Jess and Brodecky: Opening a Gallery from Open Space June 1964 Issue # 6 Buzz ('a place to see paintings', 1711 Buchanan, 21-27 monthly, weekdays 7-10 pm, Sat & Sun 2-7, drctrs: Larry Fagin, Paul Alexander, Bill Brodecky Buzz' first show, beautiful and not pretentious, was highlighted by exciting new work from Jess and Bill Brodecky. Joining with them, Paul Alexander showed two excellent drawing series; Tom Field, an Aquatic Park painting and a canvas in progress; Fran Herndon, indoor and outdoor landscapes and her two Gemini collage-drawings; Knut Stiles and Graham Mackintosh, collages, serious and funny. Jess presented master-work at every turn, four absolutely superb paintings, using a 'sculptured-paint' technique amid sharply linear drawing. Three of the paintings are from a current series of scientific instruments, the fourth, 'Montana Xbalba' is the soccer player painting. The way Jess works is that the content, the subject, is chosen or chooses him, out of a search in the sources that draw him, and from inspiration in his readings –how Plato's Crito finds a way to that instrument balancing two globes of liquid, worlds–but the shape of the painting is all discovered in the work itself, while at the work, in the paint. The result combines that necessary excitement and a master's hand and eye. Above all, it's the beauty of the painting" a sense of colors, and in the series-paintings we see unfolding of the objects (things he finds the life in) without repetition -it's Jess' most beautiful work. Bill Brodecky is a young painter whose work is at a place where we begin to take real interest, as he himself has made a place in the mostly imaginary community by his energy and being drawn. His project with Paul Alexander of working from Titian's Europa painting led directly to drawings and two Europa canvasses of his own, which were shown in this first show. The small dark Europa, crossing the waves on the bull's back, at sea but seen in the moonlight, is a lovely painting, its glow does stay in the mind and away from it, I see it repeated times. It is really there. A second, larger Europa is frontal, lighter in colors, with the images and objects of the Europa painting and stories called up into the work, happening there are the painter happens upon it. This and two other large canvasses, portrait of a man with roses in a big rough oval and a lighted stage-world or setting seen through a window, are signs of the many directions, and he can follow them by his skill and interests in the craft. Paul’s two groups or series of drawings were both very good, one batch of Orpheus dancing, learning a new step, drawn from sources in his brother’s poetry, and the other group, workings from Titian’s Europa which will lead him to a canvass The whole show, in this way, sparkled with an attention to the intellect. Buzz, undominated by the necessity of selling or the incompetent opinions of local newspaper or Art Forum hacks, is the best idea for showing painting we’ve had. A monthly show, organized somewhat like a magazine, open to a wide range of work, and there to provide interchange for the painters, should be an exciting entertainment for those of us who need a way in the visual world.