"A spiritual art necessarily begins in an introspective act, for it means to engage us on the most intimate level of our being, but it must use true and tried symbols to make its point."
-excerpt from "Ford Beckman's Neo-Spiritual Paintings" by Donald Kuspit
McClain Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of paintings by Ford Beckman. Beckman first rose to prominence amid the wave of post-Neo-Expressionist artists in the late 1980's that came to define "New Art" in New York. A re-investigation of the works of Beckman and many of his contemporaries such as Günther Förg, Peter Halley, Ashley Bickerton and others, is currently underway, confirming their reputations as artists of relevance. Beckman's subject matter responds primarily to the spiritual crisis of modernity. He explores the sacred qualities of art making by fusing the modernist opposites of geometric and gestural abstraction.
Highlights of this exhibition include large-scale tonal paintings on wood panels, smaller oil on board pieces, and lyrical works on paper.
Beckman's work has been exhibited internationally and is included in such notable public collections as Panza Collection, Italy; Saatchi Collection, London; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Israeli Museum, Jerusalem; Essl Collection, Vienna; the Denver Art Museum and the Armand Hammer Foundation.