Richard Brown Lethem
Roots, Stones and Baggage
Inman Gallery, Houston
January 14 – February 25, 2023
Russets, One Stone, 2022
Acrylic and charcoal on canvas
24 x 24 x 1 3/8 in (61 x 61 x 3.5 cm)
© Richard Brown Lethem, courtesy of Inman Gallery
RICHARD BROWN LETHEM (b. 1932) has been living and thinking in paint on canvas since the 1950’s, with results that have been categorized, more or less aptly, as abstraction, expressionism, figuration, social realism, surrealism, and allegory. Now in his ‘90’s, Richard Brown Lethem’s imagery has become unified and direct, often consisting of a central form derived from nature, yet distilled, by the visionary pressure of his attention, into symbols seemingly directly drawn from his psychic landscape, and beamed into that of the viewer. If this is an example of “late style,” it is one defiantly uninterested in a modest contemplation of mortality; instead, the painter’s wisdom exalts an embrace of color and sensuality, and traces the joyous mystery of our consistent presence as neighboring bodies in a shared field of space.
All but one painting in this exhibition were created in Richard Brown Lethem’s new studio in Claremont, CA. where he moved at the beginning of the pandemic to be closer to family. It was in Claremont where Lethem met artist Emily Joyce (b. 1976), who's solo exhibition Under the Garden is on view concurrently in the main gallery. Upon seeing Richard Brown Lethem’s first show in Claremont, Emily Joyce knew she had found a kindred spirit. They quickly became “art family,” with a mutual affinity for getting deep into seemingly simple things, everyday objects, basic shapes, flat color–painting at its most elemental.
INMAN GALLERY
3901 Main Street, Houston, TX 77002
