Paul Laffoley (b. August 14, 1935 - d. November 16, 2015)

November 17, 2015 3:28 PM

From his obituary: "The visionary artist and luminary, Paul Laffoley, has died today after a long battle with congestive heart failure. He had an extraordinary grasp of multiple fields of knowledge compulsively pursing interests that often lead him into uncharted territory. His complex theoretical constructs were uniquely presented in highly detailed mandala-like canvases largely scaled to Fibonacci's golden ratio." Some of his better known works are available on his website. HuffPo offers a surprisingly good survey of his more recent works. Previously. Apologies for the workmanlike quality of this FPP - I am genuinely upset at the news of Mr. Laffoley's passing.
posted by doctor tough love (10 comments total)

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posted by acb at 4:23 PM on November 17, 2015

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Remembrance by Richard Metzger on Dangerous Minds
posted by larrybob at 5:14 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh man RIP. Visionary Art museum in Baltimore had a lot of his stuff. Always reminded me of the D&D maps of the planes of existence. Like it wasn't actually art, but guidebooks for the futureverse.
posted by destro at 5:25 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

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posted by nanook at 6:08 PM on November 17, 2015

He was a kind of distant father figure to a portion of the Boston area zine scene in the late 80s, when I briefly lived there. I had a standing opportunity to visit his studio, through a friend of a friend, but I never took them up on the offer, to my lasting regret. He had a long and, even if it doesn't look like it, productive career.

It's always been a go-to term to call his stuff 'outsider', but he had representation at a major Manhattan gallery and seemed not to hurt for buyers. He seemed to me to know what he was doing, on both sides of that coin: create work that expressed what he had to say in the form he needed to say it, *and* navigate the higher tiers of the fine art world.
posted by ardgedee at 6:37 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

There is a great chapter on Laffoley in Disinformation Book of Lies. He occupied a unique space where he was artist/occultist/renegade philosopher and his stuff can really make you think.

(Richard Metzger from comment above is the editor of the B. o. L.)
posted by bukvich at 7:40 PM on November 17, 2015 [2 favorites]

Oh, this is sad news. I've loved his work for a long time. I hope that his afterlife is a chance to explore all the theoretical horizons he envisioned.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 9:32 PM on November 17, 2015 [1 favorite]

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posted by lipsum at 10:06 PM on November 17, 2015

I'm glad somebody made an FPP. He was my favorite living artist. I met him at Kent Gallery at his latest exhibit. I asked him what he was working on; he said a tarot deck and a project "about women." I wonder how much of that work he got done.

I mourn the loss of his presence here on this Earth.
posted by spacewaitress at 10:58 PM on November 17, 2015

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Oh man. I encountered his work for the first time at the Hamburger Bahnhof museum in Berlin a few years ago. I knew nothing of it before, but it really melted my brain. The incredible detail of the diagrams and text almost made the content of the text "true". Sort of a medium reinforces the message thing. So sad to lose him.
posted by sixohsix at 6:03 AM on November 18, 2015