Pace Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Kenneth Noland at the gallery’s seasonal location in Palm Beach. A key figure in the development of postwar art, Noland is regarded as one of the foremost American abstract painters. Featuring a selection of Noland’s Stripe paintings from the late 1960s to early ‘80s, the presentation will be on view from February 25 through March 14, 2021. 

A founding member of the Washington Color School, Noland’s career can be largely defined by his tireless exploration of color and form. The artist attended Black Mountain College, in his hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, intermittently from 1946 to 1950. While there he was exposed to some of the most influential artists of the time, ranging from Josef Albers to John Cage, and developed an early interest in the expressive potential of color and chance. His mature style would come to render color a resonant force and built a visual language that included chevrons, diamonds, circles, and horizontal bands. Often adhering to a compositional format, Noland would work methodically within a series to explore color, material, and method. 

For his Stripe paintings, Noland proportioned bands of colors in relation to the whole work and used various methods to apply paint, which resulted in a range of surface textures. These groupings of horizontal stripes utilize color combinations to explore mood and light, often suggesting landscape imagery. Via Mojave (1968), on view in this presentation, features horizontal stripes of muted oranges, yellows, pinks, and blues. The colors, though separated into bands, flow together to create an image evocative of nature. 

This exhibition builds on Noland’s presence in the Palm Beach area where the artist is part of permanent collections at the Pérez Art Museum and Vero Beach Museum.