Brice Marden

Brice Marden was born in 1938 and is considered one of the most important artists of today because of his continuous sense of abstraction. Marden is a graduate of Boston University of Fine and Applied Arts, earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts in 1961. He then continued his studies at Yale University to earn a degree in Master of Fine Arts in 1963.

From the 1960’s until the early 1980’s, Marden composed a series of monochrome panels and drawings which is when a piece of art features a range of colors consisting of shades of a single color or hue. Starting in 1985, he began a subsequently similar style, but focused on line-based work which is abstract, but meaningful through the use of colors and techniques.

Like many other artists, Marden uses his personal experiences for inspiration when painting. In early 2000, Marden began the grandest paintings of his career: The Propitious Garden of Plane Image.
Without a doubt, Marden is considered as being ranked among the most important American painters of the contemporary period, which consists of any art that has been produced at this present point in time or art produced since the start of World War II. The New Yorker stated in 2006 that he was "the most profound abstract painter of the past four decades.” In the late 1990’s, Marden became a significant member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2000, Brown University awarded the artist an honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts.

Quotes from Marden

"A painting, you know, it's all dirty material. But it's about transformation. Taking that earth, that heavy earthen kind of thing, turning it into air and light."

"Working on these paintings, there's always an idea which is an ideal. It's always impossible... But I think every time, maybe, I just get closer to some impossible thing..."