Ed Mieczkowski
The Aesthetics of Geometry
ED MIECZKOWSKI
THE AESTHETICS OF GEOMETRY FEBRUARY 27 - MARCH 29. 2015
LewAllenGalleries Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com cover: Blue Ore, 1986, acrylic on canvas, 72.5” x 66”
Feb 28, 1971 1:30 PM, pastel on paper, 22” x 30”
Ed Mieczkowski THE AESTHETICS OF GEOMETRY For more than 60 years, Ed Mieczkowski has created striking examples of optically engaging and geometrically elegant paintings, constructions, sculpture and drawings, taking complex relationships between points, planes, lines and angles and making stunningly dramatic art forms from them.
the then-burgeoning artistic movement. His participation in the Museum of Modern Art’s groundbreaking 1965 exhibition, The Responsive Eye, further contributed to his centrality among painters whose investigations into the mechanics of seeing have forever altered the grammar of Modern art.
Mieczkowski’s work is distinguished by a proficiency in joining complex and inventive geometric patterns with sophisticated and subtle gradations in spectral color and tonal value. This ability in both gray-scale and vibrantly colored work places him among the most versatile and accomplished practitioners of perceptual abstraction.
His work in both Op Art and Geometric Abstraction has been constantly evolving, though always it has mediated an active collaboration between artist and viewer. Employing an endless variety of kaleidoscopic colors and an engaging oscillation between planes of perception, his work in both genres presents playful and seductive challenges to the viewer’s eyes that both enliven and delight the visual experience.
A salient figure in the development of Op Art and Geometric Abstraction, Ed Mieczkowski has radically altered the interface between art and perception. Acclaimed by critics and curators, the artist garnered laudatory coverage in Time magazine’s 1964 article “Op Art: Pictures that Attack the Eye,” the first printed instance of the term used to describe
Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1929, Mieczkowski received his BFA from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1957 and his MFA from Carnegie Mellon in 1959. His work is held in numerous national and international museums as well as significant private collections. 2
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5 O’Clock, 1986, acrylic on canvas, 84” x 66”
Anon, 1961, ink on paper, 19.5” x 20.5”
Size, First Series #6, 1968, acrylic on board, 48” x 48”
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Size: Second Series #1, 1968, acrylic on board, 48” x 48”
Dark Crane, 1982, acrylic on canvas, 66” x 54.25”
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Red Crane, 1982, acrylic on canvas, 72” x 66”
Collage 1, paint on panel, 16� x 14�
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Collage 4, 1983, mixed media assemblage, 14” x 14”
Bead Locks, 1996, acrylic on canvas, 66” x 84”
Block Knock, 1968, ink on paper, 19” x 18”
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Breakwall #2, 1987, acrylic on paper, 44.5” x 32”
Study for Iso-Rounds and Bumpers, 1964, acrylic on board, 30” x 30”
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ISO-Rounds #3, 1964, acrylic on canvas over panel, 44” x 42.5”
Firewall, 1986, acrylic on wood, 36” x 18.5” x 5.5
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Small North, 1987, wood, 32” x 24” x 6.5”
Blue Rib, 1967, acrylic on paper, 30” x 22”
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Stairs, 1967, acrylic on paper, 30” x 22”
Ingot, 1986, acrylic & graphite on paper, 45” x 32”
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ED MIECZKOWSKI Born: 1929, Pittsburgh, PA
Cleveland,” Cleveland Artists Foundation, Beck Center for the Arts, Cleveland, OH
EDUCATION 1959
MFA, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
1957
BFA, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
1953
Fellowship, Yale-Norfolk Summer Art School, Norfolk, CT
1995
“The Spirit of Cleveland,” Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH; traveled to Canton Museum of Art, Canton, OH; Artspace, Limo, OH; Riffe Gallery, Columbus, OH; Back Center for the Cultural Arts, Cleveland, OH
1990
“Eight Sculptors,” Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1990
“Ohio Sculptors,” Mansfield Art Center, Mansfield, OH
2015
LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
1984
“Six Perspectives,” Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
2013
LewAllen Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ
1980
“Visual Logic II,” Parsons School of Design, New York, NY
2012
LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
1979
“Visual Logic 1 $ 2,” Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH; traveled to
2009
LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM
New Gallery of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH; Parsons School of
2007 Tregoning Gallery, Cleveland, OH 2007
LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
2006
LewAllen Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM
1995
Scarab Gallery, Cleveland, OH
1990
Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH
1987
Great Northern Corporate Center, North Olmsted, OH
1985
Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH
1981
Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, Cleveland, OH
Design, New York, NY; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE; Columbus College, Chicago, IL 1976
“Materials & Techniques of 20th Century Artists,” Cleveland Museum of Art,
1972
“Grids,” Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania,
1969
“The Square in Painting,” organized by the American Federation of the Arts,
1978 Tanglewood Downtown, New York, NY
1969
“Exposition Nove Tendencija 4,” Zagreb, Croatia
1977 Akron Art Institute, Akron, OH
Cleveland, OH Philadelphia, PA New York, NY 1968
“Second Arts Festival,” Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Ohio Wesleyan University, Dayton, OH
1966
Institute of Contemporary Art, London, England
1976
Ellen Meyers, Inc., New York, NY
1966
Gallery Foksal, Warsaw, Poland
1974
Robert Hull Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT
1965
“The Responsive Eye,” Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1972 The New Gallery, Cleveland, OH
1965
“Exposition Nove Tendencia 3,” Zagreb, Croatia
1965
1965 Traveling Exhibition, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2012 2011
2007
“Movement 2,” Gallery Denise Rene, Paris, France
1964
“Vibrations Eleven,” Martha Jackson Gallery, New York, NY
“Cleveland Op Art Pioneers,” Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH “Op Art, Cleveland,” Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
SELECTED AWARDS & RECOGNITION
“Masters of Abstraction,” Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, OH
2013
Artist archives, gifted in perpetuity to Smithsonian Institution
“Boundary Formations & the Tease of the Familiar,” Cleveland Institute of
2009
Alumni Achievement Award, Carnegie Mellon University
1977
Ohio Arts Award
“Op Out of Ohio: ‘Anonima Group, Richard Anuszkiewicz and
1966
Cleveland Arts Award
Julian Stanczak in the 1960s’,” D. Wigmore Fine Art, New York, NY
1965
National Endowment for the Arts Award
Art, Cleveland, OH (two person show with Julian Stanczak) 2010
1964
“Freedom to Experiment: American Abstraction 1945-1975,” D. Wigmore SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Fine Art, New York, NY “From Here to Infinity”, 125th Anniversary Exhibition, Cleveland Institute of
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
Art, Cleveland, OH
Tel Aviv Museum of Modern Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
“Optic Nerve: Perceptual Art of the 1960s”, Columbus Museum of Art,
Museum of Contemporary Art, Lodz, Poland
Columbus, OH
The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
“Optic Nerve: New Paintings,” Tregoning Co. Gallery, Cleveland, OH
Akron Art Museum, Akron, OH
2006
“Four Artists: Four Directions,” Amarillo Museum of Art, Amarillo, TX
New Jersey State Museum, Trenton, NJ
2001
“Harmonic Forms on the Edge: Geometric Abstraction in
Robert Hull Fleming Museum, Burlington, VT
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Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | info@lewallengalleries.com © 2015 LewAllen Contemporary LLC Above: Sienna, 1988, wood, 34.5” x 14” x 7.75”