Helen Marden: The Grief Paintings, Gagosian Park & 75, New York
Wed 24 Jul 2024 to Sat 14 Sep 2024
821 Park Avenue, NY 10021
Mon-Fri 10am-6pm
Begun in 2023 as Marden cared for her husband, Brice, and made over the months following his passing, the Grief Paintings are intimately scaled abstractions created with resin, powdered pigment, ink, and natural objects. Flowing layers of vivid color and assemblages of feathers, shells, and sea glass extend beyond the paintings’ circular supports. Imbued with the spirit of life, love, and creativity, this body of work takes on new meaning in accord with the poem “Growing Up in America” by Rene Ricard, a longtime friend of the couple.
Growing Up in America
Then love takes us to faraway
places
Certain theaters,
Public toilets, jail, and that long
highway we all hitch-hike alone.
Then the feathers
of the years fly from their pillows
It was all filmed on that old
nitrate stock—the type that self-
destructs after a while—so, there are
no pictures left. I’m sorry—Just
feeling. Feelings, like clouds
Cloud upon cloud in a sky full
of clouds
— Rene Ricard
This fall, Gagosian will publish a monograph on Helen Marden’s paintings that includes an essay by Anna Godbersen and a conversation between the artist and Kiki Smith.
“Growing Up in America” © 2020 for the Literary Estate of Rene Ricard
