Henry Taylor, the democratic king of portraiture, makes his LA homecoming at MOCA

LOS ANGELES -- If you were to paint a portrait of Henry Taylor, you might start with his smile: brilliant, devilish, inhabiting both the mouth and the eyes.

My portrait of Taylor would start with his voice and its cadences. Taylor gets gravelly when he wants to confide but can pierce a crowded room with a roaring "Girl! What's UP!?!" Words are drawn out for impact and expletives dispensed as tokens of admiration. Of 20th century abstractionist James Jarvaise and comic book artists Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, he declares: "Those motherf— can draw!"

Taylor's conversation can meander from Philip Guston's late work to that time he met Bob Marley backstage at a concert. Ideas come so quickly that he cuts them off with a refrain, "Know what I mean?" Hamza Walker, a curator who has known Taylor for a decade, says that if he were to create a portrait of the artist, he too would start with his words: "'Know What I Mean' — that's what I would call my portrait of Henry."

The best depictions of Taylor, however,