BRICE MARDEN: I AM PLANE IMAGE

Pumpkin Plumb, 1970-1973.

Gagosian is pleased to announce I Am Plane Image, a comprehensive survey of paintings by Brice Marden.

September 15–December 12, 2026

Presented in collaboration with the Estate of Brice Marden, this is the first such exhibition of the artist’s work in the city in twenty years. It offers a historic opportunity to view works that have rarely, if ever, been exhibited before.

The exhibition emphasizes Marden’s lifelong exploration of the plane and the material presence of his work. “For me,” he stated, “the history of modern art is tightening the relationship of the image to the plane. . . . The whole history of twentieth-century art seems to be where you work up to the ultimate plane image. You try to keep the plane and the image locked together.”

Marden’s distinct contribution to painting lies in his synthesis of a broad range of art historical influences, which anchor paintings that address the natural world. He traveled extensively, living in multiple locations and working predominantly with natural light.

Only, 2009-11.

From the mid-1960s, Marden immersed himself in the cultural scene of New York, congregating at Max’s Kansas City with the era’s pioneering artists, writers, and musicians. Nebraska (1966)—the earliest painting in the exhibition—was inspired by the “surprising” landscape of the midwest United States after a cross-country road trip.

Throughout his career, Marden was continually working through a set of ideas about activating the surface of the painting.

This was evident as early as his Yale MFA thesis, in which he stated: “I have had to concentrate on the rectangle problems. I have been obsessed with the idea and have become fanatical about it.” I Am Plane Image encapsulates this profound engagement with his concept of the plane.