Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates

Budapest-born, New York–based artist Agnes Denes (born 1931) rose to international attention in the 1960s and 1970s as a leading figure in conceptual, environmental, and ecological art. A pioneer of several art movements, she creates work in a broad range of media, utilizing various disciplines—science, philosophy, linguistics, ecology, psychology—to analyze, document, and ultimately aid humanity. Denes turns her analysis into beautiful, sensual visual forms, poetry, and a philosophy that she has developed over the course of her career.

This comprehensive survey exhibition, Agnes Denes: Absolutes and Intermediates, brings together over 150 works spanning her 50-year career. The exhibition includes a comprehensive look at her important series The Philosophical Drawings (1969 – 80), “Isometric Series” (1974 – 98), “Pyramid Series” (1970 – ongoing); her realized monumental public works, including the iconic Wheatfield—A Confrontation (1982); as well as a presentation of unrealized works. 

The Shed has also commissioned a number of works that both expound and expand on the ideas that have been ever present throughout Denes’s career.  

Denes has participated in more than 600 exhibitions in galleries, museums, and the public realm throughout the world, and her work is in the collections of major public and private institutions. This survey exhibition will include major new work and will be her largest show in New York City to date, filling The Shed’s galleries.​

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website