{"id":13827,"date":"2021-11-23T09:38:24","date_gmt":"2021-11-23T17:38:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/?p=13827"},"modified":"2021-11-23T09:56:23","modified_gmt":"2021-11-23T17:56:23","slug":"lennart-anderson-a-retrospective","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/lennart-anderson-a-retrospective\/","title":{"rendered":"Lennart Anderson: A Retrospective"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Review by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bowerygallery.org\/goodrich.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">John Goodrich<\/a>, guest contributor<\/h3>\n<h4><a href=\"https:\/\/nyss.org\/exhibition\/lennart-anderson-a-retrospective\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lennart Anderson: A Retrospective<\/a> At the New York Studio School Gallery through November 28, 2021<\/h4>\n<p class=\"p1\">Counting high among the must-see shows this season is the Lennart Anderson retrospective, an exhibition of thirty-five paintings that fills the New York Studio School Gallery with luminous precision. Curated by Graham Nickson and Rachel Rickert, the still lifes, portraits, landscapes and multiple-figure compositions \u2013 spanning some six decades \u2013 includes loans from many collections, including the Whitney and Brooklyn Museums. Pacing the installation are two especially large, complex figure compositions, which \u2013 though feeling slightly cramped in the tight hanging \u2013 testify impressively to the artist\u2019s ambitions and achievement.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\">\n <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/StNIjxkkfsc\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n <\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Anderson (1928-2015) belonged to a generation of intrepid painters \u2013 including the likes of Alex Katz, Paul Resika, Philip Pearlstein, Paul Georges, Leland Bell, Nell Blaine, and Al Kresch \u2013 who pursued figuration in a time when Abstract Expressionism, and then Pop Art and Minimalism, were ascendant. Older gallery-goers today may recall the passionate debates held by these painters (among many others) at the Figurative Artists Alliance in the late 60s and 70s. A number of them had studied with Hans Hofmann and were inspired by the abstracting influence of European modernism, but Anderson pursued his own path; most influenced, perhaps, by his teacher Edwin Dickison, he updated the masters with an exceptional fidelity to rendered detail and richly atmospheric spaces. His personal tastes were idiosyncratic \u2013 he admired both de Kooning and Degas \u2013 and his viewpoints could be provocative: he held that Matisse was a \u201ctonal painter,\u201d and that Degas\u2019 late works were \u201cfailures.\u201d Tragically, macular degeneration severely impaired his eyesight in his later years. He continued to paint to the end, however, and the exhibition includes his last large painting, the unfinished \u201cThree Nymphs on a Bluff\u201d (2014-15), which despite its reductive detail reveals his habitual robustness of form.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13832\" style=\"width: 518px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1_nude_la_.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13832\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1_nude_la_-508x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"508\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-landscapepp-med wp-image-13832\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1_nude_la_-508x600.jpg 508w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1_nude_la_-254x300.jpg 254w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1_nude_la_-867x1024.jpg 867w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1_nude_la_-768x907.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1_nude_la_-339x400.jpg 339w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/1_nude_la_.jpg 1300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 508px) 100vw, 508px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-13832\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lennart Anderson, <em>Nude<\/em>, 1961-1964. Oil on canvas, with frame: 58 1\/2 x 50 in. Brooklyn Museum<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Among the first paintings to greet the eye is the arresting \u201cNude\u201d (1961-64), which depicts a standing figure, an open bathrobe draped across her shoulders and one bent leg resting on a bed behind. The painting combines a luscious sense of light with flowing lines and strategically placed detail. Though close in tone, colors shape a powerful impression of the figure\u2019s shadowed presence; vibrant, scumbled reds in the background press around the pillar of muted skintones, which prove, up close, to consist of countless blendings of reddish and greenish ochres. A handful of light-catching notes on the figure affirm the illumination of the scene, while the head \u2013 the painting\u2019s only finely detailed element \u2013resonates as the culmination of the flowing lines of robe and torso. So convincing is the effect that one startles to realize that the hands \u2013 so firmly located \u2013 are mere veils of color.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13833\" style=\"width: 615px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13833\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2-la-whitehousereflected.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"605\" height=\"605\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13833\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2-la-whitehousereflected.jpg 605w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2-la-whitehousereflected-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2-la-whitehousereflected-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2-la-whitehousereflected-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2-la-whitehousereflected-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2-la-whitehousereflected-360x361.jpg 360w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 605px) 100vw, 605px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-13833\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lennart Anderson, <em>White House Reflected<\/em>, undated, Oil on canvas, 18 3\/8 x 18 in., Collection of the Estate<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Several small landscapes, among them the striking \u201cWhite House Reflected\u201d (n.d.), vividly capture the beating force of the sun, or the suffused light of a cloudy sky. But a series of portraits, their volumes complexly modeled in barely differentiated hues, seem particularly well suited to Anderson\u2019s instincts as a painter; at once empathetic and incisive, they navigate each subject\u2019s complex volumes with keen, natural ease.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13835\" style=\"width: 560px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13835\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/4_LA_StreetScene.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" height=\"431\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13835\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/4_LA_StreetScene.jpg 550w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/4_LA_StreetScene-300x235.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/4_LA_StreetScene-500x392.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 550px) 100vw, 550px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-13835\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lennart Anderson, <em>Street Scene<\/em>, 1961, Oil on canvas, 77 x 99 in., Collection of BNY Mellon<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"attachment_13834\" style=\"width: 538px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13834\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"528\" height=\"656\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13834\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA.jpg 528w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA-241x300.jpg 241w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA-322x400.jpg 322w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/3-stMarksPlaceLA-483x600.jpg 483w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-13834\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lennart Anderson, <em>St. Mark\u2019s Place<\/em>, 1969-1976, Oil on canvas, 93 13\/16 x 74 1\/8 in.\u00a9 Estate of Lennart Anderson Courtesy of the Fralin Museum of Art.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Dominating each of the two rooms is a large multi-figure composition some eight feet long on its larger dimension: the vertical \u201cSt. Mark\u2019s Place\u201d (1969-76) and the horizontal \u201cStreet Scene\u201d (1981). Both embrace a contradictory impulse: a modern urban scene, informed by the warm, restrained, glow and precise, counterbalanced compositions of quattrocento painting. (Is it any coincidence that the artist had spent three years at the American Academy in Rome in the late 50s?) I found myself particularly drawn to the evocative details in \u201cStreet Scene\u201d \u2013 the expressive bend of a man\u2019s arm as he dangles a treat above a small, leaping dog; a carefully observed electrical utility box on a wall; the folded newspaper, tucked onto a masonry ledge, just above our eye level. These paintings bring to mind Hilton Kramer\u2019s reaction to one of Anderson\u2019s \u201cIdylls\u201d \u2013 the three huge paintings he worked on for decades, none of them, regrettably, in the show: \u201cIn a saner art world than ours, museums would be vying for the honor of mounting a major retrospective of Mr. Anderson\u2019s work.\u201d And indeed, in terms of their size, ambition, and complexity, these two large paintings are as worthy of museum walls as the large canvases of Puvis de Chavannes lining the walls of Gallery 800 in the Metropolitan Museum.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13836\" style=\"width: 710px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/5_la_idylls.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13836\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/5_la_idylls-700x561.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"561\" class=\"size-landscapepp-med wp-image-13836\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/5_la_idylls-700x561.jpg 700w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/5_la_idylls-300x240.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/5_la_idylls-768x615.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/5_la_idylls-500x400.jpg 500w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/5_la_idylls.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-13836\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lennart Anderson, <em>Idyll III<\/em>, 1979-2011.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u201cMuseum-worthy,\u201d however, can be a two-edged sword, and, as impressive as they are, \u201cSt. Marks Place\u201d and \u201cStreet Scene\u201d are not my favorite paintings in the show. As with Puvis, robust local modelings tend to cover up a relatively placid disposition of overall color. Unlike the radiant \u201cNude,\u201d hues tend to fill, rather than leverage the larger movements; we experience luminous, deftly arranged moments rather than the wild, galvanizing, top-down unfolding of events in, say, a large Titian or Courbet. But then, this is quibbling: hardly any painter since Corot has achieved such an effect, though to my eye some works by Bonnard, Seurat and Balthus come close.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13837\" style=\"width: 730px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/6_la_lettuce3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13837\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/6_la_lettuce3-1024x812.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"571\" class=\"size-large wp-image-13837\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/6_la_lettuce3-1024x812.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/6_la_lettuce3-300x238.jpg 300w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/6_la_lettuce3-768x609.jpg 768w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/6_la_lettuce3-500x396.jpg 500w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/6_la_lettuce3-700x555.jpg 700w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/6_la_lettuce3.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-13837\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lennart Anderson, <em>Lettuce #3<\/em>, 1995, oil on board, 10 3\/4 x 13 in. Private collection.<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">And at times, so does Anderson. Each of the half-dozen still lives in the show hums with rich, atmospheric depth, but \u201cLettuce #3\u201d (1995) delivers something more. The edge of the uppermost leaf courses, with momentous, deliberate effect, across the middle of the canvas; it practically grows before the eye. In \u201cStill Life with Victorian Washstand\u201d (1967), the stand\u2019s surface \u2013 a thin, bright sliver among the ornate, lathe-turned legs and railings \u2013 becomes an island of bright events within a room\u2019s subdued tones. The events in question \u2013 a pale statuette, a silver cup, a folded towel \u2013 appear self-generated; they resist their surroundings, acquiring an almost eerie presence. As with the still lives of Chardin \u2013 one of Anderson\u2019s heroes \u2013 we\u2019re liable to feel intensely edified, and nourished.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13838\" style=\"width: 503px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13838\" src=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/7_laVictorianWash.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"493\" height=\"600\" class=\"size-full wp-image-13838\" srcset=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/7_laVictorianWash.jpg 493w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/7_laVictorianWash-247x300.jpg 247w, https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/7_laVictorianWash-329x400.jpg 329w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 493px) 100vw, 493px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-13838\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lennart Anderson, <em>Still Life With Victorian Washstand<\/em>, 1967, Oil on canvas, 22 x 18 in., The William Louis-Dreyfus Foundation<\/p><\/div>\n<hr>\n<p>For more images of artwork and information please visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lennartanderson.com\/\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">website for Lennart Anderson<\/a> <\/p>\n<hr>\n<div style=\"text-align:center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/iIFk6-qiRcU\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Review by John Goodrich, guest contributor Lennart Anderson: A Retrospective At the New York Studio School Gallery through November 28, 2021 Counting high among the must-see shows this season is&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/lennart-anderson-a-retrospective\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"full-width-content","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reviews","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13827"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13848,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13827\/revisions\/13848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paintingperceptions.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}