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Untitled - Main Library Grand Reading Room Press Release
Jacksonville Library Houses last Commissioned work by painter Al Held
The Jacksonville Main Library has the distinction of housing the last commissioned work by famous abstractionist, Al Held. The untitled painting measures 91/2 feet by 60 feet, and was installed in January, 2006 in the library’s Grand Reading Room.
The City’s Art in Public Committee originally commissioned Held to create four paintings for the project, but only one was completed before his death in July, 2005. The work was funded through private donations to the Jacksonville Library Foundation. Officials from the Foundation plan to leave the other three walls of the Grand Reading Room blank, so as not to conflict with Held’s distinctive style.
Born in 1928, Held was a native of Brooklyn, New York. He studied at both the Art Students League in New York and the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris.
Held’s work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Music of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, all of which are in New York.
His other public works include the 100-foot-long Metropoitan Transit Authority mosaic for the subway station below CitiCorp’s New York headquarters.