Remarks by Maxine Yalovitz-Blankenship at the opening reception of Larry Greeneye at
Berenberg Gallery (3/12/09)

Today is a long awaited celebration of the life of an artist; a life that is confined, yet free.
Larry GreenEye is placed in the category: Outsider Artist. All artists are ‘outsiders’ whose works and the efforts for expression and connection join them to others and to the world. However, Larry does work for himself— as ultimately we artists must do. Larry GreenEye is not bound by ‘rules’. He is an original who works from his heart, from his gut — a maverick and an inventor. Pictorial and verbal messages flow in an endless stream.

His words and the hidden meanings behind these works are wise, sometimes sad, angry,
Loving and wishful — covering the gamut of emotions. When I look at Larry’s images I feel a connection to the ‘human condition’. The works transcend their physicality as does all great art. They speak deeply, seemingly without struggle. Francis Bacon said the purpose of art is to deepen the mystery. What is Larry, the magician, thinking as the pen, his magic wand, flows over the paper bringing it to life? Artists may say they know the meanings but varied interpretations arise over time. Each of us brings a different meaning to a work of art, based on our inner selves, as is the case in viewing these wonderful drawings.

What is ART, anyway? Andy Warhol said ‘ART is a man’s name’, Sol LeWitt told Eva
Hesse not to worry about ‘cool’.. .to make her own ‘uncool’. Larry GreenEye, unbound
by convention, makes his own ‘uncool’ — yet the drawings are ‘hot’! We know Larry works for himself. Are these replacing something lost; something that has never been? He draws male/female figures. The drawings all seem to be ‘grounded’— for safety, for security?
Each time I look at Larry’s work I make a new discovery find new meaning.

This has been an education for me. I see more and more depth as the images cross my eye and mind. Lewis Hyde quote: “The old myths say that the trickster made the world as it actually is.
Other gods set out to create a world more perfect and ideal, but this world, with its
complexity and ambiguity, its beauty and its dirt, was trickster’s creation, and the work is
not yet finished.

 

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