Gary Garrels

This is the catalogue for a major retrospective organized by SFMOMA and celebrating the work of one of the most important and influential conceptual artists of the century. Sol LeWitt's career has been defined by a series of groundbreaking explorations into the basic building blocks of form and their relationship to philosophical and mathematical concepts. (Some critics have seen his work as visual manifestoes of the ideas of Descartes and Kant.) The fact is, however, that LeWitt's works show more transform these abstract principles and formulas into objects of beauty and grace, introducing elements of chance, intuition, or irrationality into the scientific systems that inspired their creation. While his thoroughly documented work of the 1960s was firmly fixed in the realm of conceptualism, his turn toward a more lyrical and sensual form of abstraction since then has never received adequate critical attention. This catalogue will chart the evolution of LeWitt's art from the sixties through to the present to show the enormous influence that his delicate balancing act between thought and form, order and disorder, has exerted on younger artists. show less

'Plane Image: A Brice Marden Retrospective' accompanied the artist’s first full retrospective, which presented more than 170 works spanning four decades of his career, from the early 1960s to the date of the exhibition. Organized by Gary Garrels, Brice Marden: A Retrospective of Paintings and Drawings opened at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 2006 and traveled to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Hamburger Bahnhof–Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, in 2007.

In addition to more show more than 270 illustrations, this catalogue features essays by Garrels, Richard Shiff, Brenda Richardson, and Carol Mancusi-Ungaro, as well as an interview with the artist by Michael Duffy. In the opening essay, “Beholding Light and Experience: The Art of Brice Marden,” Garrels provides a chronological overview of his oeuvre, introducing his innovative synthesis of examination, reflection, and action. Following, Shiff analyzes the artist’s early work in depth; Richardson discusses the importance of place, nature, and influences on his practice; and Mancusi-Ungaro looks at the materials and processes of Marden’s monochromes. An extensive chronology, bibliography, and exhibition history offer an account of Marden’s uniquely accomplished career. show less

Catalog of an exhibition held at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minn., Feb. 14-May 9 2000.

Published on the occasion of an exhibition held at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Oct. 7, 2000-Jan. 15, 2001