Larry Poons
Lawrence Poons (born October 1, 1937), better known as Larry Poons, is an abstract painter who was born in Tokyo, Japan. He studied from 1955 to 1957 at the New England Conservatory of Music, with the intent of becoming a professional musician. In 1959, he enrolled at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and also studied at the Art Students League of New York. He rose to prominence in the 1960s with paintings of circles and ovals on solid—often brilliantly colored—backgrounds. These paintings conveyed a sense of movement, and were categorized as op art. Although he exhibited with optical artists in 1965, by 1966 he had moved away from the optical art towards looser and more painterly abstract canvases. His work is associated with Op Art, Hard-edge painting, Color Field painting, Lyrical Abstraction and Abstract Expressionism. Larry Poons taught at The Art Students League from 1966-1970 and currently teaches at the League (since 1997). He played guitar with The Druds, a short-lived avant-garde noise music art band that featured prominent members of the New York proto-conceptual art and minimal art community in the early 60s. As a vintage motorcycle racer who divides his time between painting and motorcycle racing, Poons has been given special awards from the American Historic Racing Motorcycle Association (AHRMA), including the 500 cc Hailwood Cup in 1998 and 2003, and the 2003 John & Ginny Demoisey Trophy for road racing couples, with his wife, painter Paula DeLuccia. He races a Matchless G50 and a Ducati 250. He currently resides primarily in New York City, but also maintains a studio in upstate New York.