Extended through December 22, 2017
Works Exhibited
About
I kept putting the same color on—the same color, the same color—but every time I put it on it was different. Each time it was this whole new light/color experience. It was not a revelation, but a whole wonderful new experience. . . . To me, it involves harnessing some of the powers of the earth. Harnessing and communicating.
—Brice Marden
Gagosian is pleased to present Brice Marden’s new paintings, in his first exhibition in London since the Serpentine Gallery in 2000.
A singular painter who has extended and refined the traditions of lyrical abstraction, Marden is a master of color and touch, from the subtle, shimmering monochromes of his earlier career to the calligraphic compositions that characterize his work of the last three decades. Recently, Marden has returned to the monochrome, and to the expansive possibilities of terre verte (green earth), an iron silicate/clay pigment. Terre verte came into use during the Renaissance, its greenish hue and innate transparency serving as a base to balance flesh tones; Marden first used it in connection with the Grove Group paintings of the 1970s (exhibited at Gagosian New York in 1991).
Since resuming his engagement with terre verte, Marden has begun layering oil paint of this single color, focusing his conditions in order to heighten them, so to speak. Thus terre verte is both medium and subject as Marden explores its chromatic nuances while reflecting on the material exigencies of painting itself. For a series of ten new, identically sized paintings measuring eight by six feet, he has employed ten different brands of terre verte oil paint—from his favored Williamsburg to Holbein and Sennelier, among others—each a variation on the indefinable hue. The slow-drying paint is thinned and applied gradually to the canvas in many successive veils, building a surface of transparent yet intense color. The contingent residue of these layers forms a visible record of the painting process at the lower edge of each canvas.
With the new paintings, Marden will also exhibit Eastern Moss (2012–15), a smaller nine-panel work that reflects his renewed fascination with the complexities of natural color and human scale.
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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.
Work in Progress
Brice Marden
With preparations underway for a London exhibition, we visit the artist’s studio.
Brice Marden
Larry Gagosian celebrates the unmatched life and legacy of Brice Marden.
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.
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.
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.
News
Online Reading
Brice Marden
Brice Marden is available for online reading from October 11 through November 9 as part of the From the Library series. This catalogue was published on the occasion of the artist’s 2017 exhibition at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London, and focuses on Marden’s terre verte paintings. For the series of ten identically sized paintings measuring eight by six feet, he has employed ten different brands of terre verte oil paint—from his favored Williamsburg to Holbein and Sennelier, among others—each a variation on the indefinable hue. The slow-drying paint is thinned and applied gradually to the canvas in many successive veils, building a surface of transparent yet intense color. New texts by Paul Hills and Noah Dillon, and a conversation between Marden, Gary Hume, and Tim Marlow examine this new body of work from multiple perspectives.
Brice Marden (London: Gagosian, 2017)
