[New York Peasant by Wilfrid: May 29, 2012]
At Tibor de Nagy, a rather disappointing, if undeniably colorful, set of paintings by Larry Rivers from the last two decades of his career.
The gallery has long had a close association, of course, with the New York schools of painters and poets, and Rivers - a man with a foot in both camps, studying with Hans Hoffman and collaborating with Frank O'Hara - is at home here. Always a friend of figuration, this period sees him wryly celebrating celebrity itself: there are portraits of Charlie Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Fred Astaire, as well as artists like Mondrian, Matisse, and Balthus.
There are drawings as well as oil paintings in the show. The latter reveal what in retrospect seems to be a dead-end technique - Rivers creating depth by building the canvas out into the room using sculpted foamboard. It's eye-catching at first, but is surely no substitute for traditional perspective. Through June 15.
More interesting was a rare show of Lucien Freud's drawings at Acquavella, though it's distinctly an exhibition of two halves. I've always been more inclined to respect Freud's diligent portrayal of the nude human figure than be entranced by it. The pictures on the ground floor of Acquavella, created in the artist's youth (1940s) seem completely unrelated to his adult practice. Large-eyed self-portraits, still-lives and doodles, the best of them perhaps portend a career as illustrator of childrens' books. Freud meets Tim Burton.
On the upper floor, the mature artist is immediately revealed in fully moulded sketches of the human body in repose -- all heavy arms and jowls, especially in the case of Lord Goodman. It hadn't occurred to me before, but I suppose Leigh Bowery was a younger, marginally camper version of Goodman. Anyway, all flesh is here, and the link between his drawing and painting is educationally evident. Through June 9.
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