{"id":951978,"date":"2026-07-22T14:23:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:23:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/951978\/"},"modified":"2026-07-22T14:23:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:23:29","slug":"from-26-gigs-to-4-billion-variations-clifford-la-fontaines-late-life-art-awakening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/951978\/","title":{"rendered":"From $26 gigs to 4 billion variations: Clifford La Fontaine\u2019s late-life art awakening"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a while, Clifford La Fontaine followed the path of an up-and-coming artist. After moving here from Canada in 1956, he found himself a job as a young man on Madison Avenue with a studio that serviced the advertising agencies of the classic \u201cMad Men\u201d era (and that show was \u201cnowhere near what was really going on,\u201d he informs us).<\/p>\n

He got his first gig after a clumsy attempt at applying for a job without any proof of his talent. It was the first thing in the morning when he was told, \u201cWell, kid, come back when you got a portfolio.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, La Fontaine recalls, \u201cI went to Woolworth\u2019s on 44th Street and 6th Avenue. I got a notebook, pencil and paper and I went into Bryant Park. I filled the notebook in the afternoon. I came back to the studio said, \u2018Is this a portfolio?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Apparently it was, and La Fontaine now had about $26 a week to support himself.\n<\/p>\n

By the time he began showing at the Richard Castellane Gallery in the 1960s, he had studied in France, the Art Students League and Pratt. Castellane mounted a two-person exhibition with La Fontaine and Yayoi Kusama in 1965. La Fontaine also produced both large and small-scale sculpture.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But it was in 1975 that his career took a turn, one that would take him through the early 2000s as he worked as a museum and exhibition designer for major U.S. and international museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago and the San Antonio Museum of Art.<\/p>\n

His work on the King Tut exhibit at the Met ushered in the era of the modern-day museum blockbuster. While his talents were utilized in faraway locales such as the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem and close by with \u201cAfrican Reflections: Art from Northeastern Zaire\u201d at the American Museum of Natural History, La Fontaine never stopped making art \u2014 he just stopped showing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Clifford La Fontaine with a portion of his work \u201cRevelation\u201d, 2017-2022Photo by Bob Krasner \"\"Clifford La Fontaine at work in his East Village homePhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Clifford La Fontaine working on one of his smaller panelsPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Artist Clifford La FontainePhoto by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n

Looking through La Fontaine\u2019s work through the decades, one sees some common threads as he grew closer to complete abstraction, but he doesn\u2019t see it that way.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a realist painter\u201d, he declares. \u201cThe work was never really totally abstract, because I never really divorced myself from the concept that reality is not just a reflection. It is also structural under these. So what people call abstract art, you keep redefining it. You will get to the point where it\u2019s totally real, because there\u2019s only the line, the shape, the form, the color. That\u2019s real\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On top of that, La Fontaine mentions that he \u201chas a kind of very deep interest in mathematics.\u201d His current works consist of a number of panels that can be reconfigured however the owner likes.<\/p>\n

\u201cA simple four-panel, you can rearrange it into 256 different iterations,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo as you add panels to the system, you increase the possibility of change. So this painting over here on the wall, this is basically, it\u2019s a rectangle. But because you can manipulate the configuration, you can get different iconic shapes, shapes that look like that was the original intention.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo,\u201d he continues, \u201cthis is a number of panels. Six panels. The ninth power, 12 panels or 12th power. 4 times, 4 times, 4 times, 4 times 4 times, 4 times 4 times 4. So you can see the optional arrangements become enormous very quickly. So, the 16-panel painting, the blue one, will give you 4 billion variations of the same thing. So, in essence, the painting is there for you to be the intercessor between what I did and now what you can do. And you can do the arrangements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"A selection of Clifford La Fontaine\u2019s earlier worksPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Clifford La Fontaine flipping through a selection of his early workPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Clifford La Fontaine sculpture \u201d My Hero \u201c, created in 1975 using polyester resin with automotive lacquerPhoto by Bob Krasner \"\"Clifford La Fontaine with a portion of his work \u201cRevelation\u201d, 2017-2022Photo by Bob Krasner<\/p>\n

The paintings are, he notes, not meant to just hang on the wall.\u00a0 They are a constant collaboration between the work and the owner of the work, who is at liberty to hang it any way that he pleases.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause,\u201d he says, \u201cI have the confidence that what you\u2019ve been given is a brain that\u2019ll make those connections in a way that can be a formula for continuation of the same single thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 89, he paints almost every day in his Yonkers studio (\u201cevery day except\u2026 Sunday. Yeah, I gotta do the laundry.\u201d) and he has begun to show his work on weekends in his East Village home, where he has lived since 1962.<\/p>\n

Why, we wondered, had he not been showing his work until now?\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a question my closest friends associated in the art community have asked me over the years,\u201d he says. \u201cI found that my efforts most recently in Yonkers have been very productive. There is an intriguing notion coming to me that this work is a summary of the many singular explorations that came before. I think there are some things I am currently doing that I feel warrant a bit of public visibility and scrutiny. The work has been quite challenging. I am becoming more and more assured by others that the works are distinctive and awaiting an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can explore La Fontaine\u2019s work at cliffordlafontaine.com<\/a> and on Instagram at @clifford.lafontaine<\/a>.<\/p>\n