Al Held (1928 – 2005) was an American Abstract expressionist painter. He was particularly well known for his large scale Hard-edge paintings. As an artist, multiple stylistic changes occurred throughout his career, however, none of these occurred at the same time as any popular emerging style or acted against a particular art form. In the 1950s his style reflected the abstract expressionist tone and then transitioned to a geometric style in the 60s. During the 1980s there was a shift into painting that emphasized bright geometric space that’s deepness reflected infinity.From 1963 to 1980 he was a professor of art at Yale University.
Al Held in his best-known works, Held focused on abstract, geometric forms existing in a non-Euclidean space.
“The best abstract painting transforms its formal qualities into metaphors for truths unavailable to direct perception,” the artist once explained. Born in Brooklyn, NY to Polish immigrants, he spent two years serving in the US Navy before enrolling in the Art Students League of New York. Traveling to Paris on a GI scholarship, the artist attended the classes of Ossip Zadkine and befriended Ellsworth Kelly and Joan Mitchell. Returning to New York in the 1950s, his Abstract Expressionist compositions of thick, gestural marks gave way to the saturated colors and geometric forms found in his Alphabet paintings. Held enjoyed a long and successful career, which included a 20-year tenure as a faculty member of the Yale School of Art, a rich exhibition history, and numerous awards. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., and The Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others.
© 2019. All images are copyrighted © by Al Held or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only.
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| Mr Al Held painting the "I" of "I and We" in his Boiceville studio |
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| 1955, 50 S-6 IP |
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| 1959, Untitled |
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| 1964, Red Gull |
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| 1966, Siegfried |
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| 1969, Phoenicia VI |
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| 1969-70, Rothko's Canvas |
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| 1972, A 15 16 |
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| 1972, Untitled |
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| 1973, Northwest |
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| 1978, C.P.I |
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| 1981, NN 8 |
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| 1982, Hadrian's Court II |
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| 1982, Piero's Piazza |
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| 1982, Rome 82-1 |
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| 1983, Herculaneum IV |
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| 1983, Trajan's Edge IV |
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| 1985, Roberta’s Trip |
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| 1985, Pan North IV |
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| 1985, Pan North V |
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1985, Roberta's House Government Office Building, Akron, Ohio
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| 1985, Roberta's Trip |
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| 1986, The Third Circle |
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| 1987, Pan North XI |
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| 1989, Quattro Centric III |
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| 1990, Cygnus IV |
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| 1990, Geocentric IV |
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| 1990, Rola II |
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| 1990, Scand III |
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| 1990, Triton IV |
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| 1991, Field Marker I |
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| 1991, Orion V |
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| 1991, Scand IV |
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| 1991, Windcreek |
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| 1992, Umbria 24 |
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| 1993, Duccio VI |
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| 1994, Siena IV |
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| 1995, The Seventh Step |
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| 1997, Aperture III |
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| 1998, Hawkeye I |
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| 1998, Sahara |
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| 1999, Prime Moments II |
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| 2000, Aperture IV |
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| 2000, Eagle Rock III |
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| 2001, See Through III |
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| 2001, Stardian |
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| 2004, Passing Through, Glass mosaic Lexington Avenue - 53rd Street Subway Station, Metropolitan Transit Authority Arts for Transit, New York, New York |
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| 2004, Passing Through, Glass mosaic Lexington Avenue - 53rd Street Subway Station, Metropolitan Transit Authority Arts for Transit, New York, New York |
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| 2004, Passing Through, Glass mosaic Lexington Avenue - 53rd Street Subway Station, Metropolitan Transit Authority Arts for Transit, New York, New York |
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| 2004, Passing Through, Glass mosaic Lexington Avenue - 53rd Street Subway Station, Metropolitan Transit Authority Arts for Transit, New York, New York |
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