James Hayward Artist Talk

The Pit is delighted to announce an artist talk with California-based artist James Hayward and Jason Smith, the former Chair of the Graduate Art MFA program at ArtCenter College of Design.

James Hayward (b.1943, San Francisco, CA) practice focuses on the monochrome easily positions his interpretation within the lineage of abstract painting, from Malevich and Mondrian to Reinhardt and Ryman. They exist as immediate visual experiences apart from any representational reference, where the reception of the work is reflected within the work itself. Beginning in the 1970s with the “automatic” or flat paintings devoid of the artist’s mark to the thicker, impasto ‘monochrome abstractions’ that have defined his more recent work, both techniques explore color - extending from pure hues to complex combinations - through different effects, varying grades of opacity, thickness, and texture. Every subsequent marking, built up from the surface to the point where they form sculptural peaks and fissures, is pivotal to the structural physicality of the work. This process creates an irreproducible distinct identity that dually epitomizes and affirms the physical act of painting. The end results are seductive studies of color effortlessly intertwining with the materiality of paint.