THE SAGE OF RED WING

It’s hard to imagine in these days of constant marketing and hype, but there used to be artists who resigned from the art scene to consecrate themselves to actually making art. Leaving an art-market center in search of solitude is hard enough, but even harder is abandoning a style that has brought success, in order to avoid creative stagnation and self-repetition. One of those who had the self-assurance and resolve to do these things was the American modernist Charles Biederman (1906–2004), and the fact that his name is not better known has a fair amount to do with his choice to leave New York City for Red Wing, Minn., in 1941 and spend the rest of his long life there. In doing so, he acquired the reputation of a recluse, but that reputation was undeserved.

Through extensive correspondence, Biederman kept in touch with a wide range of creative and influential people, from fellow artists to curators and critics and even a world-famous quantum physicist. In addition, he developed theories about art that he propagated through a series of books that, although little-known to the general public, acquired a devoted following among a select group of artists. Most important, though, Biederman, both before and after his move to Red Wing, was an innovator in modern art who bridged some of the gaps between the European and American abstract movements and continued to develop the ideas of rigorous geometric art regardless of trends.

While he is perhaps best known for his paintings and constructions from the 1930s and early ’40s, Biederman evolved some distinctive modes of expression and uses of media that make all seven decades of his career extremely interesting and worth getting better acquainted with. Recent museum and gallery exhibitions as well as the efforts of a few