buy my shoes there, while I should have been buying Frimkess. I remember when they were in the hundreds.
Back to the LACMA exhibition. On the left is an Albers from 1969 from the LACMA collection and on the right is a painting by Magdalena from the 1980s.
Watch Mary Wigmore’s short film here: Magdalena
There is also a good one on Michael: Pots That Speak