Don Giffin, 55, abstract painter
Hyfler/Rosner
BYLINE: Myrna Oliver, LA Times Staff Writer
Don Giffin, an abstract painter who expanded the Southern California modes
of "color and light" and "finish fetish" art, melding impressions of
photography, printmaking and painting into a single work, has died. He was
55.
Giffin, a master printmaker as well as a painter, died July 22 at his home
in Marina del Rey of natural causes.
In 1995 he mounted the first of his five solo exhibitions at the Christopher
Grimes Gallery in Santa Monica. David Pagel described the artist's work in a
Times review as "perfectly smooth, glass-like surfaces" when viewed from
afar that seemed to decay as one approached.
"They make pain palpable and evoke mortality's inevitability," Pagel wrote
of Giffin's creations, which used layers of paint, gesso and tar that he
pulled apart as they dried. "His corporeal abstractions bypass your mind to
hit you in the stomach."
Giffin was one of 10 Los Angeles artists whose work was featured in the 1997
Biennial of the Orange County Museum of Art. In reviewing that exhibition
for The Times, Cathy Curtis wrote: "Don Giffin reinvents stain painting by
layering color in such a way that it emits an inner radiance verging on
iridescence."
The artist continued to push boundaries, and when he displayed his
6-by-5-foot acrylics at the Grimes Gallery in 2000, Pagel described them as
"mesmerizing works."
"The cross-fertilization between painting and photography that has been
cropping up in some of the most intriguing works being made today takes
breathless shape in Don Giffin's physically resplendent paintings," the
critic wrote.
Born in Chicago, Giffin earned his bachelor's and master's degree at what is
now Cal State Northridge.
"When I work," he once said, "it's like I'm doing a dance with the painting,
and I'm not always leading. When the imagery is mysterious, the surface is
perfectly smooth and the color contrast is just right -- with that glow of
pale color coming through -- it's sheer delight."
Giffin is survived by his wife, landscape architect Nancy Giffin, and his
mother, Eugenia Giffin.
The family has asked that any memorial contributions be made to Angel Puss
Cat Rescue, the Amanda Foundation or the Living Desert.