Sven Lukin Exhibition
Garth Greenan Gallery
This event has ended.
Gary Snyder Gallery announces Sven Lukin, an exhibition of paintings and drawings, the exhibition is the first since 1978 to present new works by the artist. Seven of Lukin’s recent paintings will be on view, alongside seven of his famed “shaped canvases” from the 1960s. The exhibition will also include a selection of preparatory drawings, many of which have never been shown before.
The exhibition offers detailed views of the artist’s work during the 1960s and the past decade. Works such as Diamond Head (1964), Trafalgar (1965), Piano Lesson (1968), and Janus (2009) illustrate Lukin’s career-long involvement with bringing painting out from two-dimensional space and into the realm of architecture. Unlike his peers Richard Smith, Frank Stella, and Neil Williams, Lukin was not merely satisfied with changing the shape of his stretchers. He wants his paintings to exist in real space, to attack and confront it.
Born in Riga, Latvia in 1934, Sven Lukin immigrated to the United States in 1949. After graduating high school in 1953, Lukin was accepted into the University of Pennsylvania, School of Architecture. While enrolled, he attended lectures by the influential architect and urban designer Louis I. Kahn. Although Lukin left the program in 1956, Kahn’s ideas had a profound impact on the young artist. Kahn’s celebration of monumental scale, unadorned surfaces, and volumetric forms was a source of endless fascination for Lukin—one that continues to this day.
Sven Lukin, Trafalgar, 1965
Acrylic on canvas and wood construction
84 3/4 x 80 x 29 inches
© Sven Lukin, courtesy Gary Snyder Gallery, New York
Media
Schedule
from May 24, 2012 to June 30, 2012
Opening Reception on 2012-05-24 from 18:00 to 20:00