Imagination Becomes Reality Conclusion

Works in the Exhibition | Text



Lari Pittman: Untitled #5 (The Kitchen), 2005
Photo: courtesy Goetz Collection
Wilfried Petzi, München

Works in the Exhibition

Untitled #5 (The Kitchen), 2005, cel vinyl, acrylic, alkyd on gossoed canvas over panel
Once Inverted, Now throw-Away and Exponential, 1996, oil on prepared wood attached framed work on paper



Text

Californian painter Lari Pittman uses the classic materials of oil or acrylic on canvas or wood to create images in which fragmentary motifs from everyday life are assembled in a highly decorative way without ever appearing meretricious. Richness of detail and collage-type compositions of this kind recall drawings. The artist does not aim to depict the objects realistically. The individual motifs are united by areas of color, separated from one another by lines, or abut each other. Subverting simple 'readings', Pittman's works challenge the viewer, as exemplified impressively by the two works included here: Untitled #5 (The Kitchen), 2005, and Once Inverted, Now throw-Away and Exponential, 1996. The images have no central focus and no perspectival framework: All the components inhabit a flat surface. Pittman sees himself as a realistic painter who seeks to combine images derived from a variety of sources and to mirror the complex mixture of cultures and customs characteristic of our visual environment.(1)

(1) See Howard N. Fox, Joyful Noise: The Art of Lari Pittman, in Lari Pittman, exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles 1996, p.10.

Text excerpt »Images are generated by a gaze searching for new and personal insights. They are images of those gazing at the world« (Author: Stephan Urbaschek), Exhibition Catalogue Imagination Becomes Reality Conclusion