MOMENTARY BLASTS OF UNEXPECTED LIGHT:
The Visionary Art of Burt Shonberg
Presented by The Philosophical Research Society & Stephen Romano Gallery
OCTOBER 24, 2024 – JANUARY 4, 2025
"Every day, for seven years straight, I was hit by a number of widely-separated, momentary blasts of unexpected light."
— Burt Shonberg, excerpted from
"Out Here: A Brief Account of How This All Began for Me"
Shonberg was one of the premiere psychedelic and esoteric artists in Los Angeles in the 1950s and 1960s.
He was a romantic partner of artist, poet, and actress, Marjorie Cameron, as well as a close friend of renowned writers Hampton Fancher (Blade Runner) and George Clayton Johnson (Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Logan’s Run).
Shonberg also embraced the Fourth Way system of Gurdjieff, and his paintings and drawings began to reflect the mystical illumination inspired by his higher states of consciousness. A user of psychedelics since the mid 1950s, in the early 1960s, Burt Shonberg enlisted in LSD experiments conducted by Dr. Oscar Janiger at University of California Irvine. The conveyance in his art of altered cognition and perception of hallucinatory states became a primary pursuit for Burt throughout his life as an artist.
His work was prominently featured in Roger Corman’s Vincent Price-starring horror film The Fall of the House of Usher and on the walls of venues like the long-gone, bohemian Laguna Beach coffeehouse Café Frankenstein. His paintings of mythical creatures in fantastic landscapes have only recently begun to attract the attention they deserve. From the late 1950s until his premature death in 1977, Shonberg was a highly admired artist of his time in Los Angeles.
During this period, his eye-popping murals graced the facades and interiors of popular coffeehouses and clubs along the Sunset Strip. His paintings also adorned notable rock album covers by bands like Love and others. During his lifetime Shoberg was managed by Marshall Berle (who also was a manager for Spirit, Ratt and early Van Halen). Shonberg’s only exhibition of his art occurred in 1967. The only other exhibition of his art occurred posthumously to great acclaim in 2022 at the Buckland Witchcraft Museum in Cleveland. Ringo Starr has been a long time collector of the artist’s work.
This will be the first exhibition of Burt Shonberg’s art in Los Angeles over 55 years, and will include many works never seen before by the public. An exhibition catalog which will include new images and essays on the artist will be available.
Opening reception will be followed by a conversation in the PRS Auditorium between exhibition producer Stephen Romano, along with acclaimed author and Shonberg biographer Spencer Kansa and film historian & author Justin Humphreys.
Stephen Romano is a collector, curator, and private art dealer in Brooklyn, NY. His Stephen Romano Gallery has collaborated with many cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gagosian Gallery in New York, Morbid Anatomy at Greenwood Cemetery and the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick in Cleveland and others. Stephen Romano curates exhibitions mixing contemporary, folk, historical and ephemeral artworks.
https://www.burtshonberg.net/
He was a romantic partner of artist, poet, and actress, Marjorie Cameron, as well as a close friend of renowned writers Hampton Fancher (Blade Runner) and George Clayton Johnson (Star Trek, The Twilight Zone, Logan’s Run).
Shonberg also embraced the Fourth Way system of Gurdjieff, and his paintings and drawings began to reflect the mystical illumination inspired by his higher states of consciousness. A user of psychedelics since the mid 1950s, in the early 1960s, Burt Shonberg enlisted in LSD experiments conducted by Dr. Oscar Janiger at University of California Irvine. The conveyance in his art of altered cognition and perception of hallucinatory states became a primary pursuit for Burt throughout his life as an artist.
His work was prominently featured in Roger Corman’s Vincent Price-starring horror film The Fall of the House of Usher and on the walls of venues like the long-gone, bohemian Laguna Beach coffeehouse Café Frankenstein. His paintings of mythical creatures in fantastic landscapes have only recently begun to attract the attention they deserve. From the late 1950s until his premature death in 1977, Shonberg was a highly admired artist of his time in Los Angeles.
During this period, his eye-popping murals graced the facades and interiors of popular coffeehouses and clubs along the Sunset Strip. His paintings also adorned notable rock album covers by bands like Love and others. During his lifetime Shoberg was managed by Marshall Berle (who also was a manager for Spirit, Ratt and early Van Halen). Shonberg’s only exhibition of his art occurred in 1967. The only other exhibition of his art occurred posthumously to great acclaim in 2022 at the Buckland Witchcraft Museum in Cleveland. Ringo Starr has been a long time collector of the artist’s work.
This will be the first exhibition of Burt Shonberg’s art in Los Angeles over 55 years, and will include many works never seen before by the public. An exhibition catalog which will include new images and essays on the artist will be available.
Opening reception will be followed by a conversation in the PRS Auditorium between exhibition producer Stephen Romano, along with acclaimed author and Shonberg biographer Spencer Kansa and film historian & author Justin Humphreys.
Stephen Romano is a collector, curator, and private art dealer in Brooklyn, NY. His Stephen Romano Gallery has collaborated with many cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gagosian Gallery in New York, Morbid Anatomy at Greenwood Cemetery and the Buckland Museum of Witchcraft and Magick in Cleveland and others. Stephen Romano curates exhibitions mixing contemporary, folk, historical and ephemeral artworks.
https://www.burtshonberg.net/
The Philosophical Research Society
Hansell Gallery Hours: Tuesday-Friday 12-6pm
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THIS EXHIBIT IS PRESENTED WITH THE GENEROUS SPONSORSHIP OF
THE LOS ANGELES BREAKFAST CLUB AND LA'S 4TH CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT OFFICE
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