Alan Shields: Inventive Editions 1973-2001

From June 7 through July 8, The Drawing Room in East Hampton is pleased to present "Alan Shields | Inventive Editions 1973-2001", an exhibition of twenty-one prints that reveal the groundbreaking ingenuity and evolving ideas the late artist introduced to his extensive body of graphic work. In editions that often combined varied printmaking techniques with stitching and collage, Shields consistently incorporated a distinctive vocabulary of multicolored geometric forms that coalesce in exuberant compositions with aptly playful titles.

Arriving in New York in 1968 after studying engineering, theater and visual arts at Kansas State University, Alan Shields (1944-2005) quickly found his place in the city's vibrant art community at a time when traditional divisions between painting, sculpture and printmaking were being called into question. In keeping with the ethos of this new generation of Post-Minimalist artists responding to their Pop Art and Minimalist predecessors, Shields created work of various scales and mediums that emphasize process and rich experimentation with materials. Just as his early monumental canvas works gained notoriety for defying conventional parameters of painting and sculpture when first shown at the Paula Cooper Gallery, Shields' expansive use of printmaking techniques immediately earned him critical praise. Museum shows of his large canvas works were soon followed by recognition of his prints in important exhibitions focused on contemporary editions such as "New American Graphic Art" in 1973 at the Fogg Art Museum and "Printed, Cut, Folded, Torn" at MoMA in 1974.

See below for full press release and selected works.