Hal Bromm
90 West Broadway, 2nd floor
New York, NY, 10007
+1 212-732-6196
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Hal Bromm
90 West Broadway, 2nd floor
New York, NY, 10007
+1 212-732-6196
Join our mailing list
Richard Nonas b. 1936
Born in Brooklyn to working class parents, Richard Nonas (1936-2021) didn’t start out as an artist. He began his career studying literature and anthropology at four schools, spending ten years developing a sense of space from the people he studied in Mexico and Canada, which would later turn up in his sculptures. Nonas taught anthropology part time at Queens College in New York; however, while writing a book about his studies, he began to feel uneasy about writing such detailed accounts of other people’s lives in contrast to focusing on his own.
In 1967, Nonas departed from academia due to an epiphany he had: one day while walking his dog, Nonas recalled, “I held up two pieces of wood, pushed them together and, incredibly, they conveyed strong and specific emotion. It was identifiable emotion with no story, a disembodied emotion that I could not fathom or explain. I felt like I had been hit on the head with a hammer". Nonas came to Post-Minimalism later than other artists of the period and rejected their use heavy metals and machinery.
As part of the early-1970s art scene in SoHo and TriBeCa, Nonas developed a terse, undecorated style using steel, wood, and stone to create sculptures that both resonated with their surroundings and interrupted them. He displayed them in alternative art spaces in New York City, most notably the artist-run 112 Greene Street. In 1976, Nonas exhibited in his first show at MOMA PS1. Nonas believed in the power of objects and had a drive to use art as a tool to challenge gallery spaces. What Nonas wanted was “sculpture that activates its space, that confuses you a little, keeps you involved in it as you walked past it.”
Exhibition History:
Sculpture
Black & White
1970’s
1978
2006
2016