Meredith Rosen Gallery is pleased to present Hard-Edge Sacrifice: Alice Aycock, Karl Gerstner, Al Held, Robert
Smithson. The exhibition opens on July 10 and will remain on view until August 10th at 11 East 78th Street.
Across the works on view, geometric abstraction acts as a precursor to choreograph spatial movement. Each artist
engages subtle modularity within a single work or across iterations. Interactivity is brought to the fore in sculpture,
abstract compositions on board and paintings which speak to the algorithmic patterns of contemporary life.
Prefiguring recent technological developments, abstraction and geometry in Gerstner, Aycock, and Held’s work
oscillates a kind of transcendence, evoking spirituality and upward motions of ascension. The rigorous formal
structure applied across all of the works on view, lend themselves to a release in the form of color and light.
Gerstner’s Color Sound work consists of abstract compositions on board using mathematical sequencing of value
and tone. Developed through image systems, rather than individual works, Gerstner sought to create constructive
images in which form and color were in unity. Sculptural and painting works by Aycock and Held similarly exploit the
grid in order to move freely between structure and resonance.
Binding the works is a poem by Robert Smithson which uses repetition and seriality in religious iconography. In it,
Smithson’s repeated phrases attempt to rehabilitate an angel's broken wings. The poem harkens to the use of
repetition in devotion and prayer, which shed renewed light on the various forms of rhythm evoked in the subtle
modularity across all works on view.
“To The Flayed Angels”
Blood, Blood, Precious Blood, Blood, Blood.
Flesh, Flesh, Sacred Flesh, Flesh, Flesh.
Christ, Christ, Jesus Christ, Christ, Christ.
Bleeding Angels of Jesus Christ have mercy on us.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Word of flesh with amputated wings.
Mercy on us.
Alice Aycock (b. 1946, Harrisburg, PA) lives and works in New York. Her large-scale sculptures and installations
Aycock exist at the intersection between architecture and sculpture to address cybernetics, phenomenology,
post-structuralism, scientific advancement and computer programming. Aycock’s work has been shown at the
Museum of Modern Art, New York (1977), the San Francisco Art Institute (1979), Museum of Contemporary Art,
Chicago (1983), Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska (1985), State University of New York, Buffalo
(1988), Altantic Arts Center, New Smyrna Beach, Florida (1989), and the Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, New
York (1990), amongst numerous others. In 1983 a retrospective exhibition was organized by the Württembergischer
Kunstverein and traveled in Germany, The Netherlands, and Switzerland.
Karl Gerstner (1930-2017 Basel, Switzerland) was a theorist and graphic designer amongst his career as an artist.He
wrote several texts and books on art and design, including the design theory classic Designing Programmes, 1964.
The artist’s work has been represented at international group and solo exhibitions including Documenta 3 and 4 in
Kassel, the Venice Biennale, the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne, the Kunstmuseum Bottrop, the Von der Heydt
Museum in Wuppertal, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Palazzo Reale in Milan, the Centre Pompidou in
Paris, the Kunstmuseum Winthertur, the Kunsthaus and the Helmhaus in Zurich, the Kunstmuseum Basel |
Gegenwart in Basel and the Kunstmuseum in Solothurn. His works have also been exhibited at Gallery Denise René
in Paris, Gallery Der Spiegel in Cologne, Gallery Hans Mayer in Düsseldorf, Staempfli Gallery in New York and
Gallery Beyeler in Basel. Gerstner’s work has been extensively collected by MoMA, among several institutional and
private collections. Meredith Rosen Gallery staged the first solo exhibition in New York since his 1973 MoMA
exhibition.
Al Held (b. Brooklyn, NY 1928; d. Todi, Italy, 2005) Solo exhibitions include Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1966);
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California and Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (1968); ICA
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1968); Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas (1969); Whitney Museum of
American Art, New York (1974); and ICA Boston, Massachusetts (1978), among others. He produced major public
artworks in prominent cities around the US including Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Washington, DC; New York; and
Orlando, Florida. Held’s work features in many museums and public collections including those of The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Neue
Nationalgalerie, Berlin and Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland.
11 East 78th Street New York, NY 10075