Irving Petlin ! !

Thanks to Amy White, who has known the Petlins since she was a little girl, I had the chance to meet Sarah and Irving Petlin today for lunch and a studio visit with Irving afterwards. In case you are not familiar with his work, he built the Peace Tower in LA in the 1960s with Mark DiSivero and has made exquisite paintings ever since. He shows with Kent Gallery in NYC and has Swiss and Paris galleries too, was friends with Leon Golub and Nancy Spero and is truly a political, humanist and alive artist. Here are some photographs of my time with him in his remarkable studio, on the top floor with no lift - 2 small rooms with quite a view, filled with work and layers of time, effort and vision. Here, a Celan book and a b+w photograph of a detail of an older painting of his:

 Old bread in the corner of one of his studio tables.

 Bare bulb in his small storage room.

 View from his studio window that appears in many pieces.

 Irving Petlin in his studio

 The alley way up to his studio building....

 His studio building, top floor on the left.

Japanese Man and Cow working the Rice Paddy

Detail of Japanese Man and Cow working the rice paddy

 The exterior of the entranceway to his alley

 Holding a photo of his wife Sarah and their 2 children, Gabriel and Alessandra, when they arrived in  Paris in the 1960s.

 WWI and WWII, 2 in a series of over 60 that will be in his October show at Kent in NYC

 The Nile

 Sarajevo Tree

 Palestinian Palm Tree - Irving was escorted to the border of Israel to leave immediately when he showed x-rays of Palestinian childrens' hands that had been smashed by Israelis in a symposium on 20th Century images of war

 Stairwell window

The Nile + WWI and WWII

 Paint towers that someone wanted to buy but he uses them!

 A photographic piece for an Egyptian Jewish Poet that he lets fade....

A street in his neighborhood

 LOOK AT THE SKY!