Al Held Prints and Multiples
American, 1928-2005
Alvin Jacob Held, (1928-2005) Al Held earned his slot in the annals of American contemporary art with his bold, geometric canvases that took abstraction to another level. His free-floating, interlocked cubes, and planes invited the viewer into a vertigo-inducing landscape that seemed to stretch on into infinity. "Immense architectural structures curve and slice through these complex paintings, often enmeshing themselves in cellular structures," noted the Times of London. "Viewers felt that they were exploring some mysterious universe, and Held never lost his passionate belief in abstract painting's ability to create a sublime new world."
Held grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and as a teenager, missed so many days of high school that it was suggested he consider leaving altogether. He eventually earned a night-school diploma, and spent two years in the U.S. Navy. Back in New York City, he enrolled in classes at the Art Students League, and went on to study at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris in the early 1950s. The first solo exhibition of his work was staged there, in 1952 at the Galerie Huit. Held's abstract work took on a more orderly, formal tone, aided by a switch from oil to acrylic paints in 1959, and he had his first solo show in New York City that same year at the Poindexter Gallery. "Finessing the gap between Minimalism and Color Field painting," wrote New York Times journalist Ken Johnson of the next decade of Held's career, "he produced smooth, simplified works based on enlarged letters of the alphabet. And in the late '60s and '70s he made complex black-and-white pictures of sharply outlined cubes, pyramids, and other geometric shapes floating in illusory spaces of indeterminate depth."
Some of Held's best-known works are those floating black and white cubes, a series he began in 1967. One of the largest, which stretches more than 90 feet in length, was installed at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York. In the late 1970s, in an abrupt shift, he began using color again, and the geometric shapes became so precise that they were sometimes mistaken for computer-generated art. Held considered his images not unlike those of religious art, once telling an interviewer that "historically, the priests and wise men believed that it was the artist's job to make images of heaven and hell believable, even though nobody had experienced these places," he said, according to his Chicago Tribune obituary.
Held spent 20 years teaching at Yale University's. Represented by the Robert Miller Gallery in New York City, which staged what would be his last exhibition of new work in 2003, Held's works were avidly sought by contemporary-art enthusiasts around the world, and were part of the permanent collections of many institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.
— Carol Brennanto
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Artist: Al Held
RUSSELL'S WAY
By Al Held
Located in Three Oaks, MI
In excellent condition from an edition of 50, this piece is beautifully framed in museum-quality materials. Al Held is best remembered for his large-scale paintings of bright, hard-e...
Category
1880s Abstract Expressionist Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Archival Paper, Etching, Aquatint
Russell's Way, Large Colorful Geometric Abstract Etching by Al Held
By Al Held
Located in Long Island City, NY
Russell’s Way by Al Held, American (1928–2005)
Date: 1969
Aquatint on Somerset paper, signed, dated, and numbered in pencil verso
Edition of 37/50
Image Size: 35.5 x 44.5 inches
Size...
Category
1960s Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
Scholes I, Large Framed Geometric Abstract by Al Held
By Al Held
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Al Held, American (1928 - 2005)
Title: Scholes I
Year: 1991
Medium: Silkscreen, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 80
Image Size: 23 x 29 inches
Size: 29 x 34 in. (73.66 ...
Category
1990s Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Screen
Scholes II, Screenprint by Al Held
By Al Held
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Al Held, American (1928 - 2005)
Title: Scholes II
Year: 1991
Medium: Silkscreen, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 80
Image Size: 23 x 29 inches
Size: 29 x 34 in. (73.66...
Category
1990s Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Screen
Untitled - 20th Century Brightly Colored Print, Yellow, Red, Green + Grey Circle
By Al Held
Located in Kingsclere, GB
Born in Brooklyn in 1928 to Polish immigrants, Al Held claims to have been expelled from high school in the Bronx in 1944. After serving in the U.S. Navy from 1945 to 1947, Held asso...
Category
20th Century Abstract Expressionist Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Screen
S.F.
By Al Held
Located in Henderson, NV
Al Held is know for his volumetric geometric compositions.
Category
1980s Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
Putu, Large Colorful Geometric Abstract Etching by Al Held
By Al Held
Located in Long Island City, NY
Putu by Al Held, American (1928–2005)
Date: 1988
Aquatint Etching, signed, numbered and dated in pencil verso
Edition of 16/25
Image Size: 35.5 x 44.5 inches
Size: 41 in. x 53.5 in. ...
Category
1980s Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
Kyoto-wa
By Al Held
Located in New York, NY
One of the most recognizable and collectible images by Al Held, Kyoto-wa was created by the artist as an original woodcut with lithography in 1985. Hand-signed in pencil, dated and ...
Category
Late 20th Century Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Lithograph, Woodcut
Scholes I
By Al Held
Located in New York, NY
This screenprint was created by the artist in 1991. Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 80 measuring 29 x 34 in. (73.7 x 86.4 cm.). Published by The Metropolitan Museu...
Category
20th Century Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Screen
Scholes II
By Al Held
Located in New York, NY
This screenprint was created by the artist in 1991. Signed in pencil and numbered from the edition of 80 measuring 29 x 34 in. (73.7 x 86.4 cm.). Published by The Metropolitan Museu...
Category
20th Century Contemporary Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Screen
Pachinko
By Al Held
Located in San Francisco, CA
Category
Al Held Prints and Multiples
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Catalogue Raisonne: K. Tyler Tyler Graphics: Catalogue Raisonné, 1974-1985, New York: Abbeville Press, 1987. p. 289.
Alan Shields came of age artistically in the late 1960s in New York. Expanding the boundaries of Minimalism, he became known as a master of aesthetic invention through his wide-ranging exploration of materials and techniques. His mixed media works often contain combinations of traditional silkscreen processes combined with found materials. New York Times critic Roberta Smith wrote in her 2005 obituary for the artist: "Mr. Shields's work combined expanses of gorgeous stained color, reminiscent of Helen Frankenthaler's canvases, with the humbler crafts and a Gypsy sense of portability." Critic Robert Hughes has described Shields as a brilliant bricoleur who could, and often did, make art out of just about anything. He became an innovative printmaker, experimenting with handmade paper and turning out editions in which each print was unique. After his passing, Shields was awarded a Judith Rothschild Foundation grant given to recently deceased abstract artists whose work is of the highest quality but merits further recognition.
About Alan Shields:
Alan Shields (b. 1944, Herington, KS; d. 2005, Shelter Island, NY) created unique, imaginative, and theatrical structures using unconventional materials and vibrant color. His three-dimensional paintings convey a playful, deconstructive impulse through the incorporation of un-stretched hand-dyed canvas, rope, yarn, beads, and wood. Shields moved to New York City in 1968, where he showed with Paula Cooper...
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1970s Abstract Expressionist Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Mixed Media, Handmade Paper, Etching, Aquatint, Screen
H 27.75 in W 22.5 in D 2 in
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1990s Contemporary Al Held Prints and Multiples
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Previously Available Items
Scholes I
By Al Held
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Al Held, American (1928 - 2005)
Title: Scholes I
Year: 1991
Medium: Silkscreen, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 80
Image Size: 23 x 29 inches
Size: 29 x 34 in. (73.66 ...
Category
1990s Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Screen
Russell's Way
By Al Held
Located in New York, NY
Al Held
Russell's Way, 1989
color aquatint on Somerset paper
35.25h x 44.50w in
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1980s Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
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Liv, Large Colorful Geometric Abstract by Al Held
By Al Held
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Al Held, American (1928 - 2005)
Title: Liv
Year: 1992
Medium: Etching with aquatint on paper, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 16/30
Image Size: 35.5 x 44.5 inches
Size...
Category
1990s Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching, Aquatint
Scholes, 1
By Al Held
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed and numbered in pencil by the artist lower right
Edition: 80 (3/80)
Published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Mezzanine Gallery, New York, with their blindstamp lower...
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1990s Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
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Scholes II
By Al Held
Located in Fairlawn, OH
Signed and numbered in pencil by the artist lower right
Edition: 80 (3/80)
Published by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Mezzanine Gallery, New York, with their blindstamp lower...
Category
1990s Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Screen
Stone Ridge #1
By Al Held
Located in Austin, TX
Artist: Al Held
Title: Stone Ridge #1
Year: 1983
Medium: Color etching
Edition number 53/65 numbered on verso.
Signed on verso "Al Held 83 53/65 AH.106.A"
...
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1980s Abstract Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
Magenta
By Al Held
Located in Austin, TX
Artist: Al Held
Title: Magenta
Year: 1990
Medium: Color aquatint with spit bite aquatint
Edition: 37/50
Signed, dated, and numbered verso
Dimension: image: 35.5"h x 44.75"w, sheet: 4...
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1990s Abstract Expressionist Al Held Prints and Multiples
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Indigo
By Al Held
Located in Austin, TX
Artist: Al Held (American, 1928-2005)
Title: "Indigo"
Year: 1990
Medium: Color aquatint with spit bite aquatint
Signed, dated, and numbered verso
Edition 32/50
Dimensions: image: 35....
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1990s Abstract Expressionist Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Aquatint
Stone Ridge #4
By Al Held
Located in Austin, TX
Artist: Al Held
Title: Stone Ridge #4
Year: 1983
Medium: Color etching
Edition number 53/65 numbered on verso.
Signed on verso "Al Held 83 53/65 AH.106.A"
...
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1980s Abstract Al Held Prints and Multiples
Materials
Etching
Liv
By Al Held
Located in New York, NY
1992, color hardground etching with aquatint, 40 1/2 x 54 inches (102.9 x 137.2 cm), edition of 30, signed, numbered, and dated on reverse
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Fly Away
By Al Held
Located in Palm Desert, CA
A geometric abstract spit-bite aquatint executed in bright lime green, orange, red, yellow and yellow ochre by Post War artist Al Held. From the unnumbered edition of 50.
Provena...
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1990s Post-War Al Held Prints and Multiples
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Scholes II, Screenprint by Al Held
By Al Held
Located in Long Island City, NY
Artist: Al Held, American (1928 - 2005)
Title: Scholes II
Year: 1991
Medium: Silkscreen, signed and numbered in pencil
Edition: 80
Image Size: 23 x 29 inches
Size: 29 x 34 in. ...
Category
1990s Abstract Geometric Al Held Prints and Multiples
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Al Held prints and multiples for sale on 1stDibs.
Find a wide variety of authentic Al Held prints and multiples available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of prints and multiples to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of orange, red and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Al Held in screen print, etching, aquatint and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the abstract style. Not every interior allows for large Al Held prints and multiples, so small editions measuring 22 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Alice Aycock, Thomas W. Benton, and Jean-Marie Haessle. Al Held prints and multiples prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $2,000 and tops out at $7,500, while the average work can sell for $2,500.