CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 4/29/2017

Al Taylor, painter's painter known for his sculpture

When Al Taylor died in 1999, the headline of his New York Times obituary read, "Al Taylor, 51, Artist Noted for Quirky Sculpture." Though he was best known for his three-dimensional work, in fact he thought of himself as a painter, and his earliest work was acrylic on canvas. "Untitled" (1974/77) is reproduced from David Zwirner Books' beautiful new monograph, Al Taylor: Early Paintings, which collects works made 1971–1980. Reviewing the exhibition, Hyperallergic's Thomas Miccheli writes, "These Post-Minimal canvases, some of which flirt with hard-edged abstraction while others are almost Motherwell-ish in their painterly elegance, seem to serve more as incubator than backstory to the artist’s subsequent explorations."