871 Underground Posted on November 29, 2009 by Cedar Sigo
I first paid a visit to 871 Fine Arts when it was housed at 49 Geary. This must have been about three years ago. The long and wide room had posters on its walls, as well as original works by George Herms, Jim Dine, Franz Kline, and many others. In the very back was a tight square room packed with art books organized into interesting sections: Prints, Drawings, California Artists. The poetry section had an emphasis on its inevitable intersection with visual art. I went back a few times, often during the first Thursdays, in which the building was packed for all of the openings, though I often found 871 to be the most pleasurable place to visit.
871 Fine Arts moved to its current location about a year ago. It’s on Hawthorne now, a side street just off of Howard, south of Market. The new space is on the bottom floor and seems better suited to both the gallery and bookshop aspects. More space for the books overall, with a strangely exquisite light falling onto massive chrome shelves. The art is given two long walls and is also placed as an accent around the books, behind the desks and then a free standing glass case as well.
The current show (at the time of my visit) is paintings and drawings by June Felter. I overhear 871’s owner Adrienne Fish telling a visitor that these works are “classic California figurative,” and that Ms. Felter has just celebrated her 90th birthday, with two of the paintings in the show completed this year. Her use of color is consistently striking, especially within her beach scenes. The colors in these jump out in a manner I more often associate with abstract painting. I was dreaming of a summer house in which I might hang one. Felter lost many works in the 1991 Berkeley/Oakland fire, but managed to save her slides, and over the last ten years has been rather obsessively producing a series of books from these mostly lost works.
One of the things I have most admired about 871 is its relaxed and very inviting atmosphere. Adrienne seems to know offhand where even the most obscure volumes reside (for example: a picture book by John Cage on how to make mud pies; Piero Heliczer’s The Soap Opera, and 12345678910, a collaboration of poems and drawings by Robert Creeley and Arthur Okamura)
Sitting down at Adrienne’s desk, I mention that last year at the holiday sale I picked up a small book on John Altoon and that I always seem to be attracted to artists who are considered by some to be wildly uneven. She says this seems to describe every artist at some point.
