Nationality American | ||
Known for Contemporary art, Art museum, Museum | ||
(b. 1951)
Following formal studies for an MFA degree in studio and art theory with Charles Gaines, Walla curated several exhibitions in California from 1973 to 1976, including Masterworks of Modern Sculpture (from the collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the late Ben Deane of Southern California), 200 Years of American Painting, and the first traveling survey of large scale paintings by Alex Katz. Before leaving the West Coast he would also have several regional museum shows of his sculpture in Monterey and Fresno, California
In 1976, Douglas relocated to New York City where he would become the Vice-President of Marlborough Gallery and coordinated the exhibitions and activities for Francis Bacon, Larry Rivers, Alex Katz, Red Grooms, and the Estates of Jacques Lipchitz and Barbara Hepworth. With the departure from Marlborough in 1985, Mr. Walla founded a new gallery on the corner of Madison & 57th Street named Kent Fine Art. Along with organizing and curating over two hundred exhibitions, he has produced and published over fifty books on modern and contemporary art. Projects have included Dennis Adams: The Architecture of Amnesia, Herbert Bayer: Bauhaus and Beyond, Eugene Carriere: The Symbol of Creation, John Heartfield: AIZ/VI 1930–1938, Francis Picabia: Accommodations of Desire, Medardo Rosso: Impressions in Wax and Bronze, Dorothea Tanning: Insomnias, and more.
The gallery would represent the surrealists Dorothea Tanning and Meret Oppenheim, The Estate of Herbert Bayer (Bauhaus), conceptual artists of conscience including Dennis Adams, Chris Burden, Llyn Foulkes, Antoni Muntadas, Irving Petlin, Judith Shea and many others.
Outreach activities have included recent Venice Biennale project by Emily Prince entitled "American Servicemen and Women Who Have Died in Iraq and Afghanistan (but Not Including the Wounded, nor the Iraqis nor the Afghans)," which documented over 3900 casualties in drawing form, which favorably reviewed by the International Herald Tribune, the New York Times, and New York Magazine along with numerous European journals. Walla also organized exhibition support for the recent retrospectives for Antoni Muntadas, Llyn Foulkes, Paul Laffoley and Dennis Adams.
His most recent writing and archival project is The Essential Paul Laffoley published by the University of Chicago Press documenting over 100 works executed over the previous four decades. The publication is the culmination of 27 years of archiving the original texts and works of art of Paul Laffoley, an important visionary artist.