Robert Mangold

John Weber Gallery, New York
Acquired directly from the above by Renilde Hammacher-van den Brande for the Peter Stuyvesant Collection in 1979

Hasselt, Provinciaal Museum, A Choice Within a Choice, 1981–1982
Zevenaar, Turmac, Kunstwerk, Elf Bedrijven te Gast bij de Jubilerende Peter Stuyvesant Stichting, 1985, p. 23, illustrated
Paris, Institut Néerlandais, l'Art dans l'Usine, 38 Artistes de la Collection Peter Stuyvesant, 1986, pp. 30-31, illustrated
Zevenaar, Turmac, 30 Jaar Peter Stuyvesant Collectie : Hommage à Spinoza, 1990
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Art Works: International Modern Art in the Industrial Working Environment, an Experiment over more than Thirty Years: Peter Stuyvesant Foundation, 1991-1992,  pp. 55, 119, illustrated in colour
Barcelona, Fondación Miró; Zaragoza, Palacio de la Lonja; Valencia, Museo de la Ciudad, El Arte Funciona, 1992
Paris, École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux Arts, l'Art Actif, 1992
Brussels, Bank Brussels Lambert, Art at Work, 1996, p. 73, illustrated in colour

Colours: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate although the overall tonality is more vibrant in the original with more pronounced diagonals running across the composition. Condition: This work is in very good condition. There is a minute speck of black media accretion towards the upper left corner and some faint handling marks in places along the left edge. Upon very close inspection, there are two faint round areas of darker discolouration and a further small line of discolouration towards the centre left of the bottom edge of the right canvas. There is minor wear to the upper centre of the edge uniting the two canvases. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
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Robert Mangold's, A Curve and a Straight Line Diagonal within two Distorted Rectangles, from 1978 achieves geometricized internal tension within a minimalist elegance.  Despite its limited medium of acrylic and pencil on canvas, the present work exhibits a strong connection to Mangold's inspiration by the painterly tradition of 15^th century Italian masters.  Here Mangold's interest in two pairs of basic elements – form and line and color and surface is reinforced.  The artist began his pieces with tiny notations in sketchbooks that would evolve into more fully worked drawings before he finally undertook large scale works on masonite and canvas.  His works are calculated and elegant in their complex simplicity.  Mangold is an expert at generating pictorial tensions without drama, "evoking a sense of irritation accessible to interpretation only through painstaking examination" (Exh. Cat., Museum Weisbaden, Robert Mangold, Paintings and Drawings, 1998, p. 153).  In the present work the viewer is presented with an arc of tension between measurable and intuitive perfection that is characteristic of Mangold's oeuvre. 

Mangold's move from working on masonite to canvas in the 1970's was a liberation – no longer required to edge pieces in metal stripping, he was now able to free his compositions from distinct edges.  The multi-panel paintings allowed a further exploration for a play with geometry.  In the present work, he creates a disturbance as the 2 lines intersect just right of center, crossing one triangle from the left into the right panel.  At first glance the two lines appear to be two straight diagonals, however the viewer notices, and is further informed by the title of the work, one line is actually somewhat curved, throwing off the balance slightly.  Somehow Mangold is able to expertly maintain a rhythmic and measured composition in spite of these elements and the distortion of the two rectangular panels additionally echoes this technique.  Richard Schiff comments on Mangold's Studio Notes, "Mangold would later refer to his paintings as if each were a unique 'unit' of production within a developing design process: they 'build from each other, and each represents an attempt to make an individual and collective point." (Richard Schiff, "Autonomy, Actuality, Mangold", in Robert Mangold, London, 2000, p. 17)

A Curve and a Straight Line Diagonal within two Distorted Rectangles combines built shape and drawn form through surface and line.  Mangold favored a stripped down abstraction that was somewhere between pure abstraction and minimalism.  He was able to keep his distance from both while exploring possibilities of both.  Bearing little relation to existing critical paradigms he avoids connection yet accepts perception of himself as a minimalist painter because it places him in a particular period.  Throughout his extensive career there is a clear delight in monotonous luster of surfaces.  When he first picked up a pencil in 1969 and began to add sensuous movement to an otherwise static canvas, Mangold was able to achieve an easy and expansive grace that is here magnificently displayed.