"No Line on the Horizon" - Lévy Gorvy
  • Installation view of No Line on the Horizon exhibition at Levy Gorvy Palm Beach

    Installation view, "No Line on the Horizon", Lévy Gorvy Palm Beach, 2021. Photo: Silvia Ros

  • Installation view of No Line on the Horizon exhibition at Levy Gorvy Palm Beach

    Installation view, "No Line on the Horizon", Lévy Gorvy Palm Beach, 2021. Photo: Silvia Ros

  • Installation view of No Line on the Horizon exhibition at Levy Gorvy Palm Beach

    Installation view, "No Line on the Horizon", Lévy Gorvy Palm Beach, 2021. Photo: Silvia Ros

  • Installation view of No Line on the Horizon exhibition at Levy Gorvy Palm Beach

    Installation view, "No Line on the Horizon", Lévy Gorvy Palm Beach, 2021. Photo: Silvia Ros

  • Installation view of No Line on the Horizon exhibition at Levy Gorvy Palm Beach

    Installation view, "No Line on the Horizon", Lévy Gorvy Palm Beach, 2021. Photo: Silvia Ros

  • Installation view of No Line on the Horizon exhibition at Levy Gorvy Palm Beach

    Installation view, "No Line on the Horizon", Lévy Gorvy Palm Beach, 2021. Photo: Silvia Ros

  • Installation view of No Line on the Horizon exhibition at Levy Gorvy Palm Beach

    Installation view, "No Line on the Horizon", Lévy Gorvy Palm Beach, 2021. Photo: Silvia Ros

  • Installation view of No Line on the Horizon exhibition at Levy Gorvy Palm Beach

    Installation view, "No Line on the Horizon", Lévy Gorvy Palm Beach, 2021. Photo: Silvia Ros

  • Installation view of No Line on the Horizon exhibition at Levy Gorvy Palm Beach

    Installation view, "No Line on the Horizon", Lévy Gorvy Palm Beach, 2021. Photo: Silvia Ros

“No Line on the Horizon”Exhibitions

Palm Beach
November 20 - December 5, 2021

“No Line on the Horizon”

Lévy Gorvy is pleased to announce “No Line on the Horizon,” an exhibition that explores the compelling ways in which postwar and contemporary painters reimagine the tradition of landscape through the lens of abstraction.

Landscape has fascinated artists for millennia, dating as far back as the Greek and Roman era when painters covered their walls with ornate gardenscapes. Since the late nineteenth century, however, landscape painting has moved away from mimeticism; for modern artists, the genre became less about opening a portal to the outside world than exploring the subjective possibilities of perspective, light, and space. Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne revolutionized the landscape genre by claiming that his every brushstroke merited its own viewpoint. The canvas, no longer a flat expanse, became a dynamic site of compositional and perceptual interplay, akin, as philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty argued to “an emerging order [...] appearing, organizing itself before our eyes.”

Cézanne’s “emerging order” opened the floodgates for generations of painters to chart the interstitial territory between landscape and abstraction. “No Line on the Horizon” spotlights how the fusion of these two genres have kindled unparalleled innovation in the medium of painting for more than fifty years. Building off of the variegation of Cézanne’s works, Chinese-French artist Zao Wou-Ki contrasted swaths of bold color with patches of dense, dramatic brushwork, allowing viewers to define the topography of his atmospheric scenes for themselves.

Yves Klein, a conceptualist who famously claimed the sky as his first official work of art, painted a series of monochromes using a proprietary pigment he called International Klein Blue. Klein touted these works as enveloping environments, “an open window to freedom, as the possibility of being immersed in the immeasurable existence of color.” Much like Klein’s monochromes, acclaimed artist Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Nets are aspatial and atemporal, yet undeniably reference the natural world. Here, Infinity Nets [TRFOEYA], 2017, alludes to an aquatic realm, ensnaring the viewer in its cerulean expanse.

Other artists in “No Line on the Horizon” create works that use contrasts in color and line to evoke landscape. Pat Steir’s signature “waterfall” technique encourages the viewer to consider how the chance effects of gravity are as striking in paint as they are in nature. Similarly, eminent centenarian artist Pierre Soulages’s Outrenior paintings—or “beyond black” works—appear like layered strata in inky acrylic, revealing the radiant light that emerges from within even the darkest fields.

In recent years, a new generation of painters have sought to demarcate abstract space through a cacophony of color. Shara Hughes describes her vibrant, extemporaneously painted works as “interior” landscapes that mirror the chromatic and psychological intensity of Fauvism and German Expressionism. Theresa Chromati and Joel Mesler offset textual or figurative references with riotous pattern and color. Equally sensuous and surreal, Chromati’s canvases exalt the Black female body as a territory built upon power, strength, and desire. Recalling everything from the jungles of Paul Gauguin to the tropicália that pervaded mid-century decorative art, Mesler’s paintings of lush fauna feature calligraphic quips that read both as private missives and pop culture catchphrases.

Lévy Gorvy is delighted to present the artists above in dialogue with Frank Auerbach, Francesco Clemente, Elizabeth Neel, Joel Shapiro, Tu Hongtao, and Günther Uecker, all of whom are represented by works from the last thirty years. “No Line on the Horizon” demonstrates the continued inspiration postwar and contemporary artists draw from the newly founded genre of “abstract landscape” painting.

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Selected Works

  • Frank Auerbach's painting Interior Vincent Terrace II

    FRANK AUERBACH
    Interior Vincent Terrace II
    1984
    Oil on canvas
    48 x 52½ inches (121.9 x 133.3 cm)
    © 2021 Frank Auerbach

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  • Francisco Clemente's painting Winter Flowers XII

    FRANCESCO CLEMENTE
    Winter Flowers XII
    2021
    Pigment on canvas
    72 x 72 inches (182.9 x 182.9 cm)
    Courtesy of Francesco Clemente Studio

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  • Shara Hughes's painting Making Space

    SHARA HUGHES
    Making Space
    2021
    Oil and acrylic on canvas
    78 x 66 inches
    (198.1 x 167.6 cm)
    © Shara Hughes

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  • Elizabeth Neel's painting A Story of the Bug and the Believer (A Partial Cast)

    ELIZABETH NEEL
    Story of the Bug and the Believer (A Partial Cast)
    2015
    Acrylic on canvas
    95 x 78 inches (241.3 x 198.1 cm)

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  • Joel Shapiro's Untitled bronze sculpture

    JOEL SHAPIRO
    Untitled
    1980
    Bronze
    12³⁄₁₆ x 9⅞ x 11¹¹⁄₁₆ inches (31 x 25.1 x 29.7 cm)
    © Joel Shapiro / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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  • Pat Steir's painting Distant Mist

    HyperFocal: 0

    PAT STEIR
    Distant Mist
    1998
    Oil on canvas
    84 x 84 inches (213.4 x 213.4 cm)
    © Pat Steir

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  • Tu Hongtao's painting Leaving the City

    TU HONGTAO
    Leaving The City
    2021
    Oil on canvas
    51³⁄₁₆ x 39⅜ inches (130 x 100 cm)
    © Tu Hongtao
    Courtesy of Lévy Gorvy

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  • Gunther Uecker's nail painting Schwarze Spirale

    GÜNTHER UECKER
    Schwarze Spirale
    1994
    Acrylic and nails on canvas on wood
    59¹⁄₁₆ x 59¹⁄₁₆ inches (150 x 150 cm)
    © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

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  • Joel Mesler's painting Untitled (Mother Earth)
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  • Image of Zao Wou-Ki's painting 17.02.71-12.05.76
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  • Theresa Chromati's painting Tuned Extensions — Full Time Traveler (Woman Growing with Her Scrotum Flowers)

    THERESA CHROMATI
    Tuned Extensions — Full Time Traveler (Woman Growing with Her Scrotum Flowers)
    2021
    Acrylic, glitter, and soft sculpture on canvas
    84 x 60 x 2 inches (213.4 x 152.4 x 5.1 cm)

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  • Image of Pierre Soulages's painting Peinture 81 x 181 cm, 12 novembre 2020

    PIERRE SOULAGES
    Peinture 81 x 181 cm, 12 novembre 2020
    Acrylic on canvas
    31⅞ x 71¼ inches (81 x 181 cm)

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  • Image of Francesco Clemente's Winter Flowers XI

    FRANCESCO CLEMENTE
    Winter Flowers XI
    2021
    Pigment on canvas
    72 x 72 inches (182.9 x 182.9 cm)

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  • Image of Yayoi Kusama's painting Infinity News [TRFOEYA]

    YAYOI KUSAMA
    Infinity Nets [TRFOEYA]
    2017
    Acrylic on canvas
    39⅜ x 39⅜ inches
    (100 x 100 cm)

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  • Image of Pat Steir's painting Florida Waterfall Mark Curve

    PAT STEIR
    Florida Waterfall Mark Curve
    2007
    Oil on canvas
    Framed Dimensions:
    72 x 51 inches (182.9 x 129.5 cm)

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Selected Press

Galleries Now | “No Line on the Horizon”

December 16, 2021

Lévy Gorvy is pleased to announce “No Line on the Horizon,” an exhibition that explores the compelling …

Ocula | “No Line on the Horizon”

December 1, 2021

Lévy Gorvy is pleased to announce "No Line on the Horizon," an exhibition that explores the compelling …

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