C A LV E RT COGGESHALL CHROMATIC HARMONY
Cover illustration: Greys I, 1974 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 80 x 67 inches All rights reserved, 2024. This catalog may not be reproduced in whole or in any part, in any form or by any means both electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of Lincoln Glenn. Catalog design by Clanci Jo Conover
Calvert Coggeshall February 29 – April 13, 2024
542 West 24th Street New York, NY 10011
(646) 764 - 9065 gallery@lincolnglenn.com www.lincolnglenn.com
It is with great honor and enthusiasm that we present to you at our Chelsea gallery our third exhibition, “Calvert Coggeshall: Chromatic Harmony.” This showcase marks a momentous occasion as it unveils the artist’s first solo exhibition in nearly two decades and the first dedicated solely to the artist’s color field works in over 40 years. In the past three years, the anticipation for this exhibition has grown exponentially, overcoming the challenges posed by the global pandemic. The initial connection with Coggeshall was rooted in admiration for his abstract works of the 1950s. However, it was the exploration of his pieces from the 1960s and 1970s that truly captivated us, compelling us to bring this extraordinary collection to our audience. Calvert Coggeshall, with a career spanning decades, earned the respect and admiration of his peers. His close relationships with legendary figures in the art world, including Bradley Walker Tomlin, Grace Hartigan, Dorothy Miller, and Betty Parsons, have often overshadowed his steadfast commitment to forging his own artistic path and creating work of subtle beauty. This exhibition seeks to rectify the oversight and shed light on a talent that has long been overlooked. In expressing our deepest gratitude, we extend heartfelt thanks to the artist’s son, Tomlin, and his husband, Christopher, for their diligent efforts and unwavering assistance in curating and producing this exhibition. Their dedication has been instrumental in bringing Calvert Coggeshall’s works to a new set of eyes, and we are eager to share this extraordinary journey with all who join us. As we embark on this visual trip, we invite you to immerse yourself in the rich tapestry of “Chromatic Harmony,” a testament to the enduring legacy of an artist who marched to his own beat.
Sincerely, Douglas Gold & Eli Sterngass
CALVERT COGGESHALL (1907 - 1990) The wave of Abstract Expressionism that washed over post-World War Two American painting produced a first generation of the style from which a pantheon of major figures has been extracted by critics and historians; this established list has been rather resistant to change. However, there is a huge group of first-generation contemporaries and second-generation artists who developed a panoply of variations within the Abstract Expressionist style, managing to eke out widely differing degrees of practical and/or historical acceptance and success. Among those artists is Calvert Coggeshall (1907-1990), whose work was generally highly admired by critics, yet whose achievements have gone into the historical limbo that is the fate of many worthy artists of the period – a fate impelled primarily by the sheer number of those artists. Even despite admiration and promotion by so venerable and influential a gallery owner as Betty Parsons, who showed Coggeshall’s work on a regular basis from 1950 to 1982, his reputation has remained one of specialized appreciation. The paintings in this exhibition, including work from 1969 to 1980, focus on the vertical stripe motif that occupied Coggeshall in his later career. While initially seeming to be a very stark divergence from his earlier work, which emphasized small gestural brushstrokes and shapes occupying ambient, atmospheric abstract environments, the stripe paintings maintain a key, constant feature of Coggeshall’s aesthetic approach: subtlety. While the fog-like ambience of his work of the 1950s immediately suggests subtlety, Coggeshall carefully applied that sensibility in a very personal manner to the stripe paintings in terms of delicacy of touch and paint surface, small adjustments of shapes, and most importantly, extremely nuanced color effects. Coggeshall wrote that “The direction of contemporary painting has given the use of color itself freedom to realize its scope with more precision and subtlety.” While at first glance, the stripes in these paintings may appear as the dominating visual factor, it soon becomes obvious that the surfaces are marvels of chromatic nuance, with soft pastels applied in gradated tones, often wafting off the verticals, caressing them like auras. Even the smallest works reveal a complexity of color relationships; an untitled 1969 work, just 21 x 24 inches, proceeds through about fifteen shifts of hue -- some of them are bright, several challenge easy perception. Coggeshall’s dedication to the capturing of color and light effects within his art is a reflection of the firm control he maintained over his materials and even his painting environment. Besides standard acrylic paint, Coggeshall often used colors that he prepared himself, essentially adopting a Japanese technique in which pigment is ground into a very fine varnish base. This resulted in a very flat, matte surface that eliminated most reflectivity. He even boarded over the
windows of his studio, working only with incandescent light. This assured that the vagaries of natural light could not affect his perception of the colors he set to canvas (and whether by coincidence or design, matched the interior light of a gallery space, where the work was to be put on view). It is a measure of Coggeshall’s highly refined approach to the stripe that his work intrinsically separates itself from the two more famous contemporary artists known for using vertical stripes as a basic motif: Barnett Newman and Gene Davis. Newman’s work generally sets the vertical stripe – or “zip”, as he called it – in relative isolation against a large field of uninflected color. In accordance with the references to archaic myth-making or post-war angst that led to the impulse toward grandiosity in much of Abstract Expressionism, Newman claimed deep philosophical and religious concepts for his art. Coggeshall shunned such rhetoric; his deep thoughts concerned the painting itself, its substance and its pure visual effects. Gene Davis was associated with the Washington School of color field painting, and his stripes of similar widths are marshalled into rigid continuous screens, with compositional structure reduced to the rhythms of repeated sets of interspersed vertical color bars. Its effect is a sort of Pop Art minimalism – dazzling in juxtaposed color, yet utterly simple in structure. On the other hand, Coggeshall relished the range of nuance formed by blending colors with white, and introduced subtle brushwork and irregularity of contour into his vertical stripes. If one closely scrutinizes a group of Coggeshall’s stripe paintings, any initial assumption of uniformity, straightness and repeated structure is abolished. In the playfully titled A Stripe (it has two prominent stripes), the main stripes are not strictly upright, but converge slightly toward each other toward the bottom. In several works, such as For Mildred and Notes XX, stripes stop short of reaching the top edge; in others, one, two or three sides of the color area may not reach the canvas edge. Thus, Coggeshall’s method combines both spontaneity and careful, ongoing consideration of color and composition as a painting progresses. A flowing, natural process – fine-tuned by additions, overlays, and inner harmonies – led the artist to reasonably relate his work to music; he wrote that, “In the sense that music is sound arranged for meaning, my paintings are color arranged to be the basic element of expression.” Although the full range of an artist’s concepts and methodologies can hardly be completely concentrated and expressed within a single example, Coggeshall’s Notes I, 1970-80, provides an exceptional instance of a painting that touches upon an impressive diversity of Coggeshall’s visual ideas and approaches. Indeed, the fact that the production of the painting was spread over a tenyear period, as well as its substantial size, indicates that particular attention
was being paid to a range of pictorial concerns which had to be determined, developed, and executed into a particularly complex arrangement within the artist’s oeuvre. Firstly, there is the sheer number of color variations that are present – no less than fifteen can be perceived within just the paler left and center sections of the painting, and many of them are of whisperingly delicate hues. On the right side, a section carrying more intense and darker colors is much smaller, but nevertheless packs in four major verticals, with the edging band of dark blue further complicated by an irregular streak of green. The pale areas and dark areas, so different in size and color intensity, are made to perform an improbable but effective compositional balancing act, with the light yellows, pinks and whites somehow holding their share of the overall visual presence of the surface despite the deeper or more vibrant collection of colors on the right. In this regard, the yellow vertical at the right center has an important role in pulling the viewer’s attention back to the left. Also, Coggeshall made the remarkable decision to bisect the painting with a band of barely grayed white; despite its muted color, it manages to act as a central visual anchor to the overall composition. In the same counterintuitive way, the vague halations of hue exuded around the pale verticals add their own points of visual contact with viewers, enticing them to come close – very close – to the painted surface to perceive and enjoy the carefully mixed colors, evanescent shadings, and irregularity of pigment application. As one reviewer of Coggeshall’s art remarked about his paintings: “They come to you without pretense and their actual complexity seems to withhold itself until you have had time to find it.” Though certainly not created as a purposeful summary of Coggeshall’s overall intentions during the period in which he explored color by means of vertical elements, Notes I displays how the artist could blend and disperse the many subtleties of color, composition, and brushwork in the service of a special form of expression: quiet yet profound, surprising yet controlled. Coggeshall wrote that “To some extent in nature each color may refer to a ‘feeling.’ In painting, colors affect each other so amazingly that their characters are transformed and can be manipulated to achieve meaning.” Through a highly personal approach to color and form in the years of Abstract Expressionism’s rise and its permutations within following decades, Calvert Coggeshall developed sensitive and individual styles of abstraction that deserve renewed investigation and appreciation. Jeffrey Wechsler Jeffrey Wechsler was Senior Curator of the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum of Rutgers University until his retirement. He specializes in lesser-known but worthy artists and styles within 20th-century American Art, organizing exhibitions such as “Surrealism and American Art: 1931-1947” and “Asian Traditions / Modern Expressions: Asian American Artists and Abstraction, 1940-1970”.
THE
EXHIBITION
Eclipse , 1969 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 67 x 65 inches
Untitled, 1969 Signed and dated on the verso Acrylic on canvas 21 x 24 inches (274)
For Mildred, 1970 Signed on verso Oil on canvas 15 x 15 inches (277)
Notes XXI, 1973 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Japanese pigment on canvas 29 x 29 inches
Notes XX, 1970 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 30 1/4 x 30 1/4 inches
A Stripe, 1971 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 30 x 30 inches
Untitled, c. 1970 Acrylic on canvas 80 x 67 inches
Greys I , 1974 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 80 x 67 inches
Notes I, 1970-80 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 65 x 67 inches
Meridian , 1974 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 67 x 45 inches
Christmas , 1969 Signed with initials and inscribed “DM,” titled, and dated Acrylic on canvas 15 x 18 inches
Illumination , 1973 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 65 x 67 inches
Untitled #5 , 1979-80 Signed, numbered, dated and inscribed “For Jane 1980” on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 27 x 27 inches
Eclipse, 1969 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 67 x 65 inches
Notes XX, 1970 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 30 1/4 x 30 1/4 inches
Untitled, 1969 Signed and dated verso Acrylic on canvas 21 x 24 inches
A Stripe, 1971 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 30 x 30 inches
For Mildred, 1970 Signed on verso Oil on canvas 15 x 15 inches
Notes XXI, 1973 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Japanese pigment on canvas 29 x 29 inches
Untitled, c. 1970 Acrylic on canvas 80 x 67 inches
Greys I, 1974 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 80 x 67 inches
Christmas, 1969 Signed with initials and inscribed “DM,” titled, and dated Acrylic on canvas 15 x 18 inches
Notes I, 1970-80 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 65 x 67 inches
Illumination, 1973 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 65 x 67 inches
Meridian, 1970-80 Signed, titled, and dated on the reverse Acrylic on canvas 67 x 45 inches
Untitled #5, 1979-80 Signed, numbered, dated and inscribed “For Jane 1980” verso Acrylic on canvas 27 x 27 inches
Selected Exhibitions 1931 23rd BerkshirePlayhouse, Playhouse,Stockbridge, Stockbridge,MA MA 23rd Annual Annual Stockbridge Stockbridge Exhibition. Berkshire 1933 25th Annual Stockbridge Exhibition, Stockbridge, MA Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Berkshire Berkshire Museum,Playhouse, Modern Painting and Sculpture: Alexander New York, and Alexander Paris, Berkshire Pittsfield, MA Calder, George L.K. Morris,Calder CalvertofCoggeshall, AlmaMuseum, de Gersdorff Morgan. 1944 The American: 1744-1944, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY, June Brooklyn MuseumThe of Art, American: 1744-1944. 1949 New Group Exhibition, Betty Parsons New York, NY York, Betty Parsons Gallery, Gallery, Group Exhibition. 1951 New BettyYork, Parsons Gallery, New York,Calvert NY Betty Parsons Gallery, Coggeshall. 1952 New BettyYork, Parsons Gallery, New York,Calvert NY Betty Parsons Gallery, Coggeshall. 1954 Abstract and in America, of Modern Art, York, NY New York,Painting Museum of Sculpture Modern Art, Abstract Museum Painting and Sculpture inNew America. 1955 New Betty Parsons York, NY, by Calvert Coggeshall and Sculptures by Pietro Lazzari. York, BettyGallery, ParsonsNew Gallery, Paintings 1957 Calvert Coggeshall and E.Gallery, Box, (Two person exhibition) Parsons Gallery, New York, NY New York, Betty Parsons Calvert Coggeshall andBetty E. Box. 1961 New Parsons New York, NY Paintings by Calvert Coggeshall, Sculptures by Guido Somaré. York,Gallery, Betty Parsons Gallery, 1967 Calvert Coggeshall, BettyGallery, ParsonsCalvert Gallery, New York, NY New York, Betty Parsons Coggeshall. 1968 New Calvert Coggeshall, BettyGallery, ParsonsCalvert Gallery, New York, NY York, Betty Parsons Coggeshall. 1970 Calvert Coggeshall, BettyGallery, ParsonsCalvert Gallery, New York, NY New York, Betty Parsons Coggeshall. 1971 Calvert Coggeshall, BettyGallery, ParsonsCalvert Gallery, New York, NY New York, Betty Parsons Coggeshall. 1972 New BettyYork, Parsons Gallery, New York,Calvert NY Betty Parsons Gallery, Coggeshall. 1974 New Calvert Coggeshall, BettyGallery, ParsonsCalvert Gallery, New York, NY York, Betty Parsons Coggeshall. 1975 Group Group Show: Show: Only Only Large Large Paintings, Paintings, Calvert Calvert Coggeshall, Coggeshall, Cleve Cleve Gray, Gray, Minoru Minoru Kawabata, Kenzo Okada, Eliza Moore, Patrick Okada, Patrick Ireland, Ireland, William William Taggart, Taggart, Bob BobYasuda, Yasuda,Yardley, Yardley,Edward EdwardZutrau, Zutrau, BettyParsons ParsonsGallery, Gallery,New NewYork, York,NY NY Betty 1976 New 30th York, Anniversary Show: Congden, Coggeshall, Hofmann, Margo, Miles,Coggeshall, Morgan, Murch, New Betty Parsons Gallery, 30th Anniversary Show: Congden, Hofmann, man, Ossorio, Pollock, Murch, Pousette-Dart, Reinhardt, Rothko,Pousette-Dart, Ryan, Sekula, Stamos, Steinberg, Margo, Miles, Morgan, Newman, Ossorio, Pollock, Reinhardt, Rothko, Sterne, Still, Tomlin, Parsons Gallery, New York, NY Ryan, Sekula, Stamos,Betty Steinberg, Sterne, Still, Tomlin. 1977 Brunswick, Calvert Coggeshall: A Retrospective, Walker Art Gallery, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Maine, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Calvert Coggeshall: A Retrospective. Brunswick, New York, ME Betty Parsons Gallery, Mino Argento, Calvert Coggeshall, Minoru Kawabata, 1977, Richard Group Exhibition, Betty Parsons Gallery. Mino Helene Argento, Calvert Tuttle, Ruth Vollmer, Robert Yasuda, Aylon andCoggeshall, Cleve Gray.Minoru Kawabata, 1978 Calvert Coggeshall, Betty Gallery, ParsonsCalvert Gallery,Coggeshall. New York, NY New York, Betty Parsons Group Exhibition, Betty Parsons Ruth Vollmer, Mino Argento, Cleve Gray,Coggeshall. Calvert New York, Betty Parsons Gallery,Gallery. Ruth Vollmer, Mino Argento, Cleve Gray, Calvert 1981 Highlights the Permanent Collection, Museum Art,Collection. New York, NY New York, of Whitney Museum of AmericanWhitney Art, Highlights of of theAmerican Permanent 1982 Calvert Coggeshall: Paintings, (exhibited blue/gray paintings) Betty Parsons Gallery, New New York, Betty Parsons Gallery, Calvert Coggeshall. 1987 Recent Paintings: Calvert Coggeshall & Frederick Hammersley, Artist Space, New York, NY New York, Artist Space, Recent Paintings: Calvert Coggeshall & Frederick Hammersley. 1991 Milton Avery: Watercolors and Museum, Calvert Coggeshall: The Late Works, Farnsworth Rockland, Maine, Farnsworth Milton Avery: Watercolors and Calvert Museum, Coggeshall: Rockland, ME The Late Works. 2005 Paintings the Wolf 1950sFine by Calvert Coggeshall, Wolf Fine ArtCoggeshall. at Gallery Schlesinger, New New York,ofAmy Art, Paintings of theAmy 1950s by Calvert York Public Collections Whitney Museum of American Art, New York Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection, Albany, New York
542 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
(646) 764 - 9065 | gallery@lincolnglenn.com www.lincolnglenn.com
542 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011
(646) 764 - 9065 | gallery@lincolnglenn.com www.lincolnglenn.com