New Morning 2

2011-07-03T15:51:00.000-07:00

New Morning 2
Acrylic on Canvas 40x40 inches
Raymond Neher
From a slide of the original artwork

Raymond Neher's work "New Morning 2" shows a figure apparently floating in the heavens while holding a rainbow in his outstretched hands.

The figure evokes the resurrected Christ, and the title of the piece implies a sense of rebirth.

This is one of two paintings from the period in which Neher painted a rainbow into the piece. (The other is his piece "The Californians".) When taken together, one can guess at the euphoria and sense of rebirth that Neher experienced with his move to San Francisco in 1973.

The Californians

2011-07-03T15:12:00.000-07:00

The Californians
Acrylic on Canvas 36x48 inches Raymond Neher

Raymond Neher began his art career as a figurative painter, with works that represented his life first in New York, and later in San Francisco where he moved to in 1973, catching the tail end of the hippie movement which was well into the "dawning of the age of Aqarius".

His works from this period are wonderful representations of the fashions of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In this piece titled "The Californians", Neher places himself under the arc of a rainbow and at the center of his "rainbow family". (Neher is the figure in the center in blue overalls and pink bandanna).

In naming the piece "The Californians", Neher seems to be proclaiming his identity as "Californian", indicating that his move to the west coast represented not only a geographic move, but also a change in self-identification and affiliation on his part.