ART CITIES:Geneva-Robert Mangold

Robert Mangold is one of the most pre-eminent artists of his generation. Since the 1960s he has developed an artistic vocabulary derived from the idea of geometry and asymmetry in shape and form. Mangold’s use of subtle color and curvilinear abstract forms are associated with Minimalism but also recall other sources from Ancient Greek pottery to Renaissance frescoes.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Pace Gallery Archive

In the exhibition with  works by Robert Mangold at Pace Gallery in Geneva are of show paintings and works on paper spanning Mangold’s career and highlighting the artist’s mastery of abstraction. Since the mid-1960s, Robert Mangold has combined the classic elements of composition (shape, line and color) to create paintings of geometric forms inscribed on shaped canvases exploring the tensions between the depicted and the literal, the interior and the exterior, the conceptual and the visual. While his palette, scale, supports, and influences have never stopped evolving, he has rigorously adhered to investigating the interplay between the same key elements of area, line, color, and surface structure. Inspired by the works of quattrocento artists*, specifically Piero della Francesca (1495-1492), Mangold has explored the possibilities of shapes and the relationships between drawing and painted surface, painting as object and the wall. His works, which feature complex hand-drawn compositions, at times consisting of multi-paneled shaped canvases, attain a sense of balance and embody the artists willingness to experiment as well as his dedication to abstract subject matter. Presented alongside his canvases, the artist’s works on paper offer an additional insight into his process and the importance of drawing within his practice. Seen together these works give a comprehensive look at the unique territory within abstraction that Mangold occupies. Robert Mangold spent his youth in Buffalo, New York. In 1956, he enrolled in the illustration department of the Cleveland Institute of Art. Within a year, he had transferred to the fine-arts division of the school in order to pursue an education in painting, sculpture, and drawing. While studying at the institute in 1957, Mangold travelled to see the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, where he gained exposure to the work of a wide variety of Abstract Expressionist painters, including Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Franz Kline, and Jackson Pollock. That same year, he attended a major exhibition of Clyfford Still´s paintings at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo. Subsequently, Mangold’s painting reflected an interest in Abstract Expressionism as well as in the work of Alberto Burri and Antonio Tàpies. He began producing large-scale abstract paintings, moving away from an earlier interest in naturalism. After graduating in 1959, he entered the graduate program at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture, New Haven. His first solo exhibition was in 1964 at Thibaut Gallery, Nueva York and subsequently participated in several seminal group exhibitions, including “Systematic Painting” held at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1966, and “Primary Structures” at the Jewish Museum in 1967. In 1968, Mangold began employing acrylic instead of oil paint, rolling rather than spraying it on Masonite or plywood grounds. Within the year, he moved from these more industrially oriented supports to canvas. He received a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in 1969, with which he and Plimack built a home in the Catskills. They lived there through the mid-1970s, at which time they moved to Washingtonville, New York, where they still reside. In 1970, Mangold began working with shaped canvases and within the year began brushing rather than spraying paint onto canvas. He became affiliated with John Weber Gallery in 1972, with Paula Cooper Gallery in 1984, and with Pace Gallery in 1991. In 1998, coinciding with a solo exhibition at the Wiesbaden Museum, Mangold was awarded with the Jawlensky Recognition from the city. As a consequence of this exhibition it was published the second part of his catalogue raisonné of his prints work, which first part was edited in 1982, coinciding with another solo exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.

*The cultural and artistic events of Italy during the period 1400 to 1499 are collectively referred to as the Quattrocento. The Quattrocento encompasses the artistic styles of the late Middle Ages (most notably International Gothic), the early Renaissance (beginning around 1425), and the start of the High Renaissance, generally asserted to begin between 1495 and 1500.

Info: Pace Gallery, Quai des Bergues 15-17, Geneva, Duration 7/5-31/7/19, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, www.pacegallery.com