Susan Sheehan Gallery

Vija Celmins (b. 1938) is renowned for her meticulous renderings of vast natural wonders. This presentation of six exceptional original prints demonstrates her signature, uncompromising style and her mastery of printmaking techniques.

Susan Sheehan Gallery is pleased to present Walk the Line: Geometric Abstraction, a group exhibition that explores the linear, hard-edge elements of post-war printmaking. As the lyrics of Johnny Cash’s iconic song suggest, geometric abstraction is a balancing act—one that encompasses multiple artistic movements while maintaining its own distinct aesthetic language. This approach transcends mediums, as evidenced by the artists featured in the show. Figures such as Ellsworth Kelly, Donald Judd, and Frank Stella were not only celebrated painters and sculptors but also masterful printmakers who used the medium to further refine the principles and processes at the core of their three-dimensional work. The origins of post-war abstraction lie in early 20th-century European movements, including Cubism, Neoplasticism, Constructivism, and Art Deco. Loosely defined by its focus on form, line, color, and space, geometric abstraction favors flatness and precision over illusionistic depth. Its compositions, carefully arranged within non-representational space, share a kinship with minimalism. Both styles reflect Clement Greenberg’s concept of “post-painterly abstraction,” emphasizing the purity of flat planes of color and rejecting the artist’s mark. Josef Albers, one of the most influential artists and educators of the 20th century, brought the formalist rigor of the Bauhaus to American abstraction. His Homage to the Square series, marked by concentric, repetitive squares, transforms color and form into thought-provoking exercises in visual perception. A highlight of the exhibition, Gray Instrumentation I, exemplifies Albers’ subtle tonal shifts and methodical precision through grayscale. Ellsworth Kelly’s Red Curve (Radius of 8′) and Green Curve with Radius of 20′ are among the most visually striking prints in the exhibition. Though critics placed Kelly’s bold, vibrant forms firmly within the confines of abstraction, the artist resisted such classifications. Rather, Kelly drew his inspiration from the contours of nature and everyday objects—both linear and organic. The featured works invite viewers to contemplate the interplay of form, space, and color. Donald Judd, whose work is often aligned with minimalism, brought his own unique perspective to abstraction. His approach centers on repetition and the use of linear negative space to define and organize forms in both two- and three-dimensional compositions. On view are two masterful woodcut sets—Judd’s preferred printmaking medium—created at different points in his career. Untitled 1961–75 juxtaposes two nearly identical black-and-white prints, while Untitled 1991–94, one of his final works, showcases his beloved cadmium red. For Judd, this color offered the precision and crispness essential to his vision of hard-edge abstraction. Agnes Martin, whose work has come to define geometric abstraction for many, contributes her signature meditative style to the exhibition. Her 1998 Untitled set of four lithographs captures the quiet beauty of her grid structures. Subtle and meticulously arranged, Martin’s grids offer a serene yet profound exploration of form and line, encouraging viewers to reflect on simplicity and the transcendent beauty of the everyday.

Booth C12 October 29-November 2,2024 Park Avenue Armory, New York

"GOAT X THE GRAPHIC IMAGE" References the contemporary abbreviation for “Greatest of All Time”, usually reserved for athletes and singers with a vast career of achievements, this group exhibition highlights artworks by some of the most iconic visual artists of the Post War Era, ranging from 1960 to the present. Included in the exhibition is Brice Marden’s "Cold Mountain Series, Zen Studies 1-6" (1991). Grounded in the art of calligraphy and based on the poems of the celebrated Chinese poet named Hanshan, this series of etchings with aquatint depict tangled webs and vertical gestures suggesting poetic couplets. Also featured is "Flowers" (1970), a part of one of Andy Warhol’s most popular series. Based on a fold-out spread depicting four hibiscus blooms from Popular Photography Magazine, Warhol ran this image through a primitive photocopier to coarsen the gradients and flatten the petals into bleached cutouts ready for lurid colors, further disrupting recognizability. Another highlight is Ed Ruscha’s "Standard Station" (1966), one of the enduring emblems of American Pop art. Its subject was a lucky find: a dowdy gas station that he photographed on the drive between Los Angeles and Oklahoma City and included in his groundbreaking artist’s book, Twenty-six Gasoline Stations (1963). Representing a wide array of techniques, disciplines and intentions, this exhibition gathers what can be considered some of the “GOATS,” or greatest artists of our time.

Susan Sheehan Gallery is pleased to present Ellsworth Kelly: Plant Lithographs, an exhibition highlighting the balance of abstraction and gestural expressionism of Ellsworth Kelly’s natural forms.

Susan Sheehan Gallery is pleased to present Sequence, an exhibition exploring the serial experiments of a group of leading post-war American artists including Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, and Brice Marden. The presentation will cover several rare and complete print portfolios that delineate the possibilities of systematic sequence, arrangement, and succession, concepts inherently embedded in the serial processes of printmaking as a medium. Highlights in the show include (to Don Judd, colorist) 1-7, an extraordinary series of seven monochromatic lithographs in saturated hues by Dan Flavin, dedicated to his good friend and collaborator Donald Judd. The lithographic plates were inked edge-to-edge with an even application of color, most of which were straight out of the can, that overruns the papers’ deckled edges on three sides. Exhibited on the facing wall is Donald Judd’s exceptionally rare set of 13 woodcuts in cadmium red and cerulean blue that were selected to be republished by Judd and Edition der Galerie Heiner Friedrich in 1969. They depict Judd’s various iterations on parallelograms and their corresponding mirror images and elaborate his interest in lines, intervals, and divisions of pictorial space. Complete sets by Sol LeWitt, Robert Mangold, and Brice Marden will also be featured in the show. Sequence will be open April 25 – May 31.

Susan Sheehan Gallery is showcasing a group of works from the series Colored Paper Images by Ellsworth Kelly created in 1976. These works were made in small editions, supplemented by artist’s proof impressions. Kelly considered each of these works unique because of the variations in each image caused by the paper pulp printing process. This significant historic group traces Ellsworth Kelly’s progression of utilizing the distinctive medium of colored paper pulp to expand upon his seminal investigations into perceptions of form, line, and color. However, his willingness to experiment with bleeding color and the variable surface qualities of handmade paper was a radical departure from his established preoccupation (which he maintained in paintings) with immaculate shape, bounded color, and pristine surface. The unpredictable nature of the materials allowed chance to enter into Kelly’s highly controlled working process while also making each impression distinctive. The highly experimental series was created in collaboration with the master printer Kenneth Tyler in Mt. Kisco, New York in 1976 and 1977. It was exhibited in Colored Paper Images at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1978 and it was also shown at the exhibition Colored Paper Images at the National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. in 2012. ​

The American post-war period, often referred to as the American Print Renaissance, saw the birth of a group of important and influential printmaking workshops, many of which were owned and operated by women as well as important masterworks of printmaking created by women artists. “The Handmakers’ Tale,” will examine, through the artworks exhibited and an accompanying e-catalogue, the ground-breaking work and legacy of these woman workshop founders, master printers, and artists. The exhibition will focus on the businesses they built, the renowned artists they printed with and mentored, the works they made, and the artistic and business models they developed that proved incredibly influential.

Presenting a selection of Post-War American masterworks of printmaking. Frank Stella, "Double Gray Scramble," 1973.