Two Circles

Alexander Liberman

1950 · Enamel on Masonite · Modern and Contemporary Art

Alexander Liberman had a rich and varied career as a photographer, painter, sculptor, and, for 31 years, editorial director of Condé Nast publications. At the time this work was created, few others in New York were painting such explicitly geometric forms. This particular painting was chosen in 1954 for the exhibition "Younger American Painters" at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, becoming the first and only work by Liberman to be publicly exhibited until 1960. In sharp contrast to the Abstract Expressionists' desire for unique, expressive paintings, Liberman noted later that his "whole theory" about his geometric works of this period were that they were endlessly "repeatable and renewable."

Artist

Alexander Liberman

Date

1950

Medium

Enamel on Masonite

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Tomkins, 1993