Gallerynote 2/2026

April 16 to June 19, 2026

James Bishop (1927–2021)
Paintings and Paintings on Paper

James Bishop belongs to a small group of artists who resolutely opted for painting in the intense era of the 1960s. Encouraged by the important generation of post-war American painters, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky und Franz Kline, as well as Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Ad Reinhardt, Clyfford Still and Robert Motherwell, Bishop, from 1965 onwards, found his very own artistic form.

He was equally interested in materials and the painting process. For Bishop, painting had to do with touch and surfaces. The act of painting is a gesture that begins in the body and manifests its presence and realization on the canvas or paper.

Using earthy hues and off-whites, he constructed what he himself called “uncertain scaffolds” on large-format square canvases and small sheets of paper, made of horizontal, vertical and diagonal bars that abut or overlap each other. On top of this he superimposed skins of paint in varying densities, which combine to form a resonance chamber spanning the interval between pictorial surface and depth. Detached from expressive gestures, the canvas and paper, color, surface, line and structure become artistic substance. James Bishop’s paintings make the process of creation tangible and oscillate between abstraction and remembrance of the figurative.

In addition to his artistic roots in American painting, the history and rich tradition of European painting remained a weighty reference from the outset. In 1957 he made his first trip to and through Europe, and from 1958 he lived in Paris for many years without interruption. Paul Cezanne, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard, Henri Matisse, Bram van Velde now offered an additional source of stimulating ideas and set a further standard for his own artistic activity. In 1962, he set off on a trip to Italy lasting several months. He wanted to experience the history of light and colour, Piero della Francesca, Giovanni Bellini, Lorenzo Lotto and the Venetians of the 16th century first-hand.

James Bishop’s life and work bring together profound insights and achievements in art and culture that transcend time and place. With the concentrated instruments at his disposal, he has made an important contribution to the renewal of painting since the 1960s and, like his contemporaries Robert Mangold, Brice Marden, Agnes Martin and Robert Ryman, testifies to its undiminished and enduring relevance.

In 1976, the first of ten solo exhibitions took place at the Annemarie Verna Gallery, marking the beginning of a 45-year intensive collaboration and friendship.

Exhibitions / Insight

INSIGHT – ARTWORKS IN THE SPOTLIGHT #2, Paintings on Paper by James Bishop presents four works on paper by James Bishop. Created between 1956 and around 1993 they provide valid perspectives on an artistic oeuvre defined by an insistence on painting.

 

Antonio Calderara Riti di passaggio. Dalla figurazione all'arte concreta,  Fondazione Marcello Morandini, Varese, through April 26, 2026

Donald Judd, Judd|Marfa, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, through June 7, 2026

Rita McBride, Five Centuries of Works on Paper: The Grunwald Centre at 70, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles,   through May 17, 2026
Abstract Constructions, Nassos Daphnis - Rita McBride, Fondation CAB, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, FR, through October 25, 2026

Richard Tuttle | Giulio Paolini | Marisa Merz | Mario Merz
Long Story Short, Museum Brandhorst, Munich, through January 2027

Fred Sandback Cuts into Spaces (group show), Hall Art Foundation, Kunstmuseum Schloss Derneburg, ongoing
Sculpture, Chinati Foundation, Marfa, October 12, 2025 through July 2026

Sol LeWitt (1928–2007)
A Wall Drawing Retrospective
Yale University Art Gallery and Williams College Museum of Art
November 16, 2008 – 2033

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