Presented by David Pagel, art critic and frequent "Los Angeles Times" contributor; associate professor of art theory and history, Claremont Graduate University; adjunct curator, the Parrish Art Museum

Los Angeles-based critic David Pagel examines Jules Olitski’s legacy through the artist's influence on a group of painters who emerged in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. At the time, it was fashionable for artists to mock their forebears—an attitude exemplified by Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy, whose irreverent pieces and performances ridiculed the pretensions that had grown up around what had come to be known as high art.

At the same time, female artists such as Monique Prieto, Ingrid Calame, Linda Besemer, Laura Owens, and Jennifer Steinkamp looked back on the art of the previous generation—primarily Color Field—not as fodder for derision or criticism, but as an unexpected source of inspiration for their own groundbreaking works. By the time these young women were coming into their own, it was nearly impossible to be taken seriously as an abstract painter—yet that is what they set out to achieve.

Looking back to works by Olitski, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Larry Poons, and Helen Frankenthaler, Prieto and company invited viewers to see the past as a rich source of visual kicks that need not be dismissed simply because they were once promoted by a powerful critic. The willingness of this unique group of artists to embrace the recent past represented a secular redemption from the culture of one-upmanship that had long characterized the art world.

A reception sponsored by contemporary@mfah follows the lecture.

This event is open to the public. Admission is free.