Archie Rand - The Letter Paintings 1968-1971

Dates

April 6 - May 18

Exhibition

   This group of paintings were created as a tribute to icons of popular r&b, early rock'n'roll, and blues musicians. The works were a response to the minimalist Color Field paintings that dominated the dialogue of the New York art community of the time. Rand paintings are covered with names of music groups and individual musicians, for the most part totally forgotten outside of music circles. The paintings' elaborate surfaces and hot colors utilized the newest developments in acrylics and other synthetic painting materials that were not yet available to the public at that time. Rand's use of language, the works' references beyond the paintings themselves, and their remarkable crafted surfaces relate them to other Conceptual and language-based art as well as to the later work of Pattern and Decoration and New Image painters of the '70s.

Exhibit Archive | 90-91 Calender