Every artist has their own tempo. And it’s very likely that no two artists work at the same speed or style. There are early risers and night owls. Those that nap after lunch or keep banker’s hours. Some artists will paint an endless array of work all at the same time, switching casually between a dozen or more incomplete paintings. And then there are those who can’t begin a new work until the one on the easel is complete. Some paintings arrive with haste, and others are labored over for weeks and months. Some squeak by, just barely under tight deadlines.
Respite (detail), oil, 30 x 22”
For Logan Maxwell Hagege, many of his newest paintings have taken unlikely detours through his own home and studio. “Lately I’ve been holding all the work back as long as possible only because I want to see it when it’s all done and together,” the California painter says. “Some of my newest works I have been holding onto for about two years. I’ve just been setting them aside to see how they resonate with me after I’ve seen them more. Everything has to work as a unit.”
Purple Mountain, Pastel Sky, oil, 16 x 20”
Of course, if you’re looking to get a new painting by the artist—and there is usually a line of people queuing up for them—this might feel agonizing to know that paintings are ready and waiting. But Hagege assures that this method is to protect the work. “It also allows me to experiment a bit, which is what I’ve been doing lately,” he adds. “And living with the work for a bit really inspires me on where I might experiment next.”
Hagege’s new show, Desert Shapes, opens May 7 at Maxwell Alexander Gallery in Los Angeles. Through the show will be smaller, with around 10 pieces, some of the work has been rotating through his home and studio for years.
Logan Maxwell Hagege painting near Bluff, Utah, in October 2021.
This studio method shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to Hagege’s collectors. After all, the painter has kept to his own schedule for much of his career, which has been marked by occasional solo shows, group shows with painting friends, major commissions and spells where he would alternate paintings with sculptures, textile works, children’s coloring books, serigraphs with 100-plus color separations and other multimedia projects. At the same time, he would also be contributing regularly to shows like the Masters of the American West and the Prix de West. And yet when you talk to him, he never sounds panicked or flustered by upcoming deadlines. Hagage is famously chill.
Rabbit Brush and Saguaro, oil, 20 x 20”
“I try not to stress about that other stuff. That started because I really refused to let galleries be in control of my career. I just didn’t want to put my destiny into someone else’s hands,” he says. “The response from me to that was that I would control every aspect of my career. I wouldn’t pump out work just to please a gallery, and
I wouldn’t overexpose myself. Long term those things are bad for an artist. So when I feel that world pulling me in I just ignore it. All that stuff in your head can dictate bad decisions, so you have to ignore them as best you can.”
Rio Grande, oil, 16 x 20”
All of this helps explain how he could paint a work—a piece like Purple Mountain, Pastel Sky, which is part of the new show—and then let it sit in his studio for two years or more. There was simply no rush to force the work out into the world until it was ready.
Paddles, oil, 16”
The new show will include several major new portraits, including some pieces showing his frequent model and friend Chesley Wilson, who died in 2021. Much of the new work will explore one of the hallmarks of Hagege’s career: incredibly detailed and nuanced figures painted against flat landscapes. The figures have an almost three-dimensional feel, while his backgrounds are distinctly two-dimensional. Although there is a unique juxtaposition that can be felt with this style, the effect creates more balance than contrast, and it works especially well at its most extreme. One such example is Rio Grande, in which the hat-wearing, blanket-wrapped figure stands in front of a simple, but effective, background that is made of three colors. And in those three colors, and their simple abstracted forms, the artist telegraphs mountain, clouds and sky with absolute ease.
Linear Saguaro, oil, 16”
In other works, including the round cactus pieces Linear Saguaro and Paddles, he paints with dabs of color. In Paddles, those dabs of paint represent spines on the prickly pear cactus. But in Linear Saguaro, the spaced-out dabs of paint, with a subtle hint of shifting color, represent darkening sky. It has a pointillist vibe to it, and it’s just some of the experimentation Hagege is playing with in his studio.
“All the artists I’ve loved have had an evolution in their work. So I love that freedom of being able to do things differently, and just exploring more,” he says. “It’s that freedom that can give an artist their artistic soul.” —
Logan Maxwell Hagege: Desert Forms
May 7-June 11, 2022
Maxwell Alexander Gallery
406 W. Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90015
(213) 275-1060, www.maxwellalexandergallery.com
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