Al Held
Born in 1928, Al Held was a leading artist working with Hard-edge Abstraction, drawing from traditions spanning Abstract Expressionism to Cubism. Born in New York, Held studied at the Art Students League, and, in 1949, went to Paris to study art at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière under sculptor Ossip Zadkine.
Al Held
Born: 1928
Biography
Born in 1928, Al Held was a leading artist working with Hard-edge Abstraction, drawing from traditions spanning Abstract Expressionism to Cubism. Born in New York, Held studied at the Art Students League, and, in 1949, went to Paris to study art at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière under sculptor Ossip Zadkine. When Held returned to New York, his work began to reflect his interactions with the gestural paintings of Abstract Expressionist artists, as he used more animated brushstrokes and muted colors. Later, he began painting works somewhat in reaction to this aesthetic, using bold lines, colors, and stark geometric shapes in large, commanding pieces that associated him with a group of Abstract Expressionists using Hard-edge Abstraction. Held’s works from this period also feature interlocking letters of the alphabet in complex, structured compositions, many of which were in black and white. He received great acclaim for this work, and, in the late 1960s, began creating compositions with interwoven solids and planes, often resembling molecular or planetary forms, which create a receding depth into the painting itself.
In the 1980s, he settled in Italy, and his pieces increasingly featured curved lines, arabesques, and other forms reflecting the influence of the country’s Renaissance and Baroque architecture on his work. Held was a professor of art at Yale University from 1962 to 1980, and, toward the end of his life, painted large murals, such as a mural commission for the New York City subway system. His work has been exhibited at institutions such as The Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, the Steledjik Museum in Amsterdam, and galleries in Zurich, Berlin, and other cities throughout the world. He died in 2005 at his home in Italy.
1947 – Studied at the Art Students League, New York, NY
1949 – Studied at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere, Paris, France
Exhibitions
2013
Al Held: Alphabet Paintings – Cheim & Read, New York City, NY
2012
Black and White 1967 – Loretta Howard Gallery, New York City, NY
Post War American Art – David Klein Gallery, Birmingham, MI
2011
Al Held – Paintings 1959 – Craig F. Starr Gallery, New York City, NY
Contemporary Drawings from the Irving Stenn Jr. Collection – The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2010
Al Held: Selected Works, Marianne Friedland Gallery, Naples, FL (solo)
Big is Better, Wright Exhibition Space, Seattle, WA (solo)
Psychedelic: Optical and Visionary Art Since the 1960s , San Antonio Museum of Art, TX (solo)
2009
Al Held: Paintings 1979-1985, Paul Kasim Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
2006
In memory of Al Held, Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
Berlin-Tokyo/Tokyo-Berlin. Die Kunst zweier Städte, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
2005
Outside Europe: Aus der Sammlung Daimler Chrysler, DaimlerChrysler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2004
Kleinformate und Originalgraphik, Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich, Switzerland
Minimalism and After III: Neuerwerbungen / New Aquisitions, DaimlerChrysler Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2003
Painting Explosion: 1958-1963, Part I, Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
2002
Al Held & George Sugarman: The Early Sixties, Joan T. Washburn Gallery, New York, NY
2001
Au rendez-vous des amis (La ligne seule) 2, Musée d´art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
A defining generation. Then and Now. 1961 and 2001, The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA
Early Modern Art, The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA
1999
Alchemies of the Sixties. From the Rose Art Museum Permanent Collection, The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA
Abstractions Americaines 1940-1960, Musee Fabre, Montpellier, France
1998
Al Held Unfolding, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
1997
Abstract Expressionism in the United States, Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico
1996
Thinking Print: Books to Billboards, 1980-1995, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1992
Contemporary American Painting & Sculpture, American Embassy, Tel Aviv, Israel
Al Held & Milton Resnick 1955-1965, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, LA
Selected American Drawings, G.W. Einstein Company Inc. New York, NY
1991
Geometries of Color: American Post-Painterly, Stux Modern, New York, NY
1990
The Humanist Icon, The New York Academy of Art, New York, NY
Arbeiten von 1989, Acryl auf Leinwand, Tempera auf Papier, Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich, Switzerland
1989
Art in Place: Fifteen Years of Acquisitions, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1988
Sightings, Instituto de Estudios Norteamericanos, Barcelona, Spain
1987
Zeichnungen, Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich, Switzerland
1982
1954-1959, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY
1978
Paintings and Drawings, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
1977
Donald Morris Gallery, Birmingham, MI
Frühe Werke, Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich, Switzerland
1974
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
1970
Bilder, Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich, Switzerland
1968
Recent Paintings, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philidelphia, PA
1967
Bilder, Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich, Switzerland
1966
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1964
Bilder, Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich, Switzerland
Videos
Al Held Room at the Metropolitan Museum of Art
AL HELD: Black and White Paintings at Cheim & Read