A NEW PAINTING by Henry Taylor covers the Winter 2023 edition of Art in America. The image is a self-portrait of the artist that he started on his 65th birthday in June. When Taylor talks about his work, he is usually candid, reflective, introspective, and vulnerable. Taylor sounds particularly vulnerable when speaking about the birthday painting, which he titled “no atou” (2023). The Los Angeles-based artist gave the magazine a first-person account of his experience making the portrait. “I was in a funk and I just painted it. I was like, Damn, it’s my birthday, and I’m really 65—shit! I can go get me a Big Mac for half-price, get me that Senior Melt. I was feeling all sorry for myself,” Taylor wrote. “Then I was reading this [Paul] Gaugin book and saw ‘no atou,’ which is something Tahitians would say that means ‘I don’t care.’ That’s how I felt, just at the moment. It’s like being bipolar and you shoot yourself: you’re in Hell or Heaven, and you think, Damn, I shouldn’t have done that. I should be happy I’m alive. I love it!” Los Angeles-based Taylor is passionate about the act of painting. He makes richly colored, loosely […]
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