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Art Review: ‘The Stages of Man’ shown in often-satirical artwork |
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A new show of 12 acrylic and alkyd paintings and three large drawings by D.J. Lafon at JRB Art at the Elms gallery examines a classic subject: "The Stages of Man.” Not surprisingly, the paintings include depictions of an alert, eager young "Novice,” wearing a striped tie, as well as that of a seated "Melancholy” older man looking down at falling leaves, and of an old man in a red skullcap thinking of "The Past.”
But it’s many of the stages and roles people play between these polarities of youth and age, often satirically handled, that supply the subject of most of the works by Lafon, a Norman painter since his 1984 retirement from East Central University in Ada. A thin, bald "Flag Man” with his arms folded defensively in front of him seems very uncomfortable sitting on a tall, skinny-legged stool in front of an American flag, for example.
by John Brandenburg
A giant, red and white "Striped Tie” escapes serpentlike from a businessman’s neutral tan suit coat, and a "Big Hat” supplies dramatic head cover for an open-mouthed man with tiny teeth in two more equally satiric Lafon acrylics. More thoughtful is the expression of a man wearing a red T-shirt whose small "Gazing” eyes seem to give a faint pink glow to the air around him.
A fluttering white bird symbolizes "Thoughts” over the head of a young man, while a more rapacious-looking black bird performs a similar function in Lafon’s acrylic of an older man with his back partly turned, as if he wants to keep his ideas "Unknown,” at least to us.
A visual conundrum is presented by "Two Sides,” Lafon’s acrylic of two men, one seen from the side and the other from the front, who seem to be wearing and sharing the same two-tone blue coat with white buttons. More expressive but ironically self-defeating is Lafon’s large pastel drawing of a man gesticulating wildly, with multiple arms flailing, as he tries to fight the "Tyranny of the Square.”
Two other large Lafon drawings portray a man "Waiting,” his small head poking out of his giant white shirt, and of a "Woman in (a) Striped Sweater,” partly covering her face with her fingers. On view in side galleries at JRB are shows of large, narrative pastel drawings and prints by Lawton artist Katherine Liontas-Warren, and of realistically rendered, dramatically lit figurative oil paintings by Fort Gibson artist Tracey Harris.
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© Joy Reed Belt 2010
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