Exhibition

Jon Serl: No straight lines

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Past

September 19—October 26, 2024

Opening Reception

Thursday, September 19, 6–8 PM

Location

New York: 69th Street

34 East 69th Street

New York, New York 10021

Wed: 6 PM-8 PM

Thu, Fri, Sat: 10 AM-6 PM

Artists

Katherine Bradford

Louis Fratino

Brook Hsu

Sam Messer

Andy Robert

Dana Schutz

Jon Serl

Josh Smith
View Press Release

Jon Serl, Untitled, c. 1980–1985

David Zwirner is pleased to announce an exhibition exploring the art and legacy of self-taught American painter Jon Serl (Joseph Searles, 1894–1993), which will take place at the gallery’s East 69th Street location in New York.

Organized in collaboration with the artist Sam Messer, this exhibition features a robust selection of works by Serl as well as those by contemporary painters—including Messer, Katherine Bradford, Louis Fratino, Brook Hsu, Andy Robert, Dana Schutz, and Josh Smith—who are inspired by his imaginative compositions.

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Installation view, Jon Serl: No straight lines, David Zwirner, New York, 2024

“No straight lines is really about the artist’s spirit of making and the necessity to make.”

—Sam Messer

Portrait of Jon Serl, 1989. Photo by James Hayman. Courtesy Sam Messer

The son of a vaudeville family, Serl—who was also known as Slats, Jerry Palmer, and Ned Palmer at various points in his life—acted in traveling shows as a child, took on other unconventional roles, and came to painting seriously later, in the 1940s. In 1971, after meandering through the American West, he moved to Lake Elsinore, California—just south of Los Angeles county—where he built a ramshackle home for himself and remained for the rest of his life.

“The reason I started painting in the first place is because I knew I had something to say.”

—Jon Serl

Sam Messer and Jon Serl, 1993. Photo by Eleanor Gaver

Left: Jon Serl in his studio. Photo by Sam Messer, Right: Sam Messer and Jon Serl, 1993. Photo by Eleanor Gaver

 

Film by Eleanor Gaver

“I discovered Jon’s work in maybe 2010.... I was amazed that there was a person who painted like this and I started collecting them. Jon didn’t work on multiple paintings of the same thing, and I kind of do that, I kind of hammer on a subject. “

—Josh Smith

Installation view, Jon Serl: No straight lines, David Zwirner, New York, 2024

Installation view, Jon Serl: No straight lines, David Zwirner, New York, 2024

 

“I’ve always seen art as a place of liberation and prayer. An artist like Jon, I feel like it must have been that, too.”

—Brook Hsu

Installation view, Jon Serl: No straight lines, David Zwirner, New York, 2024

Installation view, Jon Serl: No straight lines, David Zwirner, New York, 2024

“One artist dies. Another is born.”

—Jon Serl

Portrait of Jon Serl, 1993. Photo by Sam Messer

Inquire About Works in the Exhibition