Collection Online as of September 24, 2023

(American, 1928–2005)

Acrylic on canvas

Unframed: 152.4 x 152.4 cm (60 x 60 in.)

Purchased with a grant from the NEA and matched by gifts from members of The Cleveland Society for Contemporary Art 1976.101

Location

not on view

Fun Fact

Before enlisting in the United States Navy in 1945, Held claimed to have been expelled from high school in the Bronx.

Description

From 1969 to 1978 Held investigated in large, stark paintings like Jupiter IV spatial conundrums by suggesting volume and depth. Over a flat, white surface he superimposed bold, black lines of varying thickness to render interlocking cubes, flowing circular forms, and other threedimensional shapes, providing a complex symphony of continuous geometrical forms floating in infinite space.

Inscriptions

Inscription

Signed on back: Al Held

Citations

Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 77-78, no. 112

Exhibition history

MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", no. 112, p. 122, repr. p. 78.

"Al Held," Adler Castillo Gallery, Caracas Venezuela (1975).
"Year in Review 1976," CMA (1977).
"Contemporary Art," CMA (Nov. 3 - Dec. 12, 1982).
"Contemporary Collection," CMA (Aug. 17 - Nov. 6, 1983).

Year in Review, 1976. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-March 6, 1977).

The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).