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Email PageDreamscapes
September 6, 2007- October 13, 2007
Reception: September 20, 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Mira Lehr
Flomenhaft
547 W 27th StThe Flomenhaft Gallery is pleased to present 17 of Mira Lehr's newest paintings.
These abstract images use nature as a springboard to create new worlds filled with poetic nuances of color, light and aesthetic beauty. Heavenly bodies and botanical forms inhabit this environment, and give articulation to the washes of floating color.
Lehr's psychic life is linked to her perception of the forces and structure in nature. She activates the pictorial space with these forces in mind and creates an energy and rhythm between herself and the viewer.
She says, "With this new body of work I have trusted my feelings more, and allowed the accidental and chance to come into play. After many years of searching and experimentation I can now jump off the cliff and land on my feet. The risks have allowed the paintings to develop a new life; more energized, more spontaneous, and more complex. It goes beyond that which can be figured out rationally."
Lehr has always trusted her inner-life to enhance her perceptions. She has been described as a visual poet, one whose work does not jar or shock viewers but enchants. Early on, she sought out mentors who could help in her search. Leonard Shure, the great pianist and protégé of Artur Schnabel cautioned her to be always true to her inner vision "Fireworks come down but stars are made in heaven." "Don't seek out the sensational, and don't let ego get in the way. Just give all you have to your work and be thankful that you have the privilege to do that." She has never forgotten that advice.
Later, the famous landscape architect, Dan Kiley, with whom she collaborated, helped her realize that landscape design and painting were both about organizing space in a powerful way. "Get the major spaces in place first and the rest will follow. Otherwise, the work falls apart and becomes confused."
Perhaps the greatest influence on her art are the teachings of Hans Hofmann who identified the artist's problem of creating illusory space on a two dimensional surface. This is the great problem in painting which led to her continuing explorations of structure and formal issues.
In 1969, Lehr was chosen to be one of 26 participants to work with the renowned visionary Buckminster Fuller at the New York Studio School. She participated in the World Game Scenario, Fuller's tool for demonstrating the geometries of the universe and the efficient use of resources so that all mankind can be successful on planet earth. Lehr's ever-present belief in mankind's ability to problem-solve was heightened by working with Fuller.
She feels that all of her mentors from different disciplines helped her to realize that there is a thread connecting all great art, and that it is the artist’s job to discover these principles and then develop them within his or her own vision.
Books and DVDs related to artists in this show
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Flomenhaft was last updated: 2008-10-07
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