Les (Leslie William) Kerr
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Picture
Lover 2 (1964)
Picture
Twins (mid 60s)
Picture
Bride (1966)
Picture
"Baby" (1964)
I think of Les's work in 2 phases... the first being a biomorphic abstraction, perhaps related in my mind to John Altoon's work... the second, the phase he was doing when we became friends, was the single colored biomorphic shape floating on a single color field, with a warm for the shape and a cool for the field.  It would be incorrect, but the closest thing I could think to call these would be a sort of Pop Art Biomorphism.
Picture
Deluxe (late '60's)
Picture "Sweet Sue" (1963) Construction-Oil on Wood
I always felt Les's work was more cerebral than a lot of what was being done then. A part of him always seemed to threaten to break loose, and only by intellectual vigor was he able to hold it in.  In his second phase, as I label it, you could sense this in his brushwork.  Other people... (Craig Kaufman in his vacuum formed pieces in LA) would have refined this floating image so that it became hard edge, but Les had some allegiance to the Abstract Expressionists (to use that term) that he wasn't going to give up.  In one sense, there was a tension in this work between the calm intellectual floating image and the desire to do the whole thing in a near violence as expressed in the brushwork.--Bill Dubin

Picture
"Private" (1962) Oil on Zinc
Picture
"Rose" (1962) Oil on Oil Cloth
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"Small Drugstore" (1962) Oil on Oil Cloth

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