GARY KUEHN

Gary Kuehn

*1939 Plainfield, New York – lives in New York

Gary Kuehn is one of the outstanding sculptors of the Post Minimal era, which once again radically changed the concept of art in the 1960s. His oeuvre consists mainly of sculptures, objects and installations. In addition, he has produced an extensive oeuvre of drawings, complemented by videos of performances that essentially thematize drawing itself and its gestural dimension. His sculptural practice always revolves around pairs of opposites such as hard-soft, solid-liquid, push-pull, static-dynamic, or organic-inorganic. The processes of the play of forces or transformation implicit in these works serve him again and again to bring the opposites towards each other – he calls this “making compromises” – and, moreover, to turn them into metaphors of states of mind.

He is known especially for his sculptures from the 1960s, which at first glance seem like classics of minimal art. But if one looks closer, they create a subtle tension in their mirrored, personal, and often contradicting way, which is present throughout his extensive oeuvre from the last 50 years. In 1962, Kuehn studied art history at Drew University in Madison, New Jersey, and in 1964, fine arts at Rutgers State University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The trained steelworker worked on construction sites and as a carpenter to finance his studies. In 1979, he received an invitation from the German Academic Exchange Service to Berlin, where he spent a working year. Since 1965, Kuehn has been teaching at various American universities.

Exhibition Recent works

Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2021
Oil and graphite on paper
65.5 x 76.2 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2021
Oil and graphite on canvas on wood
90 x 175.5 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2021
Oil and graphite on paper
55.4 x 76.5 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2022
Oil on canvas mounted on wood
91 x 104 x 4 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2020
Oil and graphite on canvas mounted on wood
110 x 124 x 4 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2020
Oil on canvas mounted on wood
91 x 104 x 4 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2020
Oil and graphite on canvas mounted on wood
119 x 109.5 x 4 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2022
Oil and graphite on canvas mounted on wood
80 x 145 x 4 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2021
Oil and graphite on canvas mounted on wood
89 x 175.5 x 4 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2022
Pastel, vinyl and graphite on paper
23 x 30.5 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2021
Oil and graphite on paper
48.6 x 54.5 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2020
Vinyl paint and graphite on paper
38.7 x 53.9 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2021
Oil and graphite on paper
51 x 131 cm

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Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Gary Kuehn
Untitled

2021
Oil and graphite on paper
51 x 131 cm

Enquire →

Installation view

Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm
Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm
Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm
Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm
Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm
Reinhard Pods, Ohne Titel (will), 1981, Oil on canvas, 200 x 220.3 cm

Catalog

Excerpt

Four of the works done in oil and graphite on canvas on wood are based on the strict geometry of the circle which, in the 1970s, Kuehn still described with the formulation “obliteration and alteration impossible.” But now he divides the circle into two equal halves which partially cover two semicircles that are shifted against each other and furthermore are differently colored.

Friedemann Malsch