Don Dudley

Born in Los Angeles, California in 1930, Don Dudley is a crucial, historical link between the optical and surface oriented “Cool School” or “Finish Fetish” generation of California artists who came into prominence in the 1960s and the more cerebral, Hard-edged Minimalist artists such as Frank Stella, Brice Marden and Ellsworth Kelly. Dudley’s practice embraces drawing and painting by way of sculpture and installation—creating subtle and sophisticated wall works that stand out for both their elegance and formal intelligence. Throughout Don Dudley's seventy-year career he has challenged artistic conventions and the traditional concept of painting by incorporating industrial materials in his work such as aluminum, lacquer, homasote and plywood.

Dudley lived and worked on the West Coast for thirty-eight years before relocating to New York City in 1969. Settling first into a loft on Broome Street in SoHo, he later became one of the early pioneers in TriBeCa—where his studio remains to this day. The analytical artistic approaches in New York—especially the visual language of grids, modularity as well as the aesthetics of industrial manufacturing—had a profound impact on the artist and shifted his work away from the luscious opticality of the early works made in Southern California. He focused his attention on structure and seriality, solidifying a connection to artists such as Anne Truitt and Donald Judd.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Dudley explored modular and serial structures with monochromatic color schemes as well as site-specific spatial installations, exhibiting in “Corners” at MIT Vera List Art Center in 1979 and mounting solo shows at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in 1982 and New Museum of Contemporary Art in 1984. Select group exhibitions at major institutions include Contemporary American Painting at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1972); Double Take at New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY (1978); and Activated Walls at the Queens Museum of Art, New York, NY (1984).

After a twenty-five year hiatus from exhibiting, Dudley's work was rediscovered in 2011 to great acclaim. Recent solo exhibitions include Don Dudley: New Work, Magenta Plains, New York, NY (2022); Don Dudley: Early Work, Magenta Plains, New York, NY (2019); Don Dudley: Activated Walls and Recent Works, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, DE (2018); Don Dudley: Recent Work, Magenta Plains, New York, NY (2017); Modular Spaces, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, DE (2013); Don Dudley, I-20 Gallery, New York, NY (2011); and Don Dudley, Mendes Wood, São Paulo, BR (2011).

Dudley’s work is in the public collection of the Becton Dickinson, Paramus, NJ; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME; Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY; Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, USA; Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA; Prudential Insurance Co., New York, NY; San Francisco Museum of Art, CA; Shearman & Sterling, New York, NY; Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett, New York, NY; Southeast Banking, Miami, FL; TRW, Cleveland, OH; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; William R. Mercer, Inc., New York, NY

Born in 1930, Los Angeles, CA
Lives and works in New York, NY and Kerhonkson, NY

Education

1953 – 1954

Studied at Chouinard Art Institute, Los Angeles, CA

Solo Exhibitions

2024

Magenta Plains at That 70s Show, Eric Firestone Loft, New York, NY

2022

Don Dudley: New Work, Magenta Plains, New York, NY

2020

Dallas Art Fair, Magenta Plains, Dallas, TX

2019

Don Dudley: Early Work, Magenta Plains, New York, NY

2018

Don Dudley: Activated Walls and Recent Works, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, DE

2017

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

2013

Modular Spaces, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, DE

2011

I-20 Gallery, New York, NY
Mendes Wood, São Paulo, BR

1985

Pam Adler Gallery, New York, NY

1984

Running Dream, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY

1983

Project 18, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark

1982

Special Projects (Winter 1982), MoMA PS 1, Long Island City, New York, NY
CUNY Baruch College, New York, NY
Pam Adler Gallery, New York, NY

1981

Galerie Farideh Cadot, Paris, FR

1979

University of California Art Museum, Santa Barbara, CA

1978

Pam Adler Gallery, New York, NY

1977

Galerie Farideh Cadot, Paris, FR

1976

Galerie Alfred Schmela, Düsseldorf, DE

1975

John Doyle Gallery, Paris, FR

1964

I Gallery, La Jolla, CA

1963

Comara Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

1961

I Gallery, La Jolla, CA

1959

La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, CA

1958

New Gallery, Houston, TX

Selected Group Exhibitions

2024

Swim Hole, Magenta Plains, New York, NY
Felix Art Fair with Magenta Plains, Los Angeles, CA

2021

Friends & Family, Magenta Plains, New York, NY
Essentials, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, DE

2020

Emotion and Structure, Galerie Thomas Zander, Cologne, DE
Dallas Art Fair, Dallas, TX

2019

TWO x TWO for AIDS and Art, Dallas, TX
Dallas Art Fair, Dallas, TX
Independent Art Fair, New York, NY

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
Independent Art Fair, New York, NY

2017

Between Two Worlds: Art of California, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
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, CA
Est-3: Southern California in New York (Los Angeles Art from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection), curated by David Pagel, Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY

2011

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

1990

Between the Paradigms, Pt. IV; A Category of Objects as Yet Unnamed, Penine Hart Gallery, New York, NY

1989

Between the Sacred and the Profane, Galerie Rahmel, Köln, DE (catalog)

1986

Intericon 1986, Copenhagen, DK (catalog)

1985

Painting ’85, Pam Adler Gallery, New York, NY

1984

Activated Walls, Queens Museum of Art, Queens, NY (catalog)
Art Galaxy, New York, NY
Pam Adler Gallery, New York, NY

1982

Special Installation, MoMA PS 1, Long Island City, New York, NY
Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Gallery, UNC, Greensboro, NC (catalog)

1981

Color on Structure, Patterson College, NJ (catalog)

1980

Painting and Sculpture Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN (catalog)
Summer exhibition, Pam Adler Gallery, New York, NY

1979

Corners, MIT, Cambridge, MA (catalog)

1978

Double Take, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, NY

1977

New Abstract Objects, Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY
Eugenia Cucalon Gallery, New York, NY
New Work/New York, Gallery of July & August, Woodstock, NY

1976

14 American Artists, Galerie Litho, Teheran, IR
USA Cont. Artists, Galerie Du Grands Hornu, BE
Works on Paper, Galerie Tanit, Munich, DE

1975

Artists in the University of California, La Jolla Museum of Art, La Jolla, CA (catalog)
Galerie Alexandra Monett, Brussels, BE
Heath Gallery, Atlanta, GA

1974

Drawings, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
American Painting Today, Indianapolis Museum of Art, IN (circulating exhibition; catalog)
Paperworks, Rosa Esman Gallery, New York, NY

1972

Four New York Painters, New Gallery, Cleveland, OH
New Abstract Painting, Vassar College, NY (catalog)
Annual of American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (catalog)

1959 - 1964

Numerous California and southwest group exhibitions

Collections

Becton Dickinson, Paramus, NJ
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY
Chase Manhattan Bank, New York, NY
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, USA
Oceanside Museum of Art, Oceanside, CA
Prudential Insurance Co., New York, NY
San Francisco Museum of Art, CA
Shearman & Sterling, New York, NY
Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett, New York, NY
Southeast Banking, Miami, FL
TRW, Cleveland, OH
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
William R. Mercer, Inc., New York, NY