A beautifully illustrated, in-depth look at recent works by David
Reed, an American artist who brings conceptual interests in process and
duration to his abstract paintings.
Since the outset of his career, David Reed's central preoccupation has
been to challenge and reinvent how to make a painting. Consistently, his
paintings present a compelling tension between the gestural and the
impersonal; in recent times this has been characterized by fluid,
torquing, extended marks that reveal the viscosity of paint and the
speed of color and light in a flattened manner that looks photographic
or filmic.
David Reed documents the artist's 2020 exhibition of new work at
Gagosian in New York, presenting 15 outsize paintings that, in many
cases, were over a decade in the making. The plates are punctuated by
striking details of several works. The artist's "working drawings,"
which he has long made to document the many stages of a painting's
creation, are illustrated throughout the plate section, offering
insights into his varied sources and complex processes.
A new essay by art historian Richard Shiff examines the emotional tenor
of Reed's paintings.