Al Held: The Sixties
White Cube is pleased to present an exhibition by Al Held (1928鈭�2005), the first solo presentation of his work in London since 2008. Focusing on paintings made in New York during the 1960s, the selection includes key works which exemplify Held鈥檚 unique exploration of hard-edge geometric abstraction. Featuring large-scale paintings and works on paper, the exhibition reveals the artist鈥檚 dedication to developing his own distinctive graphic language. As the poet Frank O鈥橦ara saw it, Held was 鈥榦ne of the most controversial and powerful painters鈥� working in New York at that time.
The Sixties were a decade synonymous with an explosion of new styles and ideas aimed at expanding consciousness and bridging the gap between aesthetics and technology. During this period, Held became widely recognised for his individual approach to abstraction, leading fellow painter Alex Katz to comment of his 1960s works: 鈥楽ome of them are as good as anything painted on the planet at that time.鈥� Held鈥檚 rigorous exploration of hard-edge geometry to distil the decade鈥檚 tumult into elemental forms and relationships resulted in two of his most well-known bodies of work: the 鈥楢lphabet鈥� paintings (1961鈥�67) and the 鈥楤lack and White鈥� paintings (1967鈥�78).
鈥楢l Held: The Sixties鈥� presents five of the colourful 鈥楢lphabet鈥� paintings, including the monumental 8-metre wide Circle and Triangle (1964) and three spatially complex 鈥楤lack and White鈥� paintings. In the 鈥楢lphabet鈥� series Held focused on the reduction of linear forms using monumental graphic letters whose contours are often pushed to the outer limits of the composition. Positive and negative space become equally important, lending the paintings a flattened but illusionistic depth of field. In The 鈥淚鈥� (1965), for example, the letter form of a capitalised 'I' seems at first almost indiscernible; a field of black bordered on each side by negative space, defined as two small slices of white. Countless coats of acrylic paint record Held鈥檚 attempt to heighten the emotional impact of his shapes, endowing them with texture, personality and an intense physicality. By 1963, the 鈥楢lphabet鈥� series had expanded from the strict use of letter forms to encompass a panoply of hard-edged images that were found or invented. Shapes like circles or squares are enlarged and transformed into monumental forms, painted with delicate nuance. A reduction of both form and colour enabled Held to focus on scale as a conceptual element, resulting in pictures that were enlarged to an epic scale while still maintaining a profoundly human sense of proportion.
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White Cube is pleased to present an exhibition by Al Held (1928鈭�2005), the first solo presentation of his work in London since 2008. Focusing on paintings made in New York during the 1960s, the selection includes key works which exemplify Held鈥檚 unique exploration of hard-edge geometric abstraction. Featuring large-scale paintings and works on paper, the exhibition reveals the artist鈥檚 dedication to developing his own distinctive graphic language. As the poet Frank O鈥橦ara saw it, Held was 鈥榦ne of the most controversial and powerful painters鈥� working in New York at that time.
The Sixties were a decade synonymous with an explosion of new styles and ideas aimed at expanding consciousness and bridging the gap between aesthetics and technology. During this period, Held became widely recognised for his individual approach to abstraction, leading fellow painter Alex Katz to comment of his 1960s works: 鈥楽ome of them are as good as anything painted on the planet at that time.鈥� Held鈥檚 rigorous exploration of hard-edge geometry to distil the decade鈥檚 tumult into elemental forms and relationships resulted in two of his most well-known bodies of work: the 鈥楢lphabet鈥� paintings (1961鈥�67) and the 鈥楤lack and White鈥� paintings (1967鈥�78).
鈥楢l Held: The Sixties鈥� presents five of the colourful 鈥楢lphabet鈥� paintings, including the monumental 8-metre wide Circle and Triangle (1964) and three spatially complex 鈥楤lack and White鈥� paintings. In the 鈥楢lphabet鈥� series Held focused on the reduction of linear forms using monumental graphic letters whose contours are often pushed to the outer limits of the composition. Positive and negative space become equally important, lending the paintings a flattened but illusionistic depth of field. In The 鈥淚鈥� (1965), for example, the letter form of a capitalised 'I' seems at first almost indiscernible; a field of black bordered on each side by negative space, defined as two small slices of white. Countless coats of acrylic paint record Held鈥檚 attempt to heighten the emotional impact of his shapes, endowing them with texture, personality and an intense physicality. By 1963, the 鈥楢lphabet鈥� series had expanded from the strict use of letter forms to encompass a panoply of hard-edged images that were found or invented. Shapes like circles or squares are enlarged and transformed into monumental forms, painted with delicate nuance. A reduction of both form and colour enabled Held to focus on scale as a conceptual element, resulting in pictures that were enlarged to an epic scale while still maintaining a profoundly human sense of proportion.
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White Cube is presenting an exhibition by Al Held (1928鈭�2005), the first solo presentation of his work in London since 2008.
