Shortly after receiving an M.F.A. from Yale University in 1963, Robert Mangold worked as a guard at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Reminiscing about the months he spent there, Mangold commented that even the greatest paintings began to lose their appeal after hours of uninterrupted viewing. The Mondrians were the exception, however, and actually looked “better and better over time.”

Inspired, perhaps, by Piet Mondrian’s reductivist tendency, Mangold emptied his painting of all external references, focusing instead on internal formal relationships. For this reason, his work is often described as Minimalist. But whereas much Minimalist painting and sculpture is premised on predetermined, mathematical progressions, rigid configurations, and industrial materials, Mangold’s work is quite unsystematic. The difference between Mangold’s art and that of many of his contemporaries lies in its idiosyncratic, intuitive nature. His geometric compositions are frequently distorted: what appears to be a perfect circle or square drawn on a two-dimensional surface is partially contorted in order to fit within the confines of the shaped canvases. While he has worked in series to explore the various permutations of such designs, Mangold has not limited himself to one specific strategy and often makes unique images. His palette, consisting of warm ochers, saturated blues, olive greens, and chocolate browns, among other hues, is more reminiscent of Italian frescoes than of the cool, detached tones and commercially mixed colors commonly used by artists associated with Minimalism [more].

In 1973 Mangold created at least four versions of Circle In and Out of a Polygon; two were executed on canvas and two on Masonite. In all four the interior graphite line becomes interchangeable with the top, left, and bottom borders of the support. Similarly, half of the circle is outlined on the acrylic surface, while the other half continues as the curved edge on the painting’s right. Mangold challenges his viewers to mentally reverse such images in order to comprehend the compositional nuances of the geometric abstraction. It is this emphasis on the conceptual basis of vision that truly links Mangold to the Minimalists, who brought their audiences to an unprecedented level of perceptual awareness.

Solo
Daniel Weinberg Gallery, San Francisco, Robert Mangold: Recent Paintings, December 1973.

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Robert Mangold, October 21–December 5, 1982. Catalogue, unpag., cat. no. 10 (published as Circle In and Out of a Polygon [Blue]).

Group
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Fundamental Schilderkunst/Fundamental Painting, April 25–June 22, 1975. Catalogue, p. 75 (cat. no. 5; published as Circle In and Out of a Polygon 2, Blue).

Stadthalle Düsseldorf and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (organized by Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kunstmuseum, and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf), Das Bild einer Geschichte 1956/1976: Die Sammlung Panza di Biumo. Die Geschichte eines Bildes: Action painting, Newdada, Pop art [more], Minimal Art, Conceptual, Environmental Art, September 19–October 12, 1980. Traveled to Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel, Minimal + Conceptual art [more] aus der Sammlung Panza, November 9, 1980–June 28, 1981. The work was exhibited at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and in Basel. German catalogue by Germano Celant (Milan: Electa International, 1980): p. 264 (illus.; published as Circle in and out of a poligon [sic] 2 [blue]). Swiss edition by Franz Meyer: p. 41 (cat. no. 23).

CAPC, Musée d’Art Contemporain, Bordeaux, Art minimal: De la ligne au parallélépipède, February 2–April 21, 1985. Catalogue, pp. 60, 61 (illus.), 62, 63 (illus.).

Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, New York: A Magnet for Artists, April 14–June 12, 1994. Catalogue, pp. 174 (illus., cat. no. 126; published as Circle In and Out of a Polygon II [Blue]), 200. In Japanese and English (reference in Japanese section around p. 35).

Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Sala BBK, and Sala de Exposiciones Rekalde, Bilbao (organized by Guggenheim Museum, New York), Berriaren Tradizioa: Guggenheim Bildumako Maisu-Lanak 1945–1990/La tradición de lo nuevo: Obras maestras de la colección Guggenheim 1945–1990, May 10–July 15, 1995. Catalogue in Basque and Spanish, pp. 118, 119 (illus., cat. no. 30; published as Circle in and Out of a Polygon 2 [Blue]), 175, 176.

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Los museos Guggenheim y el arte de este siglo, October 18, 1997–April 5, 1998.

Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Pertzepzio Aldakorrak: Guggenheim Museoaren Panza Bilduma; Percepciones en Transformación: La Colección Panza del Museo Guggenheim, October 9, 2000–January 28, 2001. Catalogue, Percepciones en Transformación: La Colección Panza en el Museo Guggenheim (Bilbao: Guggenheim Bilbao Museoa and New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2000), with essays by Germano Celant and Giuseppe Panza di Biumo.

Art of This Century: The Guggenheim Museum and Its Collection. New York: Guggenheim Museum, 1993, 2d ed. 1997. Essays by Thomas Krens, Andrea Feeser, Lisa Dennison, Michael Govan, Jennifer Blessing, Diane Waldman, Nancy Spector, Julia Brown, and Clare Bell; p. 241 (fig. 192).

Knight, Christopher. Art of the Sixties and Seventies, pp. 205 (illus.), 207 (illus.), 266. Revised and expanded English edition: pp. 245 (illus.), 247 (illus.), 307. French edition: pp. 205 (illus.), 207 (illus.), 266. Italian edition: 205 (illus.), 207 (illus.), 266. Revised and expanded Italian edition: pp. 245 (illus.), 247 (illus.), 307. (The work is published as Circle In and Out of a Polygon II [Blue] in all editions.)

McDonald, Robert H. “Mangold’s Circles and Squares,” p. 2. Otherwise unidentified article, Panza Archives (box 127, folder RMA), The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.

Singer, Suzanna [sic], and Alexander van Grevenstein, eds. Robert Mangold: Schilderijen/Paintings 1964–1982. Catalogue raisonné. Amsterdam: Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1982, unpag., cat. no. 185 (illus.; Circle In and Out of a Polygon [Blue]).

Spector, Nancy, ed. Guggenheim Museum Collection: A to Z. 2d ed. Published as Circle In and Out of a Polygon II [Blue] in 1st edition). New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2001, pp. 210, 211 (illus.).

White, Robin. “Robert Mangold.” View (Oakland) 1, no. 7 (December 1978), unpag. (illus.). Interview.