Richard Brown Lethem: Roots, Stones and Baggage

 

Richard Brown Lethem (b. 1932) has been living and thinking in paint on canvas since the 1950’s, with results that have been categorized, more or less aptly, as abstraction, expressionism, figuration, social realism, surrealism, and allegory. Now in his ‘90’s, Lethem’s imagery has become unified and direct, often consisting of a central form derived from nature, yet distilled, by the visionary pressure of his attention, into symbols seemingly directly drawn from his psychic landscape, and beamed into that of the viewer. If this is an example of “late style,” it is one defiantly uninterested in a modest contemplation of mortality; instead, the painter’s wisdom exalts an embrace of color and sensuality, and traces the joyous mystery of our consistent presence as neighboring bodies in a shared field of space.

 

All but one painting in this exhibition were created in Lethem’s new studio in Claremont, CA. where he moved at the beginning of the pandemic to be closer to family. It was in Claremont where Lethem met artist Emily Joyce (b. 1976), who's solo exhibition Under the Garden is on view concurrently in the main gallery. Upon seeing Lethem’s first show in Claremont, Joyce knew she had found a kindred spirit. They quickly became “art family,” with a mutual affinity for getting deep into seemingly simple things, everyday objects, basic shapes, flat color–painting at its most elemental.