Biography

Lawrence Gipe’s flawlessly executed paintings expose the naïveté and hypocrisy of industrial idealism prevalent during World War I and World War II. Using propagandistic photographs derived from vintage magazines, Gipe reinterprets the heroic imagery he finds, often layering them with boldly declarative text. This results in seductive paintings that critique the postindustrial era while simultaneously encouraging viewers to find parallels for the misdeeds of the past within contemporary society. Says the artist, “My work is generated from questions that I ask myself about the situation we are in as a society—looking specifically at the problems facing cities, particularly transportation and industry, I am asking: How did we get to where we are today?”1 Gipe distills the force of politically charged illustrations once designed to provoke action among the populace and infuses his work with an awareness of the problems of contemporary life, re-presenting notions of technological progress that resonate with the issues specific to our own time.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1962, Gipe received his B.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond (1984) and an M.F.A. from Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles (1986). Soon after completing his education, he began exhibiting widely in Europe and the United States, becoming known for his meticulously rendered paintings of industrial landscapes. In his work, Gipe investigates the responsibility of using scientific and technological resources. Instead of focusing on the military-industrial complex, Gipe has substituted the nameless, faceless industrial powers of the first half of the 20th century, capitalizing on the dramatic imagery that regularly appeared in magazines and films of that era.

Gipe based Painting #3 from the series, Themes for the Fin de Siècle on an industrial propaganda image drawn from a World War II-era magazine. Employing a dramatic composition, limited palette, and highly contrasting lights and darks, the artist presents an ambiguous, theatrical setting, with mise en scène apparently borrowed from film noir. Setting the tone for the painting’s implied narrative, at the bottom of the canvas the word “possession” appears in a stylized red font. Framed by an arched stone portal, a building of some sort glows with a golden light, shielded by an ornate black iron gate dominating the bottom three-quarters of the painting. The design on the gate includes a pair of lions facing inward, alluding perhaps to heraldic devices as seen on coats of arms. The building, a monumental structure, could be a skyscraper, an enormous residence, or perhaps a well-designed factory, represented with reverential flair—“the industry-as-cathedral effect,” as described by critic Christine Temin, who cites Claude Monet’s Gare St. Lazare as a precedent to Gipe’s series.2 The title, Themes for the Fin de Siècle, seemingly proposes an enumeration of societal weaknesses (akin to the seven deadly sins) capable of leading to political and social disintegration; is this a historical interpretation, or a prediction for the end of the 20th century? At the time he created Painting #3, Gipe was preoccupied with the notion of progress, and how the concept has been represented in the 20th century. Words such as “possession” thereby became headings under which related subjects could be examined.3

The surface qualities of Gipe’s paintings—their gleaming finish, stylish presentation, layers and layers of glazing—could encourage a cynical interpretation of their content; are these paintings about style, or are they about content? While admitting to the seductive nature of the persuasive photographs at the heart of his work, Gipe’s intention is to turn the energy of the imagery against itself, imploding the original propaganda upon which it was based and revealing the profiteering mechanisms hidden within. In doing so, he offers insight into the pitfalls of modern innovation and progress, often imbued with an almost religious significance within Western society, reminding us that all progress comes at a cost. —S.S.

1. Lawrence Gipe, quoted in Trinkett Clark, Lawrence Gipe (Norfolk, Virginia: The Chrysler Museum, 1994), n.p.
2. Christine Temin, “Human Touch Highlights Machine-Art Show,” The Boston Globe, 26 November 1997.
3. Clark, n.p.

(SJMA Selections publication, 2004)

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