Ed Moses

Born in 1926, Long Beach, USA, Ed Moses (1926 - 2018) was a central figure of Post-War West Coast movement, creating an eclectic body of work which engaged with the varying possibilities of painterly abstraction. From monochromes and diagonal grids to gestural works and vibrant expanses of saturated pigment, Moses has unveiled a continual process of discovery within painterly abstraction.

 

Moses' work explores his fascination with the mutability of concepts, transitional spaces and processes. Referring to himself as a 'mutator', Moses took inspiration from various sources, such as Buddhism, the open spaces of his Venice, California studio as well as what he called, his daily 'habit' of painting. Moses challenged representational form and experimented with graphite, acrylic and oils by working with unconventional tools, such as mops, hoses and rubber scrapers. Innovative and experimental, Moses' work is instrumental in contemplating and pushing the possibilities of painterly abstraction.

Moses was among the first generation of artists to be shown at L.A.'s legendary Ferus Gallery in 1957, where he formed the "Cool School" of artists - which included Ed Ruscha, Robert Irwin, Larry Bell, Edward Kienholz, John Altoon, Ken Price and Billy Al Bengston. Since then, his work has been exhibited worldwide with major retrospectives in MOCA Los Angeles in 1996 and The University of California Irvine in 2014. Other prominent collections include, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hammer Museum, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Whitney Museum of American art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.