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Robert Brokl
Born1948
Marshfield, Wisconsin, United States
NationalityAmerican
EducationUniversity of California, Berkeley
Known forPrintmaking, painting, drawing, activism
SpouseAlfred P. Crofts
AwardsAdolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation, Kala Institute
WebsiteRobert Brokl

Robert Brokl (born 1948) is an American visual artist and activist based in the Bay Area, known for expressive woodblock printmaking and painting that has focused on the figure, landscape and travel for subject matter.[1][2][3][4] His visual language combines the influences of German Expressionism, Japanese woodblock printing and the Bay Area Figurative Movement with a loosely autobiographical, Romantic interest in representing authentic personal experience, inner states and nature.[5][6][7] Critics and curators characterize his style by its graphic line, expressive gestural brushwork, tactile surfaces and sensitivity to color, mood and light.[8][9][10]

Robert Brokl, Figures on a Bridge (after Hiroshige), woodblock print, 24" x 38”, 1987.

Brokl's work has been exhibited internationally, including at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), Tokyo Art Museum, Oakland Museum of California, International Biennial of Woodcut and Wood-Engraving (Banská Bystrica) and San Jose Museum of Art.[11][12][13][14][15] His art belongs to public collections including the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts (FAMSF), the Library of Congress, Oakland Museum and Rhode Island School of Design Museum, among others.[16][17][18][19]

In addition to making art, Brokl has taught, curated shows, and been an activist in the Bay Area for several decades, focusing especially on gay rights and historic preservation in Oakland.[3][4][20] He lives and works in North Oakland with his spouse, Alfred Crofts, and exhibited at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery.[21][22]

Early life and career

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Robert Brokl was born in 1948 in Marshfield, Wisconsin to Sylvester Brokl, a farmer and construction worker, and Ruth (Ware) Brokl, a factory worker and nurse's aide.[14] His parents married at the beginning of World War II; after enlisting, his father saw action in the Pacific Theater for which he was decorated. Although interested in art since his youth, Brokl enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in 1967 as an English major; his studies were interrupted by his expulsion for antiwar movement activities. He moved to California in the early 1970s, where he met his future husband, Alfred Crofts, at a gay liberation meeting.[23]

In 1974, Brokl returned to art, taking classes at Laney College in Oakland and exhibiting by 1976.[18] He then studied art at University of California, Berkeley (BFA, 1979; MA, 1980; MFA, 1982), where he was influenced by the Bay Area Figurative Movement and faculty artists Elmer Bischoff, Joan Brown, Jay DeFeo, Karl Kasten, Sylvia Lark and Mary Lovelace O'Neal.[24][25][26][27] From 1981–3, Brokl served as vice-president and president of the California Society of Printmakers (CSP) and helped organize exhibitions and catalogues, including "Contemporary California Prints" (1982) and "Cutting Edge" (1987), during a time of resurgent interest in printmaking.[15][18][28][3]

Brokl built a reputation in the 1980s for figurative and narrative printmaking and painting through group exhibitions at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery, Ruggiero Henis Gallery (New York), San Jose Museum of Art, Oakland Museum, FAMSF and The Haggin Museum, and international shows in Tokyo and Thailand and throughout Europe.[11][14][6][29] His first show in 1983 at the SFMOMA Artists Gallery run by Marian Parmenter began a longstanding exhibition history there that continued until the gallery's closing in 2021.[30][31][22] In later decades, Brokl has appeared in group shows at the National Printmaking Symposium (Drake University), Kala Institute, Triton Museum of Art and Kyoto City Museum, and featured exhibitions at the Oakland Museum, Fresno Art Museum, de Young Museum, and Thoreau Center for Sustainability.[32][33][27]

Work

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The representational style of Brokl's early work in the 1970s reflected his interest in recording and expressing his experience as a gay man, as well as the influence of California, and often depicted naturally lit people at leisure and on the beach.[23] Prior to earning his MFA degree, he frequently drew critical attention for paintings and works on paper in juried annuals and group exhibitions, including notices from Bay Area critics Victoria Dalkey, Cathy Curtis and Thomas Albright and The Advocate for the rawness and "blunt strength"[34] of his figurative work and leisurely, off-guard nudes (e.g., Self-Portrait with Pink Sky and Al and Ludwig – Russian River, both 1980).[35][36][25][23]

Robert Brokl, India XIII, woodblock, pastel, stencil and collage, 50” x 38", 1996.

Woodblock printmaking

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In the 1980s, Brokl added landscape and woodblock (woodcut) printmaking to his repertoire, producing work noted for its built-up surfaces and textures and feeling for color, mood, and especially, light, as in the large print Full Moon – Aquatic Park, 1984 (FAMSF Collection),[37] which intertwines forms of landscape, foliage, water and sky).[38][11][9][8][24] He was strongly influenced by exposure to Asian art and the Japanese printmakers Hiroshige and Yoshitoshi; that influence is borne out by pictorial motifs (e.g., bridges, scrolls, birds and flora) and compositional strategies such as the stylized stacking of elements, which creates shallow—rather than perspectival—space in works such as Weeping Willow (1986) and Figures on a Bridge (After Hiroshige) (both 1987, FAMSF Collection).[18][39][2][10][40][41]

Mary Davis MacNaughton and others describe Brokl's style as combining traditional Ukiyo-e subject matter and landscape views with the bold graphic line of German Expressionist woodcuts;[6][32][3] his technique employs multiple blocks to build color and surface and exploits the grain of the wood for expressive purposes, often augmenting the effect with wire brushes.[42] Oakland Museum curator Harvey Jones writes that the resulting painterly prints (e.g., Willow Bridge, 1989, FAMSF Collection[43]) display "gestural effects and lively tactile surfaces more often associated with contemporary oil painting."[10][28][9][44]

Brokl's later printmaking—like his painting—explores travel, animals and pets, and art itself and often combines woodblock printing, drawing, collage, painting and stencils (e.g., 9 Roosters, 2004; Weller Frog and Albers Painting, 2011; or David, 1992).[3][27][45][46][13] India XIII (1996) offers a characteristic work in this vein, with a layered, gridded format combining expressive gesture and crudeness in its repeated tiger, rider and elephant images and delicacy in its flower, rabbit and abstract woodblock patterns created with Indian fabric printing blocks.[47]

Robert Brokl, Al and Ludwig--Russian River, oil on canvas, 85.5" x 72", 1980.

Painting and drawing

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Brokl's oil paintings and prints were featured in the well-covered, five-person exhibition "Contemporary Romanticism" (California State University, Hayward, 1987), which sought to counter the era's "Bad Painting" movement with work that merged drama with skill and feeling with form.[8][9][5] Critics such as Charles Shere of the Oakland Tribune characterized Brokl as the unabashed romantic in that show, noting his turbulent, intensely inward and biographical interiors and landscape paintings, such as Mendocino Coast (1986), whose strong forms and expressive brushwork he likened to that of Elmer Bischoff.[1][7][48] Other reviewers compare that work and others like Figures on a Bridge and Crow (1990) to the Romantic scenes of Friedrich and Ryder, the impressionistic style of Arts and Crafts painter Arthur Mathews, or pointillism.[8][49][50] Artweek critic Mark Van Proyen noted Brokl's "interest in light as a transfiguring pictorial element" in moody, "unpopulated interiors and landscapes that … capture a nocturnal mood of moonlit quietude."[5]

Robert Brokl, Midwest VI/VII, oil on panels, 72" x 96", 2001.

In the 1990s, and 2000s, Brokl's painting and drawing has often been inspired by travels to Greece, India, Italy, Morocco and Spain; this work often fuses multiple images in surrealist-like collages, "puzzles" or grids that suggest narrative, dream states and the contemporary bombardment of sensations, as in the large oil, Midwest VI/VII (2001).[31][51][52][26] His exhibitions at the SFMOMA Artist Gallery (1993, 1999) and paintings in the 1994 show "Dream Riddle" featured fragments of masterworks, such as Michelangelo's David, as well as Greek vases, Roman sculpture and Indian miniatures, which function as symbolic icons in meditations on mortality, human existence and the AIDS crisis.[31][53][51] Writer Jennifer Modenessi describes the show, "Viaggi Artistici" (2002, with M. Louise Stanley) as a "fantastic voyage where past and present overlap and collide", noting his "Egypt" series, which combines impressionistic images of outdoor monuments, museum interiors and silhouettes of tourists.[52][26] In the 2000s, Brokl has also explored portraiture (e.g., Joan Brown, 2005), often in multi-panel formats (e.g., Six Modern Heads I, 1999).[54][55]

His 2022 show at the Piedmont Center for the Arts, "What I’ve Been up To," consisted of landscape-themed paintings, drawings, and prints that were described as a visual chronicle of an era of savage wildfires, severe drought, and rapid climate change in California.[56]

Activism

[edit]

Brokl has been an activist for five decades, beginning with antiwar and civil rights activities in the 1960s and continuing through work on gay rights, historical preservation and sustainable development, and community support and fundraising.[57][21][58][59][60] In the 1970s, he and Crofts worked as members of the Committee for a Berkeley Human Rights Law for Gay People for passage of Berkeley's gay rights ordinance (approved, 1978); its introduction spurred passage of similar legislation in San Francisco that year through efforts led by Harvey Milk and was considered the strongest such measure in the U.S. at the time.[4][61][62][63][23]

Brokl also has a passion for grassroots preservationist efforts. He and Crofts were core founding members of North Oakland Voters Alliance (NOVA), which published a newsletter and held monthly meetings in the 1980s and 1990s.[21][64][65][59] NOVA battled publicly with the city of Oakland over attempts to demolish North Oakland's Old Merritt College (originally University High School and a key site in the origins of the Black Panther Party)[66][67][68][69] The group successfully placed the building on the National Register of Historic Places, over the City's objections, and sued the City in federal court for "demolition by neglect" in 1992.[70][71] The nine-acre Merritt site was eventually rehabilitated for use as UCSF Benioff Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, the North Oakland Senior Center, and a public park and housing; NOVA also successfully placed four Carnegie Libraries in the city on the National Register, bolstering successful bond measures for their refurbishment.[71][70]

In 1996, Brokl joined the board of the Oakland Heritage Alliance, initiating annual "endangered lists" of threatened Oakland landmarks.[64][72] Among the landmarks rescued were the Art Deco Fox Oakland Theater, which reopened in 2009 after a $75 million restoration; the Floral Depot building; a Sears Roebuck building converted into lofts; and the Cox Cadillac Building, converted into a Whole Foods.[72][20][58][73] He also joined efforts by The League for the Protection of Oakland’s Architectural and Historic Resources to save a 1923 Montgomery Ward & Company distribution center in the Fruitvale District, despite its listing on the National Register of Historic Places; the building was demolished in 2001.[21][72][58][74][75]

Related to his activism, Brokl has been a longtime contributor to the Berkeley Daily Planet; his articles are available both in its archives and at Muck Rack.com.[76][77]

Additional art activities

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Brokl has advocated through essays, lectures and curatorial efforts for the recognition of several under-appreciated artists and movements, including David Park and the Bay Area Figurative Movement,[78] printer and painter Augusta Rathbone (1897–1990), and the figurative painter Richard Caldwell Brewer (1923–2014), who focused on male nudes; as executors of Brewer's estate, Brokl and Crofts have donated his materials and many of his works to the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley, the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco, and the ONE National Gay & Lesbian Archives at the USC Libraries in Los Angeles, respectively.[27][79][80] Brokl has also taught art at University of California, Davis and San Francisco State University.[3]

Awards and collections

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Brokl's art belongs to the public collections of the Achenbach Foundation for the Graphic Arts (FAMSF),[16][18] Bates College Museum of Art,[81] GLBT Historical Society, Library of Congress,[17] Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Oakland Museum,[27] Rhode Island School of Design Museum,[19] and Stockton Art Commission, among others, as well as to numerous private and corporate collections.[3][6][29] He has been recognized with an Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Grant (2006), a Kala Institute Fellowship (1992), prizes from the Berkeley Art Center, Stockton Art League and Bradley National Print and Drawing Exhibition (Illinois), and an artist-in-residence at the de Young Museum (2006), among other awards.[82][3][27][83][29]

References

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  1. ^ a b Shere, Charles. "'New Romanticism' Gains Credibility," The Oakland Tribune, March 11, 1986.
  2. ^ a b Swift, Harriet. "Diversity is the theme of Oakland's artists," Oakland Tribune, May 1, 1990, p. C1–2.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h Walters, Sylvia Solochek. "The 85th Anniversary Revisited," California Society of Printmakers: One Hundred Years, 1913–2013, San Francisco: California Society of Printmakers, 2013.
  4. ^ a b c Abate, Tom. "Proposed Law for Gay Rights Moving Slowly," The Daily Californian, May 23, 1978.
  5. ^ a b c Van Proyen, Mark. "Glamour and Romanticism," Artweek, March 15, 1984.
  6. ^ a b c d MacNaughton, Mary Davis. New California Printmaking, Claremont, CA: Lang Art Gallery, Scripps College, 1987.
  7. ^ a b Kennelly, Marty. "New Romantics Offer Vision with a Dose of Reality," The Daily Review March 7, 1986, p. 15.
  8. ^ a b c d McDonagh, Michael. "Immediate Concerns," Contemporary Romanticism, Hayward, CA: University Gallery, California State University, 1986.
  9. ^ a b c d Jagger, Patti. "Beautiful Bums and a Return to Romanticism," Metier, Winter 1985.
  10. ^ a b c Jones, Harvey. "Introduction," Oakland's Artists '90., Oakland, CA: The Oakland Museum, 1990.
  11. ^ a b c Cohn, Terri. "A Legacy for the Future," Artweek, August 8, 1987.
  12. ^ Randall, Laura. Really Like That Painting? Why Not Take It Home!, The New York Times, March 30, 2005, Sect. G, p. 16. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  13. ^ a b Banska Bystrica. Twelfth International Biennale of Woodcut and Wood-Engraving 1992. Slovak Republic: Banska Bystrica, State Gallery, 1992.
  14. ^ a b c The Oakland Museum. Oakland's Artists '90., Oakland, CA: The Oakland Museum, 1990.
  15. ^ a b Johnson, Robert Flynn. Contemporary California Prints, Berkeley: CA: San Jose Museum of Art, University of California Davis, California Society of Printmakers, 1982.
  16. ^ a b Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Robert Brokl," Collection. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  17. ^ a b Library of Congress. "Selected works from the California Society of Printmakers 100th anniversary," Collection. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  18. ^ a b c d e Center for the Visual Arts. "Spotlight on Robert Brokl," CVA Magazine, Oakland, CA: Center for the Visual Arts, March/April 1987.
  19. ^ a b Rhode Island School of Design Museum. "Robert Bokl, Full Moon, Aquatic Park, 1986," Collection. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  20. ^ a b Rauber, Paul. "The Case of the Languishing Landmark," Express, March 23, 1990, p.1, 13–20. 1982.
  21. ^ a b c d Bealer, Cheryl. "Art and Activism," The Montclarion, June 18, 1993.
  22. ^ a b SFMoMA Artists Gallery. Robert Brokl, Artists. Retrieved February 15, 2021.
  23. ^ a b c d The Advocate. "Painter-Activist in the Berkeley-Bloomsbury Traditions," The Advocate, November 17, 1978.
  24. ^ a b Sadeghi, Andrea. "Twenty-nine Degrees," The Daily Californian, August 6–12, 1982, p.1, 7–8. 1982.
  25. ^ a b Curtis, Cathy. "Young Artists Show Well in 'Works on Paper'," The Berkeley Gazette, February 26, 1982.
  26. ^ a b c Drolet, Monica. "Between serious and satirical: 'Viaggi' is a magical trip through pomp and politics," Los Medanos College Experience, November 22, 2002.
  27. ^ a b c d e f Journal of the Print World, "Robert Brokl to be Artist-in-Residence," Spring, 2006, p. 17.
  28. ^ a b The Print Collector's Newsletter. Review, The Cutting Edge", September–October 1987, p. 141.
  29. ^ a b c Halula, Theresa (ed). Contemporary Romanticism, Hayward, CA: University Gallery, California State University, 1986.
  30. ^ Baker, Kenneth. "Artists at odds with SFMOMA over gallery," San Francisco Chronicle, July 24, 2001. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  31. ^ a b c The Montclarion. "Activist and artist," The Montclarion, September 17, 1993, p. 32.
  32. ^ a b Nusbaum, Eliot. "Drake hosts 'Rose Bowl' of the Printmaking art", Des Moines Register, April 11, 1993, p. 51.
  33. ^ Kyoto City Museum. The 17th International Impact Art Festival '96, Kyoto, Japan: Kyoto City Museum, 1996.
  34. ^ Albright, Thomas. "A Potpourri of Art That Should Be Judged Guilty," San Francisco Chronicle, November 5, 1980.
  35. ^ Dalkey, Victoria. "Art Show at Cal Expo Draws Heaps of Praise for Variety, Liveliness," The Sacramento Bee, November 17, 1979.
  36. ^ Curtis, Cathy. "Standouts at 'open' exhibit," The Berkeley Gazette, November 9, 1980.
  37. ^ Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Full Moon – Aquatic Park," Robert Brokl, Collection. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  38. ^ Dunham, Judith. New Impressions: Recent Prints by Bay Area Artists, San Francisco, CA: World Print Gallery, 1984.
  39. ^ Stutzin, Leo. "Relief for Art Lovers," The Sacramento Bee, November 13, 1988.
  40. ^ Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Weeping Willow," Robert Brokl, Collection. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  41. ^ Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Figures on a Bridge," Robert Brokl, Collection. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  42. ^ Brokl, Robert. "Why Woodblocks?" California Society of Printmakers News Brief, Summer 1982.
  43. ^ Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. "Willow Bridge," Robert Brokl, Collection. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  44. ^ San Francisco State University. The Cutting Edge: A Relief Print Exhibition by Members of the California Society of Printmakers, San Francisco CA: University Art Department Gallery, San Francisco State University, 1987.
  45. ^ Gant, Michael S. "On the Etch: Printmakers show at WORKS displays wide range of tastes and techniques," San Jose Metro, January 21, 2004. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  46. ^ Eisenhart, Mary. "Don't miss: 'Nothing But Dogs and Cats'," San Francisco Chronicle, January 10, 2008. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  47. ^ Brokl, Robert. "'India XIII" California Printmaker, May 1998, p. 23.
  48. ^ Hurley, Anne. "Fossilized Funk," The San Francisco Bay Guardian, April 18, 1990.
  49. ^ Norman, Maxine. "Bay Area Romanticists to Show Featured Work at Campus Gallery," The Pioneer (Hayward, CA), April 8, 1986, p. 4.
  50. ^ Anderson, Roger. "Big Pictures, Minor Miracles," Express, April 6, 1990, p. 28.
  51. ^ a b Bay Area Reporter. "SFMOMA Rental Gallery," Bay Area Reporter, May 27, 1999, p. 47.
  52. ^ a b Modenessi, Jennifer. "LMC offers art as social comment," Ledger Dispatch, November 29, 2002, p. 2.
  53. ^ Lederer, Carrie (ed). Dream Riddle: Images from the Unconscious, Walnut Creek, CA: Regional Center for the Arts/Bedford Gallery, 1994.
  54. ^ Marin Independent Journal. "Best Bets: Pushing the envelope," September. 8, 2005.
  55. ^ Cheng, DeWitt. "Picks--Berkeley Arts Festival Painting Show," East Bay Express, August 3–9, 2011.
  56. ^ Fancher, Lou. "Landscapes by local artist chronicle changes to California’s natural world," Piedmont Exedra, March 1, 2022. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  57. ^ San Francisco Examiner. "Proposed ordinance for gays is nearly ready in Berkeley," San Francisco Examiner, April 5, 1978.
  58. ^ a b c Walker, Thaai. "Old Ward Building Deemed Historic / Foes of Oakland structure upset," San Francisco Chronicle, November 14, 1998. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  59. ^ a b Brokl, Robert. "Architectural Judgment Called into Question," San Francisco Chronicle, February 11, 2000. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  60. ^ Said, Carolyn. "Historic Oakland home's owner getting help," San Francisco Chronicle, February 2, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  61. ^ Brokl, Robert. "Berkeley Snubs Briggs: Gay Rights Victory," Grassroots, October 4–18, 1978.
  62. ^ Edwards, Eleanor. "Gay rights ordinance passes," The Independent and Gazette (Berkeley), September 20, 1978, p. 1, 3–4.
  63. ^ Brokl, Robert. "Gay Rights Proposal," East Bay Voice, September 1978, p. 3.
  64. ^ a b Kirkwood, Kathleen. "Heritage group lists endangered buildings," The Oakland Tribune, June 27, 1997, p. A1, A13.
  65. ^ Brokl, Robert. "Oaklanders can attract tourism by preserving buildings," Montclarion, March 24, 2000.
  66. ^ Hardy, Charles C. "Merritt College building is site of preservation battle," San Francisco Examiner, March 9, 1993.
  67. ^ Zamora, Jim Herron. "Old Merritt College's Last Stand," The East Bay Guardian, February 1991, p. 19–20.
  68. ^ Bealer, Cheryl. "Future of old Merritt still up in air," Montclarion, March 8, 1991.
  69. ^ Seale, Bobby. Seize the Time, Baltimore, MD: Black Classic Press, 1970. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  70. ^ a b Brandt-Hawley Law Group. "North Oakland Voters Alliance v. Oakland (1992) 1992 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19033, 1992 WL 367096," Cases. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  71. ^ a b Wang, Arlene K. and Lisa Owens-Viani. Brownfields Redevelopment: Meeting the Challenges of Community Participation, Oakland, CA: Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, 2000.
  72. ^ a b c Selna, Robert. "Oakland lengthens list of imperiled landmarks," San Francisco Examiner, July 9, 1998.
  73. ^ Walker, Thaai. "Oakland Schools Win Right to Dicker For Old Ward's Site," San Francisco Chronicle, May 27, 1998. Retrieved March 27, 2020.
  74. ^ Oakland Post. "Wards Demolition 'A Sad Occasion'", Oakland Post, February 14, 2001. p. 4.
  75. ^ Brandt-Hawley Law Group. "League for Protection v. City of Oakland (1997) 52 Cal.App.4th 896," Cases. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  76. ^ Brokl, Robert. "Scott Wiener is the Housing Industry's Pied Piper," The Berkeley Daily Planet, June 14, 2019. Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  77. ^ Muck Rack. "Robert Brokl." Retrieved April 2, 2020.
  78. ^ Brokl, Robert. "'Queering' David Park: Is It Fair to see Homoerotic Subtexts in Park’s imagery?" The Berkeley Daily Planet, November 21, 2020. Retrieved November 23, 2020.
  79. ^ Brokl, Robert. "Augusta Rathbone: Rediscovered Printmaker," California Printmaker, October 1984, p. 6–7.
  80. ^ Madeline Carter. "Richard Caldwell Brewer (1923–2014)," San Francisco: Lost Art Salon, 2018.
  81. ^ Bates College Museum of Art. Robert Robert Brokl, Artist. Retrieved May 19, 2022.
  82. ^ Artweek. "2006 Gottlieb Grants," July/August, 2006.
  83. ^ Brokl, Robert. "Change and Growth," California Society of Printmakers News Brief, Winter 2006, p. 8–9.
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