Brice Marden

Brice Marden 1938–, American painter, b. Bronxville, N.Y.; grad Boston Univ. (B.F.A., 1961), Yale Univ. (M.A., 1963). Marden began exhibiting his work in the 1960s, becoming known for minimalist abstractions executed in oil paint and beeswax and composed of one or more rectangular panels of muted, monochromatic color, such as D'Après la Marquise de la Solana (1969, Guggenheim Mus.). In the mid-1980s he abruptly changed his style to a more spontaneous and gestural abstraction. Inspired by Asian calligraphy, he began to produce canvases covered with fluid, looping linear webs, sometimes drawn with paint using long sticks. Among these are the highly acclaimed paintings of the Cold Mountain series of the late 1980s and early 90s. He is also known for his drawings and prints. Marden, whose work is in the collections of many major museums, was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 2006.

Bibliography: See studies by K. Kertess (1992), D. Rimanelli (1995), D. Schwarz and M. Semff (1997), J. C. Lee (1999), and C. Wylie (1999).