ON KEN BECKLES
"The paintings seem as abstract color jewels
which have fallen from the cosmos
like comets or shooting stars -
messengers from otherworldly places
where my mind's eye truly lives."
-- Ken Beckles
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Early Life
From Photography to Painting
The Canvas and Wood Shaped Paintings
The Plexiglas Constructions
The 24/7 Camera in His Head
The Titles
Afrofuturist
Curriculum Vitae
Ken Beckles is an anomaly: an intentional outsider, an admitted recluse, and a self-taught painter who has lived in the center of lower Manhattan for over fifty years, all the while creating an exceptional body of work which is virtually unknown. Although Beckles has never considered the history of art, his early works are classic abstract paintings which seem to be the futuristic expansion of Frank Stella's shaped canvases. Sometimes rectangular, oval, or round, most of these impeccably crafted works are convoluted geometric forms, mirroring and folding into themselves, patterned, layered or spiking out. Moving into mirrored plexiglas, his current works are luminous constructions which might be sci-fi guardians or totems from outer space or generators of a new source of energy. Beckles is an original.
Early Life
Born in Manhattan in 1947, Beckles grew up in difficult circumstances in the projects of the Lower East Side. Gangs were endemic, racism was normal and brutal, and he was the smart kid with thick glasses, getting awards in math and art, and graduating as the valedictorian of his class of over a thousand students. At age twelve, he was gifted a camera and became committed to photography, attending Pratt night school. In 1970, Beckles won first place nationwide in Life Magazine's Photography Contest in the category of "Faces." The $5,000 prize, an enormous sum at the time, allowed him to set up a professional studio, and for several years he supported himself shooting album covers, fashion, portraits, and book covers, as well as pursuing his own photographic interests.
From Photography to Painting
One day in 1975 he walked into Rizzoli and saw his photograph on the cover of a large coffee table book; but the photograph wasn't his, it was by someone else. The fact that another artist could stand in the same spot and duplicate his work was decisively bothersome, and catapulted him into considering different expressive media. A neighbor at the time was an art student at SVA, working in acceptable abstract modes of the day, fundamentally minimal, serial painting. From Beckles' perspective, this work seemed too repetitive, too simple, too flat, too boring, and he challenged his friend that he could paint a better piece. His first painting was a 7x7 foot acrylic on canvas which, inspired by Manhattan store windows and reflections, is by any standards a very good hard-edge painting. Out of the box, Beckles had a handle on pictorial space and its possibilities, a specific color sense of black with bright hues, and an infallible control of materials. His painting rapidly developed, and he liked the fact that, unlike photography, no two pieces were ever alike.
The Canvas and Wood Shaped Paintings
Beckles quickly moved into the shaped canvas, inventing a series of incredibly convoluted, uncommon forms, a few two or three feet but most about seven or eight feet, always standing 2-1/4 inches from the wall. In these works, linear elements predominate in configurations which often required arduous calculations. Beckles feels these works would have been impossible to make without his lifetime fascination with math and geometry. In the end, each labyrinthian work seems clear, natural, and authoritative. In the 1990s, the great difficulty of stretching canvas on elaborate shapes prompted him to shift into painting on wood.
The Plexiglas Constructions
Still inventing abstruse and novel shapes, by 2012 Beckles again felt a need for change. Inspired when he walked into a plexiglas shop, he was immediately enchanted by the light weight of the material, the ease of creating different shapes, the possibility of collage, and the magical transparent, translucent and reflective light quality which plexiglas offers. The new material generated a new vision: employing a vertical format the works appear as ladders, antennae, intergalactic shrines, personages. Soon he began using mirrored plexiglas, adding shimmer and flicker to his already complex constructions, which now sparkle with the florescent glow of gemstones: brilliant emerald green, ruby red, citrine gold, sapphire blue. These works are impossible to photograph as they change with every movement of the viewer.
The 24/7 Camera
Beckles' uncommon images are drawn from the 24/7 stream of inner vision which he calls the "movie camera in my head." The concept may be just a shape, it may have some inner configuration, it may have color. He works with the initial vision, adds, subtracts, and finesses to the finished work. Then the piece stands in his studio until it receives its title. At this time there are seven works waiting to be named.
The Titles
To read Beckles' titles reveals the mind of a polyglot. Traveling through world history, science, and pop culture, around the globe and into deep space and the occult, there are paintings of people, places, foods, animals, medicines, gods, current events, and emotional states. We find Helen of Troy, Joan of Arc, Charlemagne, Martin Luther King, Mandela, Crazy Horse. We visit Karnak, Macau, Ground Zero, Fukushima Daiichi. We eat Caviar, ride in a Cadillac or Mercedes, fly with the Stealth Bomber, blow with the Solar Wind, dance with a Whirling Dervish or with Michael Jackson's Invincible or the Beatles' Fool on the Hill. We contemplate the Bhagavad Gita, the Codex Gigas, the Torah as well as Dark Energy, Yellow Cake U-238, and Neutron Flux. We feel Depraved Indifference, Intolerance, Savage Grace, Hysterical Blindness. And because the titles come last, the paintings actually look like what they're called, especially the canvas and wood pieces. Nebuchadnezzar has broad shoulders and the symmetrical stature of a military leader. Hapshepsut is dramatically beautiful and mysterious. Cybat spreads its dark wings flying directly at the viewer. Many works are quite playful. Faros Lighthouse sits in a circle of blue sea with two yellow searchlights raying into the unknown; it also resembles a hovering bumble bee. Magickal Childe could be a child's playroom constructed of blocks in pink, blue, and lavendar. Cardassian Phaser seems a delicately poised yogi but refers to a Starfleet weapon.
Afrofuturist
In 2021, Beckles made a painting titled Afrofuturist. No artist seems to claim to be an Afrofuturist, including Beckles, but his work is a fine expression of that term. What is the future for a black person? There are answers in the strength and variation of this phenomenal body of work consisting of one bellringer after another. There is no timidity here, no nuanced atmosphere, no fragmentation. These are command centers, directions, statements of presence, calmly claiming status as living beings existing for your participation. The paintings message from the future is to stand firm: challenging, difficult, but vibrantly alive and praising the state of so being.
It is curious that Beckles, an outsider with no interest in established canons of art history, so clearly extends the canon of abstract art. The shaped canvas was developed in the 1960s as an aspect of Minimal art - by Stella, Joe Overstreet, Ron Gorchov, Sam Gilliam, Charles Hinman, Al Loving, Sven Lukin, Thomas Downing. Their quest was formal, to develop artworks having no allusions or references to anything other than to themselves as art objects. The rivalry between representation and abstraction, a major issue throughout the twentieth century, still loomed large in the 1960s, but the hotly debated topic was decisively determined with art's "objecthood." Beckles' works are clearly intact "objects," but far more abstruse and intricate. And with his intelligent titles, he circles abstraction back into the realm of representation in an entirely new manner.
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Cirriculum Vitae
SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2012 BILLE’S BLACK RESTAURANT, NEW YORK NY
1995 MAYER, BROWN AND PLATT NEW YORK NY
1990 ZECKENDORF TOWERS, NEW YORK NY
1989 HAMILTON PLAZA, NEW YORK NY
1985 ITOKEN PLAZA, NEW YORK NY
1985 BARBARA BRAATHEN GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
1983 ALTERNATE SPACE GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
1980 MASSAPEQUA PUBLIC GALLERY NEW YORK NY
1980 VERZYL GALLERY, NORTHPORT NY
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2023 CULTURAL CENTER OF CAPE COD, SOUTH YARMOUTH MA
2023 ARTBOXY, ZUG, SWITZERLAND
2022 HOUSE OF SHADOWS CREATIVE GALLERY, TAMPA FL
2021 EMERGE GALLERY, BEST IN SHOW, SAUGERTIES NY
2020 D’ART GALLERY, DENVER CO
2020 TPS 29, THE INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION, HOUSTON TX
2020 WICKFORD ART ASSOCIATION, NORTH KINGSTON RI
2020 GRIFFIN MUSEUM OF PHOTOGRAPHY, WINCHESTER MA
2020 SOUTH X SOUTHEAST GALLERY, MOLENA GA
2016 MAINSTREET ARTS, CLIFTON SPRINGS NY
2016 ART DESIGN CONSULTANTS, CINCINNATI OH
2012 ART TAKES TIMES SQUARE, NEW YORK NY
2009 SYLVIA WHITE GALLERY, VENTURA, CA
2009 BABOO GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
2009 THE ARTCOMPLEX CENTER OF TOKYO (ACT), TOKYO, JAPAN
2008 CURTIS ARTS & HUMANITIES CENTER, GREENWOOD VILLAGE CO
2008 SOHO20 CHELSEA GALLERY, NEW YORK, NY
2007 LAKEWOOD CULTURAL CENTER, LAKEWOOD CO
2005 LANCASTER MUSEUM OF ART, LANCASTER PA
2005 BARRETT ART CENTER, POUGHKEEPSIE NY
2004 CERES GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
2002 WATER MILL MUSEUM, WATER MILL NY
2001 ART ADDICTION, INTERNATIONAL MINIATURE ART SHOW,
STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN
2001 ART ON PAPER, CHRISTMAS EXHIBITION, SLOVENIA
1999 SHARJAH ARTS MUSEUM, SHARJAH, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
1999 ARTSFORUM GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
1999 STEPHEN GANG GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
1999 MAYER, BROWN AND PLATT, NEW YORK NY
1998 FABER BIRREN NATIONAL COLOR AWARD SHOW, STAMFORD CT
1997 ORGANIZATION OF INDEPENDENT ARTISTS, NEW YORK NY
1997 "MASS MEDIA”, WESTBETH GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
1996 MARYMOUNT COLLEGE GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
1995 CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS SERVICES, SANTA MONICA CA
1995 SAFECO INSURANCE BUILDING, FOUNTAIN VALLEY, CA
1993 MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, MIAMI, FL
1991 COMMANDERIE D'UNET MUSEUM, BORDEAUX, FRANCE
1991 MASKA INTERNATIONAL GALLERY, SEATTLE WA
1991 PLEIADES GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
1990 CHAPELLE DE LA SORBONNE, PARIS, FRANCE
1990 FUNDING CENTER, ALEXANDRIA VA
1989 ART COLLECTOR, SAN DIEGO CA
1989 ROBERT BERMAN GALLERY, HOT SPRINGS, AK
1989 PETER DREW GALLERY, BOCA RATON FL
1986 NEON GRAFFITI GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
1985 M. DARLING GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
1984 DANCETERIA, NEW YORK NY
1983 ALTERNATE SPACE GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
1981 NEW ARTISTS PRODUCTIONS, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN,
NEW YORK NY
1981 KEANE MASON GALLERY, NEW YORK NY
1980 TOWER GALLERY, SOUTHAMPTON, NEW YORK NY
1979 STATE UNIVERSITY AT CORTLAND, NEW YORK NY
AWARDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS:
2002 ART ADDICTION, “BEST IN EXHIBITION” AND WORLD OF
ART AWARD
1993 BRITISH BROADCASTING CORPORATION
1978 CREATIVE ARTISTS PUBLIC SERVICE AWARD, NEW YORK STATE
COUNCIL ON THE ARTS
1976 UNITED STATES INFORMATION AGENCY, SELECTED PARTICIPANT IN BICENTENNIAL SHOW TOURING RUSSIA
1971 ACHIEVEMENT AWARD, FAMOUS PHOTOGRAPHERS SCHOOL
1970 FIRST PLACE PRIZE, LIFE MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHY CONTEST
MEDIA:
2022 CIRCLE QUARTERLY ART REVIEW
2021 SZERELEM ARTIST REVIEW PROJECT
2018 A5 MAGAZINE #19 (OCTOBER)
2016 AVERAGE ART MAGAZINE, UNITED KINGDOM
2016 APERTURE MAGAZINE ISSUE 223
1989 DAVID HOWARD'S "ART SEEN", MANHATTAN CABLE TELEVISION