Local artist’s painting will make music in New York museum

Thursday, Dec. 29, 2005 | 7:41 a.m.

The Museum of Modern Art in New York has acquired a painting by Las Vegas artist Tim Bavington, a breakthrough in the career of the abstractionist.

Bavington's "Physical S.E.X.," inspired by the music of a guitar solo in a song of the same name, will be placed in the museum's permanent collection.

"That's a very big deal in an artist's career and it's about the right time," said author and art critic Dave Hickey, who is a friend and former teacher of Bavington. "When that happens, you can honestly say that you are no longer a young artist."

The museum acquired the piece this month through a collector after a showing of Bavington's work at the Jack Shainman Gallery in New York. Michael Lynne, collector and co-chief executive of New Line Cinema, purchased and donated the piece after it was evaluated by the museum's acquisition committee.

"Everything has exceeded my expectations," Bavington, 39, said in a still-detectable British accent. "I didn't expect to have a successful career in abstact paintings--especially in abstract paintings."

A spokeswoman for the museum confirmed the acquisition but said that no museum officials familiar with the piece were available for comment Wednesday.

Bavington is known for vibrantly colored, striped airbrush paintings, a style he began in 1997 while a student in UNLV's Master of Fine Arts program.

The stripes are Bavington's method of transposing individual pieces of music to visual art. His work matches 12 tones of the musical scale with 12 tones of the color wheel. The width of a stripe matches the length of a note.

"It's based on an ideal about compositional harmony," he said.

"Physical S.E.X." is from a song by the British band The Darkness. Bavington's piece, an acrylic on linen triptych, represents 18 bars of music that he describes as "a screaming hard rock guitar solo. It's very high pitched."

Born in England in 1966, Bavington moved to Pasadena,Calif., at age 18. He earned a bachelor's degree in fine art from the Art Center of Design in Pasadena and became a commercial artist, mostly designing merchandising products for the animated television show "The Simpsons." He soon tired of the commercial art world and moved to Las Vegas.

Shortly after, Hickey recruited Bavington to UNLV, where Hickey teaches.

Bavington has exhibited at the Mark Moore Gallery in Los Angeles, as well as in galleries in California, Texas, New Mexico and Washington. His work is found in Oregon at the Portland Art Museum, which bought one of his early works, "Voodoo Child,"and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, which also has his "Roll With It," in its permanent collection.

Bavington's work is included at the Nevada Cancer Institute and Wynn Collection, among other local venues.

"Tim's a talented artist," Hickey said. "He's a very steady person, and he has realistic expectations. He's certainly moved steadily on. At every point where he could have gotten lazy, he hasn't. From show to show, his work has gravitated and developed."

"I remember the day Tim figured out that he was making more money from his serious paintings than from his work with 'The Simpsons.' It was a shock for the both of us."

Kristen Peterson can be reached at 259-2317 or at kristen@lasvegassun.com.