Anthony Miler

The abstracted human forms in Anthony Miler’s paintings and drawings present a thoroughly contemporary point of view, while also being imbued with the history of modern art. With their loose, sketchy brushstrokes, vibrant colors, and mask-like faces, they call to mind the work of the CoBrA group, as well as Willem de Kooning’s investigations of the female form in his “Women” series. Miler developed his style as a contemporary take on Art Brut, or Neo-Brut, an approach that favors spontaneity and primitive expression, in an age of crisp computerized graphics and slick industrial production. The artist takes this impulse still further in his “Grisaille Paintings,” harshly beautiful works created by using graphite pencil directly on canvas.