BAY AREA FIGURATIVE Henry Villierme7.75 x 10.5 PB • 74 Pgs • $30.00 • ISBN 1-60052-008-1
It’s 1957, a talented young artist has just come on to the scene in the Bay Area and gains attention as part of an important invitational show at the Oakland Art Museum. At about the same time he takes first prize in painting at an exhibition in Richmond, California – with honorable mentions going to future greats Richard Diebenkorn, Nathan Oliveira and David Park. Diebenkorn speaks glowingly of Villierme’s “instinctual understanding” of the craft of painting. The young artist is one of the key players in what is known as the Bay Area Figurative Movement, which, by reintegrating elements of realism into painting, represents an important transitional step beyond abstract expressionism.
