Herb Alpert: Recent Works

To celebrate the premiere of the documentary “Herb Alpert Is…”, Heather James presents an exclusive online exhibition of recent works by renowned Jazz musician and visual artist Herb Alpert. Most known as the leader of the Tijuana Brass, selling over 72 million records as well as racking up 14 platinum albums and 9 Grammy Awards, Alpert has spent more than half his life as a visual artist.

Alpert has translated his musical sensibilities into painting and sculptures. Utilizing the stylistic language of Abstract Expressionism, which was the dominant artist movement when Alpert began painting, Alpert creates dialogues between both music and painting. The artworks are filled with sensuous designs as if improvised, a single moment captured like a snippet of jazz made corporeal. Alpert’s process and the resultant paintings speak to both visual and aural pleasures.

His works have been exhibited nationally and internationally. His recent shows at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming and Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California explore Alpert’s sculptures. These monumental works, known as ‘Spirit Totems’, are at once familiar and awe-inspiring. Alpert also participated in the inaugural Art Macao in 2019 in Wynn Macau’s “Garden of Earthly Delight”. A forest of Alpert’s sculptures along with Alpert’s video rendition of Puttin’ on the Ritz blossom into a garden of optical and acoustical delight.

Since 1969, he has infused his works with an expressionist freedom of movement. In this exhibition, his recent paintings speak to his continuing pictorial evolution and exploration of form, color, and process. At the same time, the works stay true to Alpert’s on unique perspective. As he notes, “The hardest part as an artist in any art form, is to find your own voice. Honesty is the running thread of all good artists.”

And it is that honesty which is evident in the document, “Herb Alpert Is…” The documentary explores the life and many aspects of Alpert and what he has meant for so many. Included are interviews by Sting, Questlove, and Quincy Jones. Not just a musician and visual artist, Alpert has also dedicated his life to philanthropy and was the co-founder of A&M records which housed acts from Janet Jackson to Cat Stevens to The Carpenters.