Lamar Briggs, Untitled color abstraction, ca. 2008

Lamar Briggs

Untitled color abstraction, ca. 2008

Mixed media oil and gouache on paper

Hand signed by Lamar Briggs on the lower center front

Frame included

Measurements:
Frame:
34 x 26 x 2 inches
Work:
29 x 21 inches

Born on November 13, 1935 in Lafayette, Louisiana. Lamar Briggs attended the University of Southern Louisiana where he initially studied architecture before attending the University of Houston where he studied painting under Paul Maxwell, Jack Boynton, and Robert Morris before graduating from the Colorado Institute of Art. In 2005, he was inducted into the Colorado Institute of Art Hall of Fame. In 1963, after working as a graphic designer and art director in Houston, Lamar painted his interpretation of St. Mark's Square underwater, which he saw in Life magazine. He won the Ford Foundation Purchase Award presented by Willem de Kooning in a show sponsored by the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Lamar's first show of paintings followed in 1965 at the Meredith Long Gallery in Houston which attracted both local and national attention. By 1969, he left his position as art director. Lamar's reputation as an abstract colorist was established in the early 1970's when he began experimenting with acrylic paints. By 1976, he was painting full-time while developing techniques for lithographs, silkscreens and monotypes. Lamar was known for the infinite variety of shades and tints in his work and in particular the transparency of color which has a fluid and spontaneous feeling on the canvas. The collection of work by Lamar Briggs is vibrant and exciting, celebrating a joy in life and in movement that he saw in landscape, nature, light, and music – particularly jazz. In 1971 he presented a one-man exhibition at the United States Consulate in Guadalajara, Mexico. In 1982 Lamar participated in a Group Show, the "Rutgers Archives for Printmaking Studios", at the Zummerli Art Museum in New Brunswick, New Jersey. This prestigious print show traveled for several years throughout the US. Since 1975, Lamar Briggs has had a continuous relationship with the Moody Gallery in Houston, Texas which presented his work for more than 40 years. Briggs was featured in "The Houston Century" (Top Artists of the Century) in the Houston Chronicle on December 12, 1999. From 1990 through 1994 Lamar Briggs was the Guest Artist at the Anderson Ranch Art Center in Snowmass, Colorado. Lamar's work has been shown in museums and galleries in Canada, Mexico, England, Germany, Switzerland and Hungary as well as throughout the United States. He has participated in over 140 group and one-man exhibitions in his artistic career and is known worldwide as on of the great colorists of the past century.