Simon Lee Gallery is proud to present the first U.K. solo exhibition of American figurative painter Paul Georges (1923 – 2002). Spanning nearly five decades of his career, this ground-breaking exhibition documents an oeuvre that defies simple categorization, rejects the stylistically dominant trends of Post-War American art, and offers cutting observations of the political, artistic, and social life of Georges’ time. Hisprovocative and controversial paintings position Paul Georges as a central pioneer against censorship of the arts; his arduous 10-year lawsuit made him a leader in the fight for the freedom of expression in the visual arts.
The paintings on view anchor important moments in Georges’ travels, and elucidate the issues that most concerned him. The exhibition represents work from throughout Georges’ career, starting with the critical period in the development of his unique style while studying abstraction in Provincetown, MA in 1947 under Hans Hofmann. The influence of European Modernists becomes evident in his work following his move toParis in the 1950s to work with Fernand Léger, until his return to the U.S., where the Long Island landscape formed the backdrop for Georges’ signature narrative works that incorporated his family, friends, foes, and often himself to create allegorical history paintings. Finally, later in life, abstraction and landscape paintingconverge once again in Georges’ practice as he moved to the countryside in France.
