Jeremy Moon
Drawing [29/12/71], 1971
Pastel and pencil on paper
8 x 10 inches
(20.3 x 25.4 cm)
Jeremy Moon (1934 - 1973) is best known for his large-scale geometric paintings that explore form and space through unmodulated planes of color. He emerged onto the London scene in the early 1960s amidst the framework of Color Field and Hard-Edge Abstraction. Like many artists of this period, Moon sought a degree of wholeness within his compositions, creating works where painted geometries found affinities with the canvas’s overall shape. His use of the grid as a structural device was central to his working method; its rigid organization, yet flexible expandability, allowed him to bracket fields of color in a manner that was exploratory and effectual. Moon shrank, enlarged, skewed, and folded the grid across numerous works in his efforts to reveal ambiguity in pictorial space. His singular visual language is informed by his long-standing interest in dance and choreography; his work is saturated with rhythm-generating patterns and shapes with inherent directionalities, together forming a perceptible movement that subverts the static quality of painting.
Jeremy Moon
Study for Painting with Crosses, 1961-62
Oil on canvas
54 x 54 inches
(137.2 x 137.2 cm)
Born in Altrincham, England, Moon received a law degree at Christ’s College, Cambridge. He worked in advertising and enrolled briefly at Central School of Art, before devoting himself to art in the early 1960s. He taught sculpture at Saint Martin’s School of Art and painting at Chelsea School of Art, while exhibiting extensively within the United Kingdom and internationally. He died in London after a motorcycle accident at the age of 39. The first retrospective of his work took place in 1976 at the Serpentine Gallery in London, and travelled to Manchester City Art Gallery, Manchester; Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge; Ulster Museum, Belfast; and Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. His work is represented in the permanent collections of several international institutions including Tate, London; British Museum, London; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Art Institute of Chicago; Milwaukee Art Museum; Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence.
Robert Moon speaking about his father’s work in the context of the artist’s studio that has been kept intact since 1973. Made in collaboration with filmmaker Tom Coburn.
For more information, please contact Leah Horowitz at leah@luhringaugustine.com.
