For decades, tens of thousands of photographs depicting average American life before and during World War II have sat forgotten in the Library of Congress archives.
Most of the time, their subjects don’t have names and are in black and white.
But Roslyn artist Alan Richards is giving a selection of these unknown figures and the worlds they once lived in a new life in his latest exhibition, “Let Me Show You Something,” at the Art League of Long Island from March 29 through April 12 in Dix Hills.
Richards creates his “photomontages” primarily from black-and-white photos from the Office of War Information, Farm Services Administration, and commercial photographs captured around WWII.
Whether it’s a person, object, background, or other striking visual in a picture, Richards creates a new image and scene from these components and adds color to give the subjects new life.
“It’s a captured moment in time, usually between only one or two persons,” Richards said.
Richards also draws inspiration from his personal life when creating his photomontages.
In his work, “Sunday in the Park with Georges,” children run around and climb a jungle gym while older men sit on the top. The apartment building Richards placed in the background is the very same one where he grew up in Fresh Meadows, Queens.
“I grew up in that type of park,” Richards said. “Those guys grew up in that neighborhood in my head; they’ve been meeting at this park forever.”
“Sunday in the Park with Georges” is a nod to the Stephen Sondheim-James Lapine Broadway musical of nearly the same name. It was about the post-Impressionist French artist Georges Seurat, who pioneered a technique known as Pointillism, and was best known for his masterpiece “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.”
Asked why he used the Sondheim musical as the name of his exhibit, Richards said he likes to be playful with his titles. He figured it would be funny to connect the famous painting and the musical if there were multiple “Georges” sitting around in a park of his own imagination. He often adds puns in the same vein across his work.
Alan Richards’ “So, What’s New?” puts together images of women looking out of their windows, keeping up with the latest neighborhood news. Courtesy of Alan Richards
While Richards now spends days at a time creating each photomontage, he only started creating art full-time around 15 years ago. Richards said working as an audiologist and other personal obligations prevented him from exploring his artistic side.
But Richards said he’s always had a creative knack. His mother was an oil painter and his father was a commercial artist. Even during his free time at work, Richards would create sketches and watercolors of his surroundings.
Since entering the art world over a decade ago, Richards has featured his work at dozens of galleries and art shows, including the Nassau County Museum of Art, the Heckscher Museum, and Sid Jacobson JCC.
Edward Hopper and David Hockney are among Richards’ inspirations, with the vibrant pastels and often solitary figures in Hockney’s work and serene subjects in Hopper’s paintings attracting Richards’ attention.
Richards said he hopes his latest exhibition will allow people of his generation to view their pasts in new, colorful ways and for younger generations to look at and appreciate what came before them.
The artwork featured in “Let Me Show You Something” also appears in Richards’ flip book “History Re-Imaged,” which Richards said wouldn’t have been possible without his wife catching his every grammatical mistake.
Richards’ exhibition “Let Me Show You Something” is open at the Art League of Long Island in Dix Hills from Saturday, March 29, to Saturday, April 12. A reception will be held on Saturday, April 5, from 1 to 3 p.m. To learn more about Alan Richards’ work, visit www.alanrichardsart.com.
