Timothy Taylor Gallery is delighted to announce a unique retrospective of 35 small studies for paintings executed between 1986 and the present day. Although mostly produced in the 80’s and 90’s, these studies seem fresh and modern. Lasker has always explored the possibilities of abstract pictographic language, and this retrospective is an opportunity to see in the flesh the development of this language, in perfectly formed studies for some of his larger paintings.
Lasker’s palette of fluorescent blues, oranges and pinks gives the work a contemporary nu-rave edginess. A sensual use of paint is contrasted with graphic scribbles. The drama and geometry of these maquettes is achieved with various combinations of oil, pen, ink and ballpoint pen on paper. Each study is expertly contained within a small-scale format of approximately 13 by 17 cm. At first the doodle-like quality of the work has an air of Abstract Expressionism, yet closer inspection reveals a carefully premeditated balance and constraint typical of Lasker’s body of work.
Jonathan Lasker was born in 1948 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He attended the School of Visual Arts in New York and Calarts in Valencia, California in the late 1970’s. Lasker has exhibited internationally since the early 1980’s. A major retrospective of his work was held at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain in 2003.
Other recent solo exhibitions include; Jonathan Lasker: Selective Identity – Paintings from the 1990s, which in 1999-2000 toured the Forum for Contemporary Art, St Louis, Missouri, USA. The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada, Rose Art Museum, Waltham, Massachusetts, USA and the Birmingham Museum of Art, Alabama, USA; Jonathan Lasker: Paintings 1977-1997, toured the Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Germany, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland and Kunstverein St Gallen im Kunstmuseum, Switzerland in 1997-98. Recent group exhibitions include; Co-conspirators: Artist & Collector: The Collection of James Cottrell & Joseph Lovett at the Orlando Museum of Art, USA and the Chelsea Art Museum, New York, USA in 2004; A Collective Image of America: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Wichita Art Museum, Wichita, Kansas, USA in 2004.
Public collections include the Eli Broad Foundation, LA, USA; Hirschhorn Museum, Washington D.C., USA; Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany; Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden; MoMA, New York, USA; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA and Museo d’Art Contemporaneo, Seville, Spain.
Open 10-6pm Mon-Fri; 10-1pm Sat.
For further information contact Lee Johnson on 020 7409 3344 or [email protected].
A fully illustrated catalogue including a text by Richard Kalina will accompany the exhibition. The catalogue will be produced in collaboration with Galerie Sabine Knust in München, Germany. An exhibition Jonathan Lasker: Drawings 1979 – 2007 will be held at Galerie Sabine Knust from 5 June to 14 July 2007.
