A Good Long Life of Work

Luchita Hurtado, an accomplished but pretty much unknown artist, died in her Santa Monica home on August 14. She was 99, and for 80 years she worked in a variety of styles and media, including paintings, drawings, photographs, and prints.

I ran across her work about 10 years ago at a gallery. I think it was Hauser & Wirth. I liked best her semi-figurative images and the colors – reminiscent of the Latin Modernists I favor. Her renderings were mature and competent. She seemed to have a good handle on her technique. If you read about her, you may encounter bullshit about “documenting the interconnectedness of human beings, nature, and terrestrial life.” (Do the people that write those phrases actually think that way?)

Here is an example of her work: