Harold LaVigne

Side one: Reading figures and still-lifes.
Side two: Various figures and still-lifes.
Harold LaVigne settled in San Francisco in 1957, and along with his brother, Robert, became part of the creative ferment of the Bay Area counterculture. He kept company with a circle of artists and poets that included Rick Barton (1928-1992), Byron Hunt (1905-1993), and David Nelson (b. 1941). In 1965 LaVigne opened a short-lived gallery called Joker's Flux on Fillmore Street. Between 1965 and 1971 he operated Running Elk Press, which published print portfolios, including his own Persons (1966) and The Penis is an Angry Face (1967) by Barton and Nelson, both in the Morgan collection. Barton trained LaVigne in his distinctive style of line drawing, which LaVigne took up in earnest. He introduces his own repertoire of subjects, including portraits of his wife, Lani Chamberlain, and children. On side one of this drawing, Chamberlain, who was herself an artist, is seen reading at the kitchen table. On side two, she is pictured at the upper right. One of LaVigne's children is seen sleeping at center left, and another is crawling at bottom center. This double-sided drawing, which was made when LaVigne and his family lived in Richland, Washington, highlights his seamless merging of domestic subjects with the rich café life of bohemian San Francisco.