Max Estenger: New Paintings
On view at Steffany Martz in collaboration with Von Morisse Gallery
Winter 2023 (7 January- 4 February)
For the past three decades, Max Estenger has been developing new possibilities for abstraction. Utilizing a rigorous formal language as the driving force, his painted objects are involved in conversation with art history and the ongoing dialogue with the various parameters of abstract painting—formal, material and ideological. Estenger’s work brings together a visual clarity, integrity and moral dimension with a tough-minded tenacity fusing a serious study of direct experience with aesthetic gratification.
In the advanced painting of the last 50 years--Ryman, Martin, Mangold, BMPT, Supports/Surface--there has been an avoidance of COLOR in favor of exploring form and exploring the very definition of painting itself; Estenger continues this exploration but brings back color to an equal significance. These paintings have a palpable energetic pulse.
Like ‘the simple expression of complex thought,’ as the minimalist Donald Judd once said, Estenger takes on not only the compounding history of minimalism and hard-edge abstraction, but also its serialization and ubiquitous past. This is cutting-edge painting for the 21st Century.
Estenger mines disparate materials—raw canvas, stainless steel, clear vinyl and wood panels—to create multi-paneled works. The resulting interplay of surface, structure and color refine certain aspects of his practice while celebrating paint and color as never before in his work.
Polarities such as hard/soft, opaque/transparent, painted/unpainted, matte/glossy, inside/outside, actual/virtual, etc. abound and become the content of the work.
For the past three decades, Max Estenger has been developing new possibilities for abstraction. Utilizing a rigorous formal language as the driving force, his painted objects are involved in conversation with art history and the ongoing dialogue with the various parameters of abstract painting—formal, material and ideological. Estenger’s work brings together a visual clarity, integrity and moral dimension with a tough-minded tenacity fusing a serious study of direct experience with aesthetic gratification.
Max Estenger (b.1963) was born in Los Angeles, California and received his M.F.A. from the University of California, San Diego. He has been living and working in New York City since 1988. His most recent exhibition was a group of new paintings at Norte Maar in 2017, which came after his mid-career survey at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tucson AZ in 2016 curated by Jocko Weyland. Fully-illustrated catalogues were published on both occasions. His work was recently acquired and exhibited for the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego in 2016. He continuous his solo exhibitions and his work has been recently acquired by an important private West Coast collection.
MAX ESTENGER
Red, 2022
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
77 1/4 x 43 x 3 in. (five joined panels)
SOLD
MAX ESTENGER
Blue, 2022
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
40 x 20 x 2 in. (five Joined panels)
ME040
MAX ESTENGER
Red and White, 2022
Oil and acrylic on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
16.25 x 24 x 1.5 in. (three joined panels)
ME042
MAX ESTENGER
Blue, 2020
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
77 1/4 x 43 x 3 in. (five joined panels)
ME043
MAX ESTENGER
White, 2022
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
40 x 20 x 2 in. (five joined panels)
ME044
MAX ESTENGER
Grey, 2022
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
77 1/4 x 43 x 3 in. (five joined panels)
ME045
MAX ESTENGER
Yellow, 2022
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
77 1/4 x 43 x 3 in. (five joined panels)
ME046
MAX ESTENGER
Blue, 2022
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
40 x 20 x 2 in. (five Joined panels)
ME040
MAX ESTENGER
Red, 2022
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
77 1/4 x 43 x 3 in. (five joined panels)
SOLD
MAX ESTENGER
Red and White, 2022
Oil and acrylic on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
16.25 x 24 x 1.5 in. (three joined panels)
ME042
MAX ESTENGER
Blue, 2020
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
77 1/4 x 43 x 3 in. (five joined panels)
ME043
MAX ESTENGER
White, 2022
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
40 x 20 x 2 in. (five joined panels)
ME044
MAX ESTENGER
Grey, 2022
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
77 1/4 x 43 x 3 in. (five joined panels)
ME045
MAX ESTENGER
Yellow, 2022
Vinyl emulsion on canvas, clear vinyl and stainless steel
77 1/4 x 43 x 3 in. (five joined panels)
ME046