#31 A, 1963
acrylic on canvas
32 1/2" x 33"
#31 B, 1963
acrylic on canvas
32 1/2" x 33"
Upstart XII, 1966
acrylic on canvas
29" x 43"
#8, 1965
acrylic on canvas
25" x 33"
#5A, 1965
acrylic on canvas
57 1/2" x 44"
#21 E, 1963
acrylic on canvas
30" x 30"
Untitled, 1953
oil on board
16" x 20"
#5, 1964
acrylic on canvas
75" x 44"
Inside Out X, 1966
acrylic on canvas
50" x 33"
#15C, 1963
acrylic on canvas
44" x 43"
#15E, 1963
acrylic on canvas
approx. 44" x 43"
N1, c. 1963
acrylic on canvas
32" x 32"
Gilport DLI, 1972
acrylic on canvas
58" x 54 1/2"
Gilport Two Monoprint, 1971
screenprint
22" x 24"
Zig-Field, 1970
screenprint
20" x 35"
ed. 93
Paul Reed (1919-2015)
Barcelona, 1969
duo-print
28 3/4" x 22 1/4"
Barcelona, 1969
screenprint
22" x 28"
ed. 170
Untitled, 1953
oil on board
approx. 16" x 20"
Paul Reed (1919-2015)
Blue and Green, 1971
color screenprint
20" x 20"
50/59
Paul Reed (1919-2015)
62790 (Diptych), 1990
ink on paper
18" x 23 1/2"
Paul Reed (1919-2015)
81089 (Diptych), 1989
ink on paper
18" x 23 1/2"
Paul Reed (1919-2015)
19489, 1989
ink on paper
11" x 14"
Paul Reed (1919-2015)
4392 (A, B, C, D Quadtych), 1992
gouache on paper
44" x 30"
Paul Reed (1919-2015) is one of six original Washington Color School artists. Like the others, Reed explored color using diluted acrylic paint, which he applied directly onto raw canvas. “I have a saying,” Reed told The Washington Post in 2011. “Pollock dripped, Frankenthaler poured, Morris Louis poured. Howard Mehring sprinkled. I blot.”
The artist worked in series over the years, including the “Mandala,” in which color radiated from a circular central image, the “Upstart,” which consisted of hard-edge zigzags and vertical stripes, and the nearly 100 paintings in his “Disk” series, which he called “a matrix for exploiting color.” These works feature blocks of color arranged as a central circle with two triangles positioned at opposing corners of the canvas. The repetitive format allowed Reed to explore the relationships between colors—how they vibrate, complement, and contrast—with purity and precision.
Reed was included in the ground-breaking Washington Color Painters exhibition (1963) at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, and included in the exhibition The Hard-Edge Trend at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in 1966. Select collections include: Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Kreeger Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Detroit Institute of Art, High Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Bethesda Fine Art is proud to present #Corcoran1970s, an exhibition celebrating the circle of abstract artists who showed, taught, and were affiliated with the Corcoran Gallery of Art in the 1970s. The Corcoran Gallery of Art was an artistic center for Washington, D.C. artists, particularly abstractionists, during the 1970’s. Active in the Corcoran’s orbit were Washington Color School notables such as Leon Berkowitz, Cynthia Bickley-Green, Gene Davis, Sam Gilliam, Mimi Herbert, Dan Yellow Kuhne, Howard Mehring, Paul Reed, and Kenneth Young. While most showed in group shows, a select few, including Berkowitz, Davis, Mehring, Reed, and Young, had their own solo exhibitions.
Claudia Rousseau, Ph.D. reviews #Corcoran1970s on East City Art.
