Richard Van Buren

Van Buren first studied painting at sculpture at San Francisco State University and the National University of Mexico. While still a student, he began exhibiting in galleries who showed works by his contemporaries, Franz Kline, H.C. Westermann, Ron Nagle, Ed Moses, and Robert Morris. Eventually, he relocated to New York in 1964, where he stayed for over twenty years teaching at the School of Visual Arts and the Parsons School of Design, while also becoming deeply engrained in the contemporary art scene. His colleagues were famous sculptors such as Eva Hesse, Lynda Benglis, and Richard Serra.

Richard Van Buren has displayed a career-long fascination with materials. He often makes use of dry pigment, costume jewelry, fiberglass, wallpaper paste, and glitter simultaneously. His forms are often inconsistent and biomorphic, making use of man-made materials while forming biomorphic constructions.

Solo Exhibitions

1961

• New Mission Gallery, San Francisco

1964

• Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco

1967

• Richard Van Buren, Bykert Gallery, New York, April 22–May 13

1968

• Richard Van Buren, Bykert Gallery, New York, March 30–April 25

1969

• Richard Van Buren, Bykert Gallery, New York, November 15–December 6

1970

• Richard Van Buren, Bykert Gallery, New York, October 3–28

1972

• Richard Van Buren, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, May 6–June 1

1973

• 112 Greene Street, New York

1974

• Richard Van Buren: Sculpture, Texas Gallery, Houston, May 4–27

1975

• Richard Van Buren, Graduate Center Mall, City University of New York, January 7–30
• Richard Van Buren, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, February 8–March 5

1976

• Richard Van Buren: Paper—Works, Texas Gallery, Houston, July 6–August 14

1977

• Richard Van Buren, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, May 14–June 8

1991

• Richard Van Buren: New Sculpture, Jimenez & Algus Gallery, Brooklyn, May 3–26

2002

• Richard Van Buren: New Sculpture, Mitchell Algus Gallery, New York, June 1–July 12
• Richard Van Buren: Spirit Mold, Grand Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, November 15-–December 21

2003

• Richard Van Buren: Spirit Mold, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, October 25–December 21

2010

• Richard Van Buren, Tides Institute and Museum of Art, Eastport, Maine, September 5–19

2011

• Richard Van Buren: New Sculpture, Gary Snyder Gallery, New York, November 10–December 17

2013–2014

• Richard Van Buren: The 1970s, Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, November 26, 2013—January 4, 2014

2016

• Richard Van Buren: Monet’s Swamp, Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, May 19–June 18

2018

• Richard Van Buren, South Dakota Art Museum, South Dakota State University, Brookings, January 16–

Group Exhibitions

1965

• Sculpture from All Directions, World House Galleries, New York, November 3–27

1966

• Primary Structures: Younger American and British Sculptors, Jewish Museum, New York, April 27–June 12
• Opening Exhibition, Bykert Gallery, New York, September 20–October 15

1967

• Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture, 1967, Krannert Art Museum, University of Illinois, Urbana, March 5–April 9
• A Romantic Minimalism, Institute of Contemporary Art, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, September 13–October 11

1968

• Cool Art: 1967, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut, January 7–March 17

1968–1969

• 1968 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, December 17, 1968–January 9, 1969

1969

• Drawing Exhibition, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, December

1969–1970

• A Plastic Presence, Jewish Museum, New York, November 19, 1969–January 4, 1970; Milwaukee Art Center, January 30–March 8, 1970; San Francisco Museum of Art, April 24–May 24, 1970
• Art in Process IV, Finch College Museum of Art, Contemporary Wing, New York, December 11, 1969–January 26, 1970

1970

• Hanging/Leaning, Leaning/Hanging, Emily Lowe Gallery, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York, February 2–27
• Highlights of the 1969–1970 Art Season, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Connecticut, June 21–September 13
• Norfolk 70, Yale University Summer School of Music and Art, Norfolk, Connecticut, June 28–July 14
• L’art vivant aux États-Unis, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul, France, July 16–September 30

1970–1971

• 1970 Annual Exhibition: Contemporary American Sculpture, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, December 12, 1970–February 7, 1971

1971

• Erasable Structures, Visual Arts Gallery, School of Visual Arts, New York, January 25–March 2
• Works for New Spaces, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, May 18–July 25
• Eight Artists: Lynda Benglis, Sam Gilliam, Ralph Goings, Hans Haacke, Duane Hanson, Sol LeWitt, DeWain Valentine, Richard Van Buren, Milwaukee Art Center, June 19–August 8
• Kid Stuff?, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, July 25–September 6

1972

• 10, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, March 20-–June 4
• Critics’ Choice, Sculpture Center, New York, September 26–October 21

1973

• Works from the Early Sixties, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, January 20–February 15
• Options 73/30: Recent Works of Art, Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, September 25–November 11

1974

• Painting & Sculpture Today, 1974, Indianapolis Museum of Art, May 22–July 14; Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, September 12–October 26

1976

• Group Show, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, February 14–March 4

1977

• Jack Barth, Richard Van Buren, David Deutsch, Richard Jackson, James Reineking, Bell Gallery, List Art Building, Brown University, Providence, February 5–27
• Group Show, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, September 10–October 12

1984

• Visiting Artists Exhibition II, Meyerhoff Gallery, Fox Building, Maryland Institute, College of Art, February 28–March 20

1987

• Dance Sculpture, Art in General, New York, March

1989

• Sculpture, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, September 8–October 10

1995

• Degrees of Abstraction: From Morris Louis to Robert Mapplethorpe, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, March 11–October 22

1999

• Afterimage: Drawing Through Process, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, April 11–August 22

1999–2000

• Drawing in the Present Tense, Arnold and Sheila Aronson Gallery, Parsons School of Design, New York, October 13–December 3, 1999; Julian Akus Gallery, Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, Connecticut, January 7–February 27, 2000

2006–2007

• High Times, Hard Times: New York Painting, 1967–1975, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, August 6–October 15, 2006; American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, Washington, D.C., November 21, 2006–January 21, 2007; National Academy Museum, New York, February 13–April 22, 2007

2009

• Soft Sculpture, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, April 24-–July 12

2010

• Pastorale, 80 Washington Square East Galleries, New York University, September 21–October 16

2011

• Inka Essenhigh & Richard Van Buren: Un/natural Splendor, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockport, August 6–September 25

2015

• Invitational Exhibition of Visual Art, American Academy of Art and Letters, New York, March 12–April 12

2015–2016

• You Can’t Get There From Here, Portland Museum of Art, Maine, October 8, 2015–January 3, 2016

2016–2017

• 2016 CMCA Biennial, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, November 4, 2016–January 24, 2017

2017

• Three Artists Celebrate the Maine Coast, Crow Town Gallery, Lubec Maine, June 29–July 16

• American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York
• Art Institute of Chicago
• Bennington College, Bennington, Vermont
• Miami-Dade Art in Public Places
• Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Museum of Modern Art, New York
• National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
• Perdue University, Lafayette, Indiana
• Philadelphia Museum of Art
• San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
• Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond
• Walker Art Center, Minneapolis