Riot Material

Art. Word. Thought.

  • Home
  • The Magazine
    • About
    • Contributors
    • Categories >
      • Art
      • Artist
      • Books
      • Thought
      • Film
      • Cinema Disordinaire
      • Riot Sounds
      • Records
      • Jazz
      • Interview
      • Inside The Image
      • More   >
        • Architecture
        • Image
        • The Line
        • The New Word
        • That Evening Sun
        • Twenty Que
        • The Natural World
        • Opera
        • Video
        • Fiction
        • From The Shelf
        • FR/BLCK/PR
    • Contact
    • Masthead
  • Art
    • Art Reviews
  • Books
    • Book Reviews
  • film
    • Film Reviews
  • Records
    • Jazz Reviews
    • All Reviews
  • Riot Sounds
  • Cinema Disordinaire
    • Riot Cinema

Rico Lebrun In Mexico

February 12, 2018 By Lorraine Heitzman Leave a Comment

at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles (through March 17, 2018)
Reviewed by Lorraine Heitzman

Discovering Rico Lebrun in Mexico at Jack Rutberg Fine Arts is a thrilling experience in the way that the best introductions are: eye-opening and ultimately rewarding. At the same time it is a little confounding too because the work is unfamiliar and it shouldn’t be. These are large paintings of tremendous, muscular force that are as passionate as they are perfectly constructed. That the work was made over sixty years ago and largely overlooked is bewildering. To paraphrase Jack Rutberg, “Only in L.A.”

Figure Sitting on a Beggar, 1961.

Rico Lebrun was born in Italy in 1900 and came to this country when he was twenty-four after accepting a job designing stained glass in a factory in Illinois. In a very short time he was in New York City where he had a successful career as an illustrator. Lebrun returned to Italy to study frescoes and when he resettled in the United States later he dedicated himself completely to his fine art. He had an auspicious start; almost immediately Lebrun received a commission for a fresco and was subsequently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship based on the drawings for a proposed mural. The following year they gave him another one, the second of three Guggenheim Fellowships he earned in his lifetime. When he relocated to the West Coast in 1938, he first moved to Santa Barbara but eventually settled in Los Angeles where he taught at the Chouinard Art Institute and the Disney Studios. Lebrun achieved many accomplishments during his life: gallery representation and teaching positions on both coasts, mural commissions, solo exhibitions, museum shows and fellowships. Three years after his death in 1964, the Los Angeles Museum of Art gave him a retrospective but there have been scant opportunities to see his work since then. Rico Lebrun In Mexico seeks to rectify that.

As a participating show in Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, all of Lebrun’s work in this exhibit was made during and in response to his time spent in San Miguel de Allende. In 1952 he was teaching at the Instituto Allende but he continued to work on most of these images well after his return to the States. In his Mexican journals, (themselves very poetic) Lebrun marvels about the local markets and customs perhaps because they echoed elements of his youth in Naples.  Inevitably it seems as though the stimulation of the Mexican culture influenced his artistic vision too because his work began evolving. His earlier work was often steeped in classical drawing and religious themes, the best known being the Crucifixion, (1947-1950) still on view at Syracuse University, New York. But the early fifties heralded a time of immense change in painting with the abstract expressionists dominating the conversation and Lebrun was not immune to the lure of abstraction. The work in this show represents a departure from most of his figurative work as he experimented with abstract forms to a greater extent than either before or after his time in Mexico.

Mexican Meat Stall, 1954.
Mexican Street in the Rain, 1954.

What is most striking about the paintings that were inspired by San Miguel de Allende is the vitality of the work. The locale and the influence of Picasso and Goya (whom Lebrun was known to admire) are strongly felt, particularly in Mexican Meat Stall, completed in 1954. This painting has something of the feel of Guernica to it, not only because of the reference to bulls, but also through the expression of anguish. Lebrun uses angular shapes and bold colors to conjure death while an improvised grid depicts the meat stall and focuses attention on the brutality inherent in the butcher’s trade. However, apart from the representational aspects, there is an energetic quality that transcends the slaughterhouse. Loose brushwork, paint drips and decorative elements all contribute to a liveliness that betrays the harsh reality of the subject matter. Lebrun’s use of collage to make quick, expedient changes bring exuberance to the work that aligns with the abstract expressionists. Standing at eight feet tall, even the size of Mexican Meat Stall contributes to the impact of this impressive work, allowing for an immersive experience.

In Mexican Street In the Rain (1954) Lebrun again uses paint and collage in an oversized format to great effect. Here he conveys the experience of a sudden deluge with jagged shapes descending from stylized storm clouds. Lebrun uses vertical bands to accentuate the tumultuous downpour while irregular shapes convey chaos brought about by the wind. In the text from his journal that accompanies Mexican Street In the Rain, Lebrun writes in his journal:

Magdalene and Centurian, 1955.

“Bells had been clamoring for rain: then it came, violent, and with such malevolence that it changed fields into rivers and washed all the corn into the gullies. Shutters, tents, market stalls and chairs, batlike skirts and flying tresses of scuttling women flapped and slid through the tall arches of solid water spouting from terraces on both sides of the streets. The walls were huge maps of mottled pomegranate, chocolate, ice blue, and almond green, and the sidewalks of Queretaro stone looked like slabs of freshly cut bacon.” *

It is this fervor and sense of discovery that Lebrun captures so effortlessly. His response to his environment is palpable and the painting captures his enthusiasm. In Magdaline and Centurion (1955) he shifts more toward the figurative but the characters are still very abstracted. Constructed in the same modular method as the other work, Lebrun relies on the juxtaposition of multiple elements including patterns and collaged shapes. By the time he made this painting he was already back in Southern California and working on a series about the atrocities of the holocaust so perhaps the figure and humanist themes were beginning to infiltrate and affect Magdaline and Centurion as well.

Mexican Gate, 1953.

Mexican Gate is a somber, melancholy painting that seems more related to Lebrun’s drawings than the rest of the colorful works in this show. Hardly monochromatic, it is nevertheless more muted compared to Mexican Street In The Rain or Mexican Meat Stall. The lack of contrast makes the shapes more prominent and as they shift from foreground to background they become intertwined like so many limbs. The iron forms look almost skeletal, more organic than what one expects from a man-made thing. During this period Lebrun wrote about how he increasingly saw the relationships between the landscape and the figure and that perception is beginning to take hold in “Gate”. It also has a depth that is not as present in the other paintings as if to call attention to the space that the barrier seeks to constrain.

Artesano con su Muñeca Grande, 1955.

Lebrun’s drawings in the show fall into two categories: those that directly correlate to his paintings and those that served more as visual notes or observations of his Mexican experience. The black and white ink drawings displayed beside his paintings seem to be preliminary compositions and it is a pleasure to see the simple sketches, but it should be emphasized that the paintings in this show are very loose themselves and much of their interest is in the way Lebrun allows us to see his creative process unfold.

Throughout Rico Lebrun’s life he worked in series, often returning to certain imagery and humanist themes. Recurring subjects included his Crucifixion cycles and Mary Magdalene drawings, and upon his return from Mexico, his series devoted to the atrocities at Buchenwald. Foremost was his interest in figure. The two years that Rico Lebrun spent in Mexico produced work that in many ways was atypical for the artist. He didn’t abandon the figure entirely, but seemed to absorb the lessons of the country that would transform the way he thought about art. In 1959-1960, five years after his return from San Miguel de Allende, Lebrun wrote:

“I have recently painted a new version of it (the Crucifixion), and this is a bird of a different color-and a bird of many colors, because suddenly as a legitimate reaction to the period of the Crucifixion, after having been in Mexico and seen what Mexico is like and remembering what I am supposed to be as a painter, I have come to the idea of adopting splendor rather than gloom. I don’t say that I am going to pick up gay anecdotes out of existence, but my job now is to do the tragic in a splendid way.” **

This sentiment beautifully addresses the transformative experience that traveling can instigate. Visually and culturally it must have been liberating for Lebrun because his two years living in Mexico became a time of great experimentation. The paintings that he created there and the ones he completed upon his return to Los Angeles are vibrantly colored, lively, and abstract; loose but fully resolved. And although his work did not continue in the same vein, he applied the essence of his newfound splendor to his work for the remainder of his life.

Muñeca, 1955.

♦

*In the Meridian of the Heart: Selected Letters of Rico Lebrun David Godine Press, 2000. Page 3
** Rico Lebrun quote found in Syracuse University exhibition catalogue: Transformations/Transfiguration Ellen C. Oppler 1983. Page 31.

~

Lorraine Heitzman is an artist and writer living in Los Angeles. She has written about the local arts community for ArtCricketLA and Armseye Magazine and is currently a regular contributor to Art and Cake. In addition to exhibiting her art, Ms. Heitzman has her own blog, countingknuckles.com, and her art can be seen on her website lorraineheitzman.com

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Art, Artist, The Line

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

The Line

A review of the Raphael exhibition Raffaello 1520–1483, in Rome, Italy, is at Riot Material

Lockdown Be Damned! Raffaello 1520–1483: An Exhibition in Rome

at the Scuderie del Quirinale Reviewed by Ingrid D. Rowland Raffaello 1520–1483 Catalog of the exhibition edited by Marzia Faietti and Matteo Lafranconi, with Francesco P. Di Teodoro and Vincenzo Farinella Skira 543 pp., €46.00 (paper) (in Italian; an English translation will be published in October 2020) The New York Review of Books Like the artist […]

Don DeLillo's new novel, The Silence. A review is at Riot Material

Don DeLillo’s Engrossing Yet Oddly Frictionless New Novella, The Silence

Reviewed by Dwight Garner The Silence by Don DeLillo Scribner, 128pp., has $19.22 NY Times Don DeLillo’s slim new novel, The Silence, is a pristine disaster novel with apocalyptic overtones. It’s a Stephen King novel scored by Philip Glass instead of Chuck Berry. A plane from Paris to Newark crash-lands. Two of the main characters […]

The proposed new design for The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is a disaster, according to Joseph Giovannini, and a "betrayal of the public trust."

Dismantling One of the Great Encyclopedic Museums in the Country: The Regrettable LACMA Redesign

by Joseph Giovannini NYRB Online “This is a hostile takeover of the museum, and if the design succeeds in hijacking the institution, Los Angeles will be living for a long time with a wanton act of architecture, and the bitter memory of a very expensive betrayal of the public trust.”  —Joseph Giovannini There are two […]

A review of Thelonious Monk's Palo Alto

Palo Alto Sees the Thelonious Monk Quartet at its “Final Creative High”

Reviewed by Marty Sartini Garner Palo Alto on Impulse! Pitchfork Thelonious Monk once said: “Weird means something you never heard before. It’s weird until people get around to it. Then it ceases to be weird.” By the time Monk and his quartet strode into the auditorium at Palo Alto High School on October 27, 1968, […]

Archie Shepp Quartet, Stadsteatern, Stockholm, September 1966. An interview with Archie Shepp, September 2020

Music for a Revolution: A Word with Jazz Great Archie Shepp

Interview by Accra Shepp NYRB My father, the saxophonist Archie Shepp, has recorded more than 110 albums since 1962, performed all over the world, and received numerous honors, including the 2016 Jazz Master’s Award from the National Endowment for the Arts. In the 1960s, he helped define “free jazz,” a new idiom in which the […]

Bobby Seale Checks Food Bags. March 31, 1972.

Food As Culture, Identity and an Enduring Form of Black Protest

By Amethyst Ganaway Food & Wine We are demanding, not asking, for “Land, Bread, Housing, Education, Clothing, Justice And Peace.” —Amethyst Ganaway Black people in America have used food as a means of resistance, rebellion, and revolution since being forcefully brought here in the late 1500s. Food has always been a part of the culture and […]

A Pandemic Q&A with David Lynch

Pandemic Musings: A From-The-Bag Q&A With David Lynch

 From David Lynch Theater Presents: “Do You Have a Question for David? Part 1”

Erin Currier, American Women (dismantling the border) II. Read the interview with Erin excerpted from Lisette Garcia's new book, Ponderosas, at Riot Material.

An Interview with Erin Currier: Artist, Writer & Activist

by Lisette García and Barrett Martin excerpted from Ponderosas: Conversations with Extraordinary, Ordinary Women  by Lisette García, Ph. D available November 20th Sunyata Books “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And then you have to do it all the time.” –Angela Davis Barrett: I first met Erin Currier and her […]

A review of Mark Lynas's new book, "Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency," is at Riot Material Magazine.

The Earth Commences Her Retalitory Roar

Reviewed by Bill McKibben  Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency by Mark Lynas London: 4th Estate, 372 pp., $27.99 The New York Review of Books So now we have some sense of what it’s like: a full-on global-scale crisis, one that disrupts everything. Normal life—shopping for food, holding a wedding, going to work, […]

Oliver Stone in Vietnam. A review of his new book, Chasing the Light, is at Riot Material

Oliver Stone’s Chasing the Light Chronicles the Great Director’s Journey Against a Raging Historical Backdrop

Reviewed by Alci Rengifo Chasing the Light by Oliver Stone Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 352 pp., $25.20 If there is anything the year 2020 has shaken into the very fabric of our imperial society, it’s that nothing ever goes according to plan, rarely is anything absolutely assured. While a biological threat has upended not only our […]

Toyin Ojih Odutola's wonderful exhibition, A Countervailing Theory, at Barbican Centre, London, is reviewed at Riot Material Magazine

Stories of Creation, Stories For Our Time in Toyin Ojih Odutola’s A Countervailing Theory

at The Barbican, London (through 24 Jan 2021) Reviewed by Christopher P Jones Despite what intuition tells us, history is constantly changing. The revision of the past happens all around us and at all times, sometimes perniciously and sometimes for enlightened reasons. For her first exhibition in the UK, Toyin Ojih Odutola has done a brave and […]

Driving Whle Black, two books reviewed at Riot Material

Segregation on the Highways: A Review of Driving While Black and Overground Railroad

by Sarah A. Seo Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights by Gretchen Sorin Liveright, 332 pp., $28.95 Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America by Candacy Taylor Abrams, 360 pp., $35.00 The New York Review of Books In 1963, after Sam Cooke was […]

A review of Sontag: Here Life and Work is at Riot Material

Losing the Writer in the Personality: A Review of Sontag: Her Life and Work

Reviewed by Michael Gorra Sontag: Her Life and Work by Benjamin Moser Ecco, 816 pp., $39.99 New York Review of Books Susan Sontag began to read philosophy and criticism as a teenager at North Hollywood High, when she still signed her editorials in the school newspaper as “Sue.” She read Kant and La Rochefoucauld, Oswald […]

Darkness Half Visible In Katya Apekina’s The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish

Reviewed by John Biscello The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish by Katya Apekina Two Dollar Radio, 353pp., $12.74 Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall Humpty Dumpty had a great fall; All the king’s horses and all the king’s men Couldn’t put Humpty together again In the name of nursery rhyme remixology, first let us […]

Heads of the Colored People, by Nafissa Thompson-Spires, is reviewed at Riot Material

Histories of Trauma in Heads of the Colored People

Reviewed by Patrick Lohier Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires Thorndike Press, 293pp., $32.99 Harvard Review In Nafissa Thompson-Spires’s debut short story collection, Heads of the Colored People, a doctor suggests that an adolescent girl’s sudden and overwhelming bout of hyperhidrosis is caused by anxiety, and then asks, “Is there a history of trauma?” […]

Lord Krishna speaks to Prince Arjuna about the Gita

Eknath Easwaran’s Lucid, Scholarly and Ever-Timely Preface to the Bhagavad Gita

The Bhagavad Gita Translated by Eknath Easwaran Vintage Books, 122pp., $15.00 Many years ago, when I was still a graduate student, I traveled by train from central India to Simla, then the summer seat of the British government in India. We had not been long out of Delhi when suddenly a chattering of voices disturbed my reverie. I asked […]

A review of Kevin Young's Brown is at Riot Material

To Inter Your Name in Earth: a Review of Kevin Young’s Brown

Reviewed by Kevin T. O’Connor Brown: Poems by Kevin Young Knopf, 176pp., $19.29 Harvard Review In The Book of Hours, his 2011 collection, Kevin Young moved from elegiac responses to the sudden death of his father to reanimating poems on the birth of his son. His new collection, Brown, reverses the trajectory, beginning with “Home Recordings,” […]

Dispatch: Poems, by Cameron Awkward-Rich

Bloom how you must, wild: a Review of Dispatch, by Cameron Awkward-Rich

Reviewed by Flora Field Dispatch by Cameron Awkward-Rich Persea, 80pp., $12.69 Columbia Journal In poetry, a body becomes not just a vehicle through which we move about the world, but the lens from which we write that experience. What does it then mean to comment on the world from a body that exists at the […]

The Monument to Joe Louis, aka "The Fist," as sculpted by Robert Graham

Relic as Horrific Remembrance in the Monument to Joe Louis

by Max King Cap “My father was a little headstrong, my mother was a little armstrong. The Headstrongs married the Armstrongs, and that’s why darkies were born.” — Rufus T. Firefly, Duck Soup, 1933 He had done it before. One can readily find the photographs of his handiwork; two human torsos, headless, the legs amputated just below […]

RIOT MATERIAL
art. word. thought.