Vida Hackman, ECLIPSE II
Vida Ratzlaff Hackman; Conceptual Artist
Vida Ratzlaff Hackman, 64, an artist in a variety of media who exhibited extensively in the Los Angeles area for nearly 20 years and was one of the founders of Triad Graphic Workshop. Born in Bakersfield, Hackman received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at UC Santa Barbara and a second master’s at Cal State Northridge. She began an on-and-off teaching career at several institutions, including West Los Angeles College, in 1969. Her art making was a succession of meditations upon ideas. Etymological analysis coupled with humor and a profound sense of the ironic were among her tools. She had at least seven solo exhibitions at the Orlando Gallery in Sherman Oaks. Of her last show at the Orlando in 1998, a Times critic said, “The conceptual art spirit is alive and well in her.” But as with many artists, Hackman’s success in her field did not always yield financial rewards. “The better she got, the less money she made as an artist,” her friend and printmaking colleague Henry F. Klein said. Her final show, “The Bridge and the Boat,” is on display at the the Todd Madigan Art Gallery at Cal State Bakersfield through May 6. Of cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center on April 15.
May 03, 1999Â Los Angeles Times