In my view, non-objective and abstract art have a special role in describing non-Newtonian reality—a reality in which our five senses are of little use.
Al Held's striking Bruges II (1981) is currently on view at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art. The painting is part of “In the Making: Contemporary Art,” along with other works from the SBMA’s permanent collection by Gisela Colón, York Chang, Elliott Hundley, and Sean Scully, among others.
Bringing together more than ninety works spanning six decades, Electric Op examines how artists have used abstraction to explore the relationship between perception and technology. Curated by Tina Rivers Ryan, the show convincingly makes the case for Op art as the first artistic movement of the Information Age, paving the way for art to be abstracted into analog and digital circuits. Jimmy's Painting (1972), seen here, and Piero's Piazza (1982) are the two Held paintings in the show, largely drawn from the museum's permanent collection. Although computers played no part in the development of his imagery, Held's work anticipated contemporary concerns with its visualization of spatial complexity and contradiction. The exhibition travels to the Musée d'arts de Nantes, where it will be on view from April 4 to September 1, 2025.
Al Held spent a transformative two years in Paris in the early 1950s. And he was not alone. Hundreds of American artists—many of them veterans like Held travelling on the GI Bill—studied and lived in a thriving postwar scene, experimenting with new forms and materials while rubbing elbows with Léger and Picasso. This story is the subject of the engrossing exhibition Americans in Paris: Artists Working in Postwar France, 1946–1962 at New York University’s Grey Art Museum (formerly Gallery). Curated by scholar Debra Bricker Balken and director Lynn Gumpert, the exhibition and catalogue provide in-depth information and generous selections of works. The Al Held Foundation lent three works that Al created towards the end of his time in Paris, completing his evolution from social realist to abstract expressionist.