Deeply rooted in antiquity and ignited by its rediscovery, The Renaissance, David Ligare’s art soars above centuries, far from conventions of contemporary art, just like his soaring “thrown drapery paintings.” These works, from 1976 to the present, are perhaps the most popular and often-imitated of his works.
Ligare is not a realist, he insists, because realists have to make paintings about now. But Ligare’s representative art lives in a different world, that of Homer (from the 8th century BCE), Plato (c. 429-347 BCE) and Polykleitos (5th century BCE), but also mythical gods and heroes, like Apollo, Achilles and Penelope. It doesn’t matter which of them are historical figures and which are mythical beings; after all Homer’s identity is also not confirmed. Ligare is on intimate terms with all of them, as well as associated with them stories, forms and concepts.
In his new exhibit, Spheres of Influence, now on display in Monterey Museum of Art in Monterey, Ligare is coming back to the form of the sphere that he started exploring already in 1997, the favorite form of the universe and the best representation of the concept of infinity.