Alan Cote

Alan Cote - The Lord of the Rods

Alan Cote was born in 1937 in Windham in the US state of Connecticut. He became famous for his minimalist abstract paintings, which usually consist of two panels of equal size. The characteristic element of Alan Cote's art is a rod-like shape, which can be found in ever-changing colours and arrangements in his paintings. The precisely pre-drawn rod shapes are painted freehand, whereby the artist consciously accepts a certain degree of imprecision. The colour and the emotion associated with it are of significance to Cote. Whilst he does not strive for technical perfection, size and symmetry are of importance. In his long career, Alan Cote has had numerous solo exhibitions in New York, Cologne, Toronto, Sydney and Philadelphia and has also taken part in a large number of group exhibitions.

Two panels, one painting

Alan Cote set up his studio in an old school building from the 1930s. In a gymnasium where the local community used to organise talent shows, there is his large, double-sided drawing table, a rolling frame with canvases and three trolleys with cans of paint; the old stage is now his office. His only company are his cats, who come and go at will. Cote has plenty of space here - and he needs it, because his art has always been large and expansive. Small paintings are an exception, an anomaly that only occurs very rarely. After experimenting with differently shaped canvases in his early work, in the last two decades he has opted almost exclusively for squares and rectangles, which he always paints in two related, identically sized panels. This concept of double portraits was not universally understood from the outset: Some of his pairs were sold individually and now hang in different places - counter to the artist's express intention.

Interaction is the key

Alan Cote is not entirely blameless for the fact that his pairs of paintings are not always immediately recognisable as such. Sometimes he creates two panels in very different ways and uses a different colour for each. The paintings appear similar, but at first glance they do not always seem to belong together. On closer inspection, however, the sophisticated interplay, the deliberate variation and juxtaposition of selected colour tones becomes apparent. This is exactly what Cote wants to achieve with his decision to use two panels: Interaction. The intended interaction occurs twice, once between the panels and then also between the work and the viewer. The result is an exciting triangular relationship that unleashes its very own dynamic and enables new perspectives. Cote's so-called elements are similarly interactive, which the artist locates as an indeterminate middle ground between line and form and draws on the floor with deliberate but subtle imperfection. Although geometrically precise, they are not perfect and reveal the human hand as the author. What is important to Cote is the visual energy that he wants to make tangible and perceptible in each of his pictures.