Al Held. Selected Works 1956-2004
The design of this voluminous square art catalogue on the New York painter Al Held (1928–2005) engages in a confident yet sensitive dialogue with the overwhelmingly geometrical paintings. A first glance at the splendid hardcover suffices to reveal how the typography responds to the artist’s visual language, as the letters of the title begin to communicate with individual formal elements in the depicted painting. A further example of this is the very large Roman numerals, each placed at the right-hand margin, which open four chapters of the book’s text. The picture editing is exceptional: the way in which the texts are distributed throughout the volume replaces the typical separation of picture and text sections with an intricately woven narrative context providing an introduction to the painter’s career. A white high-gloss paper is strikingly at odds with a slightly yellowish uncoated paper, a reference to Held’s frequent exploration of various hues of white. It is remarkable that such a precise design, with its love of detail, is actually possible within the production processes of a large commercial gallery. The coffee-table book genre is respected, but elaborated in a highly distinctive fashion.
