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Brice Marden

Brice Marden, Nebraska, 1966 Oil and wax on canvas, 58 × 72 inches (147.3 × 182.9 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Nebraska, 1966

Oil and wax on canvas, 58 × 72 inches (147.3 × 182.9 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Patent Leather Valentine, 1967 Wax and graphite over pastel on paper, 16 ½ × 14 ¾ inches (41.9 × 37.5 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Patent Leather Valentine, 1967

Wax and graphite over pastel on paper, 16 ½ × 14 ¾ inches (41.9 × 37.5 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Grove Group II, 1972–73 Oil and wax on canvas, in 2 parts, overall: 72 × 108 inches (182.9 × 274.3 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Grove Group II, 1972–73

Oil and wax on canvas, in 2 parts, overall: 72 × 108 inches (182.9 × 274.3 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Red Yellow Blue III, 1974 Oil and wax on canvas, in 3 parts, overall: 74 × 72 inches (188 × 182.9 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Red Yellow Blue III, 1974

Oil and wax on canvas, in 3 parts, overall: 74 × 72 inches (188 × 182.9 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Thira, 1979–80 Oil and wax on canvas, 18 panels assembled in 3 parts, overall: 96 × 180 inches (243.8 × 457.2 cm), Centre Pompidou, Paris© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Thira, 1979–80

Oil and wax on canvas, 18 panels assembled in 3 parts, overall: 96 × 180 inches (243.8 × 457.2 cm), Centre Pompidou, Paris
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, 2 (Dialog), 1987–88 Oil on linen, 84 × 60 inches (213.4 × 152.4 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, 2 (Dialog), 1987–88

Oil on linen, 84 × 60 inches (213.4 × 152.4 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Cold Mountain 6 (Bridge), 1989–91 Oil on linen, 108 × 144 inches (274.3 × 365.8 cm), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Cold Mountain 6 (Bridge), 1989–91

Oil on linen, 108 × 144 inches (274.3 × 365.8 cm), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, 2 Red Rocks 3, 2000/02 Kremer ink on L’Aquarelle paper, 14 ⅞ × 20 inches (37.8 × 50.8 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, 2 Red Rocks 3, 2000/02

Kremer ink on L’Aquarelle paper, 14 ⅞ × 20 inches (37.8 × 50.8 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Dragons, 2000–04 Ink on paper, 40 ½ × 29 ¾ inches (102.9 × 75.6 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Dragons, 2000–04

Ink on paper, 40 ½ × 29 ¾ inches (102.9 × 75.6 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Blue Sutra Drawing, 2010 Kremer ink on paper, 30 ⅛ × 41 inches (76.5 × 104.1 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Blue Sutra Drawing, 2010

Kremer ink on paper, 30 ⅛ × 41 inches (76.5 × 104.1 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Early Seasons, 2010–11 Kremer ink on Rives BFK paper, in 4 parts, overall: 17 ½ × 52 ¼ inches (44.5 × 132.7 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Early Seasons, 2010–11

Kremer ink on Rives BFK paper, in 4 parts, overall: 17 ½ × 52 ¼ inches (44.5 × 132.7 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Helen’s Immediately, 2011 Oil on marble, 19 ½ × 31 ½ × ⅞ inches (49.5 × 80 × 2.1 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Helen’s Immediately, 2011

Oil on marble, 19 ½ × 31 ½ × ⅞ inches (49.5 × 80 × 2.1 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Polke Letter, 2010–11 Oil on linen, 72 × 96 inches (182.9 × 243.8 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Polke Letter, 2010–11

Oil on linen, 72 × 96 inches (182.9 × 243.8 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, African Drawing 17, 2011–12 Kremer ink and Kremer white shellac ink on Rives BFK paper, 14 ⅞ × 11 ⅛ inches (37.8 × 28.3 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, African Drawing 17, 2011–12

Kremer ink and Kremer white shellac ink on Rives BFK paper, 14 ⅞ × 11 ⅛ inches (37.8 × 28.3 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Nevis Stele 4, 2007–15 Oil on linen, 60 × 36 inches (152.4 × 91.4 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Nevis Stele 4, 2007–15

Oil on linen, 60 × 36 inches (152.4 × 91.4 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Uphill with Center, 2012–15 Oil on linen, in 5 parts, overall: 48 × 192 inches (121.9 × 487.7 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Uphill with Center, 2012–15

Oil on linen, in 5 parts, overall: 48 × 192 inches (121.9 × 487.7 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Eastern Moss, 2012–15 Oil on linen, in 9 parts, overall: 24 × 162 inches (61 × 411.5 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Eastern Moss, 2012–15

Oil on linen, in 9 parts, overall: 24 × 162 inches (61 × 411.5 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Blockx, 2016–17 Oil on linen, 96 ⅛ × 72 inches (244 × 182.9 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Blockx, 2016–17

Oil on linen, 96 ⅛ × 72 inches (244 × 182.9 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Marrakech Drawing 6, 2017–18 Kremer ink and Kremer white shellac ink on Howell paper, 17 ⅛ × 12 ⅝ inches (43.5 × 32.1 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Marrakech Drawing 6, 2017–18

Kremer ink and Kremer white shellac ink on Howell paper, 17 ⅛ × 12 ⅝ inches (43.5 × 32.1 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Santorini 2, 2010–18 Oil on linen, 75 ⅛ × 53 ½ inches (190.8 × 135.9 cm)© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Santorini 2, 2010–18

Oil on linen, 75 ⅛ × 53 ½ inches (190.8 × 135.9 cm)
© 2018 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Brice Marden, Elevation, 2018–19 Oil on linen, 72 × 120 inches (182.9 × 304.8 cm)© 2023 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Brice Marden, Elevation, 2018–19

Oil on linen, 72 × 120 inches (182.9 × 304.8 cm)
© 2023 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Brice Marden, Rocks, 2008/2017–21 Oil on linen, two joined panels, overall: 82 ¾ × 269 ¼ inches (210.2 × 683.9 cm)© 2023 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

Brice Marden, Rocks, 2008/2017–21

Oil on linen, two joined panels, overall: 82 ¾ × 269 ¼ inches (210.2 × 683.9 cm)
© 2023 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Rob McKeever

About

Ultimately I’m using the painting as a sounding board for the spirit. . . . You can be painting and go into a place where thought stops—where you can just be and it just comes out. . . . I present it as an open situation rather than a closed situation. 
—Brice Marden

Brice Marden (1938–2023) continuously refined and extended the traditions of lyrical abstraction. Experimenting with self-imposed rules, limits, and processes, and drawing inspiration from his extensive travels, Marden brought together the diagrammatic formulations of Minimalism, the immediacy of Abstract Expressionism, and the intuitive gesture of calligraphy in his exploration of gesture, line, and color.

Born in Bronxville, New York, Marden received an MFA from Yale University’s School of Art and Architecture, where his teachers included the painters Alex Katz and Jon Schueler. After graduation he worked as a guard at the Jewish Museum in New York. There, during a 1964 Jasper Johns retrospective, Marden studied Johns’s early works extensively and considered them in relation to the Baroque masters he has long admired, such as Francisco de Zurbarán, Francisco Goya, and Diego Velázquez. Marden’s paintings from the 1960s include subtle, shimmering monochromes in gray tones, sometimes assembled into multipanel works, in a manner similar to the black paintings and White Paintings of Robert Rauschenberg, who hired Marden as a studio assistant in 1966.

A trip to Greece in the early 1970s led Marden to create the Hydra paintings (1972), which capture the turquoise hues of the Mediterranean, and Thira (1979–80), a painting composed of eighteen interconnected panels inspired by the shadows and geometry of ancient temples. To heighten the effect of each color, plane, and brushstroke, Marden developed the unique process of adding beeswax and turpentine to oil paint and applying the mixture in many thin layers. Marden employed this technique for the Grove Group paintings (1972–76)—exhibited at Gagosian’s Madison Avenue gallery in New York in 1991, along with related works—and the Red Yellow Blue paintings (1973–74)—five permutations of the primary trio—which were united for the first time since their making at Gagosian, 980 Madison Avenue, New York, in 2013.

In the 1980s Marden began to incorporate organic, intersecting lines, creating rhythmic patterns over fields of color. Exploring these winding lines, he experimented with blank space, erasure, and references to the natural world. He sought to create a mystical experience through the creation of elusive abstract spaces. As his many themes and techniques have overlapped, Marden brought them together in cohesive, often multipart works, which he has described as his “summation paintings.” Among them is The Propitious Garden of Plane Image, Third Version (2000–06), held in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where he had his first comprehensive retrospective in 2006.

In his later years Marden continued his exploration of the qualities of monochrome. This engagement with muted colors informed his calligraphic drawings and works on canvas, such as the Nevis Stele paintings (2007–15), inspired by Chinese stone carvings from the late eighth century. In 2017 he turned his gaze to the expansive possibilities of terre verte (green earth), an iron silicate clay pigment, which he first used in the Grove Group. These paintings incorporate many different brands of terre verte, each a variation on the indefinable hue. Marden thinned his slow-drying paint and applied it gradually to the canvas in many successive layers, leaving a visible residue of the painting process at the lower edge of each canvas.

Brice Marden

Brice Marden

Larry Gagosian celebrates the unmatched life and legacy of Brice Marden.

Jasper Johns, Untitled, 2011, acrylic over intaglio on paper mounted on Fred Siegenthaler “confetti” paper, 11 ¾ × 7 ¾ inches (29.8 × 19.7 cm)

The Generative Surface

Eileen Costello explores the oft-overlooked importance of paper choice to the mediums of drawing and printmaking, from the Renaissance through the present day.

Brice Marden: Sketchbook (Gagosian, 2019); Lee Lozano: Notebooks 1967–70 (Primary Information, 2010); Stanley Whitney: Sketchbook (Lisson Gallery, 2018); Kara Walker: MCMXCIX (ROMA, 2017); Louis Fratino,Sept ’18–Jan. ’19 (Sikkema Jenkins & Co., 2019); Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Notebooks (Princeton University Press, 2015); Keith Haring Journals (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, 2010).

Book Corner
Private Pages Made Public

Megan N. Liberty explores artists’ engagement with notebooks and diaries, thinking through the various meanings that arise when these private ledgers become public.

River Café menu with illustration by Ed Ruscha.

The River Café Cookbook

London’s River Café, a culinary mecca perched on a bend in the River Thames, celebrated its thirtieth anniversary in 2018. To celebrate this milestone and the publication of her cookbook River Café London, cofounder Ruth Rogers sat down with Derek Blasberg to discuss the famed restaurant’s allure.

Glenstone Museum.

Intimate Grandeur: Glenstone Museum

Paul Goldberger tracks the evolution of Mitchell and Emily Rales’s Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Maryland. Set amid 230 acres of pristine landscape and housing a world-class collection of modern and contemporary art, this graceful complex of pavilions, designed by architects Thomas Phifer and Partners, opened to the public in the fall of 2018.

Brice Marden: Four Quartets

Brice Marden: Four Quartets

Four paintings by Brice Marden have been incorporated into a new dance commission based on T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, with choreography by Pam Tanowitz, and music by Kaija Saariaho. The performance will premiere on July 6, 2018 at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard as part of the SummerScape Festival. Gideon Lester, the Fisher Center’s artistic director for theater and dance, spoke with Marden about the canvases that form the set design.

Robert Pincus-Witten on Brice Marden

Robert Pincus-Witten on Brice Marden

In honor of Robert Pincus-Witten, we share an essay he wrote in 1991 on Brice Marden’s Grove Group.

Brice Marden, Gary Hume, and Tim Marlow

In Conversation
Brice Marden, Gary Hume, and Tim Marlow

At the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Brice Marden sat down with fellow painter Gary Hume and the Royal Academy’s artistic director, Tim Marlow, to discuss his newest body of work.

Brice Marden

Work in Progress
Brice Marden

With preparations underway for a London exhibition, we visit the artist’s studio.

Fairs, Events & Announcements

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Gerhard Richter; © Amoako Boafo; © Richard Prince; © 2022 Judd Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Richard Diebenkorn Foundation; © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Stanley Whitney. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Art Fair

Art Basel Miami Beach 2022

December 1–3, 2022, booth D5
Miami Beach Convention Center
artbasel.com

Gagosian is pleased to present a selection of modern and contemporary works at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Returning to Miami for the fair’s twentieth anniversary, the gallery is honored to have participated each year the fair has been held.

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Gerhard Richter; © Amoako Boafo; © Richard Prince; © 2022 Judd Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Richard Diebenkorn Foundation; © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Stanley Whitney. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Brice Marden, Rivers, 2020–21 © Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Upcoming Publication

Brice Marden
Catalogue Raisonné

The Brice Marden Catalogue Raisonné is announcing a call for works for the preparation of a catalogue of all of Brice Marden’s paintings and works on paper. The project is now accepting submissions for unique works of art on canvas and on paper. If you are an owner of an artwork by Brice Marden, please visit the catalogue raisonné website to access the submission form.

Initiated in 2019, the completed publication will document Brice Marden’s oeuvre with an entry for each work that includes descriptive information and a comprehensive provenance, exhibition history, and bibliography. Tiffany Bell is the editor of the catalogue raisonné, working closely with the artist’s studio, Plane Image, and with the support of Gagosian.

Brice Marden, Rivers, 2020–21 © Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Succession Picasso 2022; © John Currin; © Jonas Wood; © Mark Tansey; © 2022 Judd Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Art Fair

Art Basel 2022

June 16–19, 2022, hall 2, booth B15
Messe Basel
artbasel.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in Art Basel 2022 with modern and contemporary works by gallery artists, as well as special entries in the Unlimited section of the fair.

Gagosian’s booth in the main section of the fair represents the full breadth and depth of the gallery’s programming through work by many of its represented artists. On view are new works by Mark Grotjahn, Rudolf Stingel, and Jonas Wood; works by newly represented artists including Ashley Bickerton, Rick Lowe, and Jordan Wolfson; and works by Theaster Gates and Brice Marden, both of whom are also exhibiting at other venues in Basel—Gagosian’s gallery at Rheinsprung 1 and Kunstmuseum Basel, respectively—during the fair.

To receive a pdf with detailed information on the works, please contact the gallery at inquire@gagosian.com. To attend the fair, purchase tickets at artbasel.com.

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Succession Picasso 2022; © John Currin; © Jonas Wood; © Mark Tansey; © 2022 Judd Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Ellsworth Kelly Foundation. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

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Museum Exhibitions

Ed Ruscha, Victory, 1987, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh © Ed Ruscha

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The Milton and Sheila Fine Collection

November 18, 2023–March 17, 2024
Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
carnegieart.org

Milton and Sheila Fine have been longtime advocates and supporters of the arts in their philanthropy throughout the Pittsburgh region. Promised to Carnegie Museum of Art in 2015, their collection of contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, and drawing reflects their interest in American and German art from the 1980s to the 2000s. This exhibition, which is presented as a celebration and remembrance of Milton Fine, who passed away in 2019, foregrounds the importance and impact of the gift. Work by Richard Artschwager, Georg Baselitz, Mark Grotjahn, Donald Judd, Brice Marden, David ReedEd Ruscha, Richard SerraJeff Wall, and Christopher Wool is included.

Ed Ruscha, Victory, 1987, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh © Ed Ruscha

Albert Oehlen, Untitled, 1990 © Albert Oehlen

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Beautiful, Vivid, Self-contained

April 21–July 21, 2023
Hill Art Foundation, New York
hillartfoundation.org

Beautiful, Vivid, Self-contained is an exhibition curated by David Salle that brings together paintings and sculptures by artists working across different eras, mediums, and geographies to explore the notion of affinity between works of art. Alongside a painting by Salle from 1988, work by Francis Bacon, Willem de Kooning, Mark Grotjahn, Brice Marden, Albert Oehlen, Pablo Picasso, Cy Twombly, and Christopher Wool is included.

Albert Oehlen, Untitled, 1990 © Albert Oehlen

Installation view, Brice Marden and Greek Antiquity, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, May 20–October 3, 2022. Artwork © 2022 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art

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Brice Marden and Greek Antiquity

May 20–October 3, 2022
Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens
cycladic.gr

This exhibition, part of the “Divine Dialogues” series at the Museum of Cycladic Art, includes artworks from a wide range of Brice Marden’s artistic output, revealing a resonance with the metaphysics of ancient Greek heritage. Paintings, drawings, and notebooks that highlight Marden’s sharp observation and unique abstract gaze are presented in dialogue with selected antiquities from the museum’s permanent collections.

Installation view, Brice Marden and Greek Antiquity, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, May 20–October 3, 2022. Artwork © 2022 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo: Paris Tavitian © Museum of Cycladic Art

Mary Weatherford, Engine, 2014, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

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America. Entre rêves et réalités
La collection du Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection

June 9–September 11, 2022
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Canada
www.mnbaq.org

Featuring more than a hundred paintings, photographs, sculptures, and video works drawn from the permanent collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, this exhibition, whose title translates to America. Between Dreams and Realities, offers a broad overview of modern and contemporary American art. Organized thematically, it looks carefully and critically at the notion of the American dream and uncovers how artists have variously grappled with questions of identity, the challenges of globalization, the realities of everyday life in America, and the complexities of its technological and political revolutions. Work by Alexander Calder, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Sally Mann, Man Ray, Brice Marden, Nam June Paik, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, and Mary Weatherford is included.

Mary Weatherford, Engine, 2014, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC © Mary Weatherford. Photo: Fredrik Nilsen Studio

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Press

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