Max Cole: Breaking Day
June 30 - July 22, 2023
Max Cole
The day-to-day fades over time. The intricate and intimate details recede, leaving only a broad sweep of experience. Patterns of a life lived. What remains that is bright? What remains that feels, in the remembering, more real than the next every-day before you?
A memory. The kind of memory where all the senses meet and converge: a piercing quality of the light, the smell of the air, the feel of the world intersecting on your skin, sound so pure and present that it is almost visible. That sharp intake of breath as you arrive in the past, firmly, for at least a breath or two, inhabiting a place where you once were. Vivid. Hyper-real. Memories that change, if only for a while, everything about how you see yourself, your life, the world.
Most of us don’t have very many of these sorts of memories. And retrieving them, finding the still and focused place where they can rise to the surface, can be perishingly difficult.
Max Cole’s paintings are pathways to these moments.
It is impossible to pin down precisely which element or quality of Cole’s paintings generates this perceptual magic – probably because these pieces are so much more than the sum of their parts. Cole’s paintings are studies in precision, in balance, in focus. Pared down to neutrals and earth tones, to the dialogue of vertical and horizontal, this austere vocabulary belies the rich and seemingly infinite language that Cole is able to create with her paintings.
In 2015, Cole was asked to participate in a centennial celebration of Malevich, which brought her to focus in on the form of the Greek Cross. The form, which Cole sees as expressing a perfect equilibrium, has continued to inspire Cole since. These new works, showing in Breaking Day, and painted since Cole’s move back to New Mexico, still reference the form – but seem to be in a process of cracking
open the shape. In some of the pieces in the exhibition, such as Dreamer or Phantom, the cross remains omnipresent. However, others, like Haiku or Reflection seem to have broken and unlocked the form.
With their subtlety and quiet beauty, these paintings, despite their deceptive simplicity, present a continuous unfolding. There is a movement between each band of color, each fine line, which the eye follows – focusing first in, then out, detail and then whole, back to detail. And as the viewer eases into a relationship with the painting, sinks into sympathy with it, the quality of attention begins to shift, deepening, softening, expanding.
This is the pathway. Because what seems to lie beyond the sum of the paintings’ parts is a quality of presence, imparted during their creation. It is easy to make a correlation between Max Cole’s process, as an artist, and the objects that she creates. For Cole, art is a form of spiritual expression. If the world of artists had an official monastic order, Cole would be a member. She lives her life, wholly, according to art’s rhythms, in a constant state of mindful attention, contemplation, in quiet solitude and devotion to creation. The paradoxical state of soft and sharp focus, of vivid awareness, is what, slowly but surely, opens up a possibility of that state within the viewer.
From there, from that state of quiet immanence (of immanence as transcendence), those bright moments, those sharp-as-glass memories, rise up through us. Each memory a jewel in a chain of moments in our lives when we were vibrantly alive, the chain connecting us to now. Connecting us to the gallery, to the painting, to the brushstroke, to the breath, to the artist, to that something new, shining, awakening, breaking open over the horizon.
- Michaela Kahn, PhD
Sandspit, 2023, acrylic on linen, 43 x 39 inches
Reflection, 2023, acrylic on linen, 43 x 39 inches
Tangent Dance, 2023, acrylic on linen, 43 x 39 inches
Red Sunrise, 2023, acrylic on linen, 43 x 39 inches
Triple Split, 2023, acrylic on linen, 43 x 39 inches
Breaking Day, 2023, acrylic on linen, 43 x 39 inches
Dreamer, 2023, acrylic on linen, 43 x 39 inches
Whisper, 2023, acrylic on linen, 43 x 39 inches
Phantom, 2023, acrylic on linen, 43 x 39 inches
Crosswind, 2023, acrylic on linen, 43 x 39 inches
Sandbar, 2023, acrylic on linen, 19 x 16 inches
Point Reyes, 2023, acrylic on linen, 19 x 16 inches
Twilight, 2023, acrylic on linen, 19 x 16 inches
Lode Star, 2023, acrylic on linen, 19 x 16 inches
Dusk, 2023, acrylic on linen, 19 x 16 inches
Echo, 2023, acrylic on linen, 19 x 16 inches
Sandspit, 2023
acrylic on linen
43 x 39 in.
MAXC408
Click to inquire about this work
$38,000
Reflection, 2023
acrylic on linen
43 x 39 in.
MAXC401
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$38,000
Tangent Dance, 2023
acrylic on linen
43 x 39 in.
MAXC436
Click to inquire about this work
$38,000
Red Sunrise, 2023
acrylic on linen
43 x 39 in.
MAXC435
Click to inquire about this work
$38,000
Triple Split, 2023 acrylic on linen
43 x 39 in.
MAXC411
Click to inquire about this work
Breaking Day, 2023 acrylic on linen
43 x 39 in.
MAXC405
Click to inquire about this work
$38,000
Dreamer, 2023 acrylic on linen
43 x 39 in.
MAXC402
$38,000
Click to inquire about this work $38,000
Whisper, 2023 acrylic on linen
43 x 39 in.
MAXC407
Click to inquire about this work
$38,000
Phantom, 2023
acrylic on linen
43 x 39 in.
MAXC403
Click to inquire about this work
$38,000
Twilight, 2023
acrylic on linen
19 x 16 in.
MAXC441
Click to inquire about this work
Crosswind, 2023
acrylic on linen
43 x 39 in.
MAXC406
Click to inquire about this work
$38,000
Lode Star, 2023
acrylic on linen
19 x 16 in.
MAXC443
Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
Sandbar, 2023
acrylic on linen
19 x 16 in.
MAXC442
Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
Dusk, 2023
acrylic on linen
19 x 16 in.
MAXC438
$15,000
Point Reyes, 2023
acrylic on linen
19 x 16 in.
MAXC455
Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
Echo, 2023
Click to inquire about this work $15,000
acrylic on linen
19 x 16 in.
MAXC439
Click to inquire about this work
$15,000
Born: 1937 in Kansas
Lives and works in Northern New Mexico
Education:
1964 MFA, University of Arizona, Tucson 1961
1961 BA, Fort Hays State University, Hays, Kansas
Honors and Grants:
2009 Contemporary Artist’s Meeting with the Pope, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Italy
2005 Artist in Residence, The Joseph and Anni Albers Foundation, Connecticut
1995 Artist in Residence, The Roswell Museum and Art Center, Roswell, NM
1988 Research Fellowship, Indo-US Sub-Commission, U. S. Department of State for exhibition at the National Gallery of Fine Art, New Delhi and travel and study India
1987 Adolph Gottlieb Foundation Artist’s Grant
1986 Pollack/Krasner Foundation Artist’s Grant
1983 Visual Artists Fellowship, National Endowment for the Arts
1962-64 Fellowship for Graduate Study of Painting, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
Selected Recent Solo Exhibition:
2023 Breaking Day, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2022 Endless Journey, SITE Santa Fe, Santa Fe, NM
2021 The Bounding Circle, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2018
Crosswinds, Larry Becker Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA
The Long View, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2015 Black Magic, Charlotte Jackson Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM
2013 Meditations, Kunstation, Sankt Peter Koeln, Germany. Catalog. In collaboration with Kolumba.
Show Cover Hide: Schrein, The Esthetics of the Invisible Kolumba Erzbischofliches
Diozesanmuseum, Cologne, Germany. Catalog
Salt Marsh, Pampas, Dog Star and Fourteen Drawings, Larry Becker Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
2012 Beyond the Fourth Dimension, kunstgaleriebonn. Accompanied by a book of twenty drawings and handwritten observations on the nature of art. Published by Verlag Weidle
Beyond, Charlotte Jackson Fine Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico
To the Line, Meis van der Rohe Haus, Berlin. Catalog
At the Edge of Meaning, Galerie Wenger, Zurich. Brochure with writing by Stephen Zaima
2011 Drawings, Galerie Lindner, Vienna, Austria
Quintessence: Max Cole over Time, kunstgaleriebonn, catalog
Terre Firma, Max Cole: New Paintings, Haines Gallery, San Francisco, California
Max Cole, Paintings, Galerie Lindner, Vienna, Austria.
2010 Light and Line, New Paintings, Larry Becker Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
Paintings, Galerie Schlegl, Zurich, Switzerland. (with Jens Trimpin)
Selected Museum and Public Collections:
The Achenbach Foundation, Fine Arts Museums, San Francisco, CA
Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, New York
The American Center, New Delhi, India
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkley, California
Chiat Foundation Collection, New York, New York
Collection Hanny Frick, Schaan, Lichtenstein
Daimler Collection, Berlin, Germany
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas
Denver Museum of Art, Denver, Colorado
Everson Museum, Syracuse, New York
FAI –Fondo per l’Ambiente Italiano, Villa Menafoglio, Varase, Italy
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, California
Grunwald Center for Graphic Art, UCLA, Los Angeles, California
KiCo Foundation, Bonn, Germany
Kolumba Diozesanmuseum, Cologne, Germany
Kramarsky Collection, New York, New York
Kunstraum Alexander Buerkle Collection, Freiburg, Germany
Kreditanstalt fur Wiederaufbau, Frankfurt, Germany
La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California
Lenbach Haus, Munich, Germany
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Louisiana Museum, Humlebaek, Denmark
Metropolitan Museum of Art, Graphics Department, New York, New York
Microsoft Collection, Seattle, Washington
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Mondstudio Collection, Germany
Muse’ed’art et d’histoire Neuchatel, Switzerland
Museo d’Aarte Moderna Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto, Italy
Museum der Schoenen Kunst, Szepmuveszeti
Muzeum, Budapest, Hungary
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
Museum of Fine Arts of New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Museum of Modern Art, Graphics Department, New York, New York
Museum Geganstandfrierkunst, Landkreise Cuxhaven, Otterndorf, Germany
Museum fur Konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt, Germany
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
The Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, Roswell, New Mexico
The Panza di Biumo Collection, Varese, Italy
Rossi/Matttioli Collection, Milan, Italy
Samlung Alison and Peter W. Klein, Eberdingen-Nussdorf, Germany
Sammlung Reinking, Hamburg, Germany
Samlung Rosskoph, Kunstraum Alexander Buerkle, Freiburg, Germany
San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California
Stadische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany
Staadliche Museen zu Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin, Germany
Tel Aviv Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel
Tia collection, Santa Fe, NM
The University of Arizona Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona
Utah Museum of Art, Salt Lake City, Utah
Van Der Heyht Museum, Wuppertal, Germany
Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensborough, North Carolina
Museum of Fine Art, Budapest, Hungary
Vatican Museums Contemporary Art Collection
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