FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Henry Vincent: “Abstract Buildings”
Press Release
March 9, 1996 through April 27, 1996

Art came upon Henry Vincent one sunny day in San Diego, when all the naivety of childhood and the gestating imagery of twenty year in front of the television exploded onto the canvas. For a time he tried to make an honest living as the proprietor of an art gallery, and he did meet nice people, like Ed Ruscha and Italio Scanga, who drank his wine and encouraged his guitar playing. But San Diego was not ready for Henry Vincent. The muse of painted female heartbreak drove him to Los Angeles, where an artist could survive on taken alone, and even get invited to fancy parties once in while.

During his seminal years in Los Angeles, critics and hipsters tried to pigeonhole Vincent as a Dadaist or Abstract Expressionist, but he just painted the symbols around him, claiming to be “faking it for the cameras” as a part of his project “Lies, Inc.” But after his hero Jerry Brown fell from power, something miraculous happened. Henry Vincent became serious. He collaborated on the video “Riot Act” which was shown in Germany and at the Louis Stern Gallery. Under the tutelage of some old factory masters, he sought his roots in pop and began to express his naïve images in multiples. By1994 he was commissioned to paint ten images of New York buildings for collector Ed Stein.

The new paintings are based on the architecture of Los Angeles. John Lautuer’s recent death was a pivotal even in the development of the work. The fact that googie style construction is slowly being removed from the L.A. landscape is the primary issue that is addressed.