Alan Shields (b. 1944, Herington, KS; d. 2005, Shelter Island, NY) created unique, imaginative, and theatrical structures using unconventional materials and vibrant color. His three-dimensional paintings convey a playful, deconstructive impulse through the incorporation of un-stretched hand-dyed canvas, rope, yarn, beads, and wood. Shields moved to New York City in 1968, where he showed with Paula Cooper Gallery for over twenty years. Important museum exhibitions of the artist’s work include “Alan Shields: Common Threads,” Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY (2018); “Alan Shields: Protracted Simplicity (1966-1985),” Aspen Art Museum, Aspen, CO (2016); “Alan Shields: In Motion,” Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, NY (2015); “Into the Maze,” SITE Santa Fe, NM (2014); “Stirring Up the Waters,” Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY (2007); “Alan Shields: A Survey,” The Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS (1999); “1968 – 1983: The Work of Alan Shields,” Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis, TN (1983), which traveled to Lowe Art Museum, Coral Gables, FL, and Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO; and “Alan Shields: Paintings and Prints,” Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA (1981). Shields is represented in the collections of prominent institutions including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, N;, Tate Collection, London, UK; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
