Leon Golub

On a recent trip to the San Francisco Museuam of Modern Art we came upon this painting by my husband's cousin, Leon Golub. He was married to my MIL's cousin, and the first time I met him was at my siter-in-law's wedding. It was the late 1980's and he was wearing a linen jacket over a t-shirt of a matching color, a la Miami Vice, and his wife, artist Nancy Spero, had short spikey hair and leopard leggings. I thought they were crashing the wedding. I would never have guessed they were realtives. I did not attempt to eject them from the wedding and in the time since, I have seen quite a lot of both of their work. They joked that he painted men and she painted women, which is true but not enough information. Leon's work is huge--larger than life canvases that are gritty. Almost always a little disturbing, too. They set you on edge a bit. They move you well outside your confort zone and make you think in ways you might not like to, about things you might prefer to avoid. One thing is true--you know him when you see him. No need to check the name card. It is always nice to happen upon one of his paintings that I hadn't seen, and this was o exception.