Alvin D. Loving
Alvin D. Loving Jr. (September 19, 1935 – June 21, 2005), better known as Al Loving, was an African-American abstract expressionist painter. His work is known for hard-edge abstraction, fabric constructions, and large paper collages, all exploring complicated color relationships. Biography. Alvin Demar Loving Jr. was born on September 19, 1935, in Detroit, Michigan. Loving earned a BFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1963 and an MFA from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. His mentor at the University of Michigan was Al Mullen, who helped him get involved with the Once  Group organization. In 1968 Loving moved to New York City, where he moved into the infamous Hotel Chelsea. Within a year of moving to New York City, Loving had his first solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. He received National Endowment for the Arts fellowships in 1970, 1974, and 1984. In 1986 Loving was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. Loving created large-scale commissioned public works throughout his career; a 208' x 80' mural painting "A Message to Demar and Lauri" (1972) on The First National Bank Building in Detroit, MI (removed 1989), a 54' x 7' painting  New Morning 1 (1973) for the Empire State Collection in Albany, NY, a ceramic mural "Detroit New Morning" (1987) in one of Detroit's People Mover stations and another "Life, Growth, Continuity" (1998) in the David Adamany Library at Wayne State University. In 1996, he created a collage painting "Sacramento New Morning" for the Sacramento Convention Center, and in 2001 he designed 70 stained-glass windows and mosaic walls for the Broadway Junction subway station in Brooklyn. Loving exhibited steadily throughout his life in solo and group exhibitions at numerous venues, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Studio Museum  in Harlem; Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase, New York; Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France; and PS1 Contemporary Art Center, Queens, New York. Loving died on June 21, 2005, in New York, New York. Artistic style. Hard-edge abstraction. In the 1960s, Loving grew increasingly interested in Josef Albers's paintings of squares within squares. In an interview, he explained: "For me at the time, it was about painting the square until it was 'enough,' and that meant until it obtained form. The square that I started with would always be gone; only I knew it was a square , that that reference was there. That freed me to just paint and let things evolve...[The square] was pure energy and focus.” These geometric abstractions conveyed the brilliance of refracted light; they were not just experiments in color. Loving would often make polyhedrons of the same size, with different colors, and hang them together in different arrangements on the wall. The result was sometimes dozens of canvases stretching out over several feet; to view an entire composition would take time, more than just a glance, making his paintings a powerful expression of time, too. Loving's geometric paintings were featured  in his first solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Loving later abandoned hard-edged abstraction painting. Fabric constructions. Inspired by a visit to the Whitney Museum of American Art's exhibition "Abstract Design in American Quilts", in the early 1970s, Loving began to experiment with fabric constructions. He started hanging strips of canvas from the walls and ceilings, playing with our perception of pictorial and sculptural ideals. Then, he reattached the fragments together with a sewing machine, creating large flowing fabric constructions. At first he painted the pieces of canvas, but later switched to dying the fabric . Other artists, including Sam Gilliam, Alan Shields, and Richard Moch, were also using the sewing machine at this time to create fabric constructions. In fact, Loving considered himself within the context of abstract expressionism at this phase in his career; though he was not a painter but a material abstractionist. Large paper collages. In the 1980s, Loving began to integrate other materials into his constructions, such as corrugated cardboard and rag paper. Loving quickly took a liking to the casualness of tearing cardboard and gluing it onto other pieces; in fact, he considered this practice abstract expressionist as well. Unlike  the fabric constructions, the large paper collages gave him a sense of freedom because he was trekking through uncharted territory (although this work has been likened to Frank Stella's curvilinear metal reliefs and Elizabeth Murray's shaped canvases). Loving integrated circles and spirals into these collages as a nod to his African roots and as an expression of growth and continued life. In the piece, "Perpetual Motion" (1994)(DASNY), Loving integrated materials such as cardboard and print. The cardboard is cut and overlapped to form a series of spirals. Each spiral has been carefully painted and placed to create dynamic  color relationships. They do not have conventional matting under them, glass to cover them or frames to surround them: instead they cling flatly to the wall. Sandra Yolles, reviewing an exhibition in 1990, explained "Loving’s work is about earth, wind, fire, and water: some pieces might be considered atmospheric maps of life at full blast—stretching the possibilities of the human spirit by delineating its directions, currents, and eddies.'” Exhibition history. Solo exhibitions. Alvin Loving has had several solo exhibitions throughout his life. "Alvin Loving" at the Gertrude Kasle Gallery in Detroit (June 15 – July 7, 1969), "Alvin Loving : Paintings" at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York (December 19, 1969 – January 25, 1970), "Alvin Loving" at William Zierler, Inc. in New York (March 11 – April 1, 1973), at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (1977), "Al Loving: Departures" at the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (February 23 – June 9, 1986), "Al Loving: Maker of Art" at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, D.C. (April 10 – June 15, 1991), "Al Loving: Material Abstraction" at June Kelly Gallery in New York (November 5 – December 1, 1992), "Al Loving in the Nineties: The Collaged Wallworks" at  the Fine Arts Center Galleries of the University of Rhode Island (January 21 – March 8, 1997), "Al Loving: Detwiller Visiting Artist" at the Art Gallery of the Williams Center for the Arts at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania (February 6 – March 1, 1998), "Al Loving: Color Constructs" at the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College in New York, (September 27, 1998 – January 24, 1999), "Al Loving: Elegant Ideas" at the G.R. N’Namdi Gallery in Michigan (April 30 – June 4, 1999), "Al Loving: Lighter Than Air" at the G.R. N’Namdi Gallery in Chicago (September 9 – October 29, 2004), "Al Loving: Affirmations  of Life" at the Kenkeleba House in New York (December 6, 2005 – January 11, 2006), "Al Loving: Torn Canvas" at the Gary Snyder Gallery in New York (November 8 – December 29, 2012), "Al Lovin"g at the Garth Greenan Gallery in New York (May 21—June 27, 2015), "Spiral Play: Loving in the '80s" at Art+Practice in Los Angeles (April 22 – July 29, 2017) and at the Baltimore Museum of Art (October 18, 2017 – April 15, 2018). Group exhibitions. 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1975 1977 1979 1981 1982 1983 1984–1985 1985 1987 1989 1990 1991 2000 2002 2003 2004  2005 2006 2006–2007 2008–2009 2009 2011 2012 2015 2016 2019 Collections. Loving's work can be found in prominent collections in America, including the following: