Spotlight on Peter Ligon

It is so common for artists to work from photographs today… I believe dangerously common. It’s flatness, stopped-time look and palette permeate so much artwork with the consequence of looking like it is about photography, rather than anything else intended.  It is a huge crutch/convenience that is not silent, even though many think it so. I have no problem with artists who employ photos, but I do have a problem when artists deny the effect of it’s “condition.”

It is so refreshing to find someone NOT working with/from photos, someone who goes out with simple tools and tries to translate the world as they see it (unmediated). Peter Ligon has been doing this for years. His body of work consists of paintings , prints and drawings ; the choice of media usually depending on the city. These are not hard rules, but a response given the conditions of the city.

Ink Drawings = Dallas

Prints = New York

Paintings = Vermont

   
I talked with Peter this morning about his interest in artists like Hopper (the way he frames the world), Diebenkorn (his embrace of messy material) … I expected these.  Other influences include Robert Crumb’s “Urban Landscapes,” the paintings of Maureen Gallace and Lois Dodd … all very different from each other, but all present within his own work.

Peter is working in a very measured way, but enjoying the physicality of materials.  He embraces the “mistakes” and spills of material, while at the same time really trying to observe visual relationships as accurately as possible. His work is not overly “rendered,” but rather open to developments of thought.