Opening Reception: Saturday, October 30th, 12:00 - 4:00 PM
Open Saturdays and Sundays 12:00 - 4:00 PM and by appointment. On view October 30th through November 7th.
Masks required for indoor areas and encouraged outdoors for those who are unvaccinated.
The Tack Room
4690 Live Oak Canyon Road
La Verne, CA 91750
Richard Brown Lethem
THE SEEKING OBJECT
The ongoing focus of my painting is the paradox and the mystery of the body’s inseparable relationship to the Spiritual, and how to manifest this in visual, universal and accessible terms, in the language of paint…which has been my first language, and which I have loved.
The old trope of “Inside/Outside” and the object which opens to the gift of generosity. To slice to the seed and feel the pull of gravity, our humanity.
How to paint the visionary orchard...the purse of plenty...the seed within. The immersion in the epiphany of nature by the human consciousness.
The last two years of life in California have pleasured my perception with new experiences of form, light and color…not unlike a glimpse of a paradise or a laser of joy. During this time, I have returned to the natural object as my engine, the carrier of the enigma of transience, transformation and rebirth. The deepest meaning of Generosity.
My lifelong exposure to contemporary American poetry, specifically the Objectivists like William Carlos Williams, George Open and Charles Olson, among others, have influenced my work in many ways.
Artists from the past who have informed and inspired me are principally: the early de Chirico, the immense Wm. Blake and the monumentally grotesque imagery of Goya. I have also found that path to truth in Guercino’s drawings. The elegant yearning of Watteau, and in our time the monumental late work of Philip Guston which continues to unfold and amaze.
Richard Brown Lethem
Biography
The Missouri Born artist Richard Brown Lethem began his studies at the Kansas City Art Institute and earned a BFA and MFA at Columbia University.
He began teaching at Columbia in 1957 and the following year received a Fulbright Fellowship in painting for study in Paris. Subsequent teaching positions have been at the following institutions: Columbia University, University of Kentucky, Kansas City Art Institute, and the University of Southern Maine.
He has been represented by numerous One Person shows including nine in New York City. His work is in many public and private collections including: The Ogunquit Museum of Amerian Art, Ogunquit, Maine, Pamona College Museum, Claremont, California, Blanden Museum of Art, Ft. Dodge, Iowa, University of New England Museum, Portland, Maine, Bates College Museum, Lewiston, Maine, Yaddo Foundation, Saratoga Springs, New York and Columbia University, New York City.
He currently lives and works in Claremont, California.