Alan Lynch (August 27, 1926–April 15, 1994) was an American painter associated with post-war California art.
Throughout the 1950s, he was active amongst artists living in Los Angeles, where he worked alongside artists Robert Irwin, Craig Kauffman, Billy al Bengston, and others associated with Ferus Gallery..[1][2]. Throughout the 1960s, he would exhibit with Dilexi Gallery in San Francisco before withdrawing from commercial exhibitions in favor of maintaining a private artistic practice throughout the 1970s until his death in 1994[3]
Though his work remained in obscurity after 1969, figures like Irwin[4] and Kauffman regarded him as an early influence and catalyst for their engagement with spiritual philosophies[5][6]
Early life and education
editLynch was born in 1926 in San Francisco, California. His father worked as an executive at the Alcoa Corporation. While still a child, the Lynch Family moved to Santa Monica, and later to Los Angeles, California. When he was twelve years old, his brother died from a heart condition; this event led Lynch to focus on several studies privately, including natural history, martial arts, and Japanese culture. These subjects influenced his visual art as well as his spiritual interests.[1]
He received an MFA degree in 1950 from Mexico City College. He received a second MFA degree from UCLA in 1954 in Fine Arts and Art History.[7]
Work
editLynch's exhibitions at Dilexi Gallery were characterized by "canvases devoted to fairly large, organically-inspired, abstract shapes," situated in "surrounding space being painted in light, almost pastel-like, radiant colors."[8][9] Writing for Artforum in 1964, Knut Stiles remarked on Lynch's approach to the medium, "The colors are minor-key terra cottas, not only the ochres, umbers, and siennas ordinarily associated with that term, but plums, violets, dusty rose, lichen green, with a few brilliant hues which perform a dramatic role in that context, jumping like seeds from a pod."[10]
Throughout the 1960s, his oil paintings were also exhibited at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts, Witte Museum, Crocker Art Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.[11]
From 1969 until his death, Lynch continued realizing artworks in watercolor and ink. Concurrently, he studied Sōtō Zen Buddhism under Taisen Deshimaru. His artwork made in this period was meditative, and connected closely to his philosophical interests. Isabella Miller writes:
[Lynch's] works are themselves meditative in their small scale and similar compositions, as though the ritualistic pace of Zen study was incarnated through his artistic work. Like the work of the [Transcendental Painting Group] artists, Lynch’s framed paintings are socially disengaged and often contain curving forms that sometimes appear biomorphic, sometimes geologic.[12]
In 1964, Lynch received a Fullbright Travel Scholarship,[7] as well as a grant from the American Office of Cultural Exchange.[1] Two works by Lynch are held in the permanent collection of the Monterey Museum of Art.[13]
References
edit- ^ a b c "Alan Lynch". Ferus Gallery. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ "X-TRA". www.x-traonline.org. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
- ^ "The Disappearance of Rituals | Chateau Shatto". Retrieved 2024-06-20.
- ^ Weschler, Lawrence; Irwin, Robert (1982). Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees. Los Angeles: University of California Press. p. 58. ISBN 9780520045958. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ Whitcomb, Laura (January 1, 2021). Dilexi: A Gallery & Beyond. Label Curatorial. ISBN 978-0-578-99535-9.
- ^ McKenna, Kristine (November 30, 2009). The Ferus Gallery: A Place to Begin. Steidl & Partners. ISBN 978-3865216106.
- ^ a b "Alany Lynch Biography (CV)" (PDF). Chateau Shatto. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ Frankenstein, Alfred (March 15, 1964). "Squares Have Much to Say". The San Francisco Chronicle. p. 26. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
- ^ "From Miniatures to Bronze". San Francisco Examiner. 16 May 1965. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ Stiles, Knute (1964-05-01). "Alan Lynch". Artforum. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
- ^ "Alan Lynch, 1969 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting". Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
- ^ Miller, Isabella (2023-12-11). "Tuning In and Dropping Out: Spiritual Frontiers in Recent Art and Curation". Carla. Retrieved 2024-06-20.
- ^ "Alan Lynch (Untitled". Monterey Museum of Art. Retrieved 7 July 2024.