Dennis Ashbaugh

Dennis John Ashbaugh (born 1946 in Red Oak, Iowa ) is an American painter and artist who resides in River House in New York City, and also lives and works in Millbrook and Pawling, New York.

Themes and influences

As much as possible, Ashbaugh has avoided being labeled or categorized by various contemporary "isms": Minimalism, Abstract Expressionism, Popism, op art or Color Field Painting. The constant through-line of Ashbaugh's abstract work is a focus on specific current events as seen through the prism of art history, such as the future, politics, computers, clones, DNA, networks and viruses (computer and biological), though he does not use computers to create these works.

In 1992, Ashbaugh collaborated with science fiction and cyberpunk novelist William Gibson on the electronic poem Agrippa (A Book of the Dead). Ashbaugh cites Gibson and fellow cyberpunk novelist Bruce Sterling as key influences, as well as Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko.

Early life

Ashbaugh's grandfathers were a blacksmith and a large landowner and farmer, his father, an electrical planner, and mother, a beautician. The Ashbaugh family moved to Anaheim, California, where as a child he intently watched the construction of Disneyland.

A major influence in Ashbaugh's life was the newly born California surfing scene of the 1950s and 1960s —the era of surfing greats Phil Edwards, Hobart "Hobie" Alter, Gordon "Grubby" Clark, Carter Pyle, and Bruce Brown with whom he surfed. In 1961, his parents bought a trailer on the ocean in San Clemente, down from where most of the Dana Point Mafia resided. The freedom and independence of surfing shaped his worldview both aesthetically and intellectually.

Throughout his college years, Ashbaugh painted with oil or any paint he could get his hands on, often working on oversize canvases. He received a master's degree in 1969 from California State University, Fullerton. At the age of 19, he met Frank Stella, Barbara Rose, Alan Solomon and Leo Castelli. Stella offered him the use of his studio in Costa Mesa, California, and later encouraged Ashbaugh to move to and paint in New York City.

Murray Street: "The Ovals" (1970) Through Stella, Rose, and others, Ashbaugh was introduced to many of the well-known working artists, performers, collectors, and gallery owners in New York City, many of whom frequented Max's Kansas City, such as John Chamberlain, Andy Warhol, Larry Poons, Nancy Graves, Carl André, Brice Marden, Robert Rauschenberg.

Ashbaugh leased a studio on Murray Street in Tribeca. He began working on a series entitled "The Ovals" (a reference to Larry Poons): Large fiberglass paintings using an elliptical format and drums of polyester resin. The unyielding, flat surfaces and intentionally ragged edges, obliquely allude to the matte encaustic surfaces that Brice Marden and Jasper Johns were using at the time, albeit with a California twist.

These paintings and drawings evolved directly from the artwork last painted in Costa Mesa, California, and were exhibited at the Orange County Museum of Art (formerly the Newport Harbor Art Museum), the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (formerly La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art).

Greene Street: "The Shineys" (1971–1972) In 1971, the art dealer Ileana Sonnabend and Henry Geldzahler, Director of Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, connected Ashbaugh to a space in the center of SoHo. Ashbaugh then sold his Murray Street loft to performance artist Laurie Anderson and moved to 67 Greene Street, a space capable of accommodating his large paintings. Here, Ashbaugh began "The Shineys"—a series of fiberglass paintings, many as large as 120" by 240". The surfaces were glass-like, using polyester resin, industrial dyes, and pigments.

The Shineys were exhibited in solo exhibitions in Sweden [Galleri Ostegren, Malmö, Sweden) and California (Jack Glenn Gallery, Corona del Mar, California), and acquired by the Orange County Museum of Art (formerly the Newport Harbor Art Museum), the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (formerly La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art), and the owners of Artforum Magazine. as well as in Belgium (Galerie Alexandria Monett, Brussels) and France (Galerie Farideh Cadot, Paris). that two shapes, even three distinct shapes, would cast only one combined shadow. He began a series paintings with multiple images but only one combined shadow. These works are loosely painted in fluorescents with swaths of glow-in-the-dark pigments. Seen with the lights off, they eerily resemble the frenetic brushwork of Willem de Kooning or Franz Kline. Ashbaugh became fascinated by the new technology of paint chemistry and also applied flocking to the surfaces.

Since 1974, Ashbaugh has focused on First Amendment rights with concern for the degradation of journalistic news into a propaganda tool or a pop culture sales hook. In 1979, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City acquired a 108”x108" inch painting from the series titled "New Yorker Faces Iran Spy Trial". The title came from a headline of the sensationalist tabloid the New York Post, as was each painting in the entire Woofer Series.

Ashbaugh's San Onofre Series (1980) had solo exhibitions at Knoedler Kasmin Gallery in London; the Richard Gray Gallery in Chicago; and the Janie C. Lee Gallery, Houston, as well as acquisitions by the Hirshhorn Museum of Art in Washington, D.C. and at Stanford University, the Orange County Museum of Art, and the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. These paintings were exhibited globally, traveling to England, Portugal, Australia, and South Africa. Natalie Knight Gallery (Johannesburg, South Africa), the Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon, Portugal), and the Swiss Art Foundation (Switzerland).

Interactive Paintings: The Clone Series (1987) With the many advancements in DNA and computer technologies, Ashbaugh believed there must be a viable path forward for abstract painting. As Barbara Rose stated, "Like Pollock, Ashbaugh is keenly aware that innovations in technology require a thoughtful response from artists who are awake to their own time". He began working on the large-scale, colorful Clone Series, conceptually based on the idea that the entirety of art history could be placed on a single floppy disk. These paintings were shown in a retrospective at IVAM in Valencia, Spain, 2007. Ashbaugh recognized it as a major technological and cultural event where computer information could be created then co-opted and deleted. He perceived this as a paradigm shift—that information would never again be the same. Reminded of Robert Rauschenberg's erasure of the Willem de Kooning drawing, Ashbaugh embarked on painting a series of large black and fluorescent works using the visual images located in the aftermath of a virus attack, or in his words, "a new beginning". The works were painted with glossy industrial floor enamel and epoxy, appearing as blank television screens with color charts, inserted on either the upper or lower framing edge. Solo exhibitions followed at the Marisa del Re Gallery, Paul Kasmin Gallery, and IVAM (Valencia, Spain). Ashbaugh reminded the critic that as early as 1946, Barnett Newman had painted a work titled “The Genetic Moment.” Ashbaugh executed these paintings at various makeshift outdoor studios due to the extreme toxicity of the paints used.

The Gene Stain Paintings were exhibited at the National Academy of Sciences, the Marisa del Re Gallery, the Paul Kasmin Gallery and IVAM. Print editions were acquired by Microsoft Corporation, Lincoln Center, and State Department Art Collections in Embassies.

This series was shown at IVAM in Valencia, Spain, as a part of the major 2007 Ashbaugh retrospective organized by critic Barbara Rose, and at the National Academy of Sciences.

Personal life He is the longtime companion of author Alexandra Penney. He has been characterized by The New York Times as a "charismatic ex‐surfer whose address book can probably hold its own against that of the most aggressive jet set type".

Awards Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Grant Award Recipient (2024-2025). First Place, United States Olympic Architecture Design Competition (1996) John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (1976) C.A.P.S., New York State Council on the Arts (1975)

Selected solo exhibitions Source:

Institut Valencia d’Art Modern IVAM (a retrospective of works), Valencia, Spain (2007) National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC (2006) Margulies-Taplan Gallery, Miami, FL (1994) Marisa, del Re Gallery, New York, NY (1993) Goode Crowley Editions, Houston, TX (1993) The Americas Society, New York, NY (1992) The Metropolitan Museum of Art Mezzanine Gallery, New York, NY (1992) The Kitchen, New York, NY (1992) Margulies-Taplan Gallery, Miami, FL (1990) Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY (1990) Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY (1989) Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, NY (1982) Richard Gray Gallery, Chicago, IL (1982) Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, NY (1982) Kasmin-Knoedler Gallery, London, England (1981) Charles Cowles Gallery, New York, NY (1980) Janie C. Lee Gallery, Houston, TX (1980) Galerie Farideh Cadot, Paris, France (1979) PS I, Long Island City Project Rooms, NY (1977) Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA (1976) Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (1975) Galleri Ostergren, Malmö, Sweden (1972) Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, CA (1971) Gallery Farideh Cadot, Paris, France (1970) La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, La Jolla, CA (1970)

Selected Collections Source:

Boca Raton Museum of Art, FL Brooklyn Museum, NY Crocker National Bank, San Francisco, CA Drew University, Madison, NJ First City Bank, Houston, TX First National Bank of Minnesota, MN First National City Bank, New York, NY Florida International University Museum, FL General Electric Co., New York, NY London Getty Museum of Art, Malibu, CA Gilman Paper Company, St. Mar's, GA Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, Portugal Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX Illinois State University, Normal, IL Knight Rider Publications, Miami, FL Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York, NY Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA Lowe Art Museum, Miami, FL Manufacturers Hanover Trust, New York Martin Z. Margulies, Grove Island, Coconut Grove, FL Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Museum of Modern Art, Teheran, Iran National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Newport Harbor Art Museum, CA New York City Public Library, NY Owens Corning, New York, NY Queensborough College, Bayside, NY Rolls Royce, Inc., New York, NY San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA Seattle First National Bank, Seattle, WA Seattle Museum of Contemporary Art, Seattle, WA Security Pacific Bank, Los Angeles, CA Stanford University Art Museum, Palo Alto, CA The Swiss Art Foundation, Switzerland University of California at Berkeley Art Museum, CA Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA