In conversation: Painter Lari Pittman finds beauty in violence and telenovelas
"In the 14th century, if you had donned a striped shirt and walked the lanes of a medieval French town, chances are you might have been assaulted or even put to death. Stripes, in those days, were pretty much considered the fashion of the devil — the sort of motif associated with prostitutes and Catholic cults.
It’s hard to know what violent acts those Frenchmen might have resorted to if you had sported a brocade pattern featuring images of hand axes or a chintz design bearing daggers. After all, what kind of outcast would show up in public in an ensemble covered in knives?
It is that very question that Lari Pittman imagines in a series of new paintings at Hollywood’s Regen Projects. “Portraits of Textiles & Portraits of Humans” pairs a large canvas inspired by textile design (a long-running theme in his work), with a smaller “portrait” of a figure visually linked with that design."— Carolina Miranda, Oct. 3, 2018
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Los Angeles Times website.
Read more about Art Department Professor Lari Pittman here.
Stay engaged. Use #UCLAarts to stay connected.
