PETER HALLEY
Explore Peter Haley’s Sculptures & Paintings | Ze Arts
BIOGRAPHY
Peter Halley, who emerged in New York’s East Village art scene in the early 1980s alongside Jeff Koons and Julian Schnabel, is best known for his Day-Glo paintings of rectangular cells connected by angular conduits. While he takes inspiration from artists including Piet Mondrian, Josef Albers, and Donald Judd, Halley’s concerns are decidedly contemporary: His abstract diagrams evoke the alienation of prison cells, city living, and technology. Halley consistently works with Roll-a-Tex—an industrial, textured paint used for decoration—and applies his fluorescent hues with a roller instead of a paintbrush; there’s no sign of the artist’s hand in his finished works. Halley’s pieces have sold for up to six-figure prices at auction and can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate, and the Centre Pompidou. Halley has also produced works on paper and constructed large-scale installations around the world.He died on 8 April 1973 in Mougins, France, from a heart attack brought on by pulmonary edema. Picasso was exceptionally prolific throughout his long lifetime. At his death there were more than 45,000 unsold works in his estate, comprising 1,885 paintings, 1,228 sculptures, 3,222 ceramics, 7,089 drawings, 150 sketchbooks, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs.FEATURED ARTWORK
Acrylic, fluorescent acrylic on LITO HI-RND technology print on aluminium.
39 2/5 × 32 7/10 in | 100 × 83 cm
Part of a limited edition set
“Color, Nine Times” is the mesmerizing result of one year of collaboration with Peter Halley. It is his first experimentation with an entirely new process and tool - LITO Hi-Rnd© technology-, which combines state-of-the-art technology and craftsmanship.
This collection of editions has been conceived through a mechanical process – to create the texture and relief of the work – as well as a manual process, utilizing pigments and paints commonly used in Peter Halley’s paintings.
“Color, Nine Times” is informed by Halley’s interest in low-budget urbanization. Incorporating this theme into the process, Halley challenged LITO Editions to clone a ‘cell’ of Roll-A-Tex (a textured material seen in popcorn ceilings) and repeat it nine times to create nine individual canvases, which are then bolted together into a tightly packed yet unstable jigsaw puzzle, reminiscent of vintage video games. An effect heightened by the push and pull play of volumes. The signature hues of fluorescent nuances of colors in “Color, Nine Times” were made in Peter Halley’s Studio and were then applied to each canvas at the LITO Tech Lab. Each artwork required nine hours of technical engineering and printing, followed by 16 hours of work by hand.
This masterpiece is a swirl. All our senses become hyper alert; the both rough and soft tactile surface as well as the glaring effect of the intense colors that irradiate an orange light onto the facing wall, make it a hypnotic work of art.