For the inaugural edition of Independent 20th Century, KARMA will present a suite of historic paintings & works on paper by the late American artist Robert Duran (1938 – 2005). 

KARMA’s presentation pays close attention to work from the 1970s, a decade marked by Duran’s prolific artistic output, experimentation, and critical recognition, including his inclusion in dual exhibitions at the Whitney in 1969 and 1973 and a Guggenheim Fellowship for Painting, as well as numerous solo exhibitions at Bykert Gallery. 

When Duran arrived in SoHo in the mid-1960s, having followed a circuitous path from Salinas, California, he befriended a like-minded cohort of artists, including Brice Marden, David Novros, and Paul Mogensen. In New York, amidst pessimism towards painting’s future, Duran pivoted away from Minimalist sculpture and instead, immersed himself in abstract painting. In his studio, Duran laid unprimed canvas on his floor, where it was layered with Liquitex-acrylic to form delicate washes and labyrinths of jigsaw puzzle-like shapes, organic and repetitive, recalling ancient logics of mark making.

“The dispersal of abstract silhouettes within a luminous field, in which the different-colored shapes echo but do not repeat each other, is Duran’s way of taking on both all-over painting and the grid, pushing them together and down his own path.” – John Yau