Shazam!
William Reynolds exhibition at Pie Projects, Santa Fe, NM –
February 10, 2024 – March 9, 2024 –
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 10, 4-6 pm.
Bill Reynolds • For Wayne Thiebaud. ca 2010s
Bar Code series. Pastel on paper. 20 x 16 inches
The images of Bill’s paintings, the ‘stupa,’ and the two portraits I’ve used in this post are courtesy of his good friends Alina Borsa and Devendra Contractor of Pie Projects, Santa Fe, NM, and courtesy of Bill’s wife Fran and their families. I am grateful to Pie Projects for making Bill’s paintings, and his story, available for people to see and enjoy.
I was extremely saddened to hear of the recent passing of our dear friend Bill Reynolds – a.k.a. “Captain Marble.” He was one of the most courageous, loving, and thoughtful humans of my lifetime. He was to me a true colleague in the best sense. I think of the many times I’ve reached out to him for advice and counsel, or just to share some silly self-triumph or disappointment. Many were the times I reached out in moments of despair, and came away with an answer or at least a direction forward.
I vividly remember our days together in the early 1960s in San Francisco, at our shared studio in the old Primalon Ballroom. Bill and I bounced life, philosophy, and ideas off of each other, learning much from each other thanks to our mutual interests and our drive to be painters. Many of our 1960s hard-edge shaped paintings were influenced by or informed each other. One example is that together, we learned how to use tape to create our paintings, with Bill leading the way. While I was working on a painting, Roll Your Own (Zig-Zag), Bill was close by making a 10-foot-high painting of Roland Kirk, his favorite jazz musician: he painted Roland Kirk with three saxophones hanging out of his mouth. It was a stunner, a treasure. I wish I had a photo of that painting; it may no longer exist. Whenever I listen today to Kirk, John Coltrane, or Miles Davis, I think of Bill and me back then, listening with joy to them on his old turntable and hi-fi.
Besides that big Roland Kirk, some of Bill’s 1960s hard-edge shaped works (on display at Pie Projects in Santa Fe this month) were painted at the same time as my Optical Series paintings. Bill and I had our own ideas, but looking at our paintings from that time, our connection as friends and artists is undeniable. I wish I could have lent some of mine to Pie Projects for Bill’s show, which Alina and Devendra had hoped I could do. But they are currently consigned to a gallery in New York.
Bill was a student of Buddhism, having lived near the Dalai Lama’s home in India, where he and Fran built relationships with friends like Devendra Contractor. On one of my last visits to Bill’s Santa Fe studio, I noticed a large trash receptacle in the middle of the room. It was filled to overflowing with hundreds of discarded paint-covered tape strips that Bill had used to create his “Bar Code” paintings. In fact, the pile of used tape strips was heaped a foot or two above the lip of the container, with many long strips flowing gracefully from the top of the heap and down all sides. It was a big rounded mountain of carefully-arranged old tape. “Don’t touch it,” Bill warned. “That’s a stupa.” I didn’t know what that was. “It’s kind of a prayer,” he said. “It should be undisturbed.” (A stupa is a monumental pile of earth or other material, in memory of Buddha or a Buddhist saint, and commemorating some event or marking a sacred spot.)
That was Bill.
I will always treasure our friendship. Of course it had its ups and downs. I remember receiving phone calls from Bill over the years — we didn’t even have to say “hello.” We just started talking where we had left off, either the day before or decades before. I have never had a friend like that. He is deep in my heart and a part of me.
Thank you, Mr. Reynolds.
“We are but boxes in time and space, joined together in our journey through the cosmos.”
Bill Reynolds • Float Alone, 1964
Acrylic on shaped canvas. 80 x 186 inches
Ron Davis • Roll Your Own (Zig Zag), 1963
Acrylic on shaped canvas. 72 x 144 inches
Bill Reynolds • Enjoy A Cone, 1965
Acrylic on shaped canvas. 84 x 108 in.
Ron Davis • Green-Blue V-Rift, 1965
Acrylic on shaped canvas. 47 3/4 x 34 1/4 inches
Bill Reynolds • Enjoy A Cone, 1965
Acrylic on shaped canvas. 84 x 108 in.
Ron Davis • Green-Blue V-Rift, 1965
Acrylic on shaped canvas. 47 3/4 x 34 1/4 inches
Bill Reynolds • Float Alone, 1964
Acrylic on shaped canvas. 80 x 186 inches