Consider them not just art, but more the musings of a vivid imagination.
Bernie Taupin – the gifted songwriter who teamed up with Elton John for many of that performer’s hits – says the inspiration for his paintings comes mostly from inside his own head.
“It’s a little distracting because I have a hard time sleeping,” he says. “I’m always dreaming or thinking about what I’m going to be doing next.”
Nurtured by parents keen on the visual arts, he learned to appreciate the painted poetry of J.M.W. Turner at an early age. By the time he got to New York in the early 1970s, it was contemporary art that grabbed his attention – and held him spellbound.
“I found refuge in MoMA and the art galleries, especially the ones that were heavy on abstract expressionism,” he says. “There were the same connotations as songwriting – I could look into them and find what I wanted. They sparked my imagination.”
In the early 1990s, looking for a new direction in life, he bought a home in the San Fernando Valley of California – one with a racquetball court that he turned into a studio.
“I felt that my life needed to take a drastic turn, and I lent my hand to the visual arts,” he says. “I found a place where I could attack what I wanted to do.”
He never looked back. In fact, he’s been looking forward ever since – in a surprising diversity of directions, with paintings that defy any label.
“Mark Rothko and Jasper Johns are known for a particular style, but I know that it’s a varied field,” he says “I’m trying to become more cohesive, but there’s so much that I want to do.”
His work is featured in a retrospective exhibit, Tes-ta-ment, that opened last night at KM Fine Arts, in its new Chicago location at 43 Oak Street. The show includes a number of his early paintings, others from the 2000s and more recent works as well.
One standout is a likeness of Vladimir Putin in clown makeup, painted two years ago – well before Russia’s current foray into the Ukraine.
“I did it after reading a book on Putin – it’s called The Format Becomes Your Assassin,” he says. “It’s a metamorphosis of someone becoming ridiculed by what they’re purporting to say. The more he says, the deeper he digs into a hole – and he’s the perfect character to do that.”
And Taupin, once a perfect lyricist, could now be called the perfect satirist.
The exhibition runs through Sept. 16.
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