By ELIZABETH MARCELLINO Palisadian-Post Contributor Don Bachardy’s portraits are familiar to many. They hang in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait Gallery in London. His renown extends beyond the art world, in part because of his life partnership with writer Christopher Isherwood, explored in a 2007 documentary and revisited when Isherwood’s novel ‘A Single Man’ was adapted to film last year. In the wake of the November elections, Bachardy was back in the news, this time as journalists wondered whether the artist’s controversial portrait of the once and future California governor, Jerry Brown, would be returned to a prominent spot in the state Capitol. Even those more interested in celebrity gossip than literary fiction or politics may have Googled Bachardy’s work, after they heard reports that a pregnant Angelina Jolie sat naked for the portraitist. But however familiar they were with his art, those who came to see Bachardy’s show at g169 on November 13 must have been surprised. There were portraits, to be sure; maybe 15 to 20 ink drawings done in 1970 and 1971. The one of Isherwood sold early during the show. The pieces have a relaxed, nonchalant sensibility that seems true to the time. A nimble line often stands in for what could be lots of detail. Then Bachardy more specifically defines certain elements ‘ some critical, like a subject’s mascaraed eyes, others seemingly superfluous, like a pants pocket or shoe. But the components meld into a concise, graceful sketch that reaches toward the essence of its subject. The revelation came from the other 80 percent of the exhibit. Wall upon wall of abstract art so vividly colored that it was almost jarring in its sum. Whose abstractions? Well, Bachardy’s, as it turns out. The lifelong portraitist completed these ‘experiments’ (so-called in the gallery’s synopsis) in non-objective color last year. Though an art student during the height of Abstract Expression, Bachardy steadfastly committed to painting only people. But he began playing with color patterns as backgrounds for his portraiture a few years ago, gradually developing them as independent works. He has a standing list of sitters to call on if a subject doesn’t show or he doesn’t have a commission underway. But working with only color and creativity as his muse, he found himself freed from needing a model at all. ‘I have the luxury of working alone,’ Bachardy says. Though it also means, ‘I’m dependent on myself for entertaining myself.’ His portrait paintings have typically made great use of vibrant colors in jangly juxtaposition to render emotion. These new color studies, untethered to a particular person, are done in equally dramatic hues, but seem emotionally cooler, perhaps more formal in some sense. As abstractions, of course, they provoke multiple interpretations ‘ where one gallery-goer saw a web of hands, another saw trees. But even the most conceptual pieces seemed to proffer a sense of connectivity and flow, a current directing the design. Interesting in their own right, they are all the more so because of the striking turn they represent for Bachardy. Much of his work has centered on movie stars, a fascination since childhood, and other luminaries. Bette Davis, Fred Astaire, Laurence Olivier and Marlene Dietrich all sat for Bachardy, as did Julian Schnabel and Iris Murdoch. He published his diary entries about some of those sittings, together with the drawings they generated, as ‘Stars in My Eyes’ in 2000. Still quite handsome at 76, and as fit as someone decades younger, the artist says he works every day. ‘It’s easier. If I miss two days, it’s too hard to warm up, to get the work going,’ Bachardy says in his Santa Monica Canyon studio. The painting ‘feeds me,’ he adds. That everyday give-and-take with his art has produced a surprising new group of paintings well worth seeing. ’New and Old Work By Don Bachardy’ at gallery 169, 169 W. Channel Road, Santa Monica Canyon, through the first week of December. By appointment. Call Frank Langen: (310) 963-3891.
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