Vasanti Lackner Recent Works

"I spent my childhood in the company of my grandparents’ collection of Max Beckmann paintings. My grandfather, Stephan Lackner, met Beckmann in Nazi Germany, and dedicated his life to championing the “degenerate” artist’s work. Beckmann’s paintings instilled in me the firm belief that art is a beacon in times of internal and political unrest. It can be a manifestation of one’s own internal dialogue and a powerful tool to self-knowledge.

A California native, I studied painting and sculpture with Elizabeth Murray, Judy Pfaff, and William Tucker in New York. My work draws on the Hindu concept of the Residue. The Residue is what is left over from an act of perfection. It is the germ that perpetuates an imperfect world, which is nonetheless beautiful. Hindu mythology regards temple worship as a manifestation of this concept. Offerings are made to the gods in an act of spiritual perfection. After the gods have partaken, what is leftover (the temple, flowers, a charred floor where offerings were burned) is the Residue of this perfect moment. Applied to painting, the emphasis is on the process, and the end result itself is the imperfect residue."