Joe Novak

Abstract Color Field Red Purple Gradient Aquatint Etching California Minimalism

2001

"Voices VI (A)" Aquatint Etching • Image: 12”x 14” • Paper: 30”x 22” • 2001 Hand signed and numbered 1/2 on BFK Rives paper. Joe Novak (1930-2019) California Contemporary Minimalist. His work is about the exploration of color and light through abstraction, with tonal gradations that infuse them with a meditative quality. During the eighties and nineties, he painted large monochromatic color field canvases with tonal gradations and soft edges that infuse them with a meditative quality and a sense of movement. When illuminated they become glowing surfaces of color and light. His artistic background and work link him closely with the first generation abstract expressionists of the New York School. Major influences include Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, and his mentors, Peter Busa and Esteban Vicente, whom he met and befriended during the eighties while living and painting in East Hampton. During the nineties, while living and working in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Novak initiated a project called "Light Emanations", in which he created digital computerized programs of changing light levels and configurations on a selection of his large paintings, dramatically illustrating the effect of light changes on color perception. Novak's body of work is extensive and include painting on canvas, panel and paper as well as monotypes, drawings, assemblages, mixed media and prints. He has often worked in series, focusing on a particular medium for years. Among these are "Meditations" (color pencil drawings), "Voices" and "Voices 2" (color aquatint etchings), "Echoes" (painting assemblage with minerals) and "Colors" (350 miniature panel paintings). In recent years his paintings have become more gestural, often with musical allusions. His work bears a relationship to the Light & Space Movement and Minimalism artists James Turrell, Larry Bell, Craig Kauffman, Billy Al Bengston, Peter Alexander, Laddie John Dill, Lita Albuquerque. these are also anticipative of the aquatint etching works by Anish Kapoor. Color Gradient, Abstract Art, Land Art. During the eighties and nineties, he painted large monochromatic color field canvases with tonal gradations and soft edges that infuse them with a meditative quality and a sense of movement. When illuminated they become glowing surfaces of color and light. Critic Christopher Knight wrote, Novak is an unabashed Color Field painter. His paintings and aquatints at Bert Green Fine Arts — the Santa Fe artist's third show there — feature works that will call to mind abstractions as diverse as those by Helen Frankenthaler, Mark Rothko and Morris Louis and the landscape abstractions of Joe Goode. Novak's work is in many public and private collections, including numerous museum collections. He spent his last years living in Palm Springs. Selected Group Exhibitions Bert Green Fine Art, Chicago, Illinois "Joe Novak/Huck Lewis-Bennett: A Collaboration", Stephen Archdeacon Gallery, Palm Springs Melissa Morgan Fine Art...

A Red, from Three Aquatints, 1979 Aquatint on six copper plates printed on Rives BFK paper Paper Size: 40 3/4 x 40 3/4 inches (103.5 x 103.5 cm); Image Size: 33 x 33 inches (83.8 x 83.8 cm) Signed and titled lower left front Edition of 50, 10 AP, 3 TP Published by Parasol Press, New York Printed by Hidekatsu Takada, assisted by David Kelso, Crown Point Press, Oakland, California Robert Mangold (born October 12, 1937) is an American minimalist artist. He is also father of film director and screenwriter James Mangold. Mangold first trained at the Cleveland Institute of Art from 1956-59, and then at Yale University, New Haven, (BFA, 1961; MFA, 1963). In 1961 he married Sylvia Plimack, and they moved to New York. In the summer of 1962 Mangold was hired as guard at the Museum of Modern Art. Mangold's work challenges the typical connotations of what a painting is or could be, and his works often appear as objects rather than images. Elements refer often to architectural elements or have the feeling architecture to them. He almost always works in extensive series, often carried through both paintings and lithograph works on paper. Mangold’s early work consisted largely of monochromatic free-standing constructions. In 1968 he began employing acrylic instead of oil painting, rolling rather than spraying it on Masonite or plywood grounds. Within the year, he moved from these more industrially oriented supports to canvas. In 1970 he began working with shaped canvases and within the year began brushing rather than spraying paint onto canvas. Mangold made his first prints in 1972 at Crown Point Press and has made prints throughout his career, working with Pace Editions and Brooke Alexander Editions. In 1965, the Jewish Museum in New York held the first major exhibition of what was called Minimal art (Minimalism) and included Robert Mangold. In 1967, he won a National Endowment for the Arts grant and in 1969, a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1971, he had his first solo museum exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum. Major museum exhibitions of his work have since been held the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (1974), the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (1982), Hallen für Neue Kunst in Schaffhausen (1993), and Musée d’Orsay in Paris (2006). He has been featured in the Whitney Biennial four times, in 1979, 1983, 1985, and 2004. His work is related to Geometric Abstraction. Select Exhibitions Robert Mangold, Bruce Nauman, Richard Serra: Extended Drawing, Bonnefantenmuseum Accrochage: Donald Judd, Louise Lawler, Sol LeWitt, and Robert Mangold, Galerie Greta Meert, Carl Andre, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Robert Mangold, Robert Ryman, Andrea Rosen Gallery, NY Tara Donovan, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, James Siena: Minimalist Prints, Augen Gallery, Portland Modulated Abstraction: Josef Albers, Carl Andre, Donald Judd, Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, Fred Sandback, Richard Tuttle, Brooke Alexander Editions, New York, NY Drawings from the 1970’s, Mel Bochner, Robert Mangold, Robert Moskowitz, Fred Sandback, Richard Tuttle, Lawrence Markey, New York, NY Systematic: Anne Appleby...

Violet composition is an original artwork realized in 1975 by Oscar Piattella. Hand signed, dated on the lower right margin. Numbered on the lower left. Edition of 54/100 prints. ...

Rupprecht Geiger (German, 1908-2009) Red on Violet (from Hundertbuch III), 1981 Medium: Screenprint on card Dimensions: 39.5 x 40 cm Edition of 100 + XX: Hand-signed in pencil, verso...