LARI PITTMAN DRAWINGS

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Lari Pittman Drawings

What Lari Pittman calls "drawings" are actually multi-layered paintings on paper. Works in this exhibition, dating from 1980 through 1995, incorporate monoprint, acrylic, oil, and enamel, as well as collage elements, gold leaf, and applique. Pittman conceives of drawing as a parallel activity to the creation of his large-scale paintings on mahogany panel. Because the drawings are relatively intimate in scale, they are accessible and encourage close scrutiny, providing several points of entry into the composition.

Lari Pittman received his formal art education at CalArts in the 1970s, a time when painting was considered dead (or at least deeply discredited) in relation to conceptual forms of art making. Pittman therefore began his career with a notion of impure painting, involving pastiche and quotation, hybrid forms and appropriated images. Against layers of competing visual languages, recognizable elements jostle for attention in his pictures. Decorative excess--in line, in detail, in compositional energy--is his primary strategy for suggesting multiple narratives simultaneously. Ultimately, the most distinctive feature of Lari Pittman's work is its impetus to convey content, recounting personal stories or exploring grand and epic themes--from gender and sexuality to the cycle of life. His powerful art pits ebullience, beauty, and pleasure against the inevitability of death.

Lari Pittman Drawings was organized by the University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, and curated by Elizabeth A. Brown. It is supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency, and the Lannan Foundation, with additional funding from Clyde Beswick, Jeanne Thayer, an anonymous donor, and the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, UCSB.

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