Brice Marden: Marbles and Drawings

John Craxton. Leonard Cohen. Nikos Ghika. Henry Miller. Long is the list of iconic artists and poets who’ve found their artistic fuel on the island of Hydra. Add to it Brice Marden, the renowned minimalist painter from New York, who has used everything from kitchen spatulas to sticks, in place of conventional brushes, to create his much sought-after abstract works. While summering in his holiday home on Hydra in the early 80s, Marden began painting in oils on small slabs of white marble from local quarries. He amplified their inherent variations and flaws with his hypnotic bars and subtle tints – as a way of “taking an accident and turning it into a form”. This “Hydra Period” was to last for the next two decades and marked a turning point in Marden’s technique. You can lay your eyes on these luminous pieces for yourself when the Gagosian Gallery hosts Marden’s first solo exhibition in Greece in four decades, to mark the opening of their smart new quarters in Anapiron Polemou Street at the foot of Mount Lycabettus in Kolonaki. Also on view will be a group of calligraphic-style ink drawings by Marden that relate closely to the marble works. This fresh art space is part of the influential Gagosian network that has outposts in major art hubs around the world and is well worth a peek for any serious contemporary art buff.