Exhibition

Lari Pittman: Declaration of Independence

29 Sep 2019 – 5 Jan 2020

Regular hours

Sunday
10:00 – 17:00
Tuesday
11:00 – 20:00
Wednesday
11:00 – 20:00
Thursday
11:00 – 20:00
Friday
11:00 – 20:00
Saturday
11:00 – 17:00

Cost of entry

FREE

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The most comprehensive retrospective of the prolific Los Angeles painter and long-revered teacher.

About

Lari Pittman: Declaration of Independence is the most comprehensive retrospective in 20 years of the work of the American artist Lari Pittman. As both a prolific painter and a long-revered teacher, the Los Angeles–based artist is a strong presence in both the local art community and the international sphere.

This exhibition will include approximately 80 paintings and 50 works on paper drawn from the Hammer’s own holdings as well as from public and private collections throughout the world.

From his earliest experiments with collage and decoration during his formative years at California Institute of the Arts, to the iconic paintings produced in response to the AIDS crisis and culture wars of the 1990s, to his present philosophical investigations into the history-telling of textiles, Pittman’s works have remained some of the most prescient and influential of any artist since the 1980s. His 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 four-decade career, replete with owls, Victorian silhouettes, flying text, and exaggerated and sexualized bodies. 

In recent years Pittman has moved inward, depicting memories, his own thought process, and a diverse group of artistic influences. These paintings function as rich dreamscapes and provide insight into the artist’s psyche. Key figures from art history are juxtaposed with references to production—represented as birds, babies, vulvas, thought bubbles, and other points of origin. His painted surfaces have become smoother, accentuating the synthetic quality of the works and showcasing the artist’s mastery of the medium. Among these recent works on view will be Pittman’s cycle of mural-scale paintings titled Flying Carpets (2013).

Pittman generally works alone in the studio and has described painting as a physical activity that involves his entire body. His paintings are created without preliminary sketches, and their large scale mirrors the outsized, complex, and even mythic ideas that inform them. In contrast, his works on paper are more intimate and graphic, featuring fewer objects and a more pronounced flattening of illusionistic space. Still lushly coloured and decorated, they offer a quieter counterpart to his paintings. A selection of these drawings spanning Pittman’s career will comprise Orangerie, a stand-alone installation that provides an intimate space for viewing his works on paper.

What to expect? Toggle

CuratorsToggle

Connie Butler

Vanessa Arizmendi

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Lari Pittman

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