Hugh Lifson is a native of New York City, is professor emeritus of art at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. He studied with Irving Marantz, as well as the Skowhegan School of Art, the University of Wisconsin, BA Wesleyan University, and MFA Pratt Institute with Robert Richenberg. Lifson is represented in various museums, galleries, universities and private collections. Professor Lifson’s oeuvre includes; oils on canvas, works on paper, computer graphics and his signature creation - acrylics on plastic wrap.
Lifson drawing in his Cedar Rapids, Iowa studio
Beauty in Transparency
Early in his career at Cornell College, while discussing Plato with a colleague, Hugh Lifson wrapped an ashtray of cigarette butts in plastic and declared he had transformed it into an object of beauty. This led to a long period of wrapping paintings in plastic wrap. Lifson creates through alteration but, ensures the piece still bears visible traces o its earlier form. Lifson uses plastic wrap as a tool to create both an allegory of our culture as well as recalling the traditional glaze techniques of the Renaissance. During the Renaissance, many artists used glazing as a way of mixing paints. Rather than combining them on the palette, they painted an extremely thin layer over the main color. Each additional layer on top altered the color beneath it, creating an effect like that of stained glass. In Lifson’s work, he uses plastic transparencies to overcome the limitations of space and time.