| Leo Krikorian’s paintings are exhibited at Pabst Gallery. Krikorian helped shape postwar American abstraction and the cultural ferment of 1950s San Francisco.
Krikorian, a graduate of Black Mountain College, studied under Ilya Bolotowsky and Josef Albers – two titans of modern abstraction. Bolotowsky, known for introducing De Stijl principles to American art, instilled in Krikorian a deep sense of geometric balance and clarity. Albers, famous for his rigorous color theory and the Homage to the Square series, left an equally strong mark, sharpening Krikorian’s sensitivity to the spatial tension and tonal interplay that animate his compositions.
Featured is one of the works on view: 107 BM (1973). It’s a masterclass in color and geometry; red and white interlocking forms hover on a soft gray-violet ground, edged in disciplined charcoal lines. The shapes are both assertive and in dialogue, like bodies in motion or thoughts in tension. It’s cerebral, but also strangely human.
Beyond his painting, Krikorian played a vital role in the Beat-era creative scene. He was a co-founder of the Six Gallery, where Allen Ginsberg first read Howl, and he ran the now-legendary “The Place”, a bohemian coffeehouse and gallery that became a crossroads for artists, poets, and musicians. Though he was not a Beat poet himself, Krikorian provided the cultural infrastructure that allowed the Beat movement to flourish. |
