Larry Poons

Larry Poons’s gestural abstraction takes inspiration from the rhythm and improvisational methods of musical composition. His large-scale canvases feature thick, looping impasto and disorienting explosions of color. They recall the stylings of fellow Abstract Expressionist luminaries such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, with whom Poons exhibited in the landmark Metropolitan Museum of Art survey “New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940–1970.” Poons studied music composition at the New England Conservatory in Boston, then abandoned his studies to enroll at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He originally produced Op art–style works but soon applied illusionistic techniques to looser, more fluid abstractions. Over the course of his career, the artist has thrown and poured paint onto his canvases, built up their surfaces with unconventional materials, and simply used a paintbrush to apply color. Poons has exhibited in New York, London, Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, and Zürich. His work belongs in the collections of the Guggenheim Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.