Smoker

Gerald Gooch

This lithograph by San Francisco artist Gerald Gooch features a man lighting his pipe. Gooch often used sequential elements, a kind of motion picture, to create narrative for the viewer. Gooch's subtle use of the crayon is masterful.

In great anticipation Gooch set the edition size at 116. We have yet to find another impression numbered higher that this "1".

The artist follows his subject as he starts to light his pipe; then as the tobacco lights and the smoke curls up, partially obscuring the smoker. In the third panel the smoke has essentially obliterated the face and shoulders of the smoker.

Gerald Gooch abandoned two dimensional art, exploring multimedia work, including video, sculpture, woodwork, and more. In 1974 he went on a trip to Baja funded by the San Francisco Museum of Art, traveling with artists Robert Fried, Bill Martin, Richard Lowenburg, Robert Moon, and Gage Taylor. It resulted in "Baja", an exhibition of 80 multimedia works interpreting the desert landscape, with works made on location and at their studios. He taught at the San Francisco Art Institute for many years. In the late 1970s, Gooch abruptly interrupted a class he was teaching by leaving the room, saying he would be right back. He did not return. Later, it was discovered that he'd moved to a commune in the Pacific Northwest, retiring from art entirely. He currently lives in Sonoma County in Northern California