Renny Pritikin
Excerpt from ‘Renny Pritikin’s You See Essay’
How did it happen that a relatively obscure, rural California University, best known for its veterinary, medical and agriculture programs, was able to pull together a major roster of artists and teachers?
Seymour Howard, art studio and history emeritus faculty member at Davis who taught there starting in 1958, has an incisive observation.
He suggests that Sacramento was the capital and agricultural center of California, the eighth largest economy in the world. Latent and emerging geopolitical and financial powers were at play at that time, forces that ultimately resulted in the national emergence of both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan to the Presidency.
Clearly the Davis anarchist art impulse shared few values with Nixon’s Republicanism and the conservative drive of Reaganism, yet perhaps these two developments were parallel and mirror-image reactions to the same cultural pressures.
In hindsight we can see that potent, enormous storms can emerge even from, or particularly in, rural locations, if the right temperature, pressure and energy come together, as they did at UC in those improbable years.
This excerpt is from the “You See Catalog.” Those interested in the full 108-page catalog, priced at $25, can purchase it at the Nelson Gallery, order by phone through Katrina Wong at (530) 752-8500, or online at the UC Davis Bookstore.