Alan Saret
Alan Saret’s (b. 1944, New York City) practice includes sculpture, drawing, painting, architecture, geometry study, writing, language study, and music. He is best known for creating sculptures with flexible materials, composed of wire and other “non-art” mediums. After a three-year sojourn in India in early 1970s where he focused on the spiritual and metaphysical, Saret’s approach to spatiality shifted to three-dimensional wire networks that explore the domain between order and disorder—leading to penetrated constructions that seem to come alive. Drawings with clusters of pencils, called “Gang Drawings,” were first used to represent sheet wire and later developed into an independent art form. While this work was labeled “anti-form” to distinguish it from hard-edged minimalism, Saret stresses its organic qualities, describing it as natural form because of nature’s flexible use of geometry. Although seen by some as process art, these works use process to reveal spirit and to ensoul.
Alan Saret’s work can be found in collections including the Art Institute of Chicago; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Dallas Art Museum; Detroit Institute of Art; Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis; Minneapolis Institute of Art; MoMA PS1, New York; Morgan Library & Museum, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey; Saint Louis Art Museum; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Saret’s sculptures are currently on view at the Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, in the exhibition Long Story Short.
Born 1944, New York, New York
Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York
EDUCATION
1967
Postgraduate study, Fine Arts, Hunter College, New York
1966
BA, Architecture, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
SELECTED SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2022
Karma, New York, Allies
2007
The Drawing Center, New York, Alan Saret: Gang Drawings
2004
James Cohan Gallery, New York, Hiraki Sawa and Alan Saret
2001
James Cohan Gallery, New York, Carl Andre and Alan Saret
1990
MoMA PS1, New York, Alan Saret: Retrospective
1989
Lorence-Monk Gallery, New York, Alan Saret: Angle & Axis
Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, Sol LeWitt and Alan Saret: Recent Drawings
1987
Christine Burgin Gallery, New York
1984
University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, John Chamberlain and Alan Saret: Arithmetic/Harmonic
1983
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Hallwalls, Buffalo
1982
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, Matter into Aether
Charles Cowles Gallery, New York
1981
University of Rhode Island, Kingston
Galerie Rudolf Zwirner, Cologne, Alan Saret: Skulpturen und Zeichnungen
1980
Charles Cowles Gallery, New York
1979
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, Matrix 18
Hayden Gallery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Daniel Weinberg Gallery, San Francisco, Sculpture and Drawings
University of California, Berkeley, Permutation Cluster Galaxy
1978
University of California, Irvine, Irvine, Visionary Drawings, Energy Fields, Sculpture
University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley
1977
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Mesh Work Architecture and Dragon’s Tooth Casting
SITE, San Francisco
1976
MoMA PS1, New York
1975
597 West Broadway, New York
1974
The Clocktower, New York, Alan Saret: Drawings and Sculpture
54 Leonard St., New York
MoMA PS1, New York, Alan Saret: Drawings and Sculpture
Rosa Esman, New York
1971
Katonah Gallery, Katonah, New York
1970
Bykert Gallery, New York
Spring Palace, New York
Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont, Alan Saret: Watercolor Drawings
1968
Bykert Gallery, New York, Mountains of Chance, Documents of Ruralism . . . Changing Manufactures
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Colección Jumex: Everything Gets Lighter
The Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, Florida, A Walk on the Wild Side
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Long Story Short
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Collection 1940s–1970s: Touching the Void
Griffin Art Projects, North Vancouver, Canada, Per Diem Part II
2022
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Joan Didion: What She Means
The Church, Sag Harbor, Threading the Needle
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithica, From the Collection: Three Alumni Artists
Le Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, Worlds of Networks
2020
Marc Selwyn Fine Art, Beverly Hills, Drawing Connections
2019
ZMK | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany, Negative Space
Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, One Hundred Drawings
2018
University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, Restricted
David Nolan Gallery, New York, Drawing Space: 1970-1983–Darboven, Le Va, Rockburne, Sandback, Saret, Sonnier
2017
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Thinking Machines: Art and Design in the Computer Age, 1959–1989
James Cohan Gallery, New York, Sculpture: Works by Nahum Tevet, Richard Long, Alan Saret
Jean-Paul Najar Foundation for Contemporary Art, Dubai, Artist Run New York: the Seventies
2016
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Collected by Thea Westreich Wagner and Ethan Wagner
MoMA PS1, New York, FORTY
2015
David Zwirner, New York, Selections from The Kramarsky Collection
Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Colección Jumex, In Girum Imus Nocte et Consumimur Igni
2014
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, Color Shift
2013
Fondazione Prada, Venice, When Attitudes Become Form: Bern 1969/Venice 2013, curated by Germano Celant
Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, Ambach & Rice Presents: 40 Years at the Daniel Weinberg Gallery
2012
Inman Gallery, Houston, Paper Space: Drawings by Sculptors
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Intimate Intensity: The Susan and Larry Marx Collection
Museum Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany, Der Raum der Linie
2011
Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, DER RAUM DER LINIE
David Zwirner Gallery, New York, 112 Greene Street: The Early Years (1970-1974)
2010
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, James Siena: From the Studio
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Re-Seeing the Contemporary
2009
James Cohan Gallery, New York, Shaping Space
Texas Gallery, Houston, SuspectTraces: A Summer Group Show
2007
James Cohan Gallery, New York, The Summer Show
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Uncontained
COOK FINE ART, New York, AROUND 1984
2006
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, A Measure of Time: American Art 1900 to the Present
2003
James Cohan Gallery, New York, NY, A Simple Plan
2002
David Nolan Gallery, New York, 5 Sculptors: Drawings from the 1970’s–Richard Artschwager, Barry Le Va, Sol LeWitt, Alan Saret, and Richard Tuttle
2001
Curt Marcus Gallery, New York, Bruce Conner, Agnes Denes, Alan Saret: Early Drawings
2000
Museum of Modern Art, New York, MoMA2000: Making Choices
Queens Museum of Art, New York, Art at Work: Forty Years of the Chase Manhattan Collection
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, Afterimage: Drawing Through Process
1999
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Afterimage: Drawing Through Process
1997
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, A Lasting Legacy: Selections from the Lannan Foundation Gift
MoMA PS1, New York, Reopening: Installations and Projects
1995
Museum of Modern Art, New York, American Sculptors in the 1960s: Selected Drawings from the Collection
1994
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., From Minimal to Conceptual Art: Works from The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection
1993
Brooklyn Museum, New York, The Second Dimension: Twentieth-Century Sculptors’ Drawings from The Brooklyn Museum
1991
MoMA PS1, New York, Out of Site
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Between Geometry and Gesture: American Sculpture 1965-1975
Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Santa Monica, The Margins of Minimalism
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Immaterial objects: works from the permanent collection of the Whitney Museum
1990
University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, A Collection of Original Works by Seven Young Artists
Christine Burgin Gallery, New York, NY, John Cage, Alan Saret, Richard Tuttle
1989
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, The experience of landscape : three decades of sculpture
1988
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Organic Abstraction
Blum Helman Gallery, Santa Monica, Questioning the Givens
University Gallery, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 24 Cubes
1987
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Whitney Biennial 1987
IBM Gallery, New York, New York Computer and Art
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Contemporary Works from the Collection
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Drawing since 1940
1986
MoMA PS1, New York, Images of the Unknown
MIT Gallery & Bank of Boston, Boston, Natural Forms and Forces
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Sculptors’ Drawings
Harm Bouckaert Gallery, New York, Richard Artschwager, Alan Saret, and Pat Steir
Brooklyn Museum, New York, National Print Exhibition, 24th Biennial: Public and Private: American Prints Today
1985
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Contemporary American Prints: Recent Acquisitions
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Working in Brooklyn: Sculpture
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Made in India
1982
Nationalgalerie, West Berlin, Kunst Wird Material
Harm Bouckaert Gallery, New York, Drawing Invitational 1981
1981
Whitney Museum of Art, New York, Developments in Recent Sculpture
William Paterson College Gallery, Wayne, New Jersey, 112 Greene Street Revival
1980
MoMA PS1, New York, Watercolors
MoMA PS1, New York, Sculpture at the Coliseum
39th Venice Biennale, Venice, Drawings: The Pluralist Decade
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, Drawing/Structures
Aspen Center for the Visual Arts, Colorado, Beyond Object
Max Hutchinson Gallery, New York, 10 Abstract Sculptures, American and European, 1940-1980
Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, Architectural Sculpture
Wave Hill, Bronx, Temporal Structures
1979
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Contemporary Sculpture: Selections from the Collection of The Museum of Modern Art
Artists Space, New York, Artists Draw
1977
University of Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, Open to New Ideas
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Whitney Biennial 1977
MoMA PS1, New York, New York Avant-Garde/Works and Projects of the Seventies
MoMA PS1, New York, Open Studios
Museum of Modern Art, New York, American Drawn and Matched
Institute d’Art Contemporain de Montreal and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 03 23 03
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, A View of a Decade, 1967-1977
1976
MoMA PS1, New York, Rooms
MoMA PS1 and Artforum, New York, The Magazine Show
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, American Art of the 20th Century
Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Soho Downtown Manhattan
1975
MoMA PS1, New York, Collectors of the Seventies, Part I: Dorothy and Herbert Vogel
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Materials and Manipulations
1974
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Works on Paper
1973
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, American Drawings, 1963-73
1971
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, 6 Sculptors: Extended Structures
Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, India
1970
Sidney Janis Gallery, New York
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Paperworks
1969
Kunsthalle, Bern, Switzerland, Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form
Steinberg Gallery, St. Louis, Here and Now
1968
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, 3 Young Americans: Krueger, Nauman, Saret
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1968 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Sculpture
Castelli Gallery, New York, Nine in a Warehouse
Bykert Gallery, New York
SELECTED PUBLIC PROJECTS AND INSTALLATIONS
1992
Pittsburgh International Airport Arrival Terminal, Pittsburgh
1985
Brooklyn Museum, New York, Proposals for Metro: Downtown Seattle Transit Project
1975
Artpark, Lewiston, New York, Ghosthouse
1974
Second Indian Triennale, New Delhi, The India Ramp
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, Massachusetts
Albright–Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin
Art Institute of Chicago
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin
Brooklyn Museum, New York City
Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, Maine
Dallas Art Museum, Dallas
Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina
Denver Museum of Art, Denver
Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit
Fondation Cartier, Paris
Glenstone, Travilah, Maryland
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Harvard Art Museum, Cambridge
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca
High Museum, Atlanta
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, St. Louis
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth
MoMA PS1, New York City
Morgan Library & Museum, New York City
Museo Jumex, Mexico City
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton
Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis
Syracuse Art Museum, Syracuse
University Museum at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City
AWARDS
1979
Visiting artist in sculpture, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA, residency
1976
Creative Artists Program Service Grant, New York
1975
National Endowment for the Arts Grant
1969
Guggenheim Fellowship for Creative Arts, US & Canada
PUBLICATIONS
2022
Alphabetaka
Karma, New York, 2022
52 pages
11 × 8 1⁄2 inches
Matter Into Aether
Text by Klaus Kertess
Karma, New York, 2022
108 pages
8 1⁄2 × 6 1⁄4 inches
1999
Afterimage: Drawing Through Process
Essays by Pamela M. Lee, Cornelia H. Butler
MOCA & MIT Press, Cambridge
152 pages, softcover
9.6 x 0.6 x 12 inches
1985
Gerard McCarthy
Abstract forms: the sculptures of Alan Saret and John Duff
Syracuse University, Syracuse
79 pages, softcover
1982
Alan Saret: Matter into Aether
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Santa Ana
108 pages, softcover
1979
Artists Draw: Donald Sultan, Tom Martin, Auste Peciura, Alan Saret, Patti Smith, Nancy Spero
Artists Space New York, New York
18 pages, softcover
8.9 x 13.9 cm
1978
Donald John Evans
The Problem of Environment in the Work of Alan Saret
University of Texas at San Antonio
78 pages, softcover
