NEW YORK (February 21, 2024) – “I think it is true that "paintings make the master". For certainly, Coggeshall's beautiful paintings— treasured and protected as they are by those who live with them — will one day come to the surface and they will discover the artist.” - Jack Tworkov
Calvert Coggeshall’s close relationships with legendary figures in the art world, including Bradley Walker Tomlin, Grace Hartigan, Dorothy Miller, Walker Evans, and Betty Parsons, have often overshadowed his steadfast commitment to forging his own artistic path and creating work of subtle beauty. Simple at first look with colorful vertical bands of primary colors, the color field paintings of the 1960s and 1970s by Calvert Coggeshall require patience, careful inspection, and consideration. It will soon become obvious that the surfaces are marvels of chromatic nuance, with soft pastels applied in gradated tones, often wafting off the verticals.
The artist was born in 1907 near Utica, New York and raised in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. He studied art and architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and pursued both careers for the rest of his life. Coggeshall’s design projects included art museums, galleries, research institutes, private homes, embassies and corporate offices. Upon relocating to New York in the 1930s Coggeshall studied at the Art Students League where he met and befriended many of the artists who would become known as the Abstract Expressionists.
Coggeshall’s early work was most influenced by his close friend, Bradley Walker Tomlin, and soon Coggeshall was rewarded with inclusion in a 1949 group exhibition at the renowned Betty Parsons Gallery alongside the likes of Barnett Newman and Georges Schneider. Parsons described Coggeshall’s work as "a meshing of spiritual and physical properties" which she found "perfectly amazing," and exhibited Coggeshall’s work in 11 one-person exhibitions between 1951 and 1982.
In contrast to the raw angst common to the works of his Abstract Expressionist contemporaries Coggeshall sought a quieter voice. His color field works produce a meditative effect, employing both Eastern and Western practices. Besides standard acrylic paint, Coggeshall often used colors that he prepared himself, essentially adopting a Japanese technique in which pigment is ground into a very fine varnish base. This resulted in a very flat, matte surface that eliminated most reflectivity. He even boarded over the windows of his studio, working only with incandescent light.
The exhibition will run from February 29 - April 13 at 542 West 24th Street and the gallery space will be open to visitors from 10am-6pm on Tuesdays-Saturdays. An opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 29th from 6-8pm. The exhibition is accompanied by a complimentary catalogue with an essay by Jeffrey Wechsler, the Senior Curator of the Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum of Rutgers University until his retirement.
About Lincoln Glenn Gallery
Lincoln Glenn, LLC was founded in 2022, with a mission to present American art from the 19th century through the late 20th century. With galleries on the Upper East Side and Chelsea, Lincoln Glenn exhibits works from artists of the Hudson River School, American Impressionism, Ashcan School, and American Modernism, with a particular focus on Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting. Lincoln Glenn wishes to revive the legacies and explore the careers of artists working between the 1950s and 1970s who made significant contributions to art history, but whose names may have been forgotten by time.
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