Howard Mehring

Art Brokerage: Howard Mehring American Artist: b. 1931-1978. A central figure in the Washington Color School, Howard Mehring was a painter best known for his abstract works featuring bold, vibrantly colored geometric forms. While the influence of the New York School of Abstract Expressionism is apparent in his early works, Mehring ultimately rejected their gestural approach, adopting instead a style characterized by flat planes of color in geometric configurations, influenced by notable color field painters such as Kenneth Noland and Thomas Downing, both of whom he met while still at university. Merhing's works from the early 1960s featured a looser handling of paint and a distinctive stippled technique, while his mature works employed a bolder use of contrasting colors and hard-edged repeating shapes, which often seem to expand outwards beyond the edges of the frame. Several of Mehring's works were included in Clement Greenberg's pivotal 1964 exhibition "Post-Painterly Abstraction," cementing his reputation as one of the leading abstract painters of his day. Listings wanted.