Paul Laffoley was able to blend multiple disciplines such as philosophy, architecture and science in his works to talk about spirituality and mysticism
Artist, painter and architect. Impossible to define the creative identity of Paul Laffoley (1935 – 2015). His works are majestic canvases on which shapes, words and colors come to life that recall the East, but communicate with the Western psychedelic tradition.
The life of Paul Laffoley
Paul Laffoley was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1935. His family is of Irish descent and his father is a lawyer, president of the Cambridge Trust Company and lecturer at Harvard Business School.
Despite mixed learning outcomes during his teens, Laffoley redeems himself in his undergraduate career by earning a special mention degree in classical studies and art history at Brown University in 1961.
That same year he enrolled in the Harvard Graduate School of Design to continue his studies, choosing architecture as his address.
However, a year later he is expelled from the university by a decision of the grand jury that accuses him of being obsessively involved in his work.
The meeting that will change the trajectory of his artistic career happens by chance. Laffoley’s uncle gives him a copy of Progressive Architecture and so the artist discovers the work of Frederick John Kiesler.
After sending him 17 letters, Laffoley finally manages to get a meeting with Kiesler and becomes his apprentice in 1963. This experience opens the doors to the cultural life of New York where he meets. Warhol who offers him room and board in exchange for work.
The artistic research of Paul Laffoley
Meanwhile, Laffoley continues to paint in the basement of his family home in Belmont and comes to sketch out his first complete art theme: the Kali-Yugathe era of the world which, according to the Hindu tradition, coincides with the end of the Universe.
Here was born Laffoley’s interdisciplinary vision that combines philosophy, science, architecture and spirituality in the practice of painting. In his early works, a recurring subject is the Asian mandalas, known during the period of work with Warhol.
From here Laffoley comes to define his pictorial archetypes, which he called: operating systems, psychotronic tools, meta-energy, time travel And lucid dream.
His works are conceived as “Structured singularities”i.e. unique pieces that are not part of the production series.
Laffoley works on huge canvases that take up to three years of work each. Behind each canvas there is a careful codification that determines its structure.
In the 1980s his artistic production becomes even more spiritual and his works are transformed into interactive tools designed to allow the viewer to reach a state of mystical revelation.
Although Laffoley will not be able to obtain his license as an architect before the age of 50, architecture has a significant weight in his expressive language.
It can be said that the words and images used in the works are the architectural elements that make up a spiritual structure that explores concepts generated by the fusion of ancient philosophical disciplines and theories on the cosmic origin of mankind.
Paul Laffoley’s legacy is represented by Kent Fine Art.