The Lark: Vol 6, Issue 6, August 2026

Exhibit: Irving Guyer Paintings
Bunny Fain Gallery at Temple Habonim, Barrington

By Mark Guyer

I would like to let the LLC community know that there will be a show of my father’s (Irving Guyer) paintings at the Bunny Fain Gallery at Temple Habonim in Barrington. The show will open with a reception on Thursday, August 27th from 5-7 PM, and will remain on exhibit for three months.

Irving studied at the Art Students League in NY in the mid-1930s. He was then employed by the Works Project Administration (WPA) Federal Art Project as a painter and printmaker and served in the US Army Signal Corps during WWII, providing illustrations for technical manuals. When I was born in 1944, he had to decide whether he should pursue a career as a fine artist or earn a living to support his family. He chose the latter, and worked as an art director, graphic designer, and illustrator for his working life.
In the early 1960s, when his four children were sufficiently grown, he returned to serious painting and produced a number of gestural abstract paintings related to the New York School that integrated figurative elements within their overall compositions. He had three shows at a New York City gallery, but unfortunately no records were kept of the sales, and we have lost track of those paintings.

When my first child, Anya, was born in 1977, my parents (who were by then living in San Francisco) came to Bethesda, MD to meet their new granddaughter. During that visit, we went to a show of Henri Matisse cut outs at the National Gallery. Although Irving knew about the cut outs from reproductions, he was blown away by seeing them in person; this led to a radical change in his painting style. Influenced by the Matisse’s cut outs, he started painting Pacific Coast landscapes in a style characterized by simplified, abstract shapes in dynamic compositions, and a deep engagement with color and light.

After my parents moved to Nevada City, CA in the Sierra foothills in 1985, his painting style changed a couple of more times, while continuing his exploration of landscape and abstraction. His daily observation of the forest, skies and geology inspired his work as he progressed through a range of formal approaches. His approach was to explore a given style of painting until he felt he had exhausted what he wanted from it and then to move on to try another, very different style. Even in his nineties and with his eyesight compromised by macular degeneration, through the 2000s, he continued his daily practice of painting, creating several bodies of innovative work. When he died suddenly in 2012, there was a partially completed portrait of my mother on his easel.

His work is held in numerous public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Smithsonian American Art Museum; National Gallery of Art; Brooklyn Museum; Baltimore Museum of Art; UC Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive; New York Public Library Print Collection; and several others.

The gallery at Temple Habonim at 165 New Meadow Road in Barrington is open Tuesdays-Thursdays 1-4 PM, and 10 AM-1 PM on Fridays, and by appointment. Alternatively, his work can be seen at his website, irvingguyerart.com.