Sites Of Love And Desire In Lari Pittman: Declaration Of Independence

at Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (through January 5)
Reviewed by Lita Barrie

Lari Pittman’s momentous retrospective at Hammer Museum, is not only the most ambitious exhibition organized by the museum but arguably the most important exhibition anywhere in the country — or perhaps the world, today. This career-spanning exhibition of 80 densely layered monumental paintings and 50 vibrant works on paper ends the decade on a jubilant note because as the curator Connie Butler says, “the show is really about revelation.”

Lari Pittman, Transfigurative and Needy, 1991. All images © Lari Pittman, courtesy of Regen Projects, Los Angeles.

Pittman is a half-Columbian, L.A based artist who has inspired two generations of students at UCLA and captivated followers around the world with his prolific paintings, making him one of the most influential artists since the 1980s. When I asked L.A art critic Hunter Drohojowska-Philp why she felt Pittman was such an important artist, she explained, “Lari Pittman is the most subversive and shocking artist working today. Instead of screaming headlines, he uses his exceptional skill as a painter of beauty. Decorative patterns and motifs camouflage his serious intent. He employs beauty to lure us into his complex stories about history, sexuality, the fragility of the human body and mysteries of the afterlife.”