James Jarvaise &
Henry Taylor

Sometimes a straight line has to be crooked

29 June – 5 October 2025

Downtown Los Angeles

‘Sometimes a straight line has to be crooked’ is the first exhibition to put the work of Henry Taylor in dialogue with that of his teacher James Jarvaise. Composed along loosely thematic lines and consisting largely of paintings, this major installation will span the 1950s to the present, with new works created especially for the show by Taylor, whose interest in landscape, alongside the figure, will be freshly explored.

A California regionalist, who taught generations of students at schools in and around Los Angeles, James Jarvaise (1924 – 2015) gained national acclaim when his abstract landscape paintings were featured in the historic 1959 exhibition ‘Sixteen Americans’ at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. One of today’s most celebrated painters, Henry Taylor credits Jarvaise with having been the first to recognize his talents, as a community college student in the early 1980s: it was Jarvaise who insisted that he take himself seriously as an artist. Taylor accordingly enrolled at CalArts but continued to bring his work to Jarvaise for his valued critiques.

This is the first exhibition of Taylor’s work to take place at Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles and represents an idea he has long carried: to pay homage to the artist James Jarvaise who saw something special in him.

About the Artist

Henry Taylor

Henry Taylor vit et travaille à Los Angeles (Californie). Son oeuvre a récemment été présentée aux États-Unis dans le cadre des expositions collectives ‘I’m yours: Encounters with Art in Our Times’ à l’Institut d’art contemporain (ICA) de Boston et ‘Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America’ au New Museum de New York. En 2022, une rétrospective intitulée ‘Henry Taylor: B Side’, sa plus importante exposition à ce jour, a été présentée au Musée d’art contemporain de Los Angeles et ira au Whitney Museum of American Art de New York du 4 octobre 2023 au 28 janvier 2024. Outre les Etats-Unis, ses oeuvres ont fait l’objet de nombreuses expositions internationales.

Elles ont rejoint d’importantes collections comme celles de la Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, à Paris (France), The Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York), le Carnegie Museum of Art de Pittsburgh, la Fondation Louis Vuitton à Paris (France), le Hammer Museum de Los Angeles (Californie), l’Institut d’art contemporain de Boston (Massachussetts), le Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Le Metropolitan Museum of Art de New York, le Musée d’art contemporain de Los Angeles, le Musée des beaux-arts de Houston (Texas), le Musée d’art moderne de New York, le Nasher Museum of Art de la Duke University de Durham (Caroline du Nord), le Pérez Art Museum de Miami (Floride), le Musée d’art moderne de San Francisco (Californie), le Studio Museum de Harlem (New York), et le Whitney Museum of American Art de New York. En 2018, Henry Taylor a reçu le prix Robert De Niro, Sr. pour ses réalisations picturales. Le travail d’Henry Taylor a été présenté à la Whitney Biennial 2017 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York) et à la 58ème Biennale de Venise en 2019.

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