Alan Shields

Alan Shields (born February 4, 1944 in Harrington , Kansas , USA ; † December 13, 2005 in New York City ) was an American contemporary painter , printmaker and object artist , known for his grid structures and grids.

life and work

Alan Shields studied at Kansas State University from 1963 to 1966 and attended the Summer Sessions of the Theater Workshop at the University of Maine in 1966 and 1967 . He had his first solo exhibition in 1980 at the Dorry Gates Gallery in Kansas City , Missouri . This was followed by exhibitions in 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1988, 1991, 1993 in the Paula Cooper Gallery , New York.

Alan Shield's art can be described with the term “breaking down traditional boundaries”. The focus of his art and his special attention was the creation of grids and grids from a wide variety of materials. Shield's works are created using a variety of techniques: he sewed and stapled or used handmade paper, screen printing ink, and created reliefs and collages . He worked with embossing, perforating and used found objects. He combined all these elements and created typical lyrical works with a playful sense of color and shape.

Alan Shields took part in Documenta 5 in Kassel in 1972 in the Individual Mythologies department with some objects . In 1973 he was awarded the Guggenheim Fellowship .

Important collections

(Selection)

• Art Institute of Chicago
• Cleveland Museum of Art
• Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden , Washington, DC
• Smithsonian Institution
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Museum of Modern Art , New York

Literature and Sources

• Exhibition catalog: documenta 5. Survey of Reality - Imagery Today ; Catalog (as a file folder) Volume 1: (Material); Volume 2: (list of exhibits); Kassel 1972.
• documenta archive (ed.); Resubmission d5 - A survey of the archive on documenta 1972 ; Kassel / Ostfildern 2001, ISBN 3-7757-1121-X .

Web links

• artcyclopedia