Peter Alexander: In This Light

Peter Alexander is one of California's most prominent artists, an artist whose imagery has shaped art in Los Angeles for decades, touching but not being swallowed up by the ever changing trends that keep critics and collectors anxious.Alexander is obsessed with light, how we perceive it, how it alters the space around its ignition, and how light alone can define objects, landscapes, and cityscapes. He is one of the primary artists responsible for the Light and Space Movement that remains one of the more spiritually centered, mysterious explorations of our world as interpreted by artists.Alexander is perhaps best known for his icon paintings of Los Angeles Basin as seen from the windows of night flying airplanes approaching or departing Los Angeles. Entire cities are described merely by dots of color that represent lights and their alteration of the air. Some embrace the coastline, others the mountains, some include the competition of light from sunsets, from sunrises, from fiery cloud formations, and from the hazy dispersion by fog/smog/low clouds through which travelers pass as they approach the tarmacs of airports. Done in pastel or oil on canvas, paper or even velvet(!), they are breathtakingly beautiful.But Alexander has also imbued his magic on the unlikely kitsch of Las Vegas, painting neon images of angels, palm trees, and other commercial entities. In his hands these vulgar plaster artifacts become defined solely by the effect of light holding still in the atmosphere: they turn from garish to spiritual. Along with these he has painted oncoming headlights as perceived through altered air, again turning something banal into something of beauty.This book served as a catalogue for a 1999 exhibition of Alexander's art at the Orange County Museum of Art and in addition to a generous number of images covering the spectrum of Alexander's art, the catalogue contains informative and entertaining essays by Dave Hickey and Naomi Vine, essays which go far beyond the usual museum chatter to become fine examples of art criticism and appreciation. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, December 05