Barry Gordon

Barry Gordon's art is characterized by the use of vibrant colors and whimsical forms that grow out of recognizable human, floral or animal shapes. The tone is often humorous and the message frequently one of social satire or political commentary. Speaking of his own work, Gordon says, "I try to achieve a kind of musical counterpoint between color, design, composition, optical abstraction and fantasy." His works contain representations and permutations of musicians and music making; biologic and organic forms; social institutions and social relationships.

His drawings and paintings center around three broad categories: perceptions of self or others; social relations between self and society, between couples and within small groups; epics and concepts. Gordon's imagery provides a broad repertoire for the viewer's mind to draw on from his/her own experiential base to impressionistically develop his/her own conceptual/visceral "holistic perception" of a scene, a feeling an experience. What follows is an instantaneous recognition not necessarily analytically or consciously understood--ending in a reflexive interactive smile derived from the pleasure of the journey.

My first exhibit was at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in an exhibit of children's art (1952). My debut professional exhibit was in 1965 at the Bogner Gallery on Gallery Row (La Cienega Blvd, Beverly Hills) and then various other shows nationally (New York; Washington, DC; Seattle; and throughout California) with a 30-year retrospective of 92 pieces in 2004 in a university gallery. I have had shows internationally, in what was formerly Yugoslavia (Belgrade), Russia (Moscow, and St Petersburg), Brazil (Rio De Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte) and had illustrations published in various newspapers and magazines, including the Washington Post and the New York Times, as well a an album cover for CBS Records and the 1984 Olympics' Georgio Moroder Theme song for Track.

My work is derivative of many influences including Picasso, Miro, Saul Steinberg, Dali, Matta, Tanguey, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Matisse and Klee, among others. If you put these influences in a pot and let them bubble and boil, then throw in California freedom and light and American multiculturalism, that is the direction from which my art is derived.

I have studied with Eula Long (1950 -57), Dorothy Royer, Adelaide Fogg (Los Angeles), David Smith, Tadeusz Lapinsky, Jay Orbeck, Zdzslaw Sikora (Univ of CA & Maryland), Barron Storey, Joe Bowler, Murray Tinkelman and David Passalqua (Syracuse Univ). Of course, I am solely responsible for my own imagery and its uniqueness.

I owned the Gordon Gallery 1985-96.