Gene Beery (October 13, 1937 – November 19, 2023) was an American painter and photographer, who has been described as an

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

, Pop artist, minimalist, and conceptualist over his career of fifty-plus years. He was primarily known for his text-based canvases, based on the concept that words and the ideas they provoke can exist as works of art in themselves. Living and working in New York City in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Beery was at the center of the development of both Pop and Conceptual art. From the 1990s, Beery also worked as a photographer, intimately documenting his family, friends and life in a snapshot style. He lived and worked in

Sutter Creek, California Sutter Creek (formerly spelled Sutter's Creek and Suttercreek; formerly named Suttersville) is a city in Amador County, California, United States. The population was 2,646 at the 2020 census, up from 2,501 at the 2010 census. It is accessible v ...

until his death on November 19, 2023, at the age of 86. Beery is represented by Derosia in New York, and Parker Gallery in Los Angeles.

Background and education

Beery was born in

Racine, Wisconsin Racine ( ) is a city in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States, and its county seat. It is located on the shore of Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River (Wisconsin), Root River, south of Milwaukee and north of Chicago. It is the List ...

, on October 13, 1937. He attended the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and one of the two doctor ...

and the

Layton School of Art The Layton Art Gallery is a defunct art museum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Built at the initiative of British-American businessman Frederick Layton, the gallery was inaugurated in 1888 as the first public art institution in the city. Its one-stor ...

, Milwaukee before moving to New York City in the late 1950s where he joined the Arts Student League and became a guard at the

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

Work

Working as a guard at the Museum of Modern Art he was befriended by

James Rosenquist James Albert Rosenquist (November 29, 1933 – March 31, 2017) was an American artist and one of the proponents of the pop art movement. Drawing from his background working in sign painting, Rosenquist's pieces often explored the role of advert ...

and

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

, his Hester Street neighbor. In 1961 Beery’s ramshackle hybrid paintings incorporating words and figures were selected for the

’s Recent Figure Painting U.S.A. where they caught

Max Ernst Max Ernst (; 2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German-born painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and surrealism in Europe. He had no formal artistic trai ...

’s attention. The surrealist was so impressed he awarded Beery $100 on the spot. This windfall was followed by another award from the William and Norma Copley Foundation. Clearly, Beery’s art had struck a chord within New York’s still extant surrealist community.

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...

, who upon meeting the artist for the first time awarded him a cigar, was soon a fan and must have seen in Beery’s art many of the same qualities he found in the art of

Louis Eilshemius Louis Michel Eilshemius (February 4, 1864 – December 29, 1941) was an American painter, primarily of landscapes and nudes. He also wrote musical compositions, verse, novels, short stories, and published periodicals.John Baldessari John Anthony Baldessari (June 17, 1931 – January 2, 2020) was an American conceptual artist known for his work featuring found photography and appropriated images. He lived and worked in Santa Monica and Venice, California. Initially a paint ...

Lawrence Weiner Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942December 2, 2021) was an artist born and raised in New York City. One of the central figures in the formation of Conceptual Art in the 1960s, Lawrence Weiner explored the potentials of language as a scu ...

and Robert Barry. While other artists using text and numbers who emerged in the 1960s produced mostly cerebral work lacking evidence of the artist’s hand, Beery seemingly poked fun at the high Conceptualism of the day. He continued to make his uniquely homespun and humorously irreverent canvases, the rawness of their execution a throwback to the Abstract Expressionists. Beery’s free-wheeling humor and graphic flair also align his work with that other then-developing style, Pop Art. Over the years

remained Beery’s greatest champion; rescuing works from his abandoned New York studio and making these a foundational part of the Sol and Carol LeWitt collection at the Wadsworth Atheneum, as well as underwriting the publication of Beery’s many artist’s books. After a successful exhibition of his paintings at the Alexander Iolas Gallery in New York in 1963 Beery left town to take residence in San Francisco, and later Petaluma. Several years later the artist moved into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains outside Sacramento where he continues to live and work.

Solo exhibitions

* 2020 – ''Transmissions from Logoscape Ranch'', Bodega, New York * 2019 – ''New Mythic Visualizations'', Cushionworks, San Francisco * 2019 – ''Gene Beery'', Kunsthalle Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland * 2017 – ''Wall Dancers'', Shoot The Lobster, Los Angeles, California * 2016 – ''Logoscapes / Visual Percussion'', Jan Kaps, Cologne, Germany * 2013 – ''Early Paintings / Later Photographs,'' Algus Greenspon, New York, NY * 2010 – Algus Greenspon Gallery, New York, NY * 1999 – Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, NY * 1997 – Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, NY * 1979 – ''Matrix 55,'' Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT * 1970 – Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA * 1963 – Alexander Iolas Gallery, New York, NY

Selected group exhibitions

* 2020 – ''Ride Off Like A Cowboy Into Your Sunset'', Aguirre, Mexico City, Mexico * 2018 – ''After Hours in a California Arts Studio'', Andrew Kreps, New York, NY * 2016 – ''The Silo'', Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, NY * 2015 – ''I Dropped the Lemon Tart'', Lisa Cooley, New York, NY * 2015 – ''June'', Simone Subal Gallery, New York, NY * 2014 – ''Keeping a Close Eye on the Wind'', (with Josh Abelow), Bodega, New York, NY * 2013 – ''The Picnic: Adriana Lara & Gene Beery'', Algus Greenspon, New York, NY * 2013 – ''Sol Lewitt as Collector. An Artist and his Artists'', Museo d’ Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina, Naples, IT; Centre Pompidou-Metz, Paris, France * 2012 – ''Materializing "Six Years": Lucy R. Lippard and the Emergence of Conceptual Art,'' Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY * 2012 – ''Context Message,'' Zach Feuer, New York, NY * 2011 – ''Summer Salt,'' The Proposition, New York, NY * 2010 – ''White Columns Annual,'' (Curated by Bob Nickas), White Columns, New York, NY * 2008 – ''Never Work'' (Curated by Roger White), 191 Henry St, New York, NY * 2006 – ''Exquisite Corpse'' (Curated by Bob Nickas and Mitchell Algus), Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, NY * 1975 – ''1975 Biennial Exhibition,'' Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY * 1970 – ''955,000'' (Curated by Lucy Lippard), Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada * 1969 – ''557,087'' (Curated by Lucy Lippard), Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada * 1969 – ''The Spirit of Comics,'' University of Pennsylvania Institute Contemporary Art (ICA), PA * 1965 – ''51st Wisconsin Painters and Sculptors Annual,'' Milwaukee Art Center, Milwaukee, WI * 1962 – ''Recent Painting USA: The Figure,'' Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY

Publications

* Lovay, Balthazar (ed.), Kenneth Goldsmith, Jo Melvin, Gregor Quack. ''Gene Beery,'' Fri Art & Mousse Publishing, 2019. ()

Press

Ammirati, Domenick, "Gene Beery at Bodega." ''Artforum,'' October 2020.

Rittenbach, Kari, "Gene Beery at Fri Art Kunsthalle." ''Artforum,'' September 2019.

Gerlis, Melanie, "'Gene Beery: Why the cult American artist's time has come." ''Financial Times,'' June 13, 2019.

Irvin, Nick, "'Life: ★★★½." ''Art in America,'' November 2016.

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beery, Gene 1937 births 2023 deaths 20th-century American painters American male painters 21st-century American painters American Expressionist painters American pop artists Minimalist artists American conceptual artists People from Amador County, California People from Racine, Wisconsin University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni Painters from California Painters from New York City Artists from Wisconsin American contemporary painters 20th-century American male artists