The Hammer Museum presents Lari Pittman: Declaration of Independence, the most comprehensive retrospective to date of the work of American artist Lari Pittman (b. 1952, Los Angeles). As a prolific painter and sharp social critic, Pittman has been a strong presence in both the international sphere and the L.A. art community. From his earliest experiments with collage and decoration, to the iconic paintings he produced in response to the AIDS crisis and culture wars of the 1990s, to his more recent mural-scale paintings and symbolic, stylized paintings of textiles paired with portraits, Pittman’s works have remained prescient, incisive and exquisitely rendered. This exhibition will include approximately 80 paintings and 50 works on paper drawn from the Hammer’s own holdings as well as from the many public and private collections throughout the world. On view September 29, 2019 – January 5, 2020, Lari Pittman: Declaration of Independence marks the first time the Hammer Museum has ever devoted all of its major exhibition spaces to a single living artist. Following its presentation at the Hammer, the exhibition will travel to Kistefos Museet in Jevnaker, Norway May 24 – October 5, 2020.
Pittman’s highly detailed works on panel and paper—grand tales about love, sex, death, art, and citizenship—feature a rich visual language that he has developed over the course of his career, replete with owls, Victorian silhouettes, flying text, and exaggerated and sexualized bodies. These meticulously crafted works have become emblematic of a generation of queer artists who reclaimed ornamentation and lush detail during the 1980s, employing them as part of their political and personal iconography. At the same time Pittman shared the noirish sensibilities of many of his Los Angeles based, artist peers whose influences included that era’s thriving punk rock scene and the legendary Feminist Art Program at CalArts. In 1992 his work was featured in the critically acclaimed MOCA exhibition Helter Skelter: L.A. Art in the 1990s, along with that of Mike Kelley, Liz Larner, Raymond Pettibon, Jim Shaw, and others. Pittman’s blend of densely painted surfaces and codified references to sexuality and other charged topics, such as the history of racial violence in the United States, aligned his works with the discourse surrounding the contested body in the early 1990s.
래리 피트먼
Grand Tour, 2011
래리 피트먼
Untitled, 2013
“In addition to being an extraordinary painter, Lari has been an important figure in the Los Angeles art community for the past four decades as both artist and teacher. He has influenced generations of artists as a professor in UCLA’s art department, and is part of a generation of artists who emerged internationally in the 1990s. His paintings confront history, politics, violence and sexuality in a highly aestheticized manner that is both exquisitely painted and deeply responsive to the issues of our time.” —Ann Philbin, Director, Hammer Museum
1952년 캘리포니아주 로스앤젤레스에서 태어나 지금까지 거주 및 작업하고 있는 래리 피트먼은 한 세대의 가장 영향력 있는 작가 중 한 명으로, 오랜 기간 경력을 쌓으며 그만의 독특한 시각 언어를 구축해 오고 있다. 종, 알, 동물, 그리고 밧줄과 같은 기호와 상징으로 밀도 높게 짜인 피트먼의 조형 어휘와 다양한 회화 기법을 아우르는 그의 화풍은 수공예, 장인 정신, 그리고 장식 미술에 대한 뚜렷한 오마주를 담고 있다. 피트먼은 색채와 텍스트, 이미지 사이, 풍경과 장식 사이, 그리고 질서와 무질서 사이의 긴장감을 놀라운 솜씨로 조율하며 복잡한 구성을 만들어 내는데, 작가의 이러한 역량은 각각의 요소를 넓은 화면에 채워 넣는 동시에 공간감과 무게감을 균일하게 부여한다.
1970년대 중반, 피트먼은 캘리포니아주 발렌시아의 캘리포니아 예술학교에서 수학하며 순수예술 학사와 석사 학위를 받았다. 피트먼이 다닌 학교는 여성주의적 입장을 견지하며 전통적으로 여성과 관련된 예술형식을 폄하해온 시각에 도전했고, 그는 이러한 프로그램에 참여하며 미학적 체계를 무너뜨리고 장식 미술을 포용하는 데 관심을 키웠다. 장식 미술을 향한 피트먼의 열정은 그의 수많은 작업 전반에 드러나며, 마침내 고유한 시각 언어로 자리 잡았다. 그의 초기 작품은 에이즈 위기, 인종 간 갈등, 성 소수자의 시민권처럼 20세기 후반을 뒤흔든 사회 정치적 투쟁을 다루고 있으나, 그의 최근 회화 작업은 외면과 내면세계를 주제로 한 실내 공간으로 전환하는 양상을 보인다.
