Mark Leonard: Logic and Emotion
By Laura Heyrman
This Viewing Room features works from the exhibition Mark Leonard: Common Threads at Louis Stern Fine Arts in West Hollywood, California. I was drawn to the vivid colors and subtle textures in Leonard’s paintings; then I discovered the artist’s works inspired by artists of the past, such as Constable Landscape I, which opens the slide show below. As an art historian, I was fascinated by the contrast between Leonard’s highly structured compositions and the naturalistic forms of the original works, but I could also see the connections to the original artists. John Constable (1776-1834) was a British landscape painter of the Romantic movement, known for his close observation of the appearance of clouds. Leonard’s spheres, rope, and bars of white and gray are surprisingly effective in conveying the cloudy masses that appear to flow across Constable’s landscapes. The British artist’s paintings focused on the rural environment in which he lived; Leonard honors that aspect of the earlier artist’s works by creating a patchwork of earthy colors across the bottom of his composition, like an aerial view of farmland in the American Midwest.
Mark Leonard (American, b. 1954) trained as an artist before choosing a career in art conservation. He completed an interdisciplinary degree in Studio Art, Art History, and Chemistry from Oberlin College. The two works in this slide show from the 1970s (Children’s Games #2 and Untitled) reflect his early style; he composed these paintings on a grid system and the only sense of depth comes from the contrasting colors. Having decided to pursue a career in art restoration and conservation, Leonard earned master’s degrees in Art History and Art Conservation from the Institute of Fine Arts in New York City. Graduate school and his later work in conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art left little time for painting.
From the Met, Leonard moved to the J. Paul Getty Museum, where he worked for 26 years, 12 as head of painting conservation. During his time at the Getty, he once again began to feel the urge to create and returned to painting on a part-time basis. Next, he spent five years as the first Chief Conservator for the Dallas Museum of Art. Circle #3 in the slide show is from this period and one can see that he had developed the technique and stylistic features which he has continued to use: gouache and resin on panel and a grid system, woven elements and bright colors. The specific technique employed by the artist is unique; he begins by creating a base coat in gouache, an opaque watercolor medium. This is covered by a brushed-on layer of synthetic resin followed by glazes, or thin layers, of the synthetic resin, a material which the artist helped to develop. Glazes have been used to created subtle effects of color, light, and shadow since the invention of oil paint in 15th century Europe; Leonard’s glazes have a similar effect in his paintings.
Leonard returned to making art full time in 2017. From childhood, he was drawn to architectural subjects, based on blocks and grids rather than the natural landscape or human images. That interest appears in the 2017 work Cityscape. For the artist, an important aspect of his compositions is depth. He is determined that his works convey a spatial quality and not be limited to a surface pattern. Because of ground planes or atmospheric color changes in the backgrounds, there is a strong sense of depth in Leonard’s mature works. It is a somewhat surreal or mysterious space, though, and we are prevented from entering it fully, often by interwoven bands. Because these bands extend to the edges of the composition, they symbolize the infinite to the artist. At the same time, the works are often small, so we encounter only part of that infinity, just as our experiences and lives are limited.
Leonard sees all sorts of dualities reflected in the interacting elements of his compositions, love and loss, logic and emotion, life and death. In his recent works, the artist has incorporated more curving elements, like spheres and catenary curves. Catenary curves are based on the natural fall of a rope or chain that is attached at each end. For the artist, these curves suggest softness, perhaps a human embrace. Many of the paintings in the Catenary Curves series are identified as portraits, in spite of their abstract and symbolic form. Titles are important elements in helping interpret Leonard’s paintings; they contain references to classical mythology, art history, music, and even nature. Go exploring – I think you’ll find there’s a lot to discover in Leonard’s geometric worlds.
Mark Leonard: Common Threads, at Louis Stern Fine Arts, 9002 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, California, USA, through June 28, 2025 LINK louissternfinearts.com/exhibitions/mark-leonard-common-threads
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All works © Mark Leonard (American, b. 1954), and included in Mark Leonard: Common Threads at Louis Stern Fine Arts.