"Nude at the Beach" Oil on Board by Buckley MacGurrin

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Description

In this painting, a body cuts through the space as if it was always meant to be there. A woman … Read more In this painting, a body cuts through the space as if it was always meant to be there. A woman walks in profile, bare to the waist down, through a landscape reduced to three horizontal bands: sand, sea, sky.
The face is sculpted in the material; the hair, as if cut from copper. A mouth, made-up eyelids — just enough to suggest. Nothing anecdotal, everything reduced to form.
Her breasts are there, but without nipples: a deliberate omission, almost doctrinal. It’s not modesty, but transposition — the body becomes a sign, no longer anatomy.
This could be the portrait of the liberated woman of our time.
The paint surface is soft, applied without strain. A blurred effect, as if washed out by the sun. The eroticism here doesn’t provoke. It’s held within the economy of the representation itself.

BIOGRAPHY
Buckley MacGurrin was born in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1896 to Irish-American parents. He graduated at UC Berkely in 1922 and then moved to Hollywood where he began working as a designer for the movie studios. After deciding to become a full-time artist, MacGurrin moved to Paris, where he could further his studies. He remained in Paris from 1922-1933. He attended the Académie Colarossi* and also studied the masterpieces at the Louvre.

In 1926, he was invited to exhibit at the Salon des Tuileries*. That same year he also exhibited at the Salon des Humoristes, and the Salon du France at the gallery Armand Drouant, at which one of MacGurrin's paintings was acquired by the French State. He would continue to exhibit at the Salon des Tuileries for seven more years, the remainder of his time in France.

In 1933 he returned to the States, spending six months in New York before moving back to Los Angeles. His work was represented by Earl Stendahl, whose Stendahl Art Galleries* was at that time located on Wilshire Boulevard, and MacGurrin also kept a studio in the gallery. His first one-man show was in 1933 at Stendhal. Around 1937, MacGurrin changed gallery representation to Dalzell Hatfield Gallery. He also continued to exhibit in Paris, showing his work there at the Salon d'Automne* from 1929-1937.
MacGurrin also worked for Paramount Pictures during this time, designing sets and props for the renowned director Cecil B. De Mille.

He worked on the first Federal Art Project* in 1933, executing murals around Los Angeles, including one in the cafeteria of the Los Angeles County Art Museum called Gastronomy Through the Ages.

In 1934 MacGurrin was invited to work on the second Federal Art Project, eventually becoming the supervisor for Los Angeles County and Santa Barbara. He remained the supervisor until leaving the project in 1938.

After retiring from the Art Project, he took up a teaching position at the San Antonio Art Institute, which incidentally housed one of the best collections of modern French painting west of New York. He did not live full time in Texas however, and always maintained residence in southern California, teaching only part of the year.

MacGurrin's work with the Federal Art Project is significant not only for the numerous murals and other public works he created during his time, but also for the generation of younger artists he taught and inspired.

MacGurrin's work is represented in the collections of the Frederick R Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota; San Gabriel Mission; LACMA (cafeteria mural); LA County Hall of Records; Santa Paula High School; Long Beach Public Library; Museum of Natural History (LA); and the Marion Koogler McNay Art Museum, San Antonio, Texas.

MacGurrin died in Los Angeles on July 16, 1971. See less