David Ligare is an American contemporary realist

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

Contemporary Realism The contemporary realism movement is a worldwide style of painting which came into existence c. 1960s and early 1970s. Featuring a straightforward approach to representation practiced by artists such as Philip Pearlstein, Alex Katz, Jack Beal an ...

is an approach that uses straightforward representation but is different from

photorealism Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist studies a photograph and then attempts to reproduce the image as realistically as possible in another medium. Although the term can be ...

in that it does not exaggerate and is non-ironic in nature.

Biography

Since 1978, he has focused on painting still lifes, landscapes, and figures that are influenced by

Greco-Roman antiquity Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ...

. Chief among his stated influences are the aesthetic and philosophical theories of the Greek sculptor

Polykleitos Polykleitos ( grc, Πολύκλειτος) was an ancient Greek sculptor in bronze of the 5th century BCE. Alongside the Athenian sculptors Pheidias, Myron and Praxiteles, he is considered one of the most important sculptors of classical antiqu ...

and the mathematician and philosopher

Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samos, Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionians, Ionian Ancient Greek philosophy, Greek philosopher and the eponymou ...

, as well as the work of the 17th-century classical painter

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for a ...

. A resident of

Salinas, California Salinas (; Spanish for "Salt Marsh or Salt Flats") is a city in California and the county seat of Monterey County. With a population of 163,542 in the 2020 Census, Salinas is the most populous city in Monterey County. Salinas is an urban area lo ...

, his paintings often depict the terrain of the central Californian coast in the background. "I think that I'm very Californian in the character of the light that I use, but I made a decision very early on in my project to try to be an invisible presence in my work. Personal expression and having a personal style are very important to many artists but I've been much more interested in how we see - what I call perceptual analysis - and the potential meanings of the objects that I've depicted." - David Ligare Ligare was born in 1945 in

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, adjacent to Chicago. It is the 29th-most populous municipality in Illinois with a population of 54,583 as of the 2020 U.S. Census estimate. Oak Park was first settled in 1835 and later incorporated in ...

. He received his formal artistic training at the

Art Center College of Design Art Center College of Design (stylized as ArtCenter College of Design) is a private art college in Pasadena, California. History ArtCenter College of Design was founded in 1930 in downtown Los Angeles as the Art Center School. In 1935, Fred R. ...

in Los Angeles. His paintings are in the collections of the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

, New York City,

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF), comprising the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, is the largest public arts institution in the city of San Francisco. The permanent collection of the ...

San Jose Museum of Art The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast of the United Sta ...

, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, Florence, and

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (in Spanish, the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (), named after its founder), or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain, located near the Prado Museum on one of the city's main boulevards. I ...

of Art, Madrid.

Solo exhibitions

* 2014 - "River/Mountain/Sea," Bakersfield Art Museum, Bakersfield,CA * 2012 - "The Big Sur: Paintings by David Ligare" Chris Windfield Gallery, Carmel, CA * 2012 - “New Paintings" Hirschl & Adler Gallery, New York, NY * 2010 - "REDUX" Plus One Gallery, London, UK * 2009 - "Primary Structures "Hartnell College Gallery, Salinas, CA * 2008 - "A Sense of Place: An Homage to Robinson Jeffers" Winfield Gallery, Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA * 2007 - Hackett Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA * 2006 - "Ritual Offerings" Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles, CA * 2005 - "Offerings: A New History" PLus One Gallery, London, UK (Catalog) * 2003 - "Sea Paintings" Koplin Del Rio Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (also 2000, 1998, 1994, 1992, 1988, 1986, 1985, 1983) * 2002 - "Object of Intention: Still Life Paintings" Hackett-Freedman Gallery, San Francisco, CA (also 1999, 1997)

Public Collections

* The M.H. De Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, CA * Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

(The Dept. of Drawings & Prints of The Uffizi) Florence, Italy * The ARCO Corporation *

Monterey Museum of Art The Monterey Museum of Art (MMA) an art museum located in Monterey, California. It was founded in 1959 as a chapter of the American Federation of Arts. The Monterey Museum of Art collects, preserves, and interprets the art of California from the ...

, Monterey, CA * The

, New York * The Security Pacific Collection * The Wadsworth Athenaeum Collection, Hartford, CT * The Hughes Corporation * Pacific Telesis * Syracuse University Museum of Art, Syracuse, NY * The Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA * The

Spencer Museum of Art The Spencer Museum of Art is an art museum operated by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Spencer Museum seeks to "...present its collection as a living archive that motivates object-c ...

, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS * Knight-Ridder, San Jose, CA * The

Frye Art Museum The Frye Art Museum is a modern and contemporary art museum located in the First Hill neighborhood of Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1952 to house the collection of Charles and Emma Frye and has since grown to include rotating temporary ex ...

, Seattle, WA * Museum of Art & Archaeology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO *

, San Jose, CA * Exxon-Mobil Corporation, Fairfax, VA

References

* *http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/contemporary-realism.html *http://www.davidligare.com/ *http://plusonegallery.com/Artist-Detail.cfm?ArtistsID=423 ;Specific

External links

biography and essay at official website

Monterey Now: David Ligare

Examples of his artworks

More examples of his artworks and short essay {{DEFAULTSORT:Ligare, David 1945 births Living people Painters from California Realist artists 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists 20th-century American male artists