Friday, February 22, 2013

Émile Lahner: Forms!


Autoportrait, 1926

Paysage bucolique, 1926

Formes et espaces, 1928

Paysage urbain, 1948


From the artist's Wikipedia page:

Emile Lahner (28 September 1893 – 14 December 1980) was an Hungarian born painter[1] who moved to Paris in 1924 and became part of the School of Paris, a group of international artists working in Paris between 1900 and 1940.
Lahner was born in 1893 in the village of Nagyberezna in the Carpathian Mountains of Hungary. Lahner's mother died in childbirth and he became an orphan at the age of seven when his father was killed in an accident. Placed in the care of a bishop guardian, he was sent to boarding school to begin training as an engineer. Lahner abandoned his engineering career in 1921 and enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Budapest where he studied under the masters Janos Vaszary and Kochine, seminal figures in the Art Nouveau movement.
During World War I, neighboring Romania and the new Soviet Republic sacked much of Hungary. The subsequent "Red Terror" and "White Terror" ensued and thousands were either jailed or killed. In this harshly repressive atmosphere, many artists and intellectuals, including Lahner, were forced to flee their homeland or chose to emigrate. Lahner decided in 1924 to move to Paris where he could study the modern masters, Delacroix, Van Gogh and Monet.
Lahner arrived in Paris in 1924 residing in Montmartre. He studied with artist Antoine Bourdelle and worked as a painter for Paris theaters and movie producers. He developed set designs for the filmmaker Alexander Korda.
As the Third Reich rolled across Europe, Lahner joined many artists who took refuge in Vichy France in the Dordogne. He explored Dordogne's famous cave paintings that inspired a series of primitivist paintings.
After the liberation of Paris in 1945, Lahner returned to rue des Perichaux where he began to exhibit his work more frequently. In 1948 he made his first of many trips to Algeria where the Averseng family commissioned him, to design a chapel for the town of El Affroun. This assignment provided an opportunity for Lahner to participate in the fascination with chapel construction and adornment that was then popular in France.
Lahner's exploration of stained glass and its refractive properties during this project had a profound impact on the remainder of his abstract work.
In 1951 he visited the artist Pablo Picasso in Vallauris, whom he eventually exhibited with at Galerie Daniel Malingue in Paris.
In 1957, at the age of 64, Lahner married Jeanne Cazenave. Following his marriage, Lahner moved from his spartan studio of twenty-five years on rue des Perichaux to an apartment on rue Alfred-Stevens, near the Place Pigalle. In 1959 he met an American art dealer from California named Laszlo Laky. Mr. Laky became one of the artist's closest friends and supporters.
In the spring of 1961 Lahner received critical success in a watershed exhibition at the Galerie Jeanne Castel. This exhibition was under the patronage of Lahner's old friend, Leopold Sedar Senghor, a well-known poet and the former president of Senegal.
From the 1960s until his death in 1980, Lahner continued to exhibit. He was known for his wide breadth of stylistic exploration, informed through his early exposure to the Art NouveauConstructivistSynthetic, and Non-objective art movements in Eastern Europe. While living in Paris, he was greatly influenced by Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, and Primitivism. Lahner's close friends included artists and writers Jean Bouret, Leopold Sedar Senghor, Jean Trichet, Marcel Sauvage, and André Masson.

For more information on Émile Lahner visit the artist's web page.


Vulcain, 1952

Fantaisie, 1958

Falbalas, 1970

Formes et couleurs, 1970

Composition, 1974

Émile Lahner


*All images are taken from the book Émile Lahner: Un peintre de l'Ecole de Paris by Jean Bouret
published by La Bibliotheque Des Arts / Editions Ides et Calendes; First Edition edition (1974)

Sunday, February 17, 2013

James Erikson:Quartet @ LGTripp Gallery


Installation view of Quartet, paintings by James Erikson

A Song For You, 2012, oil on canvas, 72 x 66 in.

Finding A Place, 2012, oil on canvas, 72 x 66 in.



From the Artist's Statement:

I am drawn to the simple forms of monuments and monoliths but also to their deep connection to life and death. My paintings are not about particular monuments or monoliths but I do want them to function on a similar, basic human level emotionally. I hope they are reflective of the contemporary human experience.


Sunday Morning April, 2011, oil on canvas, 56 x 54 in.

Slow Morning, 2012, oil on canvas, 54 x 56 in.

Golden Window, 2012, oil on canvas, 72 x 66 in.

Scholar's Stone, 2012, oil on canvas, 72 x 66 in.

From an installation of Small Paintings, oil on canvas or linen.

From an installation of Small Paintings, oil on canvas or linen.

From an installation of Small Paintings, oil on canvas or linen.

From an installation of Small Paintings, oil on canvas or linen.

Finding A Place (detail), 2012, oil on canvas, 72 x 66 in.




James Erikson: Quartet
January 5 - February 23, 2013
47 N. Second Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

A.R. Penck And The Photography of Benjamin Katz

Nachtgeistertotenvogeltanz, 1971, acrylic on canvas, 112.25 x 112.25 in.

 London, 1985


Currently there are two exhibits of A.R. Penck's work showing in Manhattan.

A.R. Penck: New Paintings
January 10 - March 9, 2013
4 E 77th Street
New York, NY 10075

A.R. Penck, Before the West: Select Work from the 1970's
January 17 - February 23, 2013
545 W 23rd Street
New York, NY 10011

Ich in Lörsfeld, 1989, 100 x 70 cm.

Köln, 1985



Köln, ca. 1981

Der Wahnsinn der Vergagenheit ist Irreparabel, 1977, acrylic on canvas, 56.5 x 70 1/8 in.

Der Teufel, woodcut

w/ Anselm Kiefer, 1984

1993

w/ family, Köln, 1981

All photographs were taken by Benjamin Katz and are reproduced from his incredible collection of photographs, Souvenirs. Buy a copy of the book here.

Images of work © A.R. Penck and/or his representatives.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Bushwick and Ridgewood: Currently Showing

 TSA: Angular Seduction
January 11 - February 17, 203

Jason Karolak, Untitled (P-0928), oil on linen, 13 x 15 in.

Maya Hayuk, Bonfire (X), acrylic on canvas on panel, 68 x 68 in.
Anna Kunz, Night Painting (with Scrim), oil and enamel on panel, fabric, tape, wood, 23.5 x 34.5 in.

Karl LaRocca, Acting from Behind and Advantage with a Weapon, acrylic on panel, 27.5 x 27.5 in.

(l to r) Jason Karolak, Kirk Stoller and Anna Kunz

Melissa Oresky and Karl LaRocca

Karl LaRocca, Silverpoint on prepared paper, 11 x 11 in.

TSA 
44 Stewart Ave, #49
Brooklyn, NY 11237





Parallel Art Space: Real Op
January 12 - February 17, 2013

Aaron Williams and Cathy Nan Quinlan

Jeff Fichera, Personal Code, oil on canvas, 60 x 80 in.

Jeff Fichera, and Cathy Nan Quinlan (r)

Cathy Nan Quinlan, Green Grapes, Red Gingham, oil on canvas, 18 x 18 in.

Cathy Nan Quinlan, Green Grapes, Red Gingham (detail)



17-17 Troutman Street
#220
Ridgewood, NY 11385





Bull & Ram: Stacie Johnson
January 5 - February 3, 2013









17-17 Troutman
#226
Ridgewood, NY 11385




Norte Maar: Giacometti and a Selection of Contemporary Drawings
January 26 - February 17, 2013

Alberto Giacometti

(detail)

Alberto Giacometti

Matthew Miller


Also including work by: 

Anthony Browne
Maria Calandra
Kevin Curran
Ryan Michael Ford
Libby Hartle
Francesco Longenecker
Eric Mavko
Thomas Micchelli
Mathew Miller
Andrew Szobody
and Alberto Giacometti


Norte Maar
83 Wyckoff Avenue
1B
Brooklyn, NY 11237