Henry Taylor (artist)

Henry Taylor

Artist Henry Taylor working on a painting
Born 1958
Ventura, California
Nationality American
Education California Institute of the Arts

Henry Taylor (born 1958) is an American artist and painter who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Taylor is most well known for his acrylic paintings, mixed media sculptures, and installations.

Life

Born the youngest of eight brothers and sisters in Ventura, California and raised in Oxnard, California, Henry's father was employed by the U.S. government as a commercial painter and is listed as a painter on Henry's birth certificate.[1][2] At Oxnard College he took art classes under James Jarvaise who became an ongoing mentor.[3] After ten years of working as a psychiatric technician at Camarillo State Mental Hospital he retired in 1997. He attended the California Institute for the Arts,[4] where in 1995, he got his Bachelor's of Fine Art. [5][6][7]

Work

Taylor's largest output of work is in portraiture: he is known to paint obsessively, on various materials, including empty cigarette packs, detergent boxes, cereal boxes, suitcases, crates, bottles, furniture, and stretched canvas.[8][9][10][11] His subjects include family, friends, patients (when employed at the hospital), acquaintances, strangers, waitresses, celebrities, homeless people, himself, and also historical figures, cultural figures, sports heroes, politicians, and individuals from photographs or other art works.[12][13][14][15] Taylor's painterly style has been variously described as sensuous, vibrant, bold, fast and loose, full of empathy, generosity, and love, and the visual equivalent to blues music, while retaining a profound critical social sensibility.[16][17][18][19] His work has been lauded for maintaining an impossible balance between careful and sophisticated art-world references with a seemingly spontaneous and natural expressiveness.[20] Taylor's oeuvre has been aligned within various American lineages, including the portraiture tradition of Alice Neel, and the work of Harlem Renaissance painters such as Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden, and compared with his peer Kerry James Marshall.[21][22][23]

Exhibitions

Taylor's important exhibitions include a mid-career retrospective at MoMA PS1,[24] along with solo exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Artpace, and the Santa Monica Museum of Art, along with group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Hammer Museum, the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Rubell Family Collection, and the Bruce High Quality Foundation.[25][26][27][28][29][30] Taylor is represented by Blum & Poe Gallery in Los Angeles and Feur Mesler gallery in New York.[31] [32]

Quotes

“I paint everyone, or I try to. I try to capture the moment I am with someone who could be my friend, a neighbor, a celebrity, or a homeless person.”[33]

"It takes courage to do a lot of things. But, in a way, it doesn’t actually take courage, because you are free to do it. It’s like jumping in the water. The water’s cold, but you just jump in. You’ve gotta just jump in all the f****** time."[34]

References

  1. Misheff, Johnny. "Visiting Artists: Henry Taylor". Culture: Visiting Artists. New York Times Magazine.
  2. Samet, Jennifer. "Beer With A Painter, LA Edition: Henry Taylor". Interviews. HyperAllergic.
  3. Samet, Jennifer. "Beer With A Painter, LA Edition: Henry Taylor". Interviews. HyperAllergic.
  4. "Henry Taylor at MoMA PS1". Contemporary Art Daily. Retrieved April 2012. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  5. Hobbs, Roberts; Sirmans, Franklin; Wallace, Michelle. "30 Americans: Rubell Family Collection, December 3,2008-May 30, 2009". IBSN: 978-0-9821195-1-8
  6. Hoptman, Laura. "Henry Taylor, Pawel Althamer, and Cathy Wilkes Walk into a Bar…". Inside/Out: Collections and Exhibitions. MOMA. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  7. "Deana Lawson & Henry Taylor". Interview, Fall 2015, Issue 133. Bomb Magazine.
  8. Berzon, Stephanie. "Henry Taylor Filters Life Through Portraiture". Solo Exhibition: Henry Taylor. Art Slant.
  9. "Henry Taylor at MoMA PS1". Contemporary Art Daily. Retrieved April 2012. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  10. "Henry Taylor". Exhibitions/Past/January 29-April 9, 2012. MoMA PS1.
  11. "Artists: Henry Taylor". 2013 Carnegie International. Carnegie Museum of Art.
  12. Johnson, Ken. "A Visual Equivalent of the Blues, in Warm Shades: Henry Taylor's Portraits and Other Paintings at MoMA PS1". Art Review. The New York Times. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  13. Myers, Holly. "Review: Henry Taylor paintings a potent presence at Blum & Poe". Arts & Culture. The Los Angeles Times.
  14. "Artists: Henry Taylor". 2013 Carnegie International. Carnegie Museum of Art.
  15. Miller, Michael. "Henry Taylor Paints a Picture: A Retrospective of the Artist's Work Comes to PS1". Culture. Observer.
  16. Johnson, Ken. "A Visual Equivalent of the Blues, in Warm Shades: Henry Taylor's Portraits and Other Paintings at MoMA PS1". Art Review. The New York Times. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  17. Berzon, Stephanie. "Henry Taylor Filters Life Through Portraiture". Solo Exhibition: Henry Taylor. Art Slant.
  18. Myers, Holly. "Review: Henry Taylor paintings a potent presence at Blum & Poe". Arts & Culture. The Los Angeles Times.
  19. Griffin, Jonathan. "Henry Taylor: Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, USA". Issue 140. Frieze.
  20. Sharp, Chris. "Scrambling the Codes" (PDF). Blum & Poe PRESS. Art Review. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  21. "Henry Taylor at MoMA PS1". Contemporary Art Daily. Retrieved April 2012. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  22. Smith, Roberta. "Henry Taylor". Art in Review. The New York Times. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  23. Myers, Holly. "Review: Henry Taylor paintings a potent presence at Blum & Poe". Arts & Culture. The Los Angeles Times.
  24. Miller, Michael. "Henry Taylor Paints a Picture: A Retrospective of the Artist's Work Comes to PS1". Culture. Observer.
  25. "30 Americans". Exhibitions. Corcoran Gallery.
  26. "Blues For Smoke: February 27 - April 02, 2013". Exhibitions. Whitney Museum of Art.
  27. "Henry Taylor: Girrrrrl! Sep 13–Dec 13, 2008". Exhibition Archive. Santa Monica Museum of Art.
  28. "Henry Taylor". Artists. Artpace.
  29. "Henry Taylor: Sis and Bra, Apr 11, 2007 - Jul 1, 2007". Past Exhibitions. Studio Museum.
  30. "Room to Live: Recent Acquisitions and Works from the Collection". Exhibitions. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
  31. "Henry Taylor". Artists. Blum & Poe Gallery.
  32. "Henry Taylor". Artists. Feur Mesler Gallery.
  33. "Henry Taylor at Carlos/Ishikawa,". Contemporary Art Daily. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
  34. Samet, Jennifer. "Beer With A Painter, LA Edition: Henry Taylor". Interviews. HyperAllergic.
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