David Becker, who studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London and The Whitney Study program in New York, has been quietly working in an Oakland warehouse for years, for the most part under the radar, showing rarely, producing a consistently strong body of painting. For all of his studio practice’s independence from the strains of the market, his work could hardly be described as naïve; in fact, it seems to deal with most every sophisticated current in the ongoing discussion of painting’s address to our culture and condition.
He has woven together multiple threads of recent art history and any given organizing principle in the work might depend upon the precedent one chooses to track. From the counterbalance of Alexander Calder’s mobiles,to the opaque push and pull of Hans Hoffman’s abstraction, the gossamer layering of Robert Rauschenberg’s combines, or the kitchen sink inclusiveness of Chris Martin’s post history, it’s all here, supporting a sampler quilt of paint’s possible vernacular range.
Becker is a tall man, like Richard Diebenkorn, and his drawing tends toward the full-bodied, more from the shoulder than the wrist. He seems to be concerned with the hierarchies of dominance and recession that come into play as a densely worked passage strives to hold our attention while slipping into the background, or a relatively uninflected one grabs it in the foreground. Implied in this focus is a grappling with the way things shift, even weighty matters, and the adaptation it takes to craft and hold a position, a gestalt, an image, in the midst of change. Becker’s image is not one of chaos, however, or even uncertainty. There is an implied order to his work, but it is the order of weather patterns and like weather, requires close tracking and a certain acceptance of a margin of error in our predictions. The narrative of these paintings is one of dichotomy: Picnic. Lightning.
Website: DavidBeckerArt.com
The Most Important Transparent to Opaque Watercolor Class
Thursday All Day | 9 - 4 | Becker | $195
In this class, you will learn how to use transparent watercolors together with colors that are more pastel and opaque and how to make some of the most beautiful watercolor washes you have ever seen.
David Becker
Acrylic, Watercolor
David Becker, who studied at the Central School of Art and Design in London and The Whitney Study program in New York, has been quietly working in an Oakland warehouse for years,
The Most Important Fluid & Heavy Bodied Acrylics Class
Friday Morning | 9 - 12 | Becker | $105
This class teaches you how to use Holbein’s fluid and heavy body acrylics together: it’s like getting two classes in one! You will start your painting like a watercolor and finish like an acrylic.
The Most Important Acrylic Gouache Class
Friday Afternoon | 1 - 4 | Becker | $105
In this class, David will teach you how Acryla Gouache can give you the best of 3 mediums in one class. Watercolor, Gouache and Acrylics all rolled into one medium and David will guide you through each technique.
The Most Important Acrylic Inks & Fluid Acrylics Class
Saturday Morning | 9 - 12 | Becker | $105
Fluid and Ink acrylics can be used together to give you some amazing washes that look like the most amazing watercolor washes you have ever seen.
The Most Important Acrylic Inks, Yupo and Masking Fluid Class
Saturday Afternoon | 1 - 4 | Becker | $105
Learn how to use Masking Fluid, Acrylic Inks and Yupo to help make your painting sing. David recently has learned how masking fluid, Yupo paper and acrylic inks can be used to enhance and make a painting come alive.