Al Held (1928-2005)

"I am not an all over painter. The rigid logic of two-dimensional aesthetic binds us to the canvas surface making it an end in itself, not a means to an end. I would like to develop from this not by going inwards towards the old horizon, but outwards towards the spectator. The space between the canvas and the spectator is real-emotionally physically and logically. It exists as an actual extension of the canvas surface. I would like to use it as such and thus bridge the gulf that separates the painting from the viewer"
(Al Held, as quoted in It is, Fall 1958, A. Forge, Al Held, New Paintings, exh. cat., New York, 1978).