Larry Stanton
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Larry Stanton was a Manhattan-based outsider portraitist and painter, championed by David Hockney and others. He was apparently a legendarily handsome and charismatic gay man who lived, somewhat like Ray Johnson, in very reduced circumstances in an apartment his father gave him, and he struggled to learn to paint and draw. He had no formal training, but had great drive and ambition, but also a self-destructive streak, as at various times in his life he was addicted to drugs, alcohol, and sex. His portraits have the free-spirited feeling of drawings, but have an emotional resonance that go beyond creating a mere likeness.
[edit] References
Some of his work is anthologized in a book called Larry Stanton, Painting and Drawing (ISBN 0-942642-29-5) from Twelvetrees Press.
