Al Held
AL HELD "CAMERATA XVI" WATERCOLOR, 1989
Al Held (1928-2005) was one of the most prominent and successful American artists. associated with the hard-edge painting. He was a pioneer in the evolution of abstraction and redefined the possibilities of geometry, form, and color on a two-dimensional plane.
Held continuously evolved throughout his five-decade career and explored a range of styles and aesthetics. In the late 1950s, the artist made a career-defining pivot from gestural abstraction, moving towards the strict geometry that defined hard-edge painting in the 1960s.
Unlike his contemporaries, such as Ellsworth Kelly or Kenneth Noland, whose work emphasized the flatness of the canvas, Held presented volumetric shapes that challenged spatial depth and traditional perceptions of the two-dimensional surface.
"Camerata XVI" is a striking work on paper from the last chapter of the artist's career. In the late 1980's Held embrace and mastered watercolor. In this work, a series of dynamic geometric shapes seem to float on a deep eggplant colored backdrop. The artist expertly manipulates the depth and perspective of each form through color, using vibrant shades of lemon yellow, marigold, ochre, cobalt, and terracotta to create a motion and lightness.
Today, Held's work is celebrated in public collections across the globe including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris, to name a few.
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"Camerata XVI"
1989
Watercolor
Signed and dated by artist, verso
18"H 23.75"W (work)
27"H 33"W (framed)
Very good condition
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