Mug Shot
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Simon Gaon is a straight-up expressionist. He conveys rich, strong feelings about his surroundings, insisting on directness both of application and observation. New York born and trained, his style and sensibility are nonetheless directly European, having little truck with developments since Van Gogh, Kokoschka or Soutine. Best known for big, gutsy, effulgent cityscapes and street scenes, he is also a prolific portrait painter, preferring casually chanced upon characters over commissioned or requested formal portraits, in keeping with his aesthetics of immediacy and authenticity. Painterly mug shots, you could say. Small Portraits continues at AFP Galleries in the Fuller Building, 595 Madison Avenue at 57th Street, 212-230-1003, until August 19.
Mr. Cohen, editor of artcritical.com, is art critic of the Sun.
