Alexander Liberman led a dual life--as the the noted editorial director for Conde Nast publications for nearly 30 years and as an acclaimed minimalist sculptor and painter whose works were noted for their bright colors and large size. He was named editorial director in 1962; he had his first show, at Betty Parsons Gallery, in 1960. His works can be found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hirshorn Museum, the Guggenheim, the Tate, the Whitney, MOMA, LACMA and the Storm Art Center.

 

His works were influenced by the constructivism of his native Russian and also had a strong graphic quality to them, a quality which carried over the magazines he edited.

 

Considered a revolutionary Minimalist artist, Alexander Liberman produced works that predated the movement by more than a decade. Liberman, not wanting to limit himself to any one form of expression, produced minimalist paintings and sculpture in order to illuminate his beliefs about celestial motion, the movement of the eye, as well as human sexuality. The artist’s fascination with American industrialization and modernization ultimately resulted in his widely known red steel sculptures and geometric paintings, which seem to decompose the turbulence of the time period. 

 

One frenemy had this to say about Liberman:

 

 "He was a modernist through and through, and he loved America’s hard edges, its planned obsolescences, its energy and vulgarity."