Paul Mogensen
Paul Mogensen (b. 1941, Los Angeles) is a New York–based painter who has often been associated with Minimalism, although his mathematical, progressional work resists categorization. Rather than reproducing the reductive geometric abstractions of his Minimalist contemporaries, Mogensen uses an iterative format to activate the picture plane. His paintings are meant to be deciphered rather than easily comprehended: often full of movement, they actively draw the eye across the canvas. Each painting is calibrated according to the rules of elemental mathematics, particularly those deriving from Renaissance and Ancient Egyptian theorems. Mogensen uses such arithmetic progressions to determine the sequence and size of each color form. The resultant morse code–like arrays are inspired by the universalist ideas of early twentieth century Russian artists and poets such as Vladimir Mayakovsky, Aleksander Rodchenko, and Vladimir Tatlin.
Notable solo exhibitions include Karma, New York (2023, 2018); Maruani Mercier, Brussels (2022); Blum & Poe, Los Angeles (2021); Del Deo & Barzune, New York (2016); Wiener Secession, Vienna (1994); Janus Gallery, Los Angeles (1981); and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (1979), among others. Mogensen’s work is represented in the collections of the Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland; Menil Collection, Houston; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Museum of Modern Art, New York; New York Public Library; Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut.
August 1986
Born 1941, Los Angeles
Lives and works in New York
EDUCATION
1962
Yale Norfolk School of Art, Connecticut
1963
University of Southern California, Los Angeles
SELECTED SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2023
Maruani Mercier, Brussels, n+1
Karma, New York, Paintings: 1965-2022
2021
Blum & Poe, Los Angeles
2018
Karma, New York
OV Project, Brussels, Project 12: Steven Parrino and Paul Mogensen
2016
Del Deo & Barzune, New York, PAUL MOGENSEN: PAINTING
2012
Lawrence Markey Gallery, San Antonio, Texas
2001
Brazos Exhibition Space, Houston
1997
Art et Industrie, New York
1994
Wiener Secession, Vienna
1987
Edward Thorp Gallery, New York
1981
Janus Gallery, Los Angeles
1980
Daniel Weinberg Gallery, San Francisco
1978-79
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, Paintings and Drawings 1965-1978
1978
Mary Boone Gallery, New York
1977
Rosa Esman Gallery, New York
Daniel Weinberg Gallery, San Francisco
1976
Rosa Esman Gallery, New York
1975
Texas Gallery, Houston
Bykert Gallery, New York
Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York, 2 Artists
1974
Bkyert Gallery/Downtown, New York, Paul Mogensen and David Novros
1969
Bykert Gallery, New York
1968
Bykert Gallery, New York
1967
Bykert Gallery, New York
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022
Maruani Mercier, Brussels, Structuring Light
2021-22
Carlier Gebauer, Berlin, 8/XXX, curated by Dieter Schwarz
2021
David Nolan Gallery New York, 13 Artists: A Tribute to Klaus Kertess’ Bykert Gallery 1966-75
2019
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, 2019 Ceremonial Exhibition: Work By New Members and
Recipients of Awards
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, Invitational Exhibition
2018
W. Alexander, Brooklyn, New York, Color, Shape & Form: 1960-2008
Fondation de l’Hermitage, Lausanne, Switzerland, Pastels du 16e au 21e Siècle: Liotard, Degas, Klee, Scully…
2017
Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, To The Point
2015
Ratio 3, San Francisco, California, Zero to One on Paper
2014
Norte Maar/Schema Projects, Brooklyn, New York, Jennifer Melby Editions: 18 Years of Intaglio Prints
Elizabeth Harris Gallery, New York, Summer Invitational
American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, Invitational
2013
Whitebox, New York, Zerot; curated by Jan Frank
Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, Ambach & Rice Presents: 40 Years at the Daniel Weinberg Gallery
Kunst Museum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland, Recent Acquisitions
2009
BLT Gallery, New York, Jump
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Esteban Vicente, Segovia, Spain, Nueva York: El papel de las últimas vanguardias
2004
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, A Minimal Future?
2003
Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Mogensen Woodblock Prints
2002
Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Robert Mapplethorpe – “Polaroids” / Paul Mogensen
Cincinnati Museum of Art, Ohio; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine; Georgia
Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia; The Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock, Arkansas;
Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, Drawings of Choice from a New York Collection
2000
Leubsdorf Art Gallery, Hunter College, New York, Deep Field Painting
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Recent Acquisitions
Hunter College, New York, Abstract Painting
1997
Center on Contemporary Art, Seattle, Washington, Square Painting, Plane Painting
1994
Secession Museum, Vienna
1992
Piccolo Spoleto Festival, Charleston, South Carolina, Abstract Options
Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, South Carolina
1991
Lorence-Monk Gallery, New York
Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont
Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Los Angeles, Paintings and Drawings
1989
Edward Thorp Gallery, New York
Simmelink/Sukimoto Editions, Los Angeles, New Editions Etchings and Woodcuts
Lorence-Monk Gallery, New York, Group Show: Paintings and Drawings
University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, Abstract Options
1988
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Abstractions
Edward Thorp Gallery, New York, Gallery Artists
1987
Lorence-Monk Gallery, New York
1986
Jack Tilton Gallery, New York
1983
The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, Woodblock Prints
Damon Brandt Gallery, New York, Drawings by 4 Artists
1980
Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, Repeated Image
Janus Gallery, Los Angeles, Five Artists
1979
List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, Bell Gallery Invitational
1978
Museum of Modern Art, New York, Gold
Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania, Art of the 60s and 70s
Andre Zarre Gallery, New York, Geometry of a Color
1977
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, View of a Decade
Georgia State University, Atlanta, 11 Artists
1976
Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Contemporary American Painting
1975
Texas Gallery, Houston, Texas, Drawings
Rosa Esman Gallery, New York
The Institute for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, Texas; with Novros Marden
The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, Twentieth Century Art
1974
Texas Gallery, Houston, Texas, Various Paintings
Susan Caldwell Gallery, New York
1973
Bykert Gallery/Downtown, New York
1972
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois, A Decade of Art
1970
Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, New York, Modular Painting
1968
Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut, Cool Art
Carmen Lamanna Gallery, Toronto, Canada, New York Now
American Federation of Arts, New York, Structural Art
1967
Ithaca College Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York, Drawings 1967
Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, A Romantic Minimalism
Bykert Gallery, New York, Paul Mogensen, Carl Andre, Brice Marden, Robert Mangold, Agnes Martin
and David Novros
Studio Galerie, Johann Wolfgang Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main, Germany, Serielle Elemente
Finch College Museum of Art, New York, Serial Art
1966
Bykert Gallery, New York
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts
High Museum of Art, Atlanta
Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Switzerland
Menil Collection, Houston
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
New York Public Library, New York City
Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
AWARDS AND GRANTS
2019
American Academy of Arts and Letters, Award in Art
PUBLICATIONS
2018
Paul Mogensen, Early 1968
Karma, New York
68 pages, Hardcover
7 1/4 × 6 inches
Paul Mogensen
Karma, New York
424 pages, Hardcover
7 1/2 × 9 1/4 inches
2007
New American Abstraction 1950-1970
By Claudine Humblet
Skira, Milan
2096 pages
10 1/2 × 7 inches
2004
A Minimal Future? Art As Object 1958-1968
Edited by Ann Goldstein and Lisa Gabrielle Mark
MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts
452 pages
11 × 8 1/2 inches
1994
Paul Mogensen
Paul Mogensen and Vienna Secession
40 pages
Soft bound
1979
Paul Mogensen Paintings and Drawings
Museum of Fine Arts Houston, TX
84 pages
Soft bound
