# @drawingcenter on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/Bv4Y1n4jrAE
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/16044812-drawingcenter-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/thumbnails/7f43094ae8.jpg
- **Posted:** 2019-04-05T16:46:17.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** The Drawing Center (@drawingcenter) — https://gondola.cc/drawingcenter

## Caption

Artists have a variety of methods to make their mark. Every Friday we will share a photograph of an #ArtistInAction.
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Henry Taylor (b. 1958) is an LA-based American artist who is best known for his acrylic portraits of people he encounters in his life like family members, friends, neighbors, or strangers. Drawing on legendary Harlem Renaissance painters like Jacob Lawrence, Taylor uses a folk and modernist approach to his paintings that focus on the black experience. “I work partially from a photograph...or this is completely from memory and then I think about how much has changed or how little has changed.” After working as a nurse at a psychiatric hospital for ten years, Taylor retired and completed his BFA at the California Institute of the Arts, but his compassion for humanity continues to inform his lifework. Taylor’s portraits use bold color and a loose compositional style that hold a generous empathy for the sitters. Courageously unguarded, the paintings showcase a loving attention to people in Taylor’s life. “I paint those subjects I have love and sympathy for,” he explained. “I paint everyone, or I try to. I try to capture the moment I am with someone who could be my friend, a neighbor, a celebrity, or a homeless person….It takes courage to do a lot of things. But, in a way, it doesn’t actually take courage, because you are free to do it. It’s like jumping in the water. The water’s cold, but you just jump in. You’ve gotta just jump in all the fucking time."
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#HenryTaylor henrytaylorart
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Image: Photograph by Audrey Mayer, 2017. Courtesy of Cultured Magazine.

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## Tags

henrytaylor, artistinaction

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