David Ligare’s commitment to history painting presents something of a paradox: a contemporary artist devoted to the past, seeking ancient solutions to present-day problems, defying the status quo by embracing tradition. For over 40 years, he has embraced classicism as a means of renewing humanity’s passion for knowledge, frontrunning a new kind of renaissance.
In “A Specific View,” his fourth solo exhibition at Hirschl & Adler Modern, David Ligare presents nine new paintings that build upon his resolve to follow his own set of rules. The exhibition is on view through October 4, 2024.
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Ligare’s artistic practice is guided by a tripartite criterion of his own making: carefully devised compositions, a representational aesthetic defined by reverence, and subject matter grounded in secular humanism. Informed by the teachings of the Greek philosopher Plato, Ligare aims to combat what he deems “the current decline of rational thinking, a lack of desire for knowledge in general, and the loss of the perspective of history in particular.”
David Ligare (born 1945, Oak Park, IL) studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. He has shown his paintings in many solo exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, London, Rome, San Francisco, Seattle and elsewhere. His work can be found in numerous permanent collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco; the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT; the Frye Art Museum, Seattle; and the Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. The artist’s recent solo exhibitions include David Ligare: Spheres of Influence at the Monterey Museum of Art, and David Ligare: Forms of Influence at the Bakersfield Museum of Art. In 2015–16, Ligare was the subject of a major museum retrospective, David Ligare: California Classicist, which traveled from the Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA to the Laguna Art Museum, Laguna, CA; Georgia Art Museum, Athens, GA; and Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, CA. This exhibition was accompanied by a monograph on the artist. Ligare lives and works in Carmel Valley, CA.
For more information about this exhibition, visit hirschlandadler.com.
