Stan Dann

Circa 1960 21-3/4” x 21-1/4” x 3-3/4” Redwood

Beginning in the early 1960s, architects and businesses commissioned Stan Dann to create carved graphics and signage throughout the Bay Area. During this era, his peers recognized him as an extraordinary craftsman, exhibiting his carvings and sculpted objects at the Nut Tree in Vacaville, CA, The Art Director’s and Artist’s Club of Sacramento, CA Kaleidoscope Gallery, San Francisco, CA, and other venues.

“Eagle and Fish,” a very early example of Dann’s art, shows considerable experimentation, including carving techniques, the staining and painting of the surface, and sanding to remove parts of the finish. Burning the wood may also have aged the wood's appearance.

The imagery has the distinctive graphic weight and dynamic composition of his later artwork. The “wave” curls were a motif he repeated in other carvings and often represented hair.

Circa 1969

This modern carving suggests a forest through the use of the simplest forms.

Dann’s background in design and advertising was influential in his graphic communication of ideas. Dann (pictured here) later revisited the forest composition when he carved a door for his residence. During Dann’s long career, Dann carved doors for many significant commercial and residential buildings. Today, many doors still exist, including the doors of the Herbert Hoover Memorial Exhibit Building at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA.

Circa 1965 16” x 14-1/2” x 5-3/4” Redwood

Stan Dann’s upbringing in British Columbia, Canada, exposed him to totemic images and other carvings made by the indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest. “Moon Man” shows the critical influence of this regional artwork on Dann’s imagery and carving style.

Dann studied wood pattern making (to be used in the casting of machine parts) in his brother’s woodshop and attended professional art school in Vancouver before studying advertising and design/illustration at Art Center in Los Angeles, graduating with honors. After a brief stint as an art director and illustrator, Stan Dann turned to wood as his medium.

Circa 1965 18” x 14-3/4” x 2” Carved wood

During the 1960s and ’70s, an enduring symbol in popular culture was sun imagery and Dann road the wave, maintaining exceptional artistry in his many carved depictions of suns. The above example is not only finely rendered but also bears a close resemblance to the artist. Although demand for sun imagery continued, Dann moved on to other subjects. However, his carvings of suns from this period remain distinctive and recognizably his own.

5th Avenue Studio, Oakland CA Circa 1980

Circa 1970-1975 Redwood/painted redwood Forrest L. Merrill Collection

“Landscape with Rider” is an example of Dann’s evolving creative language. During the mid-1960s to mid-1970s, many of Dann’s carvings, including wall sculpture, plus signage and graphics for commercial purposes, were devoted to fantastical imagery of humans, flora, and fauna intertwined.

One significant commission was for the contemporary furniture maker Garry Knox Bennett, whose “Squirkenworks” head shop of the 1970s featured Dann’s large, carved sign with elements similar to “Landscape with Rider.” A related image, “Fantasia” (Forrest L. Merrill Collection, Berkeley, CA), was featured in the critical survey exhibition “Crafting Modernism, Midcentury American Art, and Design” at the Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY, 2011. Curators: Jeannine Falino and Jennifer Scanlon.

Top Photo: “Landscape with Rider”

Bottom Photo: “Fantasia” Forrest L. Merrill Collection Photo by M. Lee Fatherree

Commission Circa 1980 Honduras Mahogany

By 1980, Stan Dann was moving away from commercial signage completely and was focusing on large commissions. His carvings were ambitious in both scale and materials, and the subject matter often referenced landscapes. He sometimes mixed hardwoods, using Honduras Mahogany, Alder, and Walnut, or stained specific areas of the composition for contrast.

Circa 1980 5th Avenue Studio, Oakland, CA

61-3/4” x 54”w x 4” 1981 Variegated hardwood

In 1980, Dann had a breakthrough that completely changed his approach to creating wall sculpture. Rather than carving out of a traditional block of wood, Dann began using his band saw to transform his ideas into puzzle-like assemblages. All elements in his compositions were cut out with the band saw, then shaped and sanded. “Canyon” is a hybrid of old and new techniques, with shaping and sculpting of individual pieces, and carved details in some areas for texture. Dann was re-energized by this development in his art and quickly began experimenting further with a myriad of themes. He also abandoned most commercial projects to focus solely on fine art.

1984 35”h x 42”w x 4”d Painted wood

In the early 1980s, Dann became deeply interested in urban landscapes. He drew on-site in many locations in Oakland and San Francisco, CA, using those drawings as the basis for his sculpture. Dann also began using paint regularly, transforming the wood surfaces to something resembling ceramics.

In “Easy Access,” Dann used automobile lacquers and primer for the pristine, formal surface. Experimenting further, he added cast metal elements into some compositions. Dann even explored casting entire wall sculptures in bronze, but the puzzle-like construction prevented the molds from having a clean release. Dann was always on the move; he continually explored new finishes for the sculptures, altering the push-pull of dimension, color, and texture. He often re-worked compositions throughout the years as he became interested in new approaches.

Circa 1992 5th Avenue Studio, Oakland CA Photo credit: Paul Fillinger

Circa 1984 37” x 45” x 4.” Painted wood Collection of the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

“Dry Dock” depicts a shipping terminal in Oakland. Dann was drawn not just to the buildings but also the activities of urban environments. Even sidewalk graffiti could serve as inspiration.

The artwork reflected the era and a bit of urban history.

1990 29” x 37” Painted wood

Throughout his long and prolific career, Dann returned to urban landscapes for his compositions. The buildings became more stylized and the environments more dreamlike. “Neighbors” has both the buildings and landscaping in conversation. The Marina District of San Francisco, homes in Oakland, and the neighborhoods of Martinez, CA were all areas he regularly visited to draw the architecture he found there.

Circa 2000 40” x 36” Painted wood

As Stan Dann continued his exploration of subjects, his work evolved into abstraction. “Black Tie” is a precursor to both his “Nanosys” and “Flora” series. It includes suggestions of elements from his studio and home, including tools, household implements, and doodles created while talking on the phone. Constantly drawing the world around him, Dann included the most prosaic items therein.

Circa 1991 36” x 36.5” Painted and sealed natural wood

Stan Dann’s studio, with its dust-collecting machine, work tables, specialized sanding apparatus, and band saw, was an endlessly entertaining source of material for his artwork. As Kenneth Baker, the late critic of the San Francisco Chronicle, wrote: “Objects in Dann’s world hunker and lurch with a comic animal energy, as if conducting secret lives behind our backs.”

Circa 2002

Musical instruments, personal effects, folding chairs, etc., are each imbued with lived-in energy. Dann created in-depth studies of many of these subjects, leaving a lasting legacy of the world around him.

Circa 1992 5th Avenue, Oakland CA studio Photo credit: Paul Fillinger

The band saw was the most treasured equipment of all of Dann’s tools and machinery and allowed him to seamlessly cut out and shape the individual elements that combined to make his fluid compositions. He broke all the safety rules in using the band saw. Dann would sculpt the shapes by turning the wood pieces directly into the rapidly moving vertical blade. It was a miracle that he never lost any digits, although there were a few close calls throughout the years.

Circa 2001 Painted wood Forrest L. Merrill Collection

Dann was endlessly fascinated by used shoes of all kinds. He enjoyed the sensuous, lived-in quality that reflected their previous owners’ lives. He sculpted the shoes of both family members and also those shoes he found in thrift stores. His solo exhibition titled “Shoes and Things” was presented at Allan Stone Gallery, New York, NY, in 2000.

1991 36” x 44” Painted wood

“Fifth Avenue” is a masterful example of Dann’s ability to incorporate architectural elements and manipulated, sculptural perspective into a believable but not-quite-real scene.

Circa 2000 24.5” x 27” Painted wood

The soft, sculptural contours of an upholstered chair are transformed by Dann’s glossy, enamel-painted finish, suggesting something both supple and plastic.

1994 36” x 37” Painted wood

Ringing the Hob refers to a game called Quoits from the U.K. Two metal pins known as Hobs are set, each in their own clay bed, with each Hob placed up to 18 yards apart. Quoits are flattish rings and are thrown by alternating teams onto the Hobs, with the goal of landing the rings on the Hobs and also attempting to knock the opponent’s rings off the Hobs.

1991-2004 30” x 48” Stained, painted, and sealed natural wood

The composition of “Foyer” is an abstraction of the entry found just inside Stan Dann’s residence. The various elements depicted are borrowed from the objects that were close at hand, and many of the objects were things Dann created, such as the table, wood bowl, and a carved wood hinge from a cabinet that he built early in his career.

2008 48” x 26.5” x 3” Painted wood, mounted by the artist on wood panel frame

Dann created a series of artworks under the umbrella of “Nano”. These included those artworks titled “Nanosys” and also “Flora”. They have similar qualities. The interlocking forms reflect the kinds of line drawings that the artist might doodle in an absent-minded state while bringing the doodles to dimensional life through the sculptural rendering of the interlocking wood.

2007 (Lafayette Ridge Series) 45” x 36” Painted and stained/sealed wood

Dann completed his last major series inspired by the dramatic ridge hike he took daily above his home and studio in Lafayette, CA. The ridge was a place of abundant natural beauty and was the source of transcendent experiences for the artist.