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Moriah (Abraham and Isaac, after Rembrandt), 1990 In Moriah (After Rembrandt) (1990), Forte explores the composition of Rembrandt’s Sacrifice of Isaac in a hot, high-key palette and discourteous mark-making this work veers into hyperbole but lands on homage. These works express well the complexity of a young artist trying to situate both his work and his person in relation to the tradition he has received and wants to question, trying to simultaneously erase and reinvigorate the eidetic images of the past. These works are shot through with layers of text as well–often Biblical passages or prayers which interweave with bodies and Forte’s highly improvisational material application. Not surprisingly, Forte leans heavily toward the Baroque, the paintings of Rembrandt and Rubens, among others, offering robust armatures against which Forte pits his highly aggressive painterly act. Forte’s large works from this timeframe take up, and take on, central art-historical works on Biblical themes. Few contemporary artists have depended on the figure in such a direct way to continue to hold so many of the meanings it has carried throughout the history of Western Art.įorte’s Biblical works from the late 1980’s through the early 2000’s bear the marks of that self-consciously post-modern moment, with its penchant for appropriation and the rise of a second wave of neo-expressionism, which in Southern California was particularly accented with Pop. Throughout the selected works, as in Forte’s oeuvre in general, the human body, or its direct evocation, is the ultimate vehicle of spiritual experience and revelation. This exhibition offers the unique opportunity to view the shifting manner, both in hand and concept, of an artist who has approached Biblical themes with a clear sense of their central, urgent meaning for contemporary life, both personal and corporate. On view at Luz Art on Melrose is a retrospective selection of Biblical themed works by Wayne Forte spanning nearly 30 years. By Jonathan Puls Wayne Forte Parables and Prophecies: a Visual Epistle