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LARRY POONS

"There's something always instinctively visually right about nature. There's no difference, to my eye, between looking at a great painting and looking at nature. Because painting, when it's great, has the same immutable rightness, unquestioned rightness, about it."                              ​

- Larry Poons

Larry Poons - Artists - Yares Art

The artist in his studio 2018. 

Born in 1937 in Tokyo, Japan, American painter Larry Poons initially pursued a career in music. He studied at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston from 1955 to 1959, but following a visit to a Barnett Newman exhibition at French & Company in New York City in 1959, he changed course and instead began his pursuit of the visual arts. He subsequently enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. After completing his studies there, he moved to New York to devote himself full time to artistic practice.

Poons held his first solo show in 1963 at Richard Bellamy’s celebrated Green Gallery, and two years later his work was included in the influential exhibition The Responsive Eye, held at the Museum of Modern Art. Poons’s early work from the 1960s was decidedly “optical” in the viewpoint set out by the MoMA show. Composing his paintings according to a mathematically determined series of points and carefully chosen color schemes, Poons was able to eliminate the “hand of the artist,” an artistic strategy also being pursued at the time by his close friend Frank Stella.

Larry Poons - Artists - Yares Art

Turned His Head

2017

Acrylic on canvas

67 3/4 x 153 1/4 inches

172.1 x 389.3cm

Eventually Poons came to feel that the purely optical approach to making art was restricting, and in the late 1970s he began to work by pouring and throwing paint on the canvas—again in an attempt to compose a painting without leaving traces of the artist’s hand. It was also during this period that he began attaching miscellaneous materials to the canvas—foam balls, for example, or rope. In the 1990s, Poons returned to using a paintbrush, working on rolls of canvas unfurled across the four walls of his studio, so that he could immerse himself in the work as he made it. At the end of this process, he would painstakingly crop out individual paintings from the massive length of each roll. 

Nowadays, Poons splits his time between studios in New York City and East Durham, New York. His work continues to be shown widely and most recently was included in the international traveling exhibition, Painting afterPostmodernism, Belgium— USA(2016-18), curated by Barbara Rose. In 2018, Poons was featured in the HBO documentary The Price of Everything: An Art World Odyssey directed by Nathaniel Kahn. His tireless and inimitable trajectory of artistic experimentation has made his work sought after by both private collectors and institutions, and is held in the collections of  numerous museums, including the Museum of Fine Art, Boston; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.

Selected Works

Selected Works Thumbnails
Untitled (LP 1)

1974

Acrylic on canvas

67 1/2 x 20 inches
171.5 x 50.8cm

Untitled (LP 1)

1974

Acrylic on canvas

67 1/2 x 20 inches
171.5 x 50.8cm

Inquire
Message to Gort

1982

Acrylic on canvas

93 x 73 1/2 inches
236.2 x 186.7cm

Message to Gort

1982

Acrylic on canvas

93 x 73 1/2 inches
236.2 x 186.7cm

Inquire
The Music

1990

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

88 1/2 x 53 7/8 inches
224.8 x 136.8cm

The Music

1990

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

88 1/2 x 53 7/8 inches
224.8 x 136.8cm

Inquire
Will My Soul Pass Through the Southland?

1999

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

75 x 166 1/4 inches
190.5 x 422.3cm

Will My Soul Pass Through the Southland?

1999

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

75 x 166 1/4 inches
190.5 x 422.3cm

Inquire
La Famiglia

2009

Acrylic on canvas

67 5/8 x 143 3/4 inches
171.8 x 365.1cm

La Famiglia

2009

Acrylic on canvas

67 5/8 x 143 3/4 inches
171.8 x 365.1cm

Inquire
Untitled (018C-1)

2018

Acrylic on canvas

60 1/8 x 100 1/4 inches
152.7 x 254.6cm

Untitled (018C-1)

2018

Acrylic on canvas

60 1/8 x 100 1/4 inches
152.7 x 254.6cm

Inquire
Dante, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

67 1/2 x 82 inches
171.5 x 208.3cm

Dante, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

67 1/2 x 82 inches
171.5 x 208.3cm

Inquire
Untitled (024A-4)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

66 x 103 1/2 inches
167.6 x 262.9cm

Untitled (024A-4)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

66 x 103 1/2 inches
167.6 x 262.9cm

Inquire
Untitled (024G-2)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

68 1/2 x 71 1/2 in
174 x 181.6 cm

Untitled (024G-2)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

68 1/2 x 71 1/2 in
174 x 181.6 cm

Inquire
Untitled (024H-5)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

67 3/4 x 87 1/2 in
172.1 x 222.3 cm

Untitled (024H-5)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

67 3/4 x 87 1/2 in
172.1 x 222.3 cm

Inquire
Untitled (LP 1)

1974

Acrylic on canvas

67 1/2 x 20 inches
171.5 x 50.8cm

Untitled (LP 1)

1974

Acrylic on canvas

67 1/2 x 20 inches
171.5 x 50.8cm

Message to Gort

1982

Acrylic on canvas

93 x 73 1/2 inches
236.2 x 186.7cm

Message to Gort

1982

Acrylic on canvas

93 x 73 1/2 inches
236.2 x 186.7cm

The Music

1990

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

88 1/2 x 53 7/8 inches
224.8 x 136.8cm

The Music

1990

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

88 1/2 x 53 7/8 inches
224.8 x 136.8cm

Will My Soul Pass Through the Southland?

1999

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

75 x 166 1/4 inches
190.5 x 422.3cm

Will My Soul Pass Through the Southland?

1999

Acrylic and mixed media on canvas

75 x 166 1/4 inches
190.5 x 422.3cm

La Famiglia

2009

Acrylic on canvas

67 5/8 x 143 3/4 inches
171.8 x 365.1cm

La Famiglia

2009

Acrylic on canvas

67 5/8 x 143 3/4 inches
171.8 x 365.1cm

Untitled (018C-1)

2018

Acrylic on canvas

60 1/8 x 100 1/4 inches
152.7 x 254.6cm

Untitled (018C-1)

2018

Acrylic on canvas

60 1/8 x 100 1/4 inches
152.7 x 254.6cm

Dante, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

67 1/2 x 82 inches
171.5 x 208.3cm

Dante, 2023

Acrylic on canvas

67 1/2 x 82 inches
171.5 x 208.3cm

Untitled (024A-4)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

66 x 103 1/2 inches
167.6 x 262.9cm

Untitled (024A-4)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

66 x 103 1/2 inches
167.6 x 262.9cm

Untitled (024G-2)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

68 1/2 x 71 1/2 in
174 x 181.6 cm

Untitled (024G-2)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

68 1/2 x 71 1/2 in
174 x 181.6 cm

Untitled (024H-5)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

67 3/4 x 87 1/2 in
172.1 x 222.3 cm

Untitled (024H-5)

2024

Acrylic on canvas

67 3/4 x 87 1/2 in
172.1 x 222.3 cm

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