LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y.- P.S.1 is proud to present a retrospective and the first solo exhibition in a U.S. museum of the renowned American abstract painter Peter Young. Comprising some 25 works, the exhibition surveys the two decades of Young’s career from 1963 to 1980. The exhibition is on view in the Second Floor Main gallery.
Young has explored the potential for organic elements in abstract painting since the early 1960s. His series of works are based on grids, circles, horizontal lines, curvilinear forms, mandalas, and most prominently, colorful dots. The seemingly rigorous geometric forms reveal a handmade quality when observed up-close—the mathematical blends with the improvised, generating an unforeseen feeling of intimacy.
Approaching the restraint and regularity of minimalism with a certain satirical sense, Young invents his own decorative motifs, drawing inspiration from Neo-impressionist pointillism, 1950s action painting, Costa Rican art, and Oaxacan weaving. Some canvases are stretched on uneven Ponderosa Pine branches, while others are folded to produce Rorschach patterns. Some abandon the canvas format altogether and consist solely of acrylic beads, produced from paint and cut in cross-section to reveal differently colored layers.
Peter Young (b. 1940, Pittsburgh) has exhibited his work internationally since 1968, including Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Dick Bellamy’s Oil and Steel Gallery, and Leo Castelli Gallery. His paintings are in numerous public and private collections including the Albright-Knox Museum, the National Gallery of Australia, Charles Cowles Collection, Arnold Glimcher Collection, Guggenheim Museum, The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and American University Museum. Since 1972, Young has lived in Bisbee, Arizona.
Peter Young is co-organized by P.S.1 Director Alanna Heiss and the PARC Foundation Director David Deutsch. It is accompanied by a fully-illustrated monograph, Peter Young: Paintings 1963-1980, published by the PARC Foundation and distributed by Twin Palms Publishers. The monograph includes essays contributed by Klaus Kertess, Ellen H. Johnson, and Alanna Heiss.
Exhibitions at P.S.1 are made possible by the Annual Exhibition Fund with support from Peter Norton and the Peter Norton Family Foundation, Altria, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Lawton W. Fitt and James I. McLaren Foundation, Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis, Jerry I. Speyer and Katherine G. Farley, Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons, Kathy and Richard S. Fuld, Jr., Donald L. Bryant, Clarissa Alcock Bronfman, Lewis Cullman, Lily Auchincloss Foundation, J. Christopher Daly and Sheldrake Organization Inc., Rosa and Gilberto Sandretto, John and Connie Cioffi Foundation, John Comfort, E. William Judson, David Teiger, Michel Zaleski, Enzo Viscusi, Sue & Edgar Wachenheim Foundation, The Broad Art Foundation, LBC Foundation, Inc., Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, Dennis W. LaBarre, Julia Stoschek, Pamela and Richard Kramlich, Richard Anderman, Paul Beirne, Werner H. Kramarsky, Douglas S. Cramer, L. Matthew and Elizabeth Quigley and the Mathis-Pfohl Foundation, SilverCup Studios, The Friends of Education in honor of Peter Norton and Gwen Adams, and The Contemporary Arts Council and The Junior Associates of The Museum of Modern Art. Time Out New York is the official print partner of exhibitions and public programs at P.S.1.
