Maxwell Hendler


Maxwell Hendler is an American painter. In 1975, he became the first contemporary artist to have pictures in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1938, Hendler moved to Los Angeles in 1955. He received a B.A. in 1960 and an M.A. in 1962 from the University of California, Los Angeles. He did Post-Graduate studies in Painting at UCLA between 1962 and 1964, In 1967, Hendler became a full-time instructor of the arts at California State University at Northridge. In 1969, he became an associate professor at California State University at Long Beach in the School of Fine Arts
Hendler's work from the 1960s to the mid-1970s was exemplified by a precise approach produced from direct observation of his subjects, not by working from photographs. His paintings were usually small, most were less than 12 inches square. In addition, Hendler' created five paintings between 1965 and 1975.
By the 1980s, Hendler began producing work that featured painted words and textured grounds. Many of these works synthesize idioms of Pop Art, Minimalism and Conceptual Art practices.
In 1990, Hendler produced the first of his poured and polished polyester resin paintings. These works feature monochromatic and highly polished surfaces in a range of sizes and proportions.

Solo exhibitions

2008
2001
2000
1999 Size Matters, Patricia Faure Gallery, Painting: Fore and Aft, ACME, Los Angeles, CA
1998 Hendler/Kraal/Thurston, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, CA, Double Trouble: The Patchett Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, La Jolla, CA
1997 Some Lust, Patricia Faure Gallery, Painting Beyond the Idea, Curated by Bennett Roberts. Manny Silverman Gallery,
1996 Seven Strangers, Patricia Faure Gallery, Red Painting, Newspace, Los Angeles, CA Fifteen Artists, Patricia Faure Gallery,
1995 Murder, Curated by John Yau, Thread Waxing Space, New York, NY and Bergamot Station Arts Center, Santa Monica, CA, Very Visual Dialogue, Rancho Santiago College, Santa Ana, CA
1994
1991 Art-Over-the Sofa, Curated by Jan Butterfield, Boritzer/Gray, Los Angeles, CA, Not on Canvas, Asher/Faure,
1990 Group Show, Asher Faure Gallery, Hollywoodland, fiction/nonfiction, New York, NY, California A-Z and Return, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
1987 Reduced Scale, Rio Hondo College, Whittier, CA, Industrial Icons: Painting, Photography and Sculpture, University Art Gallery, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA.
1986
1985
1984
1983
1980
1978
1976
1971
1970
1969
1966
1998
1993
1985