Overview
View works. Jonathan Lasker, Psychic Governance, 1989
Psychic Governance, 1989
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I often think of my paintings as a form of image kit or perhaps as jigsaw puzzles, which offer components of paintings as clues pointing the viewer, not to a finished narrative (as when the last piece of a jigsaw puzzle completes the picture of Notre Dame), but rather to a self-awareness of how one construes a painting.

Through strong compositional structure and intelligent color choices, Lasker's paintings hum with energy. The artist explores the gap between marks and signs; a mark refers primarily to itself, while a sign signals a referent external to the painting, something known and recognizable. Though Lasker invented his own visual vocabulary, creating meaning through context and repetition, any obvious message remains elusive.

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Biography
Jonathan Lasker in his New York studio in 2007
Jonathan Lasker in his New York studio in 2007

I was very interested in making repetition a virtue as opposed to a vice. But I’m also very interested in things that are repeated in different subtle and unsubtle ways.

Jonathan Lasker (b. 1948) was born in Jersey City, NJ. He attended the School of Visual Arts, New York in 1975 and studied at the California Institute of the Arts in 1977. Adopting a playful approach to abstract paintings always in search for new territories, Lasker's paintings portray a visual vocabulary composed of scribbles, inspired by graffiti and cartoon imagery, whilst investigating the various qualities of painting itself.  His work is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, California, Fundacio La Caixa, Barcelona, the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, Moderna Museet, Stockholm,  Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, and The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C, among others.

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Works
  • 774
    Jonathan Lasker
    The Rules of Personal Attachment, 2017
    oil on linen
    152 x 203 cm
    59 13/16 x 79 14/16 in
  • Jonathan Lasker, Mental Strength, 2017
    Jonathan Lasker
    Mental Strength, 2017
    oil on linen
    152 x 203 cm
    59 13/16 x 79 14/16 in
  • 766
    Jonathan Lasker
    Pictorial Simplicity, 2016
    oil on linen
    76 x 102 cm
    29 14/16 x 40 2/16 in
  • 767
    Jonathan Lasker
    The Meaning of Politics, 2016
    oil on linen
    112 x 61 cm
    44 1/16 x 24 1/16 in
  • 758
    Jonathan Lasker
    Relevant Duplication, 2016
    oil on linen
    76 x 102 cm
    29 14/16 x 40 2/16 in
  • Jonathan Lasker, The John Hancock Variations, 2012
    Jonathan Lasker
    The John Hancock Variations, 2012
    oil /l
    76 x 102 cm
    29 14/16 x 40 2/16 in
  • JL 2011 The Commerce of Dreams
    Jonathan Lasker
    The Commerce of Dreams, 2011
    Oil on linen
    152 x 204 x 5 cm
    59 13/16 x 80 5/16 x 1 15/16 in
  • Jonathan Lasker, Model for a Self-Controlling Environment, 2010
    Jonathan Lasker
    Model for a Self-Controlling Environment, 2010
    oil on linen
    76 x 102 cm
    29 14/16 x 40 2/16 in
  • photo
    Jonathan Lasker
    The Thing Itself, 2005
    oil on linen
    77 x 102 x 4 cm
    30 5/16 x 40 2/16 x 1 9/16 in
  • JL 2002 Systemic Displacement
    Jonathan Lasker
    Systemic displacement, 2002
    oil on canvas
    76 x 102 cm
    29 14/16 x 40 2/16 in
  • JL 2001 You Invent the Place
    Jonathan Lasker
    You Invent the Place, 2001
    oil on canvas
    76.2 x 101.6 cm
    30 x 40 in
  • » Town and Country
    Jonathan Lasker
    Town and Country, 1999
    oil on linen
    157 x 213 cm
    61 12/16 x 83 13/16 in
  • Jonathan Lasker, Psychic Governance, 1989
    Jonathan Lasker
    Psychic Governance, 1989
    oil on linen
    213.4 x 152.4 cm
    84 x 60 in
  • Jonathan Lasker, Traditional Radicality, 1987
    Jonathan Lasker
    Traditional Radicality, 1987
    oil on canvas
    76 x 61 cm
    29 7/8 x 24 1/8 in
  • JL 1985 Classic
    Jonathan Lasker
    Classic, 1985
    oil on canvas
    90 x 90 cm
    35 6/16 x 35 6/16 in
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