Al Held: Particular Paradox
Van Doren Waxter is pleased to announce Al Held: Particular Paradox, from a series by the same name, our first solo exhibition of watercolors by the artist since the gallery began representing the drawings and watercolors from the Al Held Foundation in 2014. The exhibition is on view May 6 - July 2, 2015 and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, including an essay by Barbara Rose.
Al Held was awarded a residency at the American Academy in Rome in 1981, an experience that would greatly influence his life and work from that point forward. Taken with Italy鈥檚 Baroque architecture and Renaissance frescos, Held began studying Italian masters including Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Luca Signorelli, and Michelangelo. Beginning in the nineties, he split his time between a home in Camerata di Todi, Italy and his home in Boiceville, New York. Barbara Rose notes in her introductory essay: 鈥溾�eld [鈥 believed that paradox and contradiction, and conflict and harmony, could be reconciled through human will.鈥� In his Camerata studio, immersing himself in the newly found inspirations, Held worked laboriously in tackling the reconciliation he had been searching for throughout his career. In Italy, Held worked primarily in watercolor, a medium he liked because of its immediacy, fluidity and the directness it gave him. Held鈥檚 visions offer an unmoored vantage point, conceiving of perspectives that are illusive and imaginary through the manipulation of basic geometric objects within often contradictory and converging planes. While the watercolors he made in Italy influenced the immense paintings he produced in his Boiceville studio, Held considered his watercolors to be a separate completed body of work.
Recommended for you
Van Doren Waxter is pleased to announce Al Held: Particular Paradox, from a series by the same name, our first solo exhibition of watercolors by the artist since the gallery began representing the drawings and watercolors from the Al Held Foundation in 2014. The exhibition is on view May 6 - July 2, 2015 and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, including an essay by Barbara Rose.
Al Held was awarded a residency at the American Academy in Rome in 1981, an experience that would greatly influence his life and work from that point forward. Taken with Italy鈥檚 Baroque architecture and Renaissance frescos, Held began studying Italian masters including Giotto, Piero della Francesca, Luca Signorelli, and Michelangelo. Beginning in the nineties, he split his time between a home in Camerata di Todi, Italy and his home in Boiceville, New York. Barbara Rose notes in her introductory essay: 鈥溾�eld [鈥 believed that paradox and contradiction, and conflict and harmony, could be reconciled through human will.鈥� In his Camerata studio, immersing himself in the newly found inspirations, Held worked laboriously in tackling the reconciliation he had been searching for throughout his career. In Italy, Held worked primarily in watercolor, a medium he liked because of its immediacy, fluidity and the directness it gave him. Held鈥檚 visions offer an unmoored vantage point, conceiving of perspectives that are illusive and imaginary through the manipulation of basic geometric objects within often contradictory and converging planes. While the watercolors he made in Italy influenced the immense paintings he produced in his Boiceville studio, Held considered his watercolors to be a separate completed body of work.
Artists on show
Contact details
What's on nearby
