James Jarvaise and the Hudson River Series

James Jarvaise was a star in the Los Angeles art scene firmament during the late 1950’s and throughout the 1960’s. Critical acclaim followed him from his exhibitions with LA’s celebrated gallerist Felix Landau all the way to the Museum of Modern Art and Dorothy Canning Miller’s 1959 exhibition “Sixteen Americans.” Works from Jarvaise’s Hudson River Series, complete with virtuoso displays of luscious color and fluid line, were exhibited along with soon-to-be New York art stars Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. Jarvaise’s California dreams a la the Hudson River School seemed to signal the beginning of a storied career. Though the improvisational ideas and technical facility showcased in the Hudson River Series continued in the subsequent ‘Man in a Room’ Series, Jarvaise did not become a household name. After a move to Santa Barbara in the early 1970’s, the artist chased his vision, raised a family, taught, painted and stayed in his studio. The elegant, challenging canvasses comprising his Hudson River Series are today ripe for re-investigation. They serve as eloquent reminders of the artist’s accomplishment and his ongoing engagement with painting. As the artist commented, “Painting seems to come from an unknown source, which you have cultivated all your life... it’s part of me and my lifelong involvement with art and its creation.” Works from the Mid-Twentieth James Jarvaise and the Hudson River Series is a catalogue published to accompany a September 22-November 10, 2012 exhibition held by Louis Stern Fine Arts and contains sixteen works from the Hudson River Series along with another dozen mid-century works, all with full-page, full-color plates along with an essay by Gerald Nordland.