the artist’s life
14 http://www.artistsmagazine.com
Lennart Anderson (1928-2015)
ABOVE: TwoFigures (2011;oil on muslin,mounted on board)LEFT: Anderson inhis studio.Characterized by William Grimes in
h e New York Times obituary as “one
of the most prominent and admired
painters to translate i gurative art into
a modern idiom,” Lennart Anderson
started drawing and painting from
the model while enrolled, still a
child, at the Detroit Institute of
Arts. Anderson’s early street scenes
demonstrated his love of Piero della
Francesca ; the later Idylls, his love
of Nicholas Poussin. Anderson’s last
days exemplii ed his need of and
commitment to his craft: almost
blind, he continued working, his face
an inch from the canvas. As Hilton
Kramer noted in 2001, “In a saner
art world than ours, museums would
be vying for the honor of mounting a
major retrospective of Mr. Anderson’s
work, but that is not something likely
to happen anytime soon.” We are so
pleased that h e Artist’s Magazine’s
October 2015 issue featured
Anderson’s last work (in a beautiful
article by Michael Gormley). M.B. ■