Art City: A Ruling Passion

with: Louise Bourgeois; Michael Ray Charles; Elizabeth Peyton; Ed Ruscha; Lari Pittman; David Deutsch; Richmond Burton; Marcia Tucker; Dave Hickey; David Alan Grier

Many artists use the pain, exhilaration and resolution of private desires to express themselves. Art City: A Ruling Passion focuses on intense personalities who’ve used their art to explore the emotional impact of psychological truths. Everything that Louise Bourgeois creates - whether in marble, fabric or bronze - comes from memory. Michael Ray Charles investigates the marketing of black memorabilia, using early American advertising imagery. Elizabeth Peyton reinvents portraiture, using her friends as subjects, as well as pop culture royalty. Ed Ruscha’s literary landscapes burst from the physical world "right outside the window." The comic spirit of Lari Pittman contrasts with his graphic declarations. In a landmark house, Richmond Burton remembers his dreams to build "psychic fields" of abstraction. The arrays of featureless faces by David Deutsch are stimulated by sub-conscious sensations. Along with writer Dave Hickey and others, A Ruling Passion plumbs issues that affect artists - preoccupations of startling universality - like community, motivation and controversy, finding one’s audience, and just "getting it right." Music by Beck, Roy Ayers, Sakamoto, Claude Thornhill, Joey Altruda, Herbie Hancock