Richard Lindner

Richard Lindner, a German-born refugee from Nazi oppression who settled in New York, created a deeply disturbing body of work completely at odds with that city's vanguard of the 1950s. A former commercial artist, Lindner drew on personal iconography and his European cultural heritage to fashion bright, bizarre images of imaginary figures. Grotesque children, automaton couples, and denizens of the urban underworld populate his canvases. Often hailed as a precursor of Pop Art, Lindner insisted that his was the art of an outsider, that he was a "man born between generations; between the Dadaists and the more recent generation of Americans." The situation of the emigre inspired Lindner's paintings, which speak to the alienation and moral crises of this century and evoke the absurdity of the human condition. Although best known for his striking images of intimidating femmes fatales, Lindner consistently denied that his art was either erotic or misogynistic in intent. The elusive character of his symbolism presents a challenge to conventional art criticism and historical scholarship.