Lehmann Maupin, Seoul
McArthur Binion (b. 1946) has maintained an engaging and historic artistic practice that spans over forty years. Sourcing narratives of an African American experience in rural America and his presence in the white-dominated heyday of American Modernism in New York City, Binion has developed a unique style of action painting which places personal memory in dialogue with visual elements of Modernism.
Binion combines collage, drawing, and painting to create autobiographical abstractions of painted minimalist patterns over an “under conscious” of personal documents and photographs. From photocopies of his birth certificate and pages from his address book to pictures from his childhood and found photographs of lynchings, the poignant and charged images that constitute the tiled base of his work are concealed and abstracted by grids of oil stick. The complexly layered works, from a distance, appear to be monochromatic minimalist abstractions however; Binion’s works are intensely personal and deeply dedicated to the rigorous process of making a painting.CONTINUE READING >
THE ARTIST
There is no historical line running
through me. I made myself up!
- McArthur Binion.
Established in 2019, the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation supports and nurtures BIPOC artists and writers through the creation of a new Core Program housed in Detroit. Drawing upon the personal experience and journey as an artist of its founder, McArthur Binion, the Foundation is committed to build an organization and foster a culture that supports the work of black and indigenous / artists of color leading to the empowerment of these artists to tell their own stories and share their gifts. The Foundation’s Core Program will consist of a Visiting Fellowship, a Post-Baccalaureate Artist Residency, and a collection of international BIPOC art with a resident Curator.
2024 sees the continuation of the Foundation’s Core Program consisting of the Modern Ancient Brown Visiting Fellowship and the Post-Baccalaureate Residency in Studio Art and Critical Studies. Each year four Visiting Fellows and four Post-Baccalaureate Residencies in Studio Art (all disciplines) will be chosen. LEARN MORE >
THE FOUNDATION
Curated by artist McArthur Binion, Executive Director Michael Stone-Richards, and the Modern Ancient Brown Foundation, the Modern Ancient Brown Collection is a contemporary collection of international art drawing on the interdisciplinary work of diverse, emerging and established artists whose practice has been historically underrepresented. LEARN MORE >
THE COLLECTION
Untitled, London England, 1966
Gordon Parks
edition 5 of 10
STUTTERING : STANDING : STILL (AFTERTHOUGHTS)
STUTTERING : STANDING : STILL (AFTERTHOUGHTS)
A film by Marika Maiorova, 2021
Renowned American artist McArthur Binion reveals his intimate, cool, and beautiful world of the first Black MFA in Painting from Cranbrook Academy of Art in this documentary story about how he "made himself up precisely."
EVENTS + EXHIBITIONS
November 18 – December 23, 2022
Visual:Ear / Paper:Work
Xavier Hufkens / Brussels
July 8 – August 14, 2021
Gridscape
Xavier Hufkens
February 25 – March 27, 2021
Origins
Lehmann Maupin / Palm Beach
October 24 – February 21, 2021
Duel - McArthur Binion. Modern Ancient Brown
MUSEO NOVECENTO
October 22 – December 18, 2020
Gray Warehouse / New York
June 24, 2020
First Look | McArthur Binion Healing:Work
Lehmann Maupin / New York
October 1, 2019 - November 16, 2019
McArthur Binion White:Work
Massimodecarlo / London
June 20, 2019 - August 16, 2019
cart, horse, cart
Lehmann Maupin / New York
May 24, 2019 - July 13, 2019
Hand:Work:II
Lehmann Maupin / Seoul
May 22, 2019 - July 5, 2019
Hand:Work:II
Lehmann Maupin / Hong Kong
January 17, 2019 - May 2, 2019
Hand:Work
Lehmann Maupin / New York
November 17, 2018 - March 10, 2018
Binion/Saarinen: A McArthur Binion Project
Cranbrook Art Museum / Bloomfield Hills
May 13, 2017 - November 26, 2017
Viva Arte Viva
57th Venice Biennale / Venice