BRICE MARDEN

The exhibition emphasizes Marden’s lifelong exploration of the plane and the material presence of his work. “For me,” he stated, “the history of modern art is tightening the relationship of the image to the plane. . . . The whole history of twentieth-century art seems to be where you work up to the ultimate plane image. You try to keep the plane and the image locked together.” Marden’s distinct contribution to painting lies in his synthesis of a broad range of art historical influences, which anchor paintings that address the natural world. He traveled extensively, living in multiple locations and working predominantly with natural light.

From the mid-1960s, Marden immersed himself in the cultural scene of New York, congregating at Max’s Kansas City with the era’s pioneering artists, writers, and musicians. Nebraska (1966)—the earliest painting in the exhibition—was inspired by the “surprising” landscape of the midwest United States after a cross-country road trip. Marden retained the painting and displayed it in his home throughout his life. From this time onward, while often spending time on the Greek island of Hydra, he began to employ the brighter palette seen in Summer Table (1972–73). He also introduced a technique that would become a trademark—heightening the effect of each tint, plane, and brushstroke by adding beeswax and turpentine to oil paint and applying it in multiple layers.

Calligraphy was often a focus of Marden’s practice; in the early 1980s, he realized it at scale in his first calligraphic paintings, which include Study for the Muses (Eagles Mere Version) (1991–94/1997–99). Conceived in his studio in Eagles Mere, Pennsylvania, which he characterized as his most “Zen-like” workspace, this painting’s color echoes the surrounding woodland. The six panels of The Propitious Garden of Plane Image, Second Version (2000–06) follow a chromatic progression that also meditates on landscape, here in the tradition of the Chinese garden.

The exhibition concludes with The Dance (2022–23) and Lingerie (2022–23), two large canvases that Marden produced in his studio in Tivoli, New York. Among the last works he completed, both were included in the artist’s final Gagosian exhibition in 2023. Throughout his career, Marden was continually working through a set of ideas about activating the surface of the painting. This was evident as early as his Yale MFA thesis, in which he stated: “I have had to concentrate on the rectangle problem. I have been obsessed with the idea and have become fanatical about it.” I Am Plane Image encapsulates this profound engagement with his concept of the plane.

I Am Plane Image coincides with Gagosian’s publication of Brice Marden: Catalogue Raisonné of Paintings, 1961–2023, edited by Tiffany Bell and distributed by Yale University Press. Bell commenced the project in 2019 with the full support of Marden and his studio, and continued it in collaboration with the Estate of Brice Marden. The book features an introduction by Larry Gagosian, an essay by Bell, and an illustrated chronology by Bell and Anna Gray, as well as two texts by the artist. It documents nearly five hundred paintings made between 1961 and 2023 including almost ninety previously unpublished works and more than seventy that have never been exhibited. The explanatory notes that accompany the artwork entries consist primarily of quotations from Marden himself.