David Novros: Painting

The Hamburger Kunsthalle presents a comprehensive retrospective of American painter David Novros (*1941, Los Angeles) on the occasion of his 85th birthday. Bringing together more than 50 paintings, copper reliefs, and works on paper, the exhibition surveys six decades of his artistic practice. At its center is Novros’s engagement with color, form, and surface, and in particular with the question of how painting relates to space and to the people who experience it.

For Novros, painting is not confined to the boundaries of the picture. His works incorporate architecture directly into their compositions, making space itself part of the experience of painting. Murals and monumental paintings transform the perception of a place, while color is understood not simply as a visual element but as a spatial and physical experience.

A decisive foundation for this understanding was a journey through Europe in 1963. At the Alhambra in Granada, Giotto’s frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, the works of Fra Angelico and Piero della Francesca in Florence, Matisse’s studio in Nice, the mosaics of Ravenna, and the prehistoric cave paintings of Spain, Novros encountered forms of painting inseparable from their spatial contexts. These experiences shaped his conception of painting as an art form that surrounds the human being and defines a place. In 1964, Novros developed the concept of “painting in place,” in which the wall itself becomes part of the composition. In his “portable murals,” he transferred this idea to monumental, movable paintings. Their geometric structures and meticulously constructed surfaces combine with a precise investigation of color and material. Novros’s painting thus moves between image and place, challenging the traditional notion of the autonomous picture.

His development coincided with 1960s New York and a context in which the possibilities of painting and the object were being reconsidered. In 1966, Novros’s work was shown alongside works by Mark di Suvero at Park Place Gallery and included in Systemic Painting at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. In 1970, Donald Judd commissioned Novros to create a fresco for his home and studio in SoHo. This was followed by site-specific murals for, among others, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Rice University in Houston, and the University of Texas.

The exhibition brings together works from major North American collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The collection of the Hamburger Kunsthalle includes Four Seasons (1974), acquired in 2021 as a gift from the Collection Lafrenz, and Boathouse (2014), acquired in 2024.

The exhibition is organized in close collaboration with the artist.

Curated by: Prof. Dr. Alexander Klar, Toby Kamps, and Ifee Tack 
Supported by: Freunde der Kunsthalle e. V., Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media, Hans Brökel Stiftung für Wissenschaft und Kultur