Michael GOLDBERG

Painted in 1958, this sizeable sheet may be related to Summer House, a large canvas of the same year that was one of the first works by Michael Goldberg to enter a museum collection, when it was acquired, shortly after it was painted, by the Albright Art Gallery (later the Albright-Knoox Art Gallery and today the AKG Art Museum) in Buffalo, New York. In 1959, when the newly purchased painting was exhibited at the museum, alongside recently acquired abstract works by Ad Reinhardt, Hans Hartung, Pierre Soulages and others, Time magazine noted that ‘Under the guidance of Director Gordon Smith, the Albright is energetically pursuing a policy of buying the quick instead of the dead, the controversial instead of the safe. If, as seems likely, abstract expressionism establishes itself as the most vital painting of the period, the Albright will become a No.1 center for serious students of the age and its art.’3, adding that ‘Michael Goldberg’s Summer House looks more like a frost-adorned window in the dead of a winter night, reflecting firelight against the dark outside.’

Of his works on paper, Michael Goldberg has stated that ‘I like paper a lot. There’s a bigger investment emotionally on canvas. It takes more time. I can approach paper as a flippant exercise, very quick, da da da. If you don’t like it, rip it up, go on to the next one. That speed and energy are vital components of my art making. In that sense, I really like working with a hangover because I feel vulnerable.’