Dumb Luck and Other Paintings about Lack of Control

Gary Baseman’s solo show opened July 31, 1999, at the Mendenhall Gallery in Pasadena. This exhibition entitled Dumb Luck and Other Paintings about Lack of Control featured images on the themes of control, choice, and truth. Or lack thereof. Using his own irreverent language of symbols from the real world and the subconscious, Baseman attempts to gain insight, if not just dull his own pain, through his studies of desire, growth, vision, and mortality. When Baseman was young, he thought all one needed to succeed was hard work and talent. He now says, “The magic variable is dumb luck, the one thing one cannot control.” The exhibition ran through September 5, 1999.