During the final decade of his life, Gordon Rayner repeatedly returned to portraiture, creating stirring portraits of himself and others, including celebrated artists and his wife, Kate Regan Rayner.
In the summer of 2010, the Christopher Cutts Gallery and Gordon Rayner were planning a self-portrait exhibition for the fall. Unexpectedly, Rayner passed away in September of that year, and what was to be a self-portrait show became an exhibition celebrating his career.
Now, after 14 years, the show that was to be, is. “The Illustrated Man” will feature 12 raw self-portraits of the artist in his final years, completed between 2001 and 2010. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue featuring an insightful essay by Canadian art critic Gary Michael Dault.
In the text, Gary Michael Dault describes these evocative self-portraits as “utterly fearless in their unsparing depiction of the hitherto swashbuckling painter now brought low by age, infirmity, by raw, angry wit, and roaring resignation. He looks like an old lion — with time’s thorn relentlessly piercing him more and more deeply.”
February 10 – March 2, 2024
“The Illustrated Man” will also include select pieces from previous CCG shows, an ode to Rayner’s dynamic Cutts Years.
