Brice Marden Distant Muses

Acclaimed American artist Brice Marden worked for decades in abstract mode, creating lush, monochromatic multiple-panel paintings and notebooks full of mesmerizing drawings that are imbued with the lyricism of calligraphy. He was deemed a master of minimalism.

“Ultimately, I’m using the painting as a sounding board for the spirit,” Marden once said. “You can be painting and go into a place where thought stops — where you can just be and it just comes out.”

Marden received his BFA from Boston University College of Fine Arts in 1961 and his MFA from Yale University’s School of Art in 1963. Afterward, the Bronxville, New York, native moved back to New York City. There, he was exposed to the work of Jasper Johns while he was working as a guard at the Jewish Museum and later Robert Rauschenberg’s art when he became Rauschenberg’s studio assistant.

Apart from these iconic artists and the Abstract Expressionist movement, Marden’s inspirations were numerous and broad-ranging: trips to the Hydra islands in Greece beginning in the early 1970s (he kept a home there), Baroque masters like Francisco Goya and Chinese stone carvings from the late eighth century. Each of these influences yielded a milestone in Marden’s career, whether he created a revered series of paintings or incorporated a new technique or approach in a practice that had been otherwise evolving for years.

Marden is also known for having experimented with the tools he used to paint his networks of colorful, rhythmic lines. Sometimes he replaced brushes with sticks, dipping their ends in ink and making art that references Chinese calligraphy. In his early days, Marden was also known to paint with kitchen spatulas. His dedication to gesture and line was at the heart of his practice.

Marden’s work can be found in the collections of the Tate Britain, the Art Institute of Chicago, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and other institutions.

Find a collection of authentic Brice Marden prints and other art on 1stDibs.

Explore a vast range of abstract prints on 1stDibs to find a piece to enhance your existing collection or transform a space.

Unlike figurative paintings and other figurative art, which focuses on realism and representational perspectives, abstract art concentrates on visual interpretation. An artist may use a single color or simple geometric forms to create a world of depth. Printmaking has a rich history of abstraction. Through materials like stone, metal, wood and wax, an image can be transferred from one surface to another.

During the 19th century, iconic artists, including Edvard Munch, Paul Cézanne, Georgiana Houghton and others, began exploring works based on shapes and colors. This was a departure from the academic conventions of European painting and would influence the rise of 20th-century abstraction and its pioneers, like Pablo Picasso and Piet Mondrian.

Some leaders of European abstraction, including Franz Kline, were influenced by the gestural shapes of East Asian calligraphy. Calligraphy interprets poetry, songs, symbols or other means of storytelling into art, from works on paper in Japan to elements of Islamic architecture.

Bold, daring and expressive, abstract art is constantly evolving and dazzling viewers. And entire genres have blossomed from it, such as Color Field painting and Minimalism.

The collection of abstract art prints on 1stDibs includes etchings, lithographs, screen-prints and other works, and you can find prints by artists such as Joan Miró, Alexander Calder and more.