SELF-PORTRAIT — Don Bachardy’s acrylic self-portrait shows Bachardy’s signature brush marks. Courtesy of Don Bachardy and Craig Krull Gallery
Expect to see a few fresh faces in the Southwestern College Art Gallery this month. Perhaps a few famous ones, too.
Don Bachardy, the renowned Santa Monica-based portrait artist, has painted some of Hollywood’s most illuminating stars, from classic (Katharine Hepburn, Rita Hayworth, Henry Fonda) to contemporary (Angelina Jolie, Robert Downey Jr., Jack Nicholson). He has his first show in San Diego County at the SWC Art Gallery, titled “Hollywood: Paintings & Drawings,” Bachardy’s exhibition consists of drawings and paintings from an impressive five-decade career.
Bachardy has had solo shows in galleries across the United States, from Seattle to New York, and is collected by some of the world’s finest art establishments, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the M.H. de Young Museum of Art in San Francisco, the Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, the Smithsonian Institute and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
SWC Gallery Director Vallo Riberto said students, collectors and art aficionados of all kinds are welcome to attend. A long-time admirer of Bachardy’s work, Riberto said Bachardy’s portraits are exemplary constructions of beauty with bare, skeletal appearances that are never overworked and seemingly done with ease.
“The truth is he’s an amazing draftsman,” Riberto said. “His paintings are like colored drawings — he draws with paint. He leaves the brush mark, he builds plains, he builds shadows, values, with these very strong, deliberate brush marks that are very powerful and mature.”
Born in Los Angeles in 1934, Bachardy studied art at the Chouinard Art Institute and the Slade School of Art in London. When he was 18 he met English novelist Christopher Isherwood, who was then 48, while walking along the beach in Santa Monica. A year later the two began a relationship. It lasted until Isherwood’s death in 1986.
Their love and lives together inspired their art, most notably Isherwood’s 1964 novel, “A Single Man,” which was in 2009 adapted into a film by fashion designer Tom Ford.
In addition to Hollywood luminaries, Bachardy’s subjects have included writers (Anaïs Nin, James Baldwin, Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer), directors (Gus Van Sant), musicians (Elton John), poets (Allen Ginsberg) and artists, all of which were rendered in person, as a collaborative effort between sitter and artist. Bachardy has said he never paints from photographs, preferring to only create from life. Each portrait includes a signature in the bottom right-hand corner by its sitter.
Riberto said not since the conceptual artist (and former faculty member) John Baldessari and sculptor/photographer/performance artist Dennis Oppenheim had their solo shows — seven and 11 years ago, respectively — has there been an exhibition with as much fanfare and buzz.
Bachardy, 81, bespectacled, with white dignified hair and the charms of a dandy, gave an artist talk at the show’s opening.
“Hollywood” runs through Sept. 29 and is free to the public.
For more details, contact Riberto at vriberto@swccd.edu or (619) 421-6700 ext. 5383.
