Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Peter Ligon in Snow White at Barry Whistler, Dallas

Quotidian existence, banality, the mundane, whatever you want to call it, is there in all those other moments, the ones when the ecstatic eludes us. It is then that everyday life reveals itself clearly before our eyes.

This is the version of reality that Peter Ligon gazes on with persistence. His vision, one in which mundane frame structures rest on quiet landscapes, captures the subtle moments in which nothing much is really going on.

Like the Ashcan school artists before him, he uses a muted palette, and relates what is directly in front of his eyes. Sitting on the bed of his pickup truck, Ligon observes and paints experentially.

As the proprietor of the Shamrock Hotel artist studios in old east Dallas, the artist has ample opportunities to gaze out at just these kind of neighborhoods, the ones he is drawn to portray.


Peter Ligon Bivins Night 2007, oil on canvas, 20 x 16 in.

A veteran artist, he is just now receiving his first exposure in a high-profile gallery, as part of the current group show at Barry Whistler Gallery, entitled Snow White. As one of seven artists in the show, Ligon has five works on view, all of them aging wood structures on mundane landscapes.

Bivins Night, an oblique partial view of a home, presumably at dusk, is rendered in muted greys, with only a hint of eggshell white and indigo blue to spell the monochromatic palette. The artist makes use of an Hopper-esque device, as one lone light brightens the otherwise greyed out windows, alluding to the human presence in isolation.

Peter Ligon Garage on School Street 2007, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in.

Garage on School Street makes the most of reflected light, with a white shiplap structure floating in the center of the composition. It becomes a huge void, an interesting example of the subject of a painting functioning as negative space, surrounded by lush greenery in full bloom.

Back of Kawalsky and White House, Three Trees both continue this theme of white-washed structures on verdant landscapes, and move to include direct unfiltered light and deep shadows.

Peter Ligon installation view Back of Kawalsky and White House, Three Trees both 2007, oil on canvas, 20 x 24 in.


While visiting the show, Barry Whistler related to me a story which demonstrates how wonderfully out of touch with the times Peter Ligon is as an artist. He had driven to a specific location to work, sat down on the tailgate of his truck, and began looking at the fence in front of him.

Shortly thereafter, a man came out from the house belonging to the fence, and asked him what he was doing. "I'm about to paint the fence," the artist replied. "You're about to paint graffiti on my fence?," the man interjected. "No, I'm about to make a painting of the fence," Ligon replied.

This dialogue speaks volumes about the artist's work and his experience of the everyday.