Al Held's Alphabet Paintings 1961-1967 at Cheim & Read

From February 20 to April 20, 2013, Cheim & Read in New York City presented Al Held's Alphabet Paintings 1961-1967 at 547 West 25th Street. The exhibition featured geometric works from the 1960s based on alphabet fragments, including The Big A (1962), The Big D (1964), and The Yellow X (1965). Held's titles reveal a straightforward visual approach, contrasting with Frank Stella's art historical references in works like Tahkt-i-Sulayman (1967) and Daniel Buren's literal materialism in Manifestation 1 – Peinture acrylique sur tissu rayé (1967). Unlike Kandinsky, Mondrian, Pollock, Thomas Nozkowski, Malevich, or Robert Mangold, Held avoided mystical associations, nature allusions, or pure materialism. He created large, simplified, slightly illusionistic images with self-evident meanings, using subjects like alphabet letters, geometric forms such as Circle and Triangle (1964) and Maltese Cross (1964), and cultural figures including Siegfried (1966) and Mao (1967). The paintings' scale was crucial to prevent them from becoming inert quasi-minimalist compositions. In Cheim & Read's high-walled galleries, works like The Big N (1964-66) and Untitled (1965) demonstrated a self-sufficient presence through subtle details like notches and inserts. Upside Down Triangle (1966), over four meters wide, featured a central cut triangle that created a twisting effect. Without working in series or repeating, Held achieved varied effects, reinventing painting through simplified means.