Bernard Langlais
Bernard Langlais, Tiger, ca. 1970s, oil and pencil on paper, 14 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches
Alexandre Gallery is pleased to present Bernard Langlais – Works on Paper, on view May 29 through July 18, 2014. This exhibition will present twenty-seven selected drawings and paintings on paper that depict Langlais’s classic imagery of animals, both wild and domestic, from the 1970s along with earlier examples of landscape, still-life and figures that fuse mid-century modernist styles with the artist’s own rural roots and unique folk sensibility. This gallery exhibition is presented in conjunction with the first museum retrospective of his work, Bernard Langlais, organized by Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine (opening July 19, 2014).
Langlais is best known for his often monumental wood wall-reliefs and carved constructions of his cacophonous un-Peaceable Kingdoms of bears, horses, elephants, birds and other assorted wild and barn animals. His painting style is bold, simplified and immediate. Images are defined with bright color and bold authoritative brush marks and line. The curator Chris Crosman has written:
For Langlais, the animals were formal and familiar objects that he could shape, transform, hang paint on, and re-invent as the spirit moved him. That they have distinct, individual personalities is also intentional. Even the most doleful lion, sheep or elephant conveys a bit of wonder and perplexed surprise at its very existence, its flawed proportions and stylized features that inexplicably and precisely nail their inherent natures.
Langlais was born 1921. He studied at the Corcoran School of Art and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His early work was exhibited in a one-person exhibition at Leo Castelli and was included in the 1961 Museum of Modern Art exhibition The Art of Assemblage before returning to Maine in 1966 to live with his wife Helen on their 90 acre property. He died in 1977 at the age of 56. This exhibition of works on paper marks the gallery’s second of Langlais’s work.
The Colby College Museum of Art Langlais retrospective will be accompanied by a 224 page Charta book available through the gallery with essays by Colby Musuem curator Hannah W. Blunt, and by Diana Tuite, Vincent Katz and Leslie Umberger.
Lion, 1976, wood planks and paint, 39 1/2 x 61 inches
Lion Head, ca, 1975, oil on paper, 14 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches
Stable, ca. 1972-76, pen and ink on paper, 14 x 16 3/4 inches
Family Circle, ca. 1972-76, pen and ink on paper, 14 x 16 3/4 inches
Four Sheep, ca. 1970, pen and ink on paper, 14 x 16 3/4 inches
Sheep, Pigs, and Chickens, ca. 1970s, pen and ink on paper, 14 x 16 3/4 inches
In the Barn, ca. 1970s, pen and ink on paper, 14 x 16 3/4 inches
Rooster and Hen, ca. 1970s, pen and ink on paper, 14 x 16 3/4 inches
Horses, Cows, Sheep, Hens, c. 1970s, pen and ink on paper, 13 3/8 x 16 3/8 inches
Lion - Gray and Brown, ca. 1970s, oil and pencil on paper, 14 3/4 x 17 3/4 inches
Tiger, ca. 1970s, oil and pencil on paper, 14 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches
Lion, ca. 1970s, oil and pencil on paper, 15 x 17 7/8 inches
Lion, ca. 1970s, oil and pencil on paper, 15 x 18 inches
Lion (Blue Sky), ca. 1970s, oil and pencil on paper, 14 3/4 x 17 13/16 inches
Two Nudes, 1970s, oil and pencil on paper, 14 x 16 3/4 inches
Nude (Progression), ca. 1970, oil and pencil on paper, 14 x 16 3/4 inches
Porcupine, ca. 1969, oil and pencil on paper, 15 x 17 3/4 inches
Trees and Cows, ca. 1967, watercolor on paper, 20 1/2 x 15 1/2 inches
Blueberry Hill, ca. 1958, oil and pen on paper, 11 3/4 x 8 1/8 inches
Red Flowers in Vase, ca. 1955, oil on paper, 14 3/4 x 10 13/16 inches
Trees, Yellow Ground, 1955, pencil and oil on paper, 12 3/8 x 9 5/8 inches
Landscape, ca. 1955, oil and pencil on paper, 10 7/8 x 14 3/4 inches
Yellow Field with Trees,n.d., oil on paper, 14 1/4 x 10 3/4 inches