Lou Beach

Lou Beach (nee Andrzej Lubicz-Ledóchowski) was born in Göttingen, Germany in 1947, the son of Polish parents displaced by the Second World War. The family emigrated to Rochester, NY in 1951 where Lou attended public schools and junior college. He travelled to California in 1968 where he began his artistic career by making assemblage art and studying the Surrealists, visiting galleries and museums, and creating collages from pictures cut from old Life magazines. He worked during this time in bookstores, as a delivery man, moved furniture, and ran a punch press and forklift. A road trip across country, ostensibly to travel on to Europe from the East Coast, brought him to Boston where he lived from 1972 until 1979, much of the time as the sexton at the famous Arlington St. Church. There he created collages in earnest and had his first one man show at the newly established Boston Center For The Arts, as well as being hired for several illustration assignments.

Returning to L.A. he reacquainted himself with old friends, one of whom was prominent in the music business, and was asked to illustrate a record album cover. This was the beginning of a long and fruitful career as a record cover illustrator as well as an editorial illustrator, making pictures for magazines and newspapers. He continued making art, if not showing in galleries, by creating collages as gifts and for his personal enjoyment. Not until his grown children (Alpha and Sam), both fine artists, encouraged him to seriously concentrate on making art again did he embark on reestablishing himself in that realm. An nearly sold-out show at Billy Shire Fine Arts in 2009 saw the reemergence of Lou in the world of fine art along with subsequent showings at Nickelodeon, La Luz de Jesus, OffRamp Gallery, Craig Krull Gallery (all in Los Angeles), Adventureland (Chicago), Firecat Projects (Chicago), Jack Fischer Gallery (San Francisco), Frederick Holmes and Company (Seattle) and a large representation of work at the Metro Show in NYC 2015. He is represented in Los Angeles by Craig Krull Gallery, in San Francisco by Jack Fischer Gallery, and in Seattle by Frederick Holmes and Company.

Bauer’s place in art history is linked to the lives of two people: Solomon R. Guggenheim and Hilla Rebay, the Guggenheim Museum’s founding director. Bauer and Rebay had met in Berlin. Rebay, in turn, had come to America and introduced Bauer’s work to Guggenheim. Rebay’s conviction, coupled with Guggenheim’s financial resources, built her a prominent place in the history of art. Nearly single-handedly, she introduced “Non-Objective” art to the American public. Rebay was instrumental in establishing not only the Guggenheim collection but also the iconic building designed to house it, as she was the one to arrange for Frank Lloyd Wright to design this new “temple” of art on Fifth Avenue. The opening of the museum in 1959 was colored by a purge of many of Solomon Guggenheim’s prized works. This change of direction, in which much of the Non-Objective art was relegated to the basement, was enacted by Harry Guggenheim, Solomon’s nephew, who helmed the Foundation following Solomon’s death in 1949. No artist suffered a more dramatic rise and fall in this chapter of the Guggenheim’s history than Rudolf Bauer. Read full bio…

READ FULL BIO...

Group Shows

August 2018. “Faultline”, Toby’s Art Gallery, Pt.Reyes Station, CA
June 2018. “No Rhyme or Reason”, Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA
May 2018. “Come Back With A Warrant”, Frederick Holmes & Co., Seattle, WA
September 2017. “Pulp Fiction”, Dunedin Fine Art Center, Dunedin, FL
September 2017. “Works On Paper”, Brand Library & Art Center, Glendale, CA
August 2017. “Objects of Art”, John Molly Gallery, Santa Fe, NM
March 2017. “All Manner of Marvels (Wonders Seldom Seen)”, Corners Gallery, Ithaca, NY
May 2016. “ReVisions of the American West”, John Molloy Gallery, New York
February 2016. “Maverick”, Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York
February 2016. “Tight Squeeze”, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA
January 2015. The
September 2014. “¡ÓRALE! The Kings & Queens of Cool”, The Harwood Museum of Art, Taos, New Mexico
September 2014. “Paper Trails” The Loft at Liz’s, Los Angeles, CA
May 2014. “Stolen Property” John Molloy Gallery, New York
April 2014. INCOGNITO 2014 Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA

April 2014. “#11” Dem Passwords, Los Angeles, CA
September 2013. “The Fifth Anniversary Group Show” Offramp Gallery, Pasadena, CA.
September 2013. “The BLAB Show” Copro Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
September 2012. “The BLAB Show” Copro Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
September 2011. “The BLAB Show” Copro Gallery, Santa Monica, CA.
September 2011. “Paid to Play” Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
August 2011. “Gene Pool: Lou Beach, Alpha Lubicz, Sam Lubicz” La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Hollywood, CA
November 2010. “Gene Pool: Lou Beach, Alpha Lubicz, Sam Lubicz” Nickelodeon, Burbank, CA.
July 2009. “Lou Beach, Hudson Marquez, Jayme Odgers, Mel Weiner” Billy Shire Fine Art, Culver City, CA.
March 2008. “Everything But The Kitschen Sync” La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Hollywood, CA
January 2008. “A Tribute To Alex Steinwweiss” Robert Berman Gallery, Santa Monica CA
January 1987. “Album Cover Art” Mag Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

Solo Exhibitions

April 2018. “Riot Rumphaus” Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA
March 2017. “The X-Lifes” Adventureland Gallery, Chicago, IL
August 2016. “End of Days” Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA
April 2016. “A Plague of Fools” Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica, CA
December 2014. “White Pink Turpentine” Offramp Gallery, Pasadena, CA.
August 2014. “Revelations” Firecat Projects, Chicago, IL.
April 2013. “New Fables” Adventureland Gallery, Chicago, IL.
September – December 2012. “Collages” Dibden Art Center, Johnson State College, VT.
June 2012. “Stories and Pictures” Offramp Gallery, Pasadena, CA.
November 2007. “Cover” Culture Gallery, Tarnów, Poland
August 1998. “New Works”, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, Hollywood, CA
March 1973. Boston Center For The Arts (as Andrew Lubicz)