BALDUR HELGASON: SPIRITUAL PAINTINGS FOR EMOTIONAL PEOPLE

© Baldur Helgason

Spiritual Paintings For Emotional People: Baldur Helgason New Show in Los Angeles, CA.

After his successful exhibition at PADRE gallery in New York, Baldur Helgason presents new works at Richard Heller gallery in CA. "I grew up watching these Russian Cartoons," Baldur said "The Soviet Union was putting a lot of money into cartoons to compete with the US, so the government-funded these incredible cartoons. There was this one of a rockabilly fox who smoked cigarettes. I would draw that all the time. A lot of my stuff is referencing mid-century European cartoons and comic books, which were influenced by those early American cartoon styles like Betty Boop. That stuff that bounces, I think, it is the loop that made them move like a rubber hose."

© Baldur Helgason

 "I like going to museums and I surround myself with art books," Helgason told us. "Lately, I’ve been reading a lot about CoBrA, the European avant-garde of the late '40s early '50s. It was very influential in Iceland and had some Icelandic members. I’m always looking at the Expressionists, Fauvists, Symbolists, American art of the late ’60s and ’70s. And I found an old Chicago Art Institute box of Impressionist prints and I’ve scattered them all over the studio."