Peter Halley / Robert Mapplethorpe

The Baldwin Gallery is pleased to present new paintings by acclaimed contemporary artist Peter Halley, who explores the post-industrial world of high-tech design through precise organizational structures reminiscent of electronic circuit boards and compressed virtual space. Architectonic forms reference the controlled shapes of prison cells and windows, while metaphoric pathways lead the eye away from the central compositional elements. Working consistently with brilliant, synthetic paints on canvas, Halley investigates the sheer optical sensation of fluorescent colors. Rigid geometric systems convey both urban alienation and high energy activity in these large, high-impact paintings. Infinite variations of color combinations within his signature angular compositional formats continue and expand upon historic formal artistic traditions.

As professor of art and director of graduate studies in painting and printmaking at Yale University, Halley plays an important role in academia in addition to his work as a practicing artist. His published critical writings have strongly influenced the discourse of contemporary art. Born in 1953, Peter Halley holds degrees from Yale University and the University of New Orleans. Solo exhibitions of his art have been presented at major museums throughout Europe, the United States and Asia, and his paintings are found in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

Also showing at the Baldwin Gallery will be photographs by legendary artist Robert Mapplethorpe, featuring his celebrated Lisa Lyon imagery. Lisa Lyon was a bodybuilder (somewhat unusual for women at that time) and the artist’s muse for several years during the early 1980s. Her close collaboration with Mapplethorpe resulted in a wide selection of images that capture the graceful elegance of the feminine form in balanced compositions of perfect stillness. These photographs utilize black, white and grey shades to reveal precisely detailed tonal nuances. While some are anatomically focused, others place the human figure within sublime natural landscapes. The delicate play of shadow and light depicts the inherent eroticism and power of the female figure. Going far beyond physical allure, these serene, neoclassical images assure the late artist’s place in the pantheon of photographic masters.

Robert Mapplethorpe was born in 1946. Following his childhood on Long Island, he received a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. Famous for his celebrity portraits, fashion photography and striking figural images, Mapplethorpe was also known for controversial subject matter. However, he was always concerned with formal beauty and the intrinsic integrity of individual subjects. The artist died of AIDS in 1989 at the age of 42.

Pressetext

Peter Halley: New Paintings
Robert Mapplethorpe: Lisa Lyon