NEW YORK—The Paula Cooper Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new paintings by Julian Lethbridge opening on September 19 and running through October 18, 2003.

“What is always clearly evident, in addition to Lethbridge’s pleasure in painting, is his interest in probing paint’s physicalities and processes, a practice that gives substance to his vision.” -Lilly Wei, Art in America, Vol. 84, No. 3 March 1996.

Julian Lethbridge continues his exploration of gesture, line, and texture through his manipulation of paint in this exhibition of new works. Lethbridge maintains an awareness of surface, while examining ideas of depth in these, his most recent richly colored and tactile paintings. The paintings on exhibit investigate the relationship between space and depth; absence and form; emotional improvisation and calculated gesture.

The canvases, filled with textured lines, curves, and geometric shapes, have a strong physical and tactile quality. Lethbridge works on his paintings in layers; a grooved and gestural base is overlaid by subsequent applications of paint, creating a rich physical atmosphere in each work. One is immediately held captive by the washes of color which, when combined with the textured plane of the canvas creates an engaging interplay between surface and depth. These new paintings, infused with color and combined with Lethbridge’s characteristic explorations of form, process, and repetition are sublimely luminous.

Born in Sri Lanka and brought up primarily in England, Julian Lethbridge received his education at Winchester College and Cambridge University. His work has been widely exhibited throughout the United States and Europe and can be found in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), The Tate Gallery Contemporary Art Society (London), The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago), and The National Gallery of Art (Washington D.C.). In 1988, Julian Lethbridge was awarded the Francis J. Greenberger Award.

For more information, please contact the gallery: (212) 255-1105 or
info@paulacoopergallery.com