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Alvin D Loving
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Nationality
American
Period
Abstract expressionism
Name
Alvin Loving
Movement
Abstract expressionism
Known for
Painting,
Born
September 19, 1935 (
1935-09-19
)
Detroit, MI
Died
June 21, 2005, New York City, New York, United States
Alvin D. Loving Jr. (September 19, 1935 – June 21, 2005), better known as Al Loving was an African-Americanabstract expressionist and painter. His work is known for hard-edge abstraction, fabric constructions, and large paper collages - all exploring complicated color relationships.
Loving began his education at the University of Illinois, Champaign. The teaching consisted of formal instruction of painting and drawing. Later, he would go to graduate school at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His major mentor there was Al Mullen, who helped him get involved with the Once Group organization. This organization was made up of members such as Claes Oldenburg, Robert Rauschenberg, and Andy Warhol. Thus, once Loving moved to New York City he was able to get in touch with other well-known artists, such as Frank Stella and Kenneth Noland, who would become major influences on his art practice. As Loving is studying and moving to New York, abstract expressionism was on its way out to be replaced by pop art, minimalism, and hard-edge abstraction.
Loving earned a BFA from the University of Illinois in 1963 and an MFA from University of Michigan in 1965. Within a year of moving to New York City, he received his first solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He received National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in 1970, 1971, 1975, 1976, and 1985; and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1986. Loving created large-scale commissioned public works, including a ceramic mural in one of Detroit's People Mover stations and another in the David Adamany Library at Wayne State University. In 1996, he created a collage painting for the Sacramento Convention Center, and in 2001 he completed a large mosaic wall with 70 stained-glass windows for Brooklyn's Broadway-East New York subway station.
In the 1960s, Loving grew increasingly interested in Josef Alber's paintings of squares within squares. In an interview, he explains: "For me at the time, it was about painting the square until it was 'enough,' and that meant until it obtained form. The square that I started with would always be gone; only I knew it was a square, that that reference was there. That freed me to just paint and let things evolve...[The square] was pure energy and focus.” These geometric abstractions conveyed the brilliance of refracted light; they were not just experiments in color. Loving would often make polyhedrons of the same size, with different colors, and hang them together in different arrangements on the wall. The result was sometimes dozens of canvases stretching out over several feet; to view an entire composition would take time, more than just a glance, making his paintings a powerful expression of time, too. This body of work was featured in Loving's first solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Some have critiqued the Whitney for caring more about Loving's race than for his art. In fact, Loving himself looks back on this body of work with at once embarrassment and also acknowledges the importance of this step as a launching off point for the rest of his career. He had to move on because he felt there was nothing expressive about the cubes.
Fabric Constructions
Inspired by a visit to the Whitney Museum's exhibition "Abstract Design in American Quilts," in the early 1970s, Loving takes his canvases off the stretcher bars and begins experimenting. He started hanging strips of canvas from the walls and ceilings, playing with our perception of pictorial and sculptural ideals. Then, he reattached the fragments together with a sewing machine, creating large flowing fabric constructions. At first he painted the pieces of canvas, but later switched to dying the fabric. This way of working was not born out of a vacuum; Sam Gilliam, Alan Shields, and Richard Moch were also using the sewing machine. In fact, Loving considered himself within the context of abstract expressionism at this phase in his career; though he was not a painter but a material abstractionist.
Large Paper Collages
Finally, by the 1980s, Loving had grown tired of fabric, too. So, he begins to integrated other materials into his constructions, such as corrugated cardboard and rag paper. Loving quickly took a liking to the casualness of tearing cardboard and gluing it onto other pieces; in fact, he considered this practice abstract expressionist as well. Unlike the fabric constructions, the large paper collages gave him a sense of freedom because he was trekking through uncharted territory (although this work has been likened to Frank Stella's curvilinear metal reliefs and Elizabeth Murray's shaped canvases). Loving integrated circles and spirals into these collages as a nod to his African roots and as an expression of growth and continued life. Sandra Yolles, reviewing an exhibition in 1990, explained "Loving’s work is about earth, wind, fire, and water: some pieces might be considered atmospheric maps of life at full blast—stretching the possibilities of the human spirit by delineating its directions, currents, and eddies.”
L’art vivant aux États-Unis, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France, July 16–September 30
1971
Contemporary Black Artists in America, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 6–May 16
The Deluxe Show, Deluxe Theatre, Houston, August 15–September 12
1972
1972 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, January 25–March 19
1973
1973 Biennial Exhibition: Contemporary American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, January 10–March 18
1975
Image, Color, and Form: Recent Paintings by Eleven Americans, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, January 12–February 9
34th Biennial of Contemporary American Painting, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., February 22–April 6
Selected Works from the Dillard Collection: An Exhibition of Works on Paper from the Weatherspoon Art Gallery, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama, April 15–May 18
1977
'75, ’76, ’77: Painting, Part I, Sarah Lawrence College Art Gallery, Bronxville, New York, February 19–March 10; American Foundation for the Arts, Miami, April–May; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, June–July
1979
Another Generation, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
New Work, New York: Newcastle Salutes New York, Newcastle Polytechnic Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, October 8–November 4
1984–1985
Since the Harlem Renaissance: 50 Years of Afro-American Art, Center Gallery, Bucknell University, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, April 13, 1984 – November 1, 1985
1985
Recent Acquisitions, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York
1987
New York, New Venue, Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, April 10–May 31
1989
The Appropriate Object: Maren Hassinger, Richard Hunt, Oliver Jackson, Alvin Loving, Betye Saar, Raymond Saunders, John Scott, Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, March 5–April 23
1990
Legacies: African-American Artists, New Jersey Center for Visual Arts, Summit, September 16–October 27
1991
The Search for Freedom: African-American Abstract Painting, 1945–1975, Kenkeleba Gallery, New York, May 19–July 14
2000
An Exuberant Bounty: Prints and Drawings by African Americans, Philadelphia Museum of Art, February 5–April 16
2002
Six American Masters, Sugar Hill Art Center, New York, May 17–June 27
No Greater Love: Abstraction, Jack Tilton/Anna Kustera Gallery, New York, September 12–October 12
Something to Look Forward to, Phillips Museum of Art, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, March 26–June 27
2005
The Chemistry of Color: African-American Artists in Philadelphia, 1970–1990, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, January 11–April 10
2006
Energy/Experimentation: Black Artists and Abstraction, 1964–1980, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, April 5–July 2
Full House: Views of the Whitney’s Collection at 75, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, June 29–September 3
2006–2007
High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting, 1967–1975, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, August 6–October 15, 2006; American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, American University, Washington, D.C., November 21, 2006 – January 21, 2007; National Academy Museum, New York, February 13–April 22
2008–2009
New Acquisitions: African-American Masters Collection, Sheldon Art Museum, Lincoln, Nebraska, December 16, 2008 – March 2, 2009
2009
Target Practice: Painting Under Attack, 1949–1978, Seattle Art Museum, June 25–September 7
2011
Paper Trails: Selected Works from the Collection, 1934–2001, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, July 19–November 27
2012
Full Spectrum: Prints from the Brandywine Workshop, Philadelphia Museum of Art, September 7–November 25
