Brice Marden

My work has always been involved with nature, no matter how abstract. Sometimes it’s more formal and less directly related to the real world. But there’s always been some sort of engagement with nature. 
—Brice Marden

Gagosian is pleased to present Marbles and Drawings, an exhibition of paintings and works on paper by Brice Marden. This will be Marden’s first solo exhibition in Greece in four decades and it will inaugurate the new location of the Athens gallery, an elegant stand-alone building in the center of the city.

In 1981, while summering on the island of Hydra, Marden began painting on small fragments of marble from local quarries. These compositions marked a transitional moment in his career. Continuing his long-standing engagement with classical Greek themes—exemplified by earlier monumental oil-and-beeswax paintings such as Thira (1979–80), which feature rich tones and columnar blocks inspired by ancient temples—the marble imparts Marden’s elemental motifs and geometric shapes with a certain luminosity.

Since that time, Marden has continued to make marble paintings, describing his strategy as “taking an accident and turning it into a form.” He partially tints the stone ground with thin, translucent layers of oil paint, producing serenely colored rectangles alongside bars of black and gray. These compositions work in harmony with each stone’s inherent texture and veining pattern; some even preserve traces of ruled graphite markers.