Ward Jackson “Black & White Diamonds 1960s”
Minus Space
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MINUS SPACE presents the exhibition Ward Jackson: Black & White Diamonds 1960s. This is the late New York painter’s first exhibition with the gallery and the first to focus exclusively on his black and white paintings and drawings from the 1960s.
In the early 1960s, inspired by the work of painters Piet Mondrian and Josef Albers, Ward Jackson moved away from the gestural style that marked his paintings during the previous decade and began to develop his signature, hard-edged geometric compositions arranged on diamond-formatted canvases. Limiting himself primarily to vertical and horizontal lines and shapes, Jackson began a life-long investigation into the notions of austerity, duality, symmetry, balance, pattern, and perception, all with a breathtaking range of transcendental effects.
About his work at the time, Jackson writes, “The diamond shape (or square on end) has the meditative power of a mandala and expands in a way that an ordinary square does not, since the measurement of the diameter across the center is wider than any of the outer or peripheral edges.” He continues, “Most of the diamond paintings have a vertical emphasis or rising energy expressing an outer as well as inner architecture, transmitting transcendental feeling through pure plastic elements. I have attempted to embody in my work an inner order that could express my most concentrated ideas.”
Jackson’s black and white diamond paintings were first exhibited at the Kaymar Gallery, NYC in 1964 in the pivotal exhibition Eleven Artists. The exhibition was organized by Dan Flavin and brought together for the first time artists identified with the emerging Minimalism movement, what critic Brian O’Doherty of The New York Times termed “the avant-garde deadpans”. The exhibition featured Jackson’s work alongside artists Jo Baer, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol Lewitt, Larry Poons, Robert Ryman, Frank Stella, and others.
Media
Schedule
from September 12, 2014 to October 25, 2014
Opening Reception on 2014-09-12 from 18:00 to 20:00