Don Dudley

Biography

Don Dudley was born in Los Angeles, California in 1930 and exhibited widely throughout the United States and Europe in the first part of his career. He had an installation project at the PS1 Contemporary Art Center (1982) and a solo show at the New Museum of Contemporary Art (1984). Group shows included New American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1974), Corners at Vera List Art Center at MIT, Boston (1979) and Activated Walls at the Queens Museum of Art (1984). 

Dudley’s minimalism remains relevant for its striking optical effects and its unfinished exploration of object, surface, and color.In a New York Times review of Dudley’s exhibition critic Ken Johnson wrote that his panels “have the optical punch of Frank Stella’s early paintings… As if made for a Euclidean mystery cult, [Dudley’s work] is classically modern and modernistically timeless.” 

Dudley’s work represents a historical dialogue between the minimal practices of the East and West Coasts in the 60′s and 70′s in the United States and simultaneously speaks to a new generation of globally-connected artists who are re-examining perfectionist surfaces and minimalist practices.


Biogaphy

Born 1930 in Los Angeles, California, USA.

Lives and works in New York, USA.

Education and Teaching

1969

Professorship at California State College, Los Angeles, California

Professorship at University of California, Irvine, California

1964 – 1968

Professorship at California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, California

1964

Professorship at University of California Extension, San Diego, California

Professorship at Pasadena Museum School, Pasadena, California

1959 – 1964

Professorship at La Jolla School of Art, La Jolla, California

1953 – 1954

Studies at Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, California

Grants and Awards

1981

Artist in Residence, Normal, Illinois State University, Illinois

1979

Visiting Artist, University of California, Santa Barbara, California

1978

Artist in Residence, Robertson Center for the Arts and Sciences, Binghamton, New York

(under a grant from the New York State Council on Art)

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022

Don Dudley: Recent Work, Magenta Plains, New York, USA

2019

Don Dudley: Early Work, Magenta Plains, New York

2018

Don Dudley. Activated Walls and Recent Works, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

2017

Don Dudley. Recent Work, Magenta Plains, New York

2013

Don Dudley. Modular Spaces, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

2011

I-20 Gallery, New York City

Mendes Wood, Sao Paulo, Brazil

1985

Pam Adler Gallery, New York

1984

Running Dream, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York

1982

CUNY Baruch College, New York, NY Pam Adler Gallery, New York

1981

Galerie Farideh Cadot, Paris, France

1979

University of California Art Museum, Santa Barbara, California

1978

Pam Adler Gallery, New York

1977

Galerie Farideh Cadot, Paris, France

1976

Galerie Alfred Schmela, Düsseldorf, Germany

1975

John Doyle Gallery, Paris, France

1964

I Gallery, La Jolla, California

1963

Comara Gallery, Los Angeles, California

1961

I Gallery, La Jolla, California

1959

La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, California

1958

New Gallery, Houston, Texas

Selected Group Exhibitions

2020

Emotion and Structure, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, Germany

2018

Gaps in the Record: Vanguard Print Culture in San Diego, San Diego HIstory Center, San Diego, California

Position Matters, Curated by Saul Ostrow, Minus Space & Galerie Richard, New York, NY

2017

No Transport, Super Dakota, Brussels, BE

2015

In the Abstract: Mid-Century San Diego Painting and Sculpture, Oceanside, California

2012

Contemporary Art Wins a Beachhead: The La Jolla School of Arts 1960-1964, curated by Dave Hampton, Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, California

Est-3: Southern California in New York (Los Angeles Art from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection), curated by David Pagel, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York

2011

Painting in Parts, curated by Michael Klein, Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, Maryland

1989

Between the Sacred and the Profane, Galerie Rahmel, Cologne

1986

Intericon 1986, Copenhagen, Denmark

1985

Painting ’85, Pam Adler Gallery, New York

1984

Activated Walls, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York

Art Galaxy, New York

Pam Adler Gallery, New York

1983

Projekt 18, Copenhagen, Denmark

1982

Special Installation, MoMA PS 1, Long Island City, New York

Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Gallery, UNC, Greensboro, North Carolina

1981

Color on Structure, Patterson College, New Jersey

1980

Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana

Summer exhibition, Pam Adler Gallery, New York

1979

Corners, MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts

1978

Double Take, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York

1977

New Abstract Objects, Hallwalls, Buffalo, New York

Eugenia Cucalon Gallery, New York

New Work/New York, Gallery of July & August, Woodstock

1975

14 American Artists, Galerie Litho, Teheran, Iran

USA Contemporary Artists, Galerie Du Grands, Hornu, Belgium

Works on Paper, Galerie Tanit, Munich, Germany

Artists in the University of California, La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, California

Galerie Alexandra Monett, Brussels, Belgium

Heath Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia

1974

Drawings, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

American Painting Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art (traveling exhibition)

Paperworks, Rosa Esman Gallery, New York

1972

Four New York Painters, New Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio

New Abstract Painting, Vassar College, New York

Annual of American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art

1959 – 1964

Numerous California and southwest group exhibitions

Selected Bibliography

2017

Thomas Zander (Ed.): Don Dudley. Activated Walls, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Germany. (monograph)

2015

Thomas Zander (Ed.): Don Dudley, Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König, Cologne, Germany. (monograph)

2013

“Modular Spaces“, Art + Auction, Jul./Aug. 2013.

2011

Schmerler, Sarah, “Don Dudley: I-20.”, Art in America, Mar. 2011.

Johnson, Ken, “Don Dudley,” The New York Times, Jan. 7, 2011.

Finch, Charlie, “The Don”, Artnet Magazine, Jan. 18, 2011.

Ostrow, Saul, “Lost Opportunities: The Early Work of Don Dudley”, East of Borneo, Jan. 26, 2011.

Romanovgrave.org., video interview, Apr. 15, 2011.

Beta Germano, Brasil Vogue, Dec. 2011.

1983

Cohen, Ronny, “Drawing Now in NYC: The New Pictorial Image of the Eighties”, Drawing Magazine, Jan./Feb., 1983, pp. 97-101.

1982

Carpenter, Gilbert, “Art on Paper since 1960”, Catalog, Nov./Dec., 1982.

1980

Henry, Gerrit, “Don Dudley”, Artnews, Jan. 1980, p. 166-67.

Zimmer, William, Review, Soho Weekly News, Jan. 24, 1980.

Onorato, Ronald, “corners, mit”, Artforum, Jan. 1980.

1979

Perlberg, Deborah, Review, Artforum International Magazine, Jan. 1979.

Blaisdell, Gus, “Don Dudley”, Arts Magazine, Sept. 1979.

Zimmer, William, Review, Soho Weekly News, Sept. 1979.

Taylor, Robt, Review, Boston Sun, Globe, Oct. 7, 1979.

Nahum, Katherine, “Hayden Exhibit”, Newton Times, Oct. 17, 1979.

Public Collections

Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Memphis

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York

Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, California

Becton Dickinson, Paramus, New Jersey

Chase Manhattan Bank, New York

Prudential Insurance Co., New York

San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, California

Shearman & Sterling, New York

Simon Thatcher & Bartlett, New York

Southeast Banking, Miami, Florida

TRW, Cleveland, Ohio

William R. Mercer, Inc., New York

Exhibitions

Documents

News

Publications

Enquire about this work