James Fuentes

About the Presentation
James Fuentes will present work by Al Held in a solo presentation at Independent 20th Century. A pioneer of hard-edged abstraction, American painter Al Held (1928–2005) created works of great complexity that acknowledged the then-dominant painterly vocabulary of American abstraction at the same time as being profoundly informed by a history of painting rooted in the European Renaissance. Born in Brooklyn, in 1928, Held first attended the Art Students League in New York and then the Académie de la Grand Chaumière in Paris (1951−53). When he returned to New York in 1953, Abstract Expressionism was at the forefront of artistic endeavor. Although Held’s work was associated with the movement and took part in several of its key exhibitions, he ultimately questioned its reliance on reductive flatness, preferring instead to focus on physical space and gravity in his own work.

During his 50-year career, Held single-mindedly committed to an exploration of the potential for abstraction to reach beyond the realm of the viewer’s primary senses. In 1974, the Whitney Museum held a major solo exhibition of his work at the Breuer Building, and this presentation will focus on work that was featured in his mid-career retrospective.

About the Gallery
Since 2007, James Fuentes has championed a gallery program that is led first by exceptional contemporary artists who are atypical from the conventions of their field. The gallery has become known for its focus on humanity, history, and society with a non-exclusionary approach, positioning itself as a leader in the field as our contemporary institutions seek to do the same. In the spring of 2023 the gallery opened an outpost in the Melrose Hill neighborhood of Los Angeles.