Page 14 - Imagination: The Art of Charles Keeling Lassiter

Charles Keeling Lassiter
(1926 - 2005)

Lassiter was born in New York and
received a degree in sociology from Yale
University and in art education from NYU.

Lassiter uses the city as a touchstone for
his parodies and portraits. As a native
New Yorker, this city in all its real and
symbolic cacophony has had a
tremendous influence on the artist. In his
work, Lassiter touches on the city's
metaphoric role as dream-maker, spoiler
and center for moral chaos and enjoys a
certain connection with his subjects. His
plein aire painting and sketching often
has him working in New York's Central
Park, observing people who are often
unaware of their immortalizing on paper
or canvas.

The bright lights, fast pace and frenetic
noise of the city appear in Lassiter's work
in the discreetly patterned backdrops of
lines and colors, which he provides as a
playground for his figures and as a
resting place for the probing eyes of his
viewers. In a wild urban landscape, his
paintings become modern glyphs to
reinterpret a busy world.