Larry Hill Art

King

1986

Limited Editio Giclee Prints 1986 "ART TRIO JAZZ SERIES"

“I’ll find me a place by the river now and give up all my story lines.” – Van Morrison All of these paintings originated in the past year, but I suspect they truly began in 1955 after I returned from the army to complete my college education at Fresno State. Having discovered the heroic-scaled canvases of the abstract impressionists while away, I changed my major to art. Soon, after enrolling into a painting class taught by Darwin Musselman, I felt I’d be advancing from the old school to the new wave. Wrong. Musselman, an intense taskmaster, held me firm to the basics and taught me how to crawl first. The flying would come after I paid my dues. Musselman had studied at the Los Angeles Art Center and The School of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. Proficient in many styles of painting, he never shied away from demonstrating techniques he felt might spur a student’s progress. About the time I began to suspect he was controlling us all too tightly, he showed the class Hans Namath...

The first time I heard the words “abstract expressionism” I was in New York, trying to grab another day of leave before the army shipped me overseas. At that time in 1952, while brow...

The first time I heard the words “abstract expressionism” I was in New York, trying to grab another day of leave before the army shipped me overseas. At that time in 1952, while brow...

Shortly before Walt Esslinger died a few years ago, we talked in his small yellow painted studio in Bakersfield. Sixteen years my senior, he’d been my close friend, mentor and running mate since 1960. “You still writing?” he asked. “Yes,” I answered, taking in the space’s renovations he’d recently sub-contracted. Ninety one years old, and he was thinking ahead. “Do me a favor,” he said. “Write the Andy Warhol story.” Walt was a Central Valley guy, an L.A. guy, a Las Vegas guy. A man who knew his way around. “I want you to put on record what happened back then when I bought the soup can painting.” Back then was the fall of 1962. The two of us had been exhibiting our paintings in the L.A. Art Institute’s gallery for locals only. Walt had given legendary Ad Rhinehardt a story about how he and I had been working in both Edward Kienholz’s and John Altoon’s studios (false—we’d only been visiting). One morning, the Institute’s Director, who hadn’t suspected us to be charlatans yet, introduced us to a reed thin, tow headed young man leaning against the main gallery’s wall. “Meet Andy Warhola,” he said. “Andy is from New York.” “Warhol,” the boy/man said. “Painter?” Walt asked him. “Shoe Illustrator.” The director made a snorting noise I took to mean that Warhola or Warhol’s modesty was posed. He mentioned something about Andy having a show on the La Cienega strip of galleries. We exchanged mumbles about how the art world was in flux, nothing more than that, and Walt and I moved on. If this strange cat had anything to look at, we’d see it. It was a Monday, and La Cienega’s twenty some galleries would be opening new shows and serving champagne that evening. North La Cienega Avenue, laid over a network of oil veins decades before, had become the street for the Cool School, a group of artists and gallery people trying to bring Los Angeles’s art scene to life. The galleries were small but proud. Sure, Jazz was born on the Delta and raised in New Orleans, St, Luis and Chicago, but L.A. had fifty-three jazz joints according to Chet Baker, who’d blown with the best. Why then should the West Coast be lagging behind New York in the other truly American expression, abstract art? At the Ferus Gallery that night we found Warhol’s exhibit. “Shit,” I said. Walt grinned. “You no like?” “Not exactly my can of soup,” I said, peeking into the small space, loaded now wall to wall with paintings of Campbell’s Tomato Soup. Walt stepped into the space. “How about the idea of it?” I made my way through spectators looking at once to be confused, amused, enthused and abused. When I came back to Walt he was still smiling. “Why didn’t he silk screen ‘em?” I asked. “That’s probably his next move,” Walt said. “You wanna stay?” Walt’s keen eyes cased the joint. “I see Irving Bloom over there,” he said. “Believe I’ll stick around and talk with him.” Bloom had been operating this popular gallery for some time now. “One hundred a month,” he’d told me. “It’s not like I’m getting rich.” I stood around for a bit, heard a fellow abstract expressionist I’d met tell a young lady who looked to be lost, “Okay that’s the soup. Come with me, baby, and I’ll show you the juice.” Two doors down I stopped at the Primus-Stuart Gallery. A group of people had gathered around a display of soup cans, stacked grocer’s pyramid style in the window. All Campbell’s. All Tomato. A sign leaning against the grouping stated: “Get the real thing. Thirty cents each.” That’s the way it was. Twenty-four galleries forming a gauntlet between La Cienega’s 300 block, all the way up to Barney’s Beanery at the corner of Santa Monica. Hollywood types dressed to the nines, Beats dressed for the times just gone. Champagne popping...

I believe a painting (story) must have an initial dramatic impact and at second glance should include tantalizing nuances of drawing (plotting) and gestures (conflict) to stay alive....

In ‘Homage to Ruben Blades,’ artist David Barnett celebrates the works of Panamanian Salsa musician and actor Rubén Blades. Seen here performing in concert, Blades takes center stage...

David Barnett’s ‘Homage to Wassily Kandinsky after 1911 orig. Woodcut from the Klänge (Sounds) Series, title: Before Spring,’ is an original mixed media watercolor painting, signed by the artist in the lower right corner. Part of the artist’s ‘Famous Artist Series,’ Barnett stages a collaboration between himself and the Russian Abstract Expressionist Wassily Kandinsky by scanning the original woodblock print from Kandinsky's Klänge series and printing it as a giclée on watercolor paper. The composition sees a hatted figure with a staff as they journey through hills and canyons into the night; colors pass from the inside of the woodcut to the surrounding paper where they form a rotating cycle, perhaps indicative of the cycle of influence from Kandinsky to Barnett and back again. Mixed media giclée print & watercolor on paper 14 x 14 inches, artwork 19 x 18.75 inches, frame Signed and dated lower right Framed to conservation standards using archival materials including 100 percent rag matting, Museum Glass to protect from UV rays, and housed in a modern profile silver finish wood moulding David Barnett, an artist, collector, appraiser and gallerist has been passionate about art from the early age of five. David’s career as an art dealer began at age nineteen when, as a fine arts student, he sponsored an exhibition of work by fellow student artists. In 1966, he opened his first gallery in a converted basement apartment at Wisconsin Avenue and 21st Street. In 1985 David moved his gallery from Wisconsin Avenue into the Old Button Mansion on State Street and has been active ever since. David’s talents for recognizing undervalued artists and for meeting the needs of art lovers, art collectors and artists have created a vibrant, flourishing gallery and collection of over 6,000 works of art. David was born and raised in Wisconsin. He has been painting in watercolors, acrylics, oil pastels as well as fine art photography. David has more than 10 different series he has developed over the years. They include Abstract, Surrealism, Morph Dog, Up North Birch Bark, Impressions of Mexico City, Southwest, Fireworks, Famous Artist Paying Homage and Garden Panorama. Influential artists include Vermeer, Miro, Kandinsky, Chagall, Nolde and Klee. David has been featured in many magazines, newspapers and public television programs regarding his beautiful gallery, collection and knowledge and passion of fine art. David also has work in the permanent collection Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona. Since its opening in 1966, The David Barnett Gallery has flourished to become Wisconsin's premier gallery and has the most diverse range of art available in any Wisconsin gallery, including works of art that represent more than 600 artists. The gallery also offers custom framing, art appraisals...

"Counterpoint," is an archival giclee print of Filice's pen and ink drawing she produced in 2018. There are 10 signed editions of this piece, 4 are available. Each is signed and on ...

photograph of an imaginary creature called an INKLING. Edition of 1/8

Illustration of intimate moments. Getting up late, long breakfast, coffee with milk, croissant, fruit. Everyday pleasures!

The illustration in from the series"Women and hydraulic tiles" and it is inspired by a phrase of "Alice in wonderland" It reminds me of those recollec...