Human on Canvas: Figuration at L.A. Louver (PHOTOS)

WHO: Tony Bevan, William Brice, Rebecca Campbell, Richard Diebenkorn, Charles Garabedian, David Hockney, R.B. Kitaj, Leon Kossoff and Alice Neel

WHAT: Figuration: Paintings and Drawings

WHEN: November 17 through December 30, 2010

WHERE: L.A. Louver,
45 North Venice Boulevard
Venice, CA 90291

WHY: Showing figurative art these days presents a tantalizing challenge to the curator. On a superficial level, figure painting and drawing is fundamentally traditional, and there will always be the avant-gardes who need convincing otherwise. But because the human form is the most familiar--and potentially the most evocative--of shapes, and because its variety grows rather than shrinks with the passing of eras, it's always capable of startling a viewer with its newness. There's Tony Bevan's Locked Fingers, 1988, which can come off expressing calm or desperation, depending on whether you think it shows one or two people. There's also Rebecca Campbell's Just Another Diamond Day, 2010, with its smooth, unwrinkled mother holding and slightly reshaping her wriggling son.

The exhibition includes a focus on work created in the 1960s, with paintings by Brice, Garabedian, Kossoff and Neel all of this period, as well as an exquisite work on paper by Diebenkorn. More recent paintings include Tony Bevan's visceral Locked Fingers, 1988; the powerful Whistler vs Ruskin, 1992 by R.B. Kitaj; a 1992 watercolor portrait (and self portrait) by David Hockney and the newly complete Just Another Diamond Day, 2010 by L.A .-based artist Rebecca Campbell.

(From: L.A. Louver)

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