Philip Taaffe: From the Studio to the Art Fair
On Tuesday, we raised our glasses at New York City’s historic Park Avenue Armory for a first look at ADAA’s 2014 The Art Show—and one of the first booths to catch our eye was Luhring Augustine’s solo presentation of brand new paintings by Philip Taaffe. Just days before the opening, we’d seen photographs of the paintings splayed out across Taaffe’s studio; and through the course of a weekend, they’d ventured from the floors of his Manhattan studio (pictured) to the walls of an art fair, where they’d be met by the pairs of eyes privy to the very first look, the vernissage, recalling the history of the word—French for “varnishing,” in reference to the final, last-minute touches given to a painting the day before a show.
As seen in the photographs from Taaffe’s studio—and what Luhring Augustine presents at its booth—the artist takes inspiration from botany, biology, and geological strata (think fern leaves and stick insects), continuing themes and subjects of recent years. Known to combine painterly processes and a wide range of motifs, Taaffe’s new paintings follow suit: “Phasmidae overlaps elongated stick bug forms with botanical cellular cross-sections, drawing visual and structural connections between the two forms of life,” the gallery said of a standout work at the booth. “Enchiridion draws visual parallels with the swirling shapes of the Sri Lankan alphabet, Sinhala, and the sinuous line drawings of flower anatomy.”
See the rest for yourself on Artsy, and stop by Luhring Augustine’s booth at The Art Show through Sunday, March 9th.
