Mnuchin Gallery

When Above the Clouds at Sunrise was exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 1987 exhibition American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School it was described in the catalogue as, containing the whole array of natural effects of a special mountain sunrisean early but not fully developed statement of the pictorial formula familiar in Church’s mature, more complicated and larger showpieces of the late 1850s and 1860s. Here, every detail of rock and tree, as t...o form, color, and texture is captured, as are the dazzling variations of color and texture in the circling mist and receding layers of cloud. Every element of the foreground composition acts as part of a twisting, swirling frame that surround the glory of the sun rising above the distant bed of cloudsThe intense naturalism (especially the attention to light and cloud effects), the forceful, even radical, composition that demands attention to the central point, and a heightened sense of drama and awe of nature are key elements in this and later major works by the artist. In such a picture we can read Church’s deep interest in the study of the anatomy of nature (geology, botany, meteorology, and optics), as well as his religious wonder at the world around him. In our current exhibition, Church & Rothko: Sublime, viewers can see this and other examples from each key point of Church’s career, understanding how Church developed his reverence for nature in pictorial form over the years. The gallery is open Tuesday Saturday from 10:00am to 5:30pm by appointment only. Click the link in our bio to make an in-person reservation. Images: Installation view of Church & Rothko: Sublime, at Mnuchin Gallery, September 30 December 12, 2020. Photo by Tom Powel Imaging. Frederic Edwin Church, Above the Clouds at Sunrise, 1849, oil on canvas, 24 x 40 inches (69.2 x 101.6 cm) Text: Above the Clouds at Sunrise, in American Paradise: The World of the Hudson River School, exh. cat., Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987, p. 239. See more

The handsome, risk-taking installation presents Church’s portrayals of concrete outer reality contrasted with the ephemeral inner reality of Rothko’s images, in juxtapositions that compel the viewer to reorient mental and visual comprehension with the aid of color as the harmonious interconnecting link. The wide differences in the underlying structures of the two artists’ works reveal the extent to which humans have transformed society, culture and art in a span of less than... 100 years. Mary Hrbacek, White Hot Magazine 2020. We are honored that our current exhibition, Church & Rothko: Sublime, has been profiled in White Hot Magazineyou can find the full review on their website as part of their October 2020 features. A special thank you goes out to Mary Hrbacek (@treeart_maryhrbacek) and @whitehotmagazine for the review! Image: Installation view of Church & Rothko: Sublime, at Mnuchin Gallery, September 30 December 12, 2020. Photograph by Tom Powel Imaging, Inc. #churchandrothkosublime #mnuchingallery See more

The different styles I have been using in art must not be seen as an evolution, or as steps towards an unknown ideal of painting. Everything I have ever made was made for the present and with the hope that it would remain in the present. Pablo Picasso Happy Birthday to one of the most recognized and culturally significant figures of the 20th century, #PabloPicasso, born on this day in Málaga, Spain. Picasso was notorious for mixing various styles to create new interpret...ations of what he experienced. Foremostly associated with pioneering Cubism alongside his acquaintance Georges Braque, Picasso likewise popularized collage and made significant contributions to other artistic movements such as Surrealism, while always remaining a singular figure unto himself. A prime example of this is his painting, Guernica (1937), his response to the Spanish Civil War, which remains one of the most moving and powerful anti-war pictures in history. Picasso was not only a master painter (with an oeuvre including over 20,000 paintings) but a sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, theatre and costume designer, and a writer as well. The artist’s influence was profound and far-reaching even during his lifetime, and his prolific output continued well into his 80’s and 90’s, producing an enormous number of works until his death on April 8, 1973. Image: Pablo Picasso in his studio in Paris in 1948. Photo Credit: Herbert List Estate. See more

I do not believe that there was ever a question of being abstract or representational. It is really a matter of ending this silence and solitude, of breathing, and stretching one’s arms again. Mark Rothko Painted in 1968, Untitled (Brown and Black) was executed during a pivotal moment in Rothko’s life. That same year, he suffered an aneurysm which severely limited his ability to paint the large canvases he is known for. Unable to quit making art completely, Rothko ins...tead downsized his practice, building a stunning body of works on paper. It was also around this time that Rothko’s palette began shifting towards darker hues as a result of his commission for the Seagram murals, whose rich maroons and blacks were the part of the impetus for Rothko’s explorations into the evocative emotions conveyed by these deeper tones. You can view Untitled (Brown and Black) alongside other works by Rothko Frederic Church in our current exhibition, Church & Rothko: Sublime. The gallery is open by appointment Tuesday Saturday, 10:00am to 5:30pm. Click the link in our bio to make a reservation. Images: Mark Rothko, Untitled (Brown and Black), 1969, acrylic on paper mounted on board, 33 x 25 inches (84.5 x 65.4 cm) Installation view of Church & Rothko: Sublime at Mnuchin Gallery, September 30 December 12, 2020. Photo by Tom Powel Imaging. See more

Jack Whitten’s (1939-2018) processed-based abstractions have made him one of his generation's most innovative artists. Known for developing new tools and methods of paint handling that allow for creative ways of applying paint to canvas, Whitten’s technical advances impart an importance of materiality onto his work that underscores his compositions' spiritual elements. Barney’s Legacy II, painted in 1980, is one such example of Whitten’s ability to distill many influences into a single, mystical work of art. Visit our website to learn more! Images: Jack Whitten, ‘Barney’s Legacy II,’ 1980, acrylic and paint collage on canvas, 78 x 107 inches (199.4 x 271.8 cm) #jackwhitten

For this week’s Weekly Feature, we are showcasing Günther Förg’s Untitled from 2006. With its rich crimson crosshatching, Untitled hails from Förg’s highly regarded series of Grid Paintings. Visit our website to learn more. Image: Günther Förg, Untitled, 2006, acrylic on canvas, 94 x 87 inches (240.5 x 221 cm). #güntherförg

I think all of my works are about things fitting or not really fitting together, with the exterior structure either dictating the terms of the interior structure or setting up a framework the interior structure plays off. Robert Mangold Happy Birthday to #RobertMangold, born on this day in North Tonawanda, New York. He first trained at the Cleveland Institute of Art from 1956-1959, and then at Yale University, New Haven, where he received his BFA in 1961, followed by hi...s MFA in 1963. Since the mid-1960s, Mangold’s paintings of geometric forms inscribed on shaped canvases have explored tensions between the depicted and the literal, the interior and the exterior, and the conceptual and visual. While his palette, scale 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. At first glance, Mangold’s paintings can appear deceptively simple, yet closer examination reveals irregular geometries, subtle asymmetries, and sophisticated plays of perspective that inspire the viewer to slow down the act of looking and consider the nature of perception. As Mangold has explained, I want the work to cause me to drop everything and then slowly pick up the pieces and enter into a dialogue with it. Image: Robert Mangold standing in front of 1/3 Gray-Green Curved Area, (1966, collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York) at Mnuchin Gallery for the opening of, Robert Mangold: A Survey 1965 - 2003, February 14 - March 25, 2017. Photo credits: BFA.com. Artwork 2020 Robert Mangold/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. See more

Once the object has been constructed, I have a tendency to discover in it, transformed and displaced, images, impressions, facts which have deeply moved me. Alberto Giacometti. Happy Birthday to #AlbertoGiacometti, born on this day in Borgonovo, Switzerland. Throughout his career, Giacometti’s sculptures have been defined by a struggle between matter and meaning. His easily recognizable forms are steeped in phenomenology and existentialist theory, highlighting his relat...ionships with such prominent minds such as Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Samuel Beckett. In 1922, Giacometti moved to Paris, where he studied under the sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, an associate of Auguste Rodin. While in Paris, Giacometti began to experiment with Cubism and Surrealism, and was a leading participant in the Surrealist circle; among his associates were Joan Miró, Max Ernst, and André Masson. It was between the years of 1936 and 1940 when Giacometti began sculpting the human head, focusing on the models’ gaze. The artist had once said: The head is what matters. The rest of the body plays the part of antennae making life possible for people and life itself is inside the skull. It was during this time that his small-scaled statues (no greater than 2.75 inches) started to become stretched and elongated, a style that became instantly recognizable as his own. It wasn’t until after World War II that Giacometti’s sculptures grew exponentially to a larger-than-life size, although they remained incredibly slender, evoking the ravages the war had wrought. We were honored to have had a selection of the artist’s statues on view in our Casting Modernity: Bronze in the 20th Century exhibition in 2014, co-curated with Dr. David Ekserdjian, Professor of Art History, University of Leicester. Images: Installation views of Casting Modernity: Bronze in the 20th Century, at Mnuchin Gallery, April 24 June 6, 2014. Photography by Tom Powel Imaging. See more

Avery is first a great poet. His is the poetry of sheer loveliness, of sheer beauty. Thanks to him this kind of poetry has been able to survive in our time. - Mark Rothko, Eulogy given for Milton Avery, 1965. For this iteration of our Weekly Feature, we take a look at Milton Avery’s Red Kerchief. Painted in 1960, one of the artist’s last working years, this work reinforces Avery’s reputation as an unmatched colorist and overall aesthetic innovator. To learn more about ...this work, visit our website! Image: Milton Avery, Red Kerchief, 1960, oil on canvas, 40 x 32 inches (102.9 x 81.3 cm) Photograph by Tom Powel Imaging. #miltonavery See more

Mnuchin Gallery, in collaboration with Michael N. Altman (@mnafineart) and Christopher Rothko, is pleased to present our latest exhibition: Church & Rothko: Sublime, in a digitized, online experience and available for limited viewings by appointment continuing through Saturday, December 12, 2020. Illustrating a lineage of affective color tensions between the Hudson River School landscapes of Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) and the Color Field canvases of Mark Rothko (1903...-1970), Church & Rothko: Sublime explores the aesthetic force of two American artists who probed the formal boundaries of the sublime. Although separated by nearly a century and working under vastly different social conditions, Church and Rothko converge within the timeless sublime. Each artist, painting at the vanguards of American art, discovered innovative and compelling formal strategies to imbue the picture with psychological and reactive force. The exhibition will be on view in person Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00am to 5:30pm by appointment only through our website. Click the link below to make a reservation. https://www.mnuchingallery.com/reservations Images: Installation views of Church & Rothko: Sublime, at Mnuchin Gallery, September 30 December 12, 2020. Photo by Tom Powel Imaging. Artworks 1998 / 2020 by Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko & Michael Altman Fine Art & Advisory Services.

It’s instinctive It’s like a nervous system. It’s not described, it’s happening. The feeling is going on with the task. The line is the feeling, from a soft thing, a dreamy thing, to something hard, something arid, something lonely, something ending, something beginning. - Cy Twombly For our second Weekly Feature, we highlight Cy Twombly’s Untitled, (1969-71), a work on paper created in dialogue with his important Blackboard series. To learn more about this work, vis...it our website! Image: Cy Twombly, ‘Untitled,’ 1969-71, acrylic and crayon on paper, 35 3/8 x 30 inches (89.9 x 76.2 cm), signed and dated Cy Twombly 1969-71 (verso). Photograph courtesy of Mnuchin Gallery, New York. #cytwombly

Art to me is an anecdote of the spirit, and the only means of making concrete the purpose of its varied quickness and stillness. Happy Birthday to #MarkRothko, born on this day in Dvinsk, Russia (today Daugavpils, Latvia). Rothko and his family migrated to the United States when he was ten years old and settled in Portland, Oregon. In 1921, Rothko attended Yale University, but in the fall of 1923, he gave up his studies and moved to New York City, where he enrolled at the... Art Students League, briefly studying under Max Weber. In the late 1920s, Rothko met the artist Milton Avery and was profoundly influenced by his simplified and colorful depictions of domestic subjects. From 1942 to 1947, Rothko worked in association with fellow artist Adolph Gottlieb, and he developed a special interest in Surrealism. His works of this period drew upon that interest, as well as Greek mythology, primitive art, Christian tragedy and Symbolism. Shortly after, Rothko discontinued the use of mythology in his paintings, and became more focused on abstraction. By the 1950s, Rothko began to produce his most famous works: paintings made of two or three bands of vibrant color, applied with a thin layer of binder mixed with pigment directly onto uncoated and unprimed canvas, creating a dense mixture of overlapping colors and shapes. In the late 1950s, his palette of colors became darker, a development related to his Seagram murals, commissioned for the Four Seasons Restaurant in 1958 and the first of three other mural projects. He would continue working in this manner for the rest of his life until his death on February 25, 1970. We are honored to present Mark Rothko’s work in our upcoming exhibition, Church & Rothko: Sublime, opening this Wednesday, September 30th. Please visit our website to make an appointment or to view the exhibition virtually, which will include a panoramic walkthrough featuring video commentary by Robert Mnuchin and co-curators Christopher Rothko and Michael Altman. Image: Mark Rothko with Orange and Yellow, 1956, at the Albright Art Gallery, May 15, 1957. Image courtesy of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Digital Assets Collection and Archives, Buffalo, New York. Photograph by The Towne Studio, Buffalo, New York. See more

Mnuchin Gallery is excited to announce our new Weekly Feature program, a new online initiative that showcases works by renowned artists of the 20th & 21st centuries. For our inaugural iteration, we take a look at David Hammons’ ‘Untitled,’ an enamel on masonite piece from 1968. To learn more about this work, visit our website! Image: David Hammons, ‘Untitled,’ 1968, enamel on masonite, 36 x 30 inches (91.4 x 76.2 cm) by Tom Powel Imaging. #davidhammons

Last week, the National Gallery of Art hosted the virtual 2020 John Wilmerding Symposium on American Art: A Tribute to David C. Driskell. Mary Lovelace O’Neal joined moderator Sarah Workneh and fellow artists Carrie Mae Weems, Lyle Ashton Harris, Curlee Raven Holton, Keith Morrison, Jefferson Pinder, and Frank Stewart to discuss the life and legacy of her late teacher, friend, and mentor. Here, Lovelace O’Neal speaks about some of the lasting lessons Dr. Driskell impressed ...upon her: Mr. Driskell, like my father, let me be as crazy as I needed to be. He taught me at some point that it was time to research myself. He taught me to fight for what I believed, even if it was wrongI could always change my mind. He told me it was just fine to live in contradiction. The full symposium is available to view on Youtube. #marylovelaceoneal See more