Larry Stanton

Think of me when it thunders

03-24 August 2020

PRESS RELEASE

Larry Stanton lived and painted in Manhattan until he died of AIDS at the age of 37 in 1984.
His studio in the Greenwich Village developed into a gathering place for artists and writers, enticed by his charm, his looks, and his art.
His work provides a telling picture of faces from a segment of NYC life which shortly disappeared with the advent of AIDS, an epidemic that annihilated so many of these faces, including Larry's own.

Between his inner circle were David Hockney, who has been a lifelong friend and supporter of Larry as an artist, Henry Geldzahler, Christopher Isherwood and Arthur Lambert, his life partner and still today tireless promoter of his work, all of which he portrayed in his drawings.

"Larry Stanton was a portraitist. Skill in portraiture is an instinct, it cannot be taught ...The portraitist is an observer of people, his attitudes and feelings will be reflected in his observations and usually the interest in personality makes one study faces, other aspects of personality show in the body; posture, ways of moving, etc., but most is revealed in the face. People make their own faces and Larry knew this instinctively.”

- David Hockney -