The Facts
On September 1, 2026, Lisson Gallery announced that El Museo Del Barrio and KMEC Books will co-publish "Tony Bechara," the first monograph dedicated to the New York artist, posthumously. The 240-page volume, gathering nearly 200 color plates, will be released, and distributed by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers. Edited by Karen Marta with a foreword by Patrick Charpenel, it includes an essay by Domitille d'Orgeval, an interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist, and a postscript by Désirée von la Valette. Bechara (1942–2025), born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, settled in New York City in 1969 and chaired El Museo Del Barrio's Board for 15 years, Chairman Emeritus in 2015.
The Signal
The posthumous monograph consolidates Bechara's standing as a figure whose grid-based abstraction anticipated the pixel, bridging Post-War painting and the digital visual paradigm. His advocacy for Carmen Herrera and Leon Polk Smith, plus institutions like the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art, makes the book essential context for collectors of Latin American modernism. The co-publication by the museum he once chaired signals formal institutional canonization.
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- Artists: Tony Bechara, Carmen Herrera, Leon Polk Smith
- People: Karen Marta, Patrick Charpenel, Domitille d'Orgeval, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Désirée von la Valette
- Galleries: Lisson Gallery
- Museums: El Museo Del Barrio, Whitney Museum of American Art, Parrish Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art
- Locations: New York
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