Lari Pittman. Flying Carpet with Magic Mirrors for a Distorted Nation. 2013. Cel-vinyl, spray enamel on canvas over wood panel, 108 x 360 1/8” (274.3 x 914.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of the Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation, The Broad Art Foundation, and Jill and Peter Kraus. Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles. © Lari Pittman
How does an artist approach the grand tradition of history painting in the era of late capitalism, a time marked not by great heroes and legendary victories but by systemic inequity and unrelenting violence? With Flying Carpet with Magic Mirrors for a Distorted Nation, part of a group of three “flying carpet” paintings that was the centerpiece of his 2013 exhibition From a Late Western Impaerium, Lari Pittman considers the heavy psychological toll of life under a declining empire.