Alfred Jensen: Paintings And Works On Paper

by Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Thomas M. Messer (Preface by)

80 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1985

About the author

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Streets on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City.

It hosts a permanent collection of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, early Modern and contemporary art.

Reviews

[Kerfe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another grid-based artist, Jensen used numbers, games and puzzles (Pythagorean concepts, magic squares), divination systems like I Ching and the Mayan calendar, Goethe and his theory of colors, DNA and physics, "the playful context [that] allows the mind free reign" to create his art.

The authors of the essays in this catalog that accompanied an exhibition at the Guggenheim in 1985 admit to being unable to really understand his "simultaneously clear and impenetrable" art. As Jensen stated: "My arithmetic is a little unconventional...but I find it useful as a painter."

Despite the obscurity of its sources, the art makes its own statements. Evoking both the gridlike color play of the quilt and the depth and movement of the mandala, it becomes masklike at times, cosmic at others. Always something new to catch the eye and mind.

The catalog is out of print, but can still be checked out of the NY Public Library. There are also many Jensen images available on the web. Worth a look.