George Woodman: A Democracy of Parts, Paintings 1966-1978
DC Moore Gallery, New York
April 3–May 3, 2025
Focusing on geometric abstractions from a significant period within the artist's six-decade career, this exhibition traces the development of George Woodman's singular approach to pattern. Though often associated with the Pattern and Decoration movement and similarly interested in decorative traditions from cultures around the globe, Woodman’s patterns were instead rooted in complex mathematical systems. His Minimalist and intellectually rigorous approach developed into tessellations—repeating, rotating and reflecting shapes or groups of shapes which fit together seamlessly to cover a canvas.
Color played no less significant a role than pattern in Woodman’s paintings. Beginning in the mid-1960s, he integrated an idiosyncratic and sophisticated palette with form, often to heightened experiential and visual effects not unlike his Op Art contemporaries. In his paintings, shifts in color—both subtle and dramatic—re-defined repeating shapes, adding perceptual dimensions to abstract compositions.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully-illustrated catalogue with an essay by Rebecca Lowery, Curator of Exhibitions at the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University.
Press and Publications
Videos
Backstories
Additional images and materials from George Woodman’s archive which shed light on his process and elaborate on specific works in the exhibition.
























