David Anderle has been many things—from a petty officer in the Navy Reserve to a theater set designer and a record producer—but his longstanding passion is painting. Although Anderle claims that he always “blundered” from one career to another, his career in music was one smooth move after another as he glided from careers at MGM/Verve, Elektra, and A&M.
And though he insists that he is a painter first, music has clearly influenced his art. There are the inevitable portraits of music icons—Bob Dylan, Brian Wilson, and Al Kooper to name a few. Most of the paintings are stark portraits full of luminous color. The direct gaze and relaxed forms of Anderle’s subjects establish intimacy.
Other paintings catch people mid-activity or mid-thought, lost in their own reveries. Anderle’s strength as an artist lies with specifics, capturing people and places that he knows.
The young women in paintings such as “Preparing to Party,” “Reading Nick Cave,” and “West Coast Girl” look eerily familiar partly because the girls and their surroundings resemble fashion photos from Nylon or Jane but also because their dress and manner will remind you of your hipster friends. In other words, famous or anonymous, the people in these portraits are distinctive and recognizable whether you know them from your music or your life.
Skeptics may wonder if a successful record company VP can really have an artist’s sensitive soul, but even a brief perusal of this book proves that there’s no need to feign your enthusiasm.
– Rihoko Ueno
Better Late Than Never: The Paintings of David Anderle
Introduction and essays by Laura Grover and Marti Jones Dixon
Hardcover, 96 pages
$30.00, La Luz De Jesus and Billy Shire Fine Arts Press
www.billyshirefinearts.com