7321 Beverly Boulevard • Los
Angeles California 90036 • (323) 933-5523 Fax: (323) 933-7618
web site:
www.tobeycmossgallery.com
•email: tobeymoss@earthlink.net
PETER KRASNOW
RICO LEBRUN
Two Icons of California Modernism
September 15 through November 10, 2007
Opening Reception: Saturday,
September 15 - 2 to 5pm
The Tobey C. Moss Gallery presents
simultaneous solo exhibitions of art by PETER KRASNOW (1887 - 1979) and RICO LEBRUN (1900 - 1964).
For PETER KRASNOW, we trace
the evolution of his techniques, from the early paintings, drawings and
prints of the 1920s, to the watercolors and ‘Demountable’ wood
sculptures of the 1930s, and then the paintings of the 1940s through
the next decades of his life. Included is a 1928 lithograph
portrait of his great friend, Edward Weston, watercolors depicting his
experiences in France in the early1930s, courtesy of a Guggenheim
Fellowship, the totemic segmented wood forms derived from trees in his
backyard and his later paintings that drew upon his Russian-Jewish
heritage.
Krasnow emigrated to the United States in 1908, found his way to a
maintenance job at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he studied and
graduated in 1916. After a brief year or two in New York,
he and his bride drove to Los Angeles, where they were befriended by
Weston and brought into the small but fertile group of independent
modern artists that included Stanton Macdonald Wright and Nicholas P.
Brigante.
Our showing of RICO LEBRUN’s
work explores the course of the artist’s career. In his
drawings, lithographs and paintings of the 1930s until his death in
1965, Lebrun depicts tragic figures desperately fleeing from the
depredations of war, poverty and disease. Some images present the
theme of the Crucifixion, the ultimate pathos of mankind. The
‘Three Penny Opera’ of Bertold Brecht stimulated other drawings.
Rico Lebrun was born in Italy, attended the Naples Academy of Fine Arts
- immersed in classical art history. He emigrated to New York in
1924 and worked in a stained glass factory. He worked in the
FAP/WPA, finally abandoning New York in favor of southern California
when his favorite mural was destroyed in the reconstruction of Penn
Station. After living in Santa Barbara with friend and fellow
artist Channing Peake, he taught at the Jepson School in Los Angeles to
great acclaim.
Click on
individual images for
more information.
For more images and biographical
data, email
us at tobeymoss@earthlink.net
