Maxwell Hendler (born 1938) 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 BA in 1960 and an MA 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 2010 Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California 2008 Two Approaches to Monochrome, (two-person exhibition with James Hayward) Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California 2005, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1995, Patricia Faure Gallery, Santa Monica, California 1993, 1989, 1987, 1985 Asher/Faure, Los Angeles, California 1986 Selected Paintings 1978–1986, Rio Hondo College, Whittier, California 1983 Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1981, 1978 Robert Miller Gallery, New York, New York 1981 King of Hearts II, Mendocino, California 1976 Maxwell Hendler: Sandpainting, 1969–1976, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California 1975 Maxwell Hendler, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, New York 1969 Eugenia Butler Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1965 Ceeje Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1962 Ceeje Gallery, Los Angeles, California (two-person exhibition with Arlene Goldberg) 1962 Dickson Art Center, University of California, Los Angeles, California
Group exhibitions 2010 Groupings, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California 2009 Made in America, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California 2008 Mostly Black & White, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California Color Blind: Black, White and Gray in Contemporary Art, Cardwell-Jimmerson Contemporary Art, Culver City, California Fall Selections, Manny Silverman Gallery, Los Angeles, California 2007 Monochrome Paintings: Some Versions from Ad Reinhardt to Present, Cardwell-Jimmerson Contemporary Art, Culver City, California 2005 Pink, Patricia Faure Gallery, Santa Monica Originals, Curated by Bruria Finkel, Arena 1, Santa Monica, California 2004 White on White, Paper, Patricia Faure Gallery 2003 Hyperrealismees - USA, 1965–1975, Strasbourg, France 2002 Art on Paper, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina, Fitz Gibbon Exhibition, The Pilot Hill Collection of Contemporary Art, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California 2001 Simply Complex: Monochrome Paintings from L.A., Curated by Reuben Baron and Joan Baron, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, California Group Exhibition, Patricia Faure Gallery Conceptual Color: In Albers’ Afterimage, Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco State University, College of Creative Arts, San Francisco, California Cloud 9, Curated by David Pagel, Gensler & Assoc., Santa Monica, California Made, POST, Los Angeles, California 2000 Simply Complex: Monochrome Painting from Louisiana, Dorsky Gallery, New York, New York; traveled to Storrs, Connecticut; Boston, Massachusetts; Santa Fe, New Mexico The Flower Show: An Invitational, Patricia Faure Gallery, Santa Monica, California LuminocitA’ Colori Dalla California: Hendler, Huerta, Kaufmann Studio La Citta, Verona, Italy 1999 Size Matters, Patricia Faure Gallery, Painting: Fore and Aft, ACME, Los Angeles, California 1998 Hendler/Kraal/Thurston, Hunsaker/Schlesinger Fine Art, Santa Monica, California, Double Trouble: The Patchett Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, La Jolla, California 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, California Fifteen Artists, Patricia Faure Gallery, 1995 Murder, Curated by John Yau, Thread Waxing Space, New York, New York and Bergamot Station Arts Center, Santa Monica, California, Very Visual Dialogue, Rancho Santiago College, Santa Ana, California 1994 Recent Painting, Asher Faure, Visual Dialogue: Personal Journeys in Abstract Painting, Rancho Santiago College Art Gallery Blue, Stephen Wirtz Gallery, San Francisco, California Plane/Structures, traveling exhibition, Curated by David Pagel, Otis Gallery, Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California; Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, I to Eye 2, Cirrus, Los Angeles, California 1991 Art-Over-the Sofa, Curated by Jan Butterfield, Boritzer/Gray, Los Angeles, California, Not on Canvas, Asher/Faure, 1990 Group Show, Asher Faure Gallery, Hollywoodland, fiction/nonfiction, New York, New York, California A-Z and Return, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio 1987 Reduced Scale, Rio Hondo College, Whittier, California, Industrial Icons: Painting, Photography and Sculpture, University Art Gallery, San Diego State University, San Diego, California. 1986 A Southern California Collection, Cirrus Gallery, Los Angeles, California Invitational Drawing Show, Golden West College, Huntington Beach, California American Realism/20th Century Drawings & Watercolors, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California 1985 Levels of Reality: the realist paintings of Michiel Daniel, Maxwell Hendler and Mark Wethli, Saddleback College, Mission Viejo, California California Art from the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, Senate Office Building, Washington, DC To the Astonishing Horizon, Curated by Peter Frank, Design Center, Los Angeles, California New Work, Asher/Faure, Los Angeles, California Crime and Punishment, Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California California: Idions of Surrealism, Fisher Art Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 1984 New Work, Paintings 1984, Asher/Faure, A Focus on California, Ahmanson Gallery, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California Ceeje Revisited, Curated by Faith Flam, Municipal Art Gallery, Barnsdall Park, Los Angeles, California Frederick Weisman Foundation Collection of Contemporary Art, Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, California 1983 Hassam and Speicher Fund Purchase Exhibition, American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, New York, New York California: Idioms of Surrealism, traveling exhibition organized by The Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California; The USC Atelier, Santa Monica, California; Art Gallery, California State College, Stanislaus, Turlock, California; Prate Manhattan Center Gallery, New York, New York; Pratt Institute Gallery, Brooklyn, New York. American Accents, traveling exhibition Curated by Henry Geldzahler, The Gallery Stratford, Stratford, Ontario; College Park, Toronto;Musee du Quebec, Quebec, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, Nova Scotia; Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, The Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia; Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta; Musee d’Art Contemporain, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. West Coast Realism, Traveling exhibition, curated by Lynn Gamwell, Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, California; Museum of Art, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Center for Visual Arts, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois; Fresno Art Center, Fresno, California; Louisiana Arts and Science Center, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Museum of Art, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine; Colorado Springs, Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, Colorado; Spiva Art Center, Joplin, Missouri; Beaumont Art Museum, Beaumont, Texas; Sierra Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, Nevada; Edison Community College, Fort Myers, Florida. Limited Palettes, Asher Faure, Los Angeles, California 1982 Drawings by Painters, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, California; Mandeville Art Gallery, University of California, San Diego, California; Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California 1980 Three Realist Painters, L.A. Louver Gallery, Los Angeles, California Still Life Today, Curated by Janice Oresman, Goddard-Riverside Community Center, New York, New York Contemporary Naturalism, Nassau County Museum of Fine Art, Nassau, New York 1978 Representations of America, Curated by Henry Geldzahler, The Hermitage, Leningrad, Russia; Pushkin Museum, Moscow, Russia A Sense of Scale, The Oakland Museum, Oakland, California Painting and Sculpture in California: The Modern Era, Co-curated by Walter Hopps & Henry Hopkins, The National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California 1976 Los Angeles Eight: Painting and Sculpture, 1976, Curated by Maurice Tuchman, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California America As Art, The National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, DC 1975 The Realist Image, Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, California 1973 Separate Realities, Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California 1971 Eleven Los Angeles Artists, Der Neue Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, West Germany; Palais de Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium; The Hayward Gallery, London, England, Curated by Maurice Tuchman & Jane Livingston, Faculty Exhibition, California State University, Long Beach, California 1970 22 Realists, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York Beyond the Actual: Contemporary California Realist Painters, Pioneer Museum of Art, Stockton, California American Painting 1970, Virginia Museum of Art, Richmond, California Directly Seen: California Realist Painters, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Balboa, California Realist Painters, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York; Albright Knox Museum of Art, Buffalo, New York 1969 New Faculty Exhibition, California State College, Long Beach, California California Artist, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada Third Annual Small Images Exhibition, California State College, Los Angeles, California 1968 Artists Who Teach, Los Angeles County Museum of Art Rental Gallery, Los Angeles, California, The Beach Show, San Fernando Valley State College 1967 Aspects of Realism, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Rental Gallery, New Faculty Exhibition, San Fernando Valley State College 1966 Faculty Collections Exhibition, San Fernando Valley State College, Northridge, California All City Art Festival, Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles, California Annual National Competition, Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, Ohio 1965 Annual Southern California Competition, Long Beach Museum of Art, Long Beach, California 1964 Fifth Annual Festival of the Arts, Whittier College, Whittier, California 1961 Lake Arrowhead Conference Center, University of California, Lake Arrowhead, California, Inaugural Exhibition, Art Rental Gallery, Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, California
Articles and reviews 2008 Take Pleasure in Monochrome, David Pagel, Los Angeles Times, April 11 2005 Art Pick of the Week, Cindy Kolodziejski, LA Weekly, March 18–24 2004 The Many Colors of White, Explored, Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, March 19