Howard Mehring | 289372 | Page 1

Howard Mehring, born 1931 in Washington D.C., was a leading painter in the Washington Color School. He is known for geometric painting and hard-edged collage, and he worked with reduced forms, precise surfaces, and rich colors in all-over composition. His work is certainly linked in spirit and synchronicity to West Coast contemporaries such as Sam Francis and John McLaughlin.

While on faculty at Leon Berkowitz’ Washington Workshop for the Arts, Mehring worked with colleagues and painters Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, and Gene Davis. Clement Greenberg introduced them to the work of leading artists in New York, including Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Helen Frankenthaler. Frankenthaler’s use of acrylics to stain unprimed canvas affected all of the D.C. painters, as they considered the union of pigment and support a revolutionary relationship of color to form.

In 1955, Mehring told Leslie Ahlander in the Washington Post (1961) that he felt that, “We are just starting to explore pure color.” Indeed, the experiments with layers of acrylics had just begun, as the artist carved out a territory for himself distinct from the emotion of his predecessors in Abstract Expressionism, but expressive, all the same. He said,

“I try for the qualities of music: line, tone, resonance, dissonance… In those earlier canvases, I was using small spots of color to maintain attention over the entire canvas. I wanted the picture to open out, to extend beyond the edge of the canvas. I often deliberately try for sweet effects, for lyric expressions of color, just because they are a challenge.”

Throughout the 1950s and early ‘60s, Mehring had several solo shows of his work in Washington, DC, at Jefferson Place Gallery, Origo Gallery, and Sculptors Studio and Gallery. Under the patronage of collector Vincent Melzac – who was also the Curator of the Corcoran Gallery -- Mehring left teaching in 1964 and devoted himself exclusively to painting. That same year, Clement Greenberg included Mehring’s paintings in his exhibition “Post Painterly Abstraction” at the Los Angeles County Museum.  In 1965 Mehring had his first solo show at A.M. Sachs in New York City, followed by other exhibitions in major museums.

Mehring used thicker paint than his fellow artists in the Washington Color School, and set stippled or marbled monochrome shapes against solid fields of color, generating all-over compositions without a central focal point. Like music, they are immersive, organized spaces of action and reaction between shapes and shades.

By 1970, Mehring abruptly ceased painting, and for the rest of his life he made only drawings. In 1977, The Phillips Collection exhibited Mehring’s drawings concurrently with a major retrospective of his paintings at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Mehring died three months later, in 1978.

HOWARD MEHRING: SELECT COLLECTIONS

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

The Whitney Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

The Woodward Foundation, Washington, DC

The Riverside Museum, CA

The Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC

The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

The National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC

The Los Angeles County Museum, CA

Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University

The Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT

Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY

New York Bank for Savings, New York, NY

Irving Bank of Chicago, IL

Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, New York, NY

The Michener Collection, The University of Texas at Austin, TX

The San Francisco Museum of Art, CA

The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

Abrams Family Collection, New York, NY

The Tate Gallery, London

New York University, New York, NY

George Washington University, Washington, DC

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC

Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA

Oklahoma Art Center, Oklahoma City, OK

HOWARD MEHRING: SELECT SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2007     Howard Mehring: All Over Paintings from the Estate of Vincent Melzac, Conner Contemporary Art, Washington, DC

2002     Howard Mehring: Classical Abstraction painting from the Vincent Melzac Collection, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC

1977     Howard Mehring: A Retrospective Exhibition, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Howard Mehring – Soft Palette Paintings 1958-1961, Pyramid Galleries, Ltd., Washington, DC

1976     Howard Mehring, Galerie Heseler, Munich, Germany

Howard Mehring – Drawings, Pyramid Galleries, Ltd., Washington, DC

1974     Howard Mehring – Paintings 1957-1967, Pyramid Galleries, Ltd., Washington, DC,

1971     Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC

1970     Howard Mehring: Early Minimal Paintings: 1958-1960, A.M. Sachs Gallery, New York, NY

Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC

A.M. Sachs Gallery, New York, NY

Howard Mehring, Washington, Galerie Heseler, Munich, Germany

1969     Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC

1968     A.M. Sachs Gallery, New York, March 30 - April 18

1966     A.M. Sachs Gallery, New York, April 19 - May 7.

1965     A.M. Sachs Gallery, New York, April 27 - May 15.

1963     Reflections – 63: The Painting of Howard Mehring, The Adams-Morgan Gallery, Washington, DC

1962     Recent Paintings: Howard Mehring, Jefferson Palace Gallery, Washington, DC

1960     Recent Paintings: Howard Mehring, Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC

1959     Recent Painting: Howard Mehring, Origo Gallery, Washington, DC, March 10-29

1957     New Works of Painting: Howard Mehring and New Works of Sculpture: William Taylor, Sculptors Studio and Gallery, Washington, DC

1953     Margaret Dickey Gallery of Art, Wilson Teachers College, Washington, DC

HOWARD MEHRING: SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2011     Washington Color and Light - The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

2010     Washington Color and Light - The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1960s Revisited - David Richard Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2009     Conversations in Lyrical Abstraction 1958-2009 - Conner Contemporary Art, Washington, DC

Gallery Selections: featuring the Washington Color School - Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

2008     New American Abstraction 1960-1975 - Gary Snyder Project Space, New York City, NY

Color Field Revisited - Gary Snyder Project Space, New York City, NY

Howard Mehring: Washington Color School Painter - Peyton Wright Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

New American Abstraction 1950-1970 - Gary Snyder Project Space, New York City, NY

2007     Breaking the Mold: Selections from the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, 1961-1968 - Oklahoma City Museum of Art, Oklahoma City, OK

Lyrical Color: Morris Louis, Gene Davis, Kenneth Noland and the Washington Color School - The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

1977     Alternatives, Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York, NY

1976     American Drawings from Private Collections of the Friends of the Corcoran, 15th Anniversary Exhibition, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

American Drawings from Private Collection, Part II, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

Three Hundred Years of American Art, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Virginia

1975     New Accession Show, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA

1974     The Vincent Melzac Collection Featuring Part One: The Washington Color Painters, Norton Gallery and School of Art, Palm Beach

1971     DC Exhibition of Washington Area Artists, Madison Art Center, Madison, Wisconsin

Dritte Fruhjahrmesse, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin, Germany

Internationale Kunst-und-Informationsmesse, Belgischen Haus Volkshochschule, Cologne, Germany

A Small Loan Exhibition of Washington Artists, The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC

1970     Ten Washington Artists: 1950-1970, Edmonton Art Gallery, Alberta, Canada

Zweite Fruhjahrmesse, Akademie der Kunste, Berlin, Germany

Washington: Twenty Years, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, Maryland

Internationale Kunstmesse, Messehallen, Basel, Switzerland

Two Generations of Color Painting, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

HOWARD MEHRING: SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS (CONT’D)

The Vincent Melzac Collection: Modernist American Art Featuring New York Abstract Expressionism and Washington Color Painting, Curator: Walter Hopps, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington DC

1969     The Washington Painters: 17 Artists from the Capital Area, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida

1968     Highlights of the Season, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT

Ten Years: Anniversary Exhibition, Curators: James Harithas and Walter Hopps.

Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC, July 16-August 3.

An Exhibition of Five Contemporary Artists from the Collecion of Vincent Melzac, The Central Intelligence Agency, Washington DC

Art in Washington, Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, DC

1967     Museum Collection: Seven Decades. A Selection. 1990's-1960's. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

Recent Acquisitions, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City.

Art for Embassies, (selected from the Woodward Foundation Collection)

The Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, DC

Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

Arte Contemporaneo Norteamericano, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY [cat.]

1966     Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

The Harry N. Abrams Family Collection, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY

The Hard Edge Trend, The National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC

Systemic Painting, Curator: Lawrence Alloway, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY

Five Years the Friends of the Corcoran 'The Contemporary Spirit', The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Selections From the Permanent Collection, The Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, DC [cat.]

1965     Art in Washington, Institute of Contemporary Art, Washington, DC

The Washington Color Painters: Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis, Thomas Downing, Howard Mehring, Paul Reed, The Washington Gallery of Modern Art, Washington, DC; traveling to University of Texas Art Museum, Austin, TX; Art Gallery of University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN March 7-April 10.

Group show, Henry Gallery, Alexandria, VA

HOWARD MEHRING: SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS (CONT’D)

The Seventeenth Area Exhibition, Artists of Washington and Adjacent Area, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1964     Post Painterly Abstraction, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; traveling to Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; The Art Gallery of Toronto, Toronto, Canada [cat.]

1962     Opening Show, Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC

1961     Review and Preview, Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC

International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA

1960     Thirty Washington Artists, The Civic Center Gallery, Rockville, MD

Art from American Cities, Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington, DC

Survey Number One, Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1959     Preview: Inaugural Exhibition, Origo Gallery, Washington, DC

Visual Metamorphosis in Painting, Howard University Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1956     Teachers College, Washington, DC

1955     The Ninth Annual Exhibition of Work by Artists of Washington and Vicinity, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

New Faces in Washington, Franz Bader Gallery, Washington, DC

An Exhibition of Paintings by Washington Artists, Margaret Dickey Gallery of Art, Washington, DC