Contemporary New York City-based artist Mark Beard has long demonstrated command in a variety of mediums — he works in oil paint, bronze, ceramics and more. Beard is known mainly for his portraits and figurative paintings, but he is prolific in figurative drawing and nude photography as well.
Beard was born in Salt Lake City, Utah. In 1986, he began working as a set designer, and for the next decade, he created more than 20 sets in New York City, London, Frankfurt, Vienna and Cologne. As a painter and printmaker, Beard didn’t wish to confine himself to a rigid style and instead sought to explore Impressionism, Art Nouveau and other movements in a range of mediums. In order to freely move from one style to the next, Beard created several different personas, assigning a specific biography to each one.
Beard's most prominent artistic alter ego is Bruce Sargeant, whom the artist has positioned in exhibitions as an early 20th-century painter. Beard's work as Sargeant is a detailed study of the male physique. The paintings often feature sculpted athletic men engaged in physical activities like wrestling and rowing. The work is steeped in homoeroticism, and the artist’s name itself is a reference to painter John Singer Sargent — while he’s best known for his Edwardian-era portraits, John Singer Sargent also created murals and drawings of male nudes that were similarly reflective of a homoerotic sensibility.
Beard is also an accomplished landscape painter. His great-grandfather, George Beard, was a regional painter and photographer of the Rocky Mountains. Mark spent summers at his grandfather's 19th-century log cabin retreat as a child. These formative experiences are reflected in his own stunning landscape paintings.
Beard's artwork is held in many high-profile museum collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Today, Beard resides in the Manhattan loft that he purchased in 1994 with his partner, James Manfred. It serves as both his home and his studio. The space is filled with his oil paintings, drawings and sculptures.
On 1stDibs, find Mark Beard paintings, drawings, photography and more.
Untitled No. 51
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Polaroid transfer on Rives BFK paper Signed, dated, and numbered in pencil, recto Also blindstamped, l.r. 22 x 15 inches, sheet 10 x 8 inches, image This artwork is offered by Clam...
Photogravure
Manhattan Fifteenth Year Reader; 1995: The Grim Years
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Handmade book with 51 collaged linocuts by Mark Beard, also painted and hand-colored by the artist Signed and numbered in pencil Text by Mark Beard, silkscreened in the artist's han...
Linocut
Column & Socle
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Column & Socle 2001 Signed, dated, and inscribed “AP” in pencil, recto Polaroid transfer on Rives BFK paper 22 x 15 inches, sheet 7.5 x 9.5 inches, image This work is offered by ...
Polaroid
Nineteen Famous People, Twenty-Two Friends, and Six Nudes
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Handmade portfolio of 47 Polaroid transfer prints with accompanying text by Mark Beard, handwritten in pencil (Edition of 10 + 5 APs) Signed and numbered in pencil 15.75 x 11.75 x ...
Photogravure
$1,500
H 22 in W 30 in
Cuban artist original hand signed photo-engraving n6 22x30 in.
Located in Miami, FL
Juan Carlos Alom (Cuba, 1964) 'Tarjetas postales', 2004 photoengraving on paper 22.1 x 30 in. (56 x 76 cm.) Edition of 99 ID: ALO1534-006 Hand-signed ...
Paper, Photogravure, Engraving
$3,000
H 19 in W 44 in
Meschac Gaba Inkjet Pigment Print Photograph African Conceptual Art Dollar Bill
Located in Surfside, FL
Meschac Gaba (Benin, 1961- ) Artist with American Inspiration: 4 World Financial Center, 2004, Meschac Gaba, pigmented inkjet print, Hand signed, dated and inscribed '15 des 30 Artiste d'inspiration Americaine' verso. Dimensions: approximately 17 1/2 x 42 1/2 in. (sheet), 19 x 44 in. (frame) Meshac Gaba employs an intervention on an American dollar bill in Artist with American Inspiration: 4 World Financial Center, swapping out our stately eagle for his smiling face portrait. One of Gaba’s sculptures appears on the left as well. Meschac Gaba (born 1961) is a Beninese conceptual artist based in Rotterdam and Cotonou. His installations of everyday objects whimsically juxtapose African and Western cultural identities and commerce. He is best known for The Museum of Contemporary African Art 1997–2002, an autobiographical 12-room installation acquired and displayed by the Tate Modern in 2013. He has also exhibited at the Studio Museum in Harlem and at the 2003 Venice Biennale. Meshac Gaba was born in Cotonou, Benin, in 1961. He had drifted from his training as a painter until a bag of decommissioned money cut into confetti led him to make paintings with the material. 1981-1985 He was a student at the artist studio of Zossou Gratien, Cotonou, Benin. Gaba became known for his installations of everyday objects that whimsically juxtapose African and Western cultural identities and commerce. He held a residency at the Amsterdam Rijksakademie in 1996 for two years. In the absence of opportunities to display his work in the city, he set out over the next five years to make his own museum. This piece became his seminal The Museum of Contemporary African Art 1997–2002, which consists of 12 rooms (some based on museum function and others personal) filled with objects made by Gaba. Throughout the exhibition ran a vein of confessional narrative about the artist's art travails between Africa and Europe The wedding room, which he made while in love, holds mementos as museum artifacts from Gaba's wedding to the Dutch curator Alexandra van Dongen in 2000 at the Amsterdam Stedelijk Museum. The Library room holds art...
Inkjet
Dos Villancicos (Two Carols)
By Artemio Rodriguez
Located in Palm Springs, CA
Dos Villancicos Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (text) Artemio Rodríguez (linocut) Printed at Taller Martín Pescador, Mexico Published by El Tercer Milenio / Artes de México Signed and nu...
Linocut
$1,839Sale Price|20% Off
H 47.25 in W 47.25 in D 3.94 in
Dahlia - Large Contemporary Photographic Floral Print from Unique Color Polaroid
By Pia Clodi
Located in Zürich, CH
Part of the BLOOMY VIEW series taken in Bern 2020 in collaboration with Heym Collections, the images gained new life in their ambiguity, which often stimulates the viewer to project ...
Carbon Pigment, Polaroid
I'm so Great
By David Shrigley
Located in London, GB
Linocut on paper 29 x 39 cm Edition 41 of 100 hand-signed and numbered by the artist published by Schafer David Shrigley is known for his distinctive and darkly humorous drawings, ...
Linocut
$217
H 5.12 in W 3.94 in D 0.08 in
Dog and Owner - Lithograph by J.J Grandville - 1852
By J. J. Grandville
Located in Roma, IT
Dog and Owner is an original lithographs by J.J. Grandville from "Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux", 1852. Published by Manesq & Harvard, Paris. Good Conditions. Th...
Paper, Lithograph
$1,000
H 7.5 in W 7.5 in
Ben Frost Blotter Paper Cocaine Just One More Bump! Thumper & Bambi Disney
By Ben Frost
Located in Draper, UT
PROVENANCE Comes with COA from 1XRUN and an Invoice Receipt from NEW UNION GALLERY. ADDITIONAL INFO This RUN comes signed & numbered by the artist, and with a Certificate of Authenti...
Screen
$645
H 26.38 in W 30.32 in D 1.97 in
Lariat Motel, Fallon, Nevada - Architecture Typography Photography
By Richard Heeps
Located in Cambridge, GB
Lariat Motel, photograph from Richard Heeps Dream in Colour series. The neon in this classic Americana roadside sign glows in the evening light. It was captured in its original site ...
Photographic Paper, C Print, Color, Silver Gelatin
$475
H 11.5 in W 11.5 in
"Chittering and Chattering III "Folk inspired Linoleum Blue/White Print of Birds
By Lisa Houck
Located in Wellesley, MA
'Chittering and Chattering III' Linoleum Block Print, Edition 10, 11 5/8 x 11 5/8 Inches, is one of a series of 6 related prints in this size in varying shades of blue. Sold ind...
Linocut
$2,100
H 35.25 in W 23.25 in
"Wading and Wondering" Folk inspired Blue/White Linoleum Block Print of Heron
By Lisa Houck
Located in Wellesley, MA
'Wading and Wondering,' Linoleum Block Print, Edition 10, 35 1/4 x 23 1/4 Inches, is one of a series of 8 related prints in this size in varying shades of blue. Sold individually...
Linocut
$1,000
H 11.25 in W 8.8 in D 0.5 in
The World Stage: Israel (Hardback Monograph/Book Hand Signed by Kehinde Wiley)
By Kehinde Wiley
Located in New York, NY
Makes a fantastic gift! Kehinde Wiley The World Stage: Israel (Hand Signed by Kehinde Wiley), 2012 Illustrated hardback monograph with dust jacket. Hand Signed by Kehinde Wiley Boldl...
Mixed Media, Lithograph, Offset
$1,600
H 12 in W 9.25 in
Book: Chuck Close Self-Portraits 1967-2005 (Signed and inscribed with a heart)
By Chuck Close
Located in New York, NY
Chuck Close: Self-Portraits 1967-2005 (Hand signed and inscribed to Michelle with heart doodle), 2005 Hardcover. Bound in publisher's original quarter iv...
Mixed Media, Permanent Marker, Lithograph, Offset
Aiden
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Aiden 1992 Signed and numbered in pencil Handmade book with frontispiece etching and 26 hand-colored and re-touched Polaroid transfer photographs, printed by Craig Fry with Mark Be...
Paper, Photographic Paper
John Kelly
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Polaroid transfer on Rives BFK paper Signed, titled, dated, and numbered in pencil, recto Also blindstamped, l.r. 11 x 7.5 inches, sheet size This artwork is offered by ClampArt, ...
Photogravure
Despot Atelier
By Mark Beard
Located in New York, NY
Polaroid transfer on Rives BFK paper Signed, titled, dated, and inscribed "AP" in pencil, recto Also blindstamped, l.r. 22 x 15 inches, sheet size 10 x 8 inches, image size This a...
Photogravure