Collection in Focus: Al Loving

Managed exhibition operations at The Rose Art Museum.

“Collection in Focus: Al Loving features two works — “Self-Portrait #23” and “Untitled,” a mixed-media collage — by the prominent abstract painter and collage artist whose work explores the ways color, space, line and form play out in vibrant counterpoint. Loving came to the public’s attention in 1969 as the first African-American artist to have a one-person show at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

In the early 1970s, Loving, who had previously made hard-edged geometric paintings, embarked on new work. As he later explained, he wanted to discover “whether there is black art and what it looks like.” Loving stained torn strips of canvas with paint and pieced them together with a sewing machine. The resulting works, two of which are on view in this spotlight exhibition, combine his keen sense of geometric abstraction with a range of vernacular traditions, including his mother’s quilting, recycled materials and African ceremonial clothing.”