Alvin D. Loving

Alvin D. Loving Jr.
Born (1935-09-19)September 19, 1935
Detroit, MI
Died June 21, 2005(2005-06-21) (aged 69)
New York, NY
Nationality American
Education University of Michigan
Known for Painting
Movement Abstract expressionism

Alvin D. Loving Jr. (September 19, 1935 – June 21, 2005), better known as Al Loving was an African-American abstract expressionist and painter. His work is known for hard-edge abstraction, fabric constructions, and large paper collages - all exploring complicated color relationships.

Loving earned a BFA from the University of Illinois in 1963 and an MFA from University of Michigan in 1965.[1] Within a year of moving to New York City, he received his first solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art.[2] He received National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in 1970, 1971, 1975, 1976, and 1985; and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1986. Loving created large-scale commissioned public works, including a ceramic mural in one of Detroit's People Mover stations and another in the David Adamany Library at Wayne State University. In 1996, he created a collage painting for the Sacramento Convention Center, and in 2001 he completed a large mosaic wall with 70 stained-glass windows for Brooklyn's Broadway-East New York subway station.[3]

Although he never matched the success of his first show, Loving exhibited steadily throughout his life in group and solo exhibitions at numerous venues, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Studio Museum in Harlem; Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York; Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France; and PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, New York. His work appears in many public collections including the Whitney, the Detroit Art Institute, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Estate of Al Loving is represented exclusively by Garth Greenan Gallery, New York.[4]

Education

Loving began his education at the University of Illinois, Champaign. The teaching consisted of formal instruction of painting and drawing. Later, he would go to graduate school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His major mentor there was Al Mullen, who helped him get involved with the Once Group organization. This organization was made up of members such as Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol. Thus, once Loving moved to New York City he was able to get in touch with other well-known artists, such as Frank Stella and Kenneth Noland, who would become major influences on his art practice. As Loving is studying and moving to New York, abstract expressionism was on its way out to be replaced by pop art, minimalism, and hard-edge abstraction.

Artistic Style

Hard-Edge Abstraction

In the 1960s, Loving grew increasingly interested in Josef Alber's paintings of squares within squares. In an interview, he explains: "For me at the time, it was about painting the square until it was 'enough,' and that meant until it obtained form. The square that I started with would always be gone; only I knew it was a square, that that reference was there. That freed me to just paint and let things evolve...[The square] was pure energy and focus.”[5] These geometric abstractions conveyed the brilliance of refracted light; they were not just experiments in color. Loving would often make polyhedrons of the same size, with different colors, and hang them together in different arrangements on the wall. The result was sometimes dozens of canvases stretching out over several feet; to view an entire composition would take time, more than just a glance, making his paintings a powerful expression of time, too.[6] This body of work was featured in Loving's first solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Some have critiqued the Whitney for caring more about Loving's race than for his art. In fact, Loving himself looks back on this body of work with at once embarrassment and also acknowledges the importance of this step as a launching off point for the rest of his career. He had to move on because he felt there was nothing expressive about the cubes.

Fabric Constructions

Inspired by a visit to the Whitney Museum's exhibition "Abstract Design in American Quilts," in the early 1970s, Loving takes his canvases off the stretcher bars and begins experimenting. He started hanging strips of canvas from the walls and ceilings, playing with our perception of pictorial and sculptural ideals. Then, he reattached the fragments together with a sewing machine, creating large flowing fabric constructions. At first he painted the pieces of canvas, but later switched to dying the fabric. This way of working was not born out of a vacuum; Sam Gilliam, Alan Shields, and Richard Moch were also using the sewing machine. In fact, Loving considered himself within the context of abstract expressionism at this phase in his career; though he was not a painter but a material abstractionist.[5]

Large Paper Collages

Finally, by the 1980s, Loving had grown tired of fabric, too. So, he begins to integrated other materials into his constructions, such as corrugated cardboard and rag paper. Loving quickly took a liking to the casualness of tearing cardboard and gluing it onto other pieces; in fact, he considered this practice abstract expressionist as well. Unlike the fabric constructions, the large paper collages gave him a sense of freedom because he was trekking through uncharted territory (although this work has been likened to Frank Stella's curvilinear metal reliefs and Elizabeth Murray's shaped canvases). Loving integrated circles and spirals into these collages as a nod to his African roots and as an expression of growth and continued life. Sandra Yolles, reviewing an exhibition in 1990, explained "Loving’s work is about earth, wind, fire, and water: some pieces might be considered atmospheric maps of life at full blast—stretching the possibilities of the human spirit by delineating its directions, currents, and eddies.”[7]

Exhibition History

Solo Exhibitions

1969

1969–1970

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1976

1977

1979

1984–1985

1986

1987

1988

1990

1991

1992

1993

1996

1997

1998

1998–1999

1999

2001

2002

2004

2005 Al Loving: Color Weave, Jeffrey Moose Gallery, Seattle, February 11–March 26

2005–2006

2012

2015

Group Exhibitions

1968

1969

1970

1971

1972

1973

1975

1977

1979

1981

1982

1983

1984–1985

1985

1987

1989

1990

1991

2000

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2006–2007

2008–2009

2009

2011

2012

2015

2016

Collections

Loving's work can be found in prominent collections in America, including the following:

Works

References

  1. ↑ "Al Loving (1935-2005) - Artists - Michael Rosenfeld Art". www.michaelrosenfeldart.com. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
  2. ↑ Fox, Margalit (2005-06-30). "Al Loving Dies at 69; Abstract Artist Created Vibrant Work". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
  3. ↑ Oliver, Myrna (2005-07-09). "Al Loving, 69; African American Abstract Artist Worked in Many Forms". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-01-18.
  4. ↑ "Al Loving". Garth Greenan Gallery. Retrieved 4 August 2016.
  5. 1 2 Albright Knox Gallery (1989). The Appropriate Object: Maren Hassinger, Richard Hunt, Oliver Jackson, Alvin Loving, Betye Saar, Raymond Saunders, John Scott. Buffalo: Albright Knox Gallery.
  6. ↑ Brown, Gordon (197). "Alvin Loving". Arts Magazine. 45 (5): 66–67.
  7. ↑ Yolles, Sandra (1990). "Alvin Loving". Art News. 89 (9): 164–65.

External links

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