Gaylen Hansen: Three Decades of Paintings

Gaylen Hansen: Three Decades of Paintings brings together more than 70 works spanning 30 years of this remarkable artist's development. It traces the evolution of Hansen's work from his tenderly rendered narrative paintings of the 1970s to bolder canvases in which the palette has become more vibrant, the compositions more complex, and the imagery more iconic.
This survey exhibition and illustrated catalogue present an artist of great talent and emotional range, following a deeply American eccentric tradition that includes artists such as H. C. Westermann, Red Grooms, William T. Wiley, and Philip Guston. The book includes an introduction by Museum of Art curator Keith Wells; Hansen's own commentaries, in conversation with Wells, on more than 20 individual paintings; a tribute to Hansen by cartoonist and fellow artist Gary Larson; a chronology highlighting important events and persons in the artist's life; and more than 100 color plates.