As Roberta Smith exclaims in the NYT,” Henry Taylor's show at the Whitney Museum brings an energy to painting that reverberates through his exuberant yet sobering survey.”  For more than thirty years, the Los Angeles–based artist Henry Taylor (b. 1958) has portrayed people from widely different backgrounds—family members, friends, neighbors, celebrities, politicians, and strangers—with a mixture of raw immediacy and tenderness. His improvisational approach to artmaking is hinted at in this exhibition’s title, Henry Taylor: B Side, which refers to the side of a record album that often contains lesser-known, more experimental songs. 

Guided by a deep-seated empathy for people and their lived experiences, Taylor captures the humanity, social milieu, and mood of his subjects, whose visceral presence is heightened by their closely cropped, often life-size images. Taylor offers a view of everyday life in the United States that is grounded in the experiences of his own community, including the incarceration, poverty, and often deadly interactions with police that disproportionately affect Black Americans. Deeply steeped in art history, his work forms a continuum with the expressive figurative painting and politically engaged work of European and American artists from Max Beckmann to Bob Thompson, Philip Guston, and Alice Neel.      

Riva Blumenfeld is an art historian and educator with 40 years of experience in the art field. Riva was educated in Art History at Washington University in St. Louis and has taught Art Education at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Guggenheim Museum. Having owned an art gallery in Soho for a short period, Riva has a unique knowledge of New York City’s art scene and offers insight into the sometimes-intimidating world of New York City art galleries. Prior to the pandemic, Riva conducted small group tours of NYC’s art world

All registrants will be sent the Zoom link the day of the program. Please register no later than 4 pm that day to receive the link.

Sponsored by the Friends of the Weston Library.