Art In Public Places Gallery
Untitled - Main Library Grand Reading Room
Jacksonville Main Library – Grand Reading Room
303 North Laura Street
Untitled (2006)
Al Held (Boiceville, N.Y.)
Acrylic paint on canvas
Until his death, Al Held was a well-known Hard-edge Abstract Expressionist (1950s-60s) recognized for his large-scale paintings of abstract geometric forms. Hard-edge painters reacted against the spontaneity and disorder of gestural painters like Jackson Pollock. Held’s early black and white images dealt with challenging perspectives and spatial conundrums, but by the late 1970s, he re-introduced color into his work. Held’s style remained clean, geometric, and crisp. The artist was originally commissioned to create four paintings for the Library’s Grand Reading Room, but only one was completed before his death in July 2005. The artwork was funded by a gift from the Jacksonville Public Library Foundation.