abstract expressionism and the new american sculpture

Modernism in America

Abstract Expressionism and the New American Sculpture

Schools of Modern ArtCharacteristics of Abstract Expressionism•The purity of medium. •The capacity of paint to serve as the vehicle for emotional expression.•The need to explore the subconscious.

– Of top interest to all the Abstract Expressionists was the strong connection to psychic self-expression.

• The belief in the validity of inner experience.• Abstract Expressionists are influenced by Carl Jung (a pupil of Freud)

and the Surrealists before them who also explored the depths of the human mind.

•Emphasis on process allowing for spontaneity. •The value of and exploitation of chance.

– Abstract Expressionists inherit this from Dada artists like Marcel Duchamp.•The certainty that times mandates an entirely new way of painting employing individualistic styles divorced from and irreconcilable with the past.

Schools of Modern Art

• First modern American art movement to have both European and American roots.

• Abstract Expressionism is a direct response to the upheaval caused by WWII.– America enters WWII December 8,

1941 (the day after the bombing of Pearl Harbor).

• New York unseats Paris as art capital of the world.

• America benefits greatly from World War II.– Various European artists,

philosophers, scientists, etc. emigrate to escape 1930s/40s Europe.

Abstract Expressionism (after 1945-1960s)

Jackson Pollock, One (Lavender Mist), 1950. Oil and enamel paint on canvas, 8' 10" x 17' 5 5/8”. National Gallery of

Art, Washington, D.C.

Federal Art Project (1939-1943)• During the Depression, many of the

artists who would become identified as the New York School found work under the Federal Art Project of theWorks Progress Administration (WPA) (1935-1943)– Unlike any initiative in the

history of America, the WPA put artists to work giving them a wage and the freedom to experiment.

– You did not have to be a native of the U.S. (even de Kooning received assistance under this program).

Employment and Activities poster for the WPA's Federal Art Project, c.1936

http://www.theartstory.org/org-wpa.htm

http://www.theartstory.org/org-wpa.htm


• Nihilistic attitude evocative of existentialist philosophies of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche.

• American artists look to rebel against pre-war American style and forge new “American” style of art.

• First dubbed, “Abstract Expressionism” by Robert Coates in 1946, the movement gets its name from its adaptation of emotional intensity and self-denial of the German Expressionists, anti-figurative aesthetic of European abstraction including Futurism, Bauhaus, and Synthetic Cubism.

Willem de Kooning, Gotham News, 1955. Oil on canvas, 5’9” x 6’7”. Albright-Knox Gallery,

Buffalo, NY.


Schools of Modern ArtAbstract Expressionism (after 1945-1960)•Each Abstract Expressionist artist took pride in the individuality of his/her personal style.

– Individuality of style is an earmark of modernist art.

•Abstract Expressionist artists used unconventional techniques and materials.

– Pollock used a drip technique applying house paint with sticks, palette knife, etc.

– Helen Frankenthaler waters down her pigment and allows the paint to infiltrate the sometimes raw canvas.

•Abstract Expressionism was less a style of painting than an attitude or approach.•There was no one method of painting.

Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea, 1952. Oil and charcoal on canvas, 86” x 117”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.


American Scene Painting: Regionalismc. 1920s-1950s•Prior to Abstract Expressionism, American artists painted in a very regional style known as American Scene Painting, Regionalism, or Social Realism.

– Regionalists captured everyday Americans living ordinary lives.

– Here Grant Wood (1892-1942) paints his sister with his dentist as Puritanical farmers from the heartland of America.

– Wood paints in a very realistic style.– Wood took inspiration from Flemish and

German Renaissance painters and not European modernists.

Grant Wood, American Gothic, 1930. Oil on beaverboard, 29 ⅞” x 24 ⅞”. Art

Institute of Chicago.


American Scene Painting: Social Realism 1920s-1950s•Social Realist painters were the conscious of their generation.

– Many were leftist or socialist sympathizers.

• A leader amongst his peers, Ben Shahn’s (1898-1969) painting was intimately associated with his own social activism.

•Shahn took as his subject social injustice, fascism, and hardships of the working classes.

– In this painting, Shahn addresses the case of Italian immigrants, Sacco and Vanzetti sentenced to death for a crime many believed they did not commit. Ben Shahn, The Passion of

Sacco and Vanzetti, 1931-32. Tempera on canvas, 7’ 7 ½” x

4’. Whitney Museum of American Art.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacco_and_Vanzetti

• Shahn often based his paintings on photographs he and others had taken.

Photograph of Bartolomeo Vanzetti (left) and Nicola Sacco in handcuffs, c. 1927.

Ben Shah, The Passion of Sacco and Venzetti, 1952. Drawing for poster here published in The Nation on

the 25th Anniversary of the case.

Roots of American abstraction •Abstract Expressionist artists pull from the influence of many modernist styles including:

– Expressionism of van Gogh– Saturated color of Matisse– Total abstraction of Kandinsky and Mondrian– Organic forms of Miró– Interest in the unconscious from Surrealism

(Freud, Jung, and Breton)

Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942-43. Oil on canvas, 50” x 50”. Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

Vasily Kandinsky, Several Circles, No. 323,

1926. Oil on canvas, 55⅛ “ x 55 ⅛”. Guggenheim

Museum, NYC.

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/piece/?object=41.283&search&page&f=Title

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/collections/collection-online/show-full/piece/?object=41.283&search&page&f=Title


Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)•Founder of de Stijl art movement (1918-1931)•Mondrian conceived the artwork as a unique space where the viewer could contemplate the universal and non-subjective reality

Piet Mondrian, Tableau No. 2/Composition No. VII, 1913. Oil on canvas, 41 1/8 x 44 ¾”. .

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.


• From the Mexican mural painters, like Diego Rivera, they took scale.

– Abstract Expressionists abandon any leftover tradition of the easel painting to work on colossal scale and envelop

the viewer.

Diego Rivera, Detroit Industry, 1932-33. Fresco, north wall. Detroit Institute of Arts.

Schools of Modern Art• Influential artists to come to the United States include

Hans Hofmann (1880-1966).– Hofmann is known best for his work in the

classroom.• Hofmann’s “push-pull” theory was especially influential

on artists Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) and Mark Rothko(1903-1970).

– His principles were rooted in Cubism and Cézanne:• line is symptomatic of planes and leads to illustration-line is

NOT primary.

– Concerned with the color relationships (color was a space-producing element).

– Blocks of color confirm flatness of pictures and interact in a push-pull way:

• Warm colors advance, cool recede.– He said, "the ability to simplify means to eliminate

the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak".

Hans Hofmann, The Gate, 1959-60. Oil on canvas,

6’2 ⅝” x 4 ¼”. Guggenheim Museum,

NYC.



Another important emigrant to the American art world is Arshile Gorky(1905-1948).•Armenian-born, he came to the U.S. in 1920 escaping genocide at the hands of Turkish government.•Gorky is known as the most important forgotten Abstract Expressionist.•Figured is a portrait of the artist and his mother, who died in his arms of starvation during Armenian death march.•Here one sees the precursor to Mark Rothko (1903-1970) and Richard Diebenkorn (1922-1993) in the blocking off of color.

Arshile Gorky, The Artist and His Mother, 1929-36. Oil on canvas, 60”

x 50”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Richard Diebenkorn, Man and Woman in Large Room, 1957. Oil on canvas, 71” x 62 ½”. Hirshorn Museum

and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution,

Washington, D.C.

Arshile Gorky, The Artist and His Mother, 1929-36. Oil on canvas,

60” x 50”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.Mark Rothko, Untitled (Blue,

Green, and Brown), 1952 (alternatively dated to 1951).

Oil on canvas, dimensions unpublished. Collection of

Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia.


• Self-taught, Gorky is an important link between European Surrealism and American abstraction.

• Heavily influenced by Cézanne, Miró, and Picasso.

• From Roberto Matta and André Masson (1896-1987) he took Surrealist automatism.

Arshile Gorky, The Liver is the Cock’s Comb, 1944. Oil on canvas, 6’ 1 ¼” x 8’ 2”. Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY.


• Takes biomorphic imagery from Kandinsky who first attempts to rid abstraction of form.

• Abstract Expressionist artists reject Surrealist forms because they were illusionist.


Vasily Kandinsky, Last Judgment, c. 1912. Oil on canvas, 13’ x 17’. Private Collection.


Vasily Kandinsky (1866-1944)•Considered the first abstractionist.•Introduces term “non-objective painting”.•Influenced by Nietzsche’s philosophy.•Formal qualities of light, color, and shape more important than subject matter and content.

Vasily Kandinsky, White Line, No. 232, 1920. Oil on canvas, 38 5/8” x 31 ½”.

Koln Museum, Ludwig.

Vasily Kandinsky, Study for Painting with White Lines (Bild

mit weissen Linien), 1913. Watercolor, india ink, and pencil

on paper, 15 11/16” x 14 1/8”. Solomon R. Guggenheim

Museum, NYC.

• Kandinsky believed that the task of the painter

was to convey a subjective, inner world,

rather than to imitate reality.

André Masson, Pasiphaë, 1943. Oil and tempera on canvas, 39 ¾ x 50”. Private Collection.

Arshile Gorky, The Liver is the Cock’s Comb, 1944. Oil on canvas, 6’ 1 ¼” x 8’ 2”.

Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY.

Joan Miró, The Poetess from the Constellation Series, December 31, 1940. Gouache and oil wash on paper, 15 x 18”. Private Collection.

Roberto Matta, Disasters of Mysticism, 1942. Oil on canvas, 38 ¼” x 51 ¾”.

Private Collection.

Schools of Modern ArtRoberto Matta (1911-2002), Chilean Surrealist and Abstract Expressionist.•Introduces automatic process to many in the New York School.•Becomes an important link, along with Robert Motherwell, between European Surrealism and American abstraction•His 1940 one man show at the Julien Levy Gallery is the single most important commercial exhibition showcasing Surrealist art to the New York School.

– Tremendous impact on young artists experimenting at the time.

Roberto Matta, Disasters of Mysticism, 1942. Oil on canvas, 38 ¼” x 51 ¾”. Private

Collection.

Roberto Matta, Disasters of Mysticism, 1942. Oil on canvas, 38 ¼” x 51 ¾”.

Private Collection.


IRASCIBLE GROUP OF ADVANCED ARTISTS LED FIGHT AGAINST SHOW

•The solemn people above, along with three others, made up the group of “irascible” artists who raised the biggest fuss about the Metropolitan’s competition (following pages). All representatives of advanced art, they paint in styles which vary from the dribblings of Pollock (LIFE, Aug. 8, 1949) to the Cyclopean phantoms of Baziotes, and all have distrusted the museum since its director likened them to “flat-chested” pelicans “strutting upon the intellectual wastelands.” From left, rear, they are: Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Ad Reinhardt, Hedda Sterne; (next row) Richard Pousette-Dart, William Baziotes, Jimmy Ernst (with bow tie), Jackson Pollock (in striped jacket), James Brooks, Clyfford Still (leaning on knee), Robert Motherwell, Bradley Walker Tomlin; (in foreground) Theodoros Stamos (on bench), Barnett Newman (on stool), Mark Rothko (with glasses). Their revolt and subsequent boycott of the show was in keeping with an old tradition among avant-garde artists. French painters in 1874 rebelled against their official juries and held the first impressionist exhibition. U.S. artists in 1908 broke with the National Academy jury to launch the famous Ashcan School. The effect of the revolt of the “irascible” remains to be seen, but it did appear to have needled the Metropolitan’s juries into turning more than half the show into a free-for-all of modern art.

Nina Leen, The Irascibles, Published Life Magazine, January 15, 1951.

Collection Getty Images.


Abstract Expressionism: The Gestural Painters

•Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)•Willem de Kooning (1904-1997)•Lee Krasner (1908-1984)•Franz Kline (1910-1962)•Elaine de Kooning (1918-1989)

Abstract Expressionism: Color Field Painters

•Mark Rothko (1903-1970)•Barnett Newman (1905-1970)•Clyfford Still (1904-1980)•Robert Motherwell (1915-1990)


Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)•Pollock is the quintessential icon of the New York School.

"The most powerful painter in contemporary America and the only one who promises to be a major one is a Gothic, morbid, and extreme disciple of Picasso's Cubism and Miró's post-Cubism, tinctured also with Kandinsky and surrealist inspiration. His name is Jackson Pollock."

- Clement Greenberg, 1949

Life magazine August 8, 1949.

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-pollock-jackson.htm

Clement Greenberg (1909-1994)

Clement Greenberg (1909-1994)

•Equally important to understand is the role art critics played in the success of Abstract Expressionism (and Pollock in particular).

– Life was read in most American homes making Pollock a household name.

– He and/or his paintings appeared in several spreads Cecil Beaton, Fashion Study with

Painting by Jackson Pollock, 1951Fashion shoot using Pollock painting

as backdrop.

http://www.theartstory.org/critic-greenberg-clement.htm

Schools of Modern Art- Criticism• Clement Greenberg and his particular brand of Formalism

became the voice of the Abstract Expressionist generation.• His formalism was particularly strict and advocated:

– Primary values of a work of art to be in its form.– Painting should ignore any narrative, subject matter, pictorial

illusions and focus only on the work’s form.– Art reject subject matter, pictorial illusions of 3 dimensional space

on 2 dimensional surface, atmospheric light, and any other devices an artist might use in creating a picture of some “thing”.

– Flatness and frontality are defined as the distinguishing features of a good painting under Greenberg’s rules

• Flatness=no illusion to outside world or external references, works attains and maintains autonomy


"When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of "get acquainted" period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well.”

-Jackson Pollock

Hans Namuth, “Pollock in Process,” Photograph taken, c. 1950. Gelatin

silver print, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington,

D.C.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cgBvpjwOGo

• Artist Jackson Pollock in the process of painting using his characteristic “drip technique.” This is one of at least five photographs Namuth made of Pollock painting. Their publication in Life magazine in 1951 caused a great sensation making Pollock a household name.

Hans Namuth, “Pollock in Process,” Photograph taken, c. 1950. Gelatin silver print, National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cgBvpjwOGo


Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)•Pollock is the quintessential icon of the New York School.•He lived the hard life of drinking, smoking, fighting, and urinating into Peggy Guggenheim’s fireplace!•His work often suggests the influence of Picasso, as seen here in his implied figuration.•Total abstraction has not yet been realized by the artist.•His calligraphic style of drip painting is evolving.

Jackson Pollock, Guardians of the Secret, 1943. Oil on canvas, 4’ ¾” x 6’3”. San Francisco

Museum of Modern Art.

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-pollock-jackson.htm

Schools of Modern Art• Pollock found inspiration

in African sculpture, prehistoric art, Egyptian

art, Navajo sand painting and its ritual, and Jungian

psychoanalysis.• Having traveled around

the southwestern states when he was younger,

Pollock was exposed to the ritual and tradition of

Native American sandpainting.

Postcard showing creation of large Sandpainting


• Pollock was also reacting to his teacher, Thomas Hart Benton, (1889-1975).

• Benton was a Regionalist painter and mentored Pollock at the Art Students League in NYC.

Thomas Hart Benton, City Building, 1930. Distemper and egg temperea on gessoed linen with oil glaze, 7’8” x 9’9”. Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United

States.

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-benton-thomas-hart.htm

• Pollock, like many other artists, including Abstract Expressionists, was interested in the archetype.

André Masson, Pasiphaë, 1943. Oil and tempera on canvas, 39 ¾ x 50”. Private Collection.

Jackson Pollock, Pasiphaë, 1943. Oil on canvas, 27 ½ x 48”. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

• Here we see the influential artist André Masson and his depiction of Pasiphaë, a topic Pollock also painted the same year.


Lee Krasner (1908-1984)•She, like many Abstract Expressionist artists, worked under the Federal Arts Program, was a student of Hans Hofmann, was devoted to the non-objectivist styling of Mondrian, and exhibited as a Cubist abstraction artist. •Like her contemporary, Elaine de Kooning, Krasner is often overshadowed as an artist because of her marriage to Jackson Pollock.•Her marriage to Pollock was tempestuous and his sudden death in 1956 in a drunk driving accident caused great stress.•Here, she hints at the pressure of being cast in her husband’s shadow through her metaphoric use of his cut-up canvas collaged with her own. Lee Krasner, Milkweed, 1955. Oil,

paper, and canvas collage on canvas, 82 ⅜” x 57 ¾”. Albright-Knox Gallery,

Buffalo, NY.

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-krasner-lee.htm


• Like Picasso before her, Krasner embraced the collage technique to create this and other works.

Lee Krasner, Milkweed, 1955. Oil, paper, and canvas collage on

canvas, 82 ⅜” x 57 ¾”

Pablo Picasso, Guitar, Sheet Music, and Wine Glass, Fall 1912. pasted papers,

gouache, and charcoal on paper, 18 7/8” x 14 ¾”. McNay Art Museum ,San Antonio.


• Although her technique in creating this work is similar to Pollock’s drip technique, Krasner did not permit herself the same degree of freedom and spontaneity.

• Unlike Pollock, she had usually worked on a smaller scale using the kitchen table as her easel, not the floor as Pollock had done.

Lee Krasner, Polar Stampede, 1960. Oil on cotton duck, 7’9⅝” x 13’ 3 ¾”. Collection

Pollock Krasner Foundation.


Willem de Kooning (1904-1997)•Like Pollock, de Kooning is a primary figure amongst the New York School of Abstract Expressionists.•De Kooning’s contribution to Abstract Expressionism rivals Pollock’s drip style.•With critics like Greenberg demanding the object be painted out of the canvas, de Kooning paints it back in never actually evacuating the object or figure.

Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950-52. Oil on canvas, 6’3 ⅞” x 4’10”. Museum of

Modern Art, NYC.

http://www.theartstory.org/artist-de-kooning-willem.htm




• De Kooning was heavily influenced by Stuart Davis (1894-1964), Arshile Gorky, and Russian painter, John Graham.

Stuart Davis, Report from Rockport, 1940. Oil on canvas, 24” x 30”.

Metropolitan Museum of Ar, NYC.

Willem de Kooning, Gotham News, 1955. Oil on canvas, 5’9” x 6’7”.

Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY.

Abstract Expressionism: The Gestural Painters• De Kooning had a unique

ability to work in both representational and abstract modes, he did not believe one to be mutually exclusive of the other.

• His Painting from 1948 uses enamel paint and fluid line.

• De Kooning assimilates the principles of Cubism.

• Reminiscent of Pollock’s drip technique, which he credited as “breaking the ice” he allows the paint to cascade down the canvas.

Willem de Kooning, Painting, 1948. Enamel and oil on canvas, 42 ⅝” x 56 ⅛”. Museum of

Modern Art, NYC.


Willem de Kooning (1904-1997)•De Kooning is best known for his Woman series. •De Kooning uses energetic gestural strokes that are aggressive and seem spontaneous; in fact he worked and reworked this piece for 18 months.•De Kooning made numerous sketches to realize this piece (contrary to the spontaneity often associated with the movement).

– Quite often it is the case that characteristics of a style are asserted after the movement by critics and historians.

– No one painter ever fits the formula composed in any given history of a movement.

Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950-52. Oil on canvas, 6’3 ⅞” x 4’10”.

Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

Schools of Modern ArtElaine de Kooning (1918-1989)•A painter in her own right, Elaine de Kooning is often over-looked because of her marriage to Willem de Kooning.•She is best known for her portraits, specifically of male athletes, political figures (JFK), and art critics.•She herself was an accomplished art critic.•Here she paints critic Harold Rosenberg, a contemporary and adversary of Clement Greenberg.•Process is most evident, the physical act of painting is made clear trough her gestural brushstrokes.

Elaine de Kooning, Harold Rosenberg #3, 1956. Oil on

canvas, 6’8” x 4’10 ⅞”. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.


Franz Kline (1910-1962)•Found inspiration in the energy of contemporary American culture.

– Influenced by Mondrian– Influenced by Rembrandt and Goya

•Prior to arriving at mature Abstract Expressionist style, Kline worked painted in the style of Social Realism.•His iconic imagery, seen on the right, was arrived through experimentation with a slide projector.

– Works like Nijinsky are high focused images of the artist’s brushstroke.

•Unlike Pollock Kline was not invested in myth, the sublime of Rothko and Newman, or spontaneity of de Kooning.

Franz Kline, Nijinsky, 1950. Enamel on canvas, 46” x 35 ¼”. Collection Muriel

Kallis Newman, Chicago.


Franz Kline, Nijinsky, 1950. Enamel on canvas, 46” x 35 ¼”. Collection Muriel Kallis Newman,

Chicago.

• His 1950, Nijinsky is based on a photograph of the Russian dancer as Petrushka in Stravinsky’s ballet.

Stravinsky with Nijinsky as Petrushka, c.1911.


• Although labeled an “action painter” Kline’s process involved careful sketches and preparatory drawings often on phonebooks before the perceived spontaneous marks were set to canvas.

• Mahoning takes its name from his native town in Pennsylvania town which inspired the artist.

• To realize his paintings, Kline worked on un-stretched canvas tacked to a wall; this allowed him to be in the painting in a way that was similar to but different than Pollock’s process of painting on the floor.

Franz Kline, Mahoning, 1956. Oil on canvas, 6’8” x 8’4”. Whitney Museum of

American Art, NYC.

Abstract Expressionism: The Color Field SchoolMark Rothko (1903-1970)•Represents alternative approach to gestural style of painting associated with Pollock and de Kooning.•Rothko resisted most labels including designation as Color Field and abstract painter.•The 1940s witnessed Rothko’s interest in biomorphic forms and Surrealist inspired figures.•Rothko, along with Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974) and Barnet Newman (1905-1970) shared an interest in the archetype, primitive, and archaic.

– This was inspired somewhat from the writings of Nietzsche and Jung.

Mark Rothko, No. 1 (No. 18, 1948), 1948-1949. Oil on canvas, 67 11/16” x 55 14/16”. Frances Lehman Loeb

Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY.

Abstract Expressionism: The Color Field School

Mark Rothko (1903-1970)•Prior to arriving at his signature style of color blocking, Rothko worked in the figurative.•This piece was produced by the artist while working under the Federal Art Program.

– Under this program Rothko painted many scenes reminiscent of American Scene Painters and Ashcan School including the urban landscapes.

•His Subway Scene already displays his mature approach of blocking off colors and leaving visible the artist’s hand and process.•Mentored under Arshile Gorky at the Grand Central School of Art in NYC.

Mark Rothko, Subway Scene, 1938. Oil on canvas, 34” x 46”. Collection

Christopher Rothko.

• The floating forms seen in his No.1 would merge to create the quasi-defined blocks of color that define his work from the 1950s.

• Be aware, Rothko (and other artists) have been known to change the dates on their pieces.

– In Rothko’s case, he often backdates his work; this explains why one sees various dates associated with his paintings.

Mark Rothko, Untitled (Rothko, number 5068.49), 1949. Oil on

canvas, 6’9 ⅜” x 5’ 6 ⅜”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Mark Rothko, "No. 1 (Untitled),”1948. Oil on canvas, 8' 10 3/8" x 9' 9 1/4," Museum of Modern Art.


Mark Rothko (1903-1970)•By 1949, Rothko arrives at his signature style-rectangular bands of color floating in a colored field.•To achieve his desired effect, Rothko applied thin layers of paint of great color range blurring the rectangular shapes.•Using both warm and cool colors Rothko sets in motion Hofmann’s push-pull theory.•The result is a mesmerizing image that when one gazes long enough undulates against the ambiguous background.

– If you are near a museum with any one of his Color Field paintings give yourself time to gaze and experience the hypnotic effects.

Mark Rothko, Untitled (Rothko, number 5068.49), 1949. Oil on

canvas, 6’9 ⅜” x 5’ 6 ⅜”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.


Mark Rothko (1903-1970)•The late 1950s Rothko abandons the bright colors of his 1940s paintings for a darker and macabre palette.•By the time he receives a commission for the Four Seasons restaurant in the Seagram Building in NY -one he most likely never had plans on actually completing or at the very least creating a series the restaurant would reject, he had formed an antagonistic relationship with the art world and began to spiral into a depression.

– He commits suicide by overdosing on antidepressants and cutting his wrists in 1970. Mark Rothko, White and Greens in

Blue, 1957. Oil on canvas, 8' 4" x 6' 10 ”. Private Collection.


"If you are only moved by color relationships, then you miss the point. I'm interested in expressing the big emotions—tragedy, ecstasy, doom.

-Mark Rothko

Mark Rothko, Rothko Chapel, North, Northeast, and East wall paintings, 1965-1966. Oil on canvas,

Houston, Texas. Opened 1971.

Mark Rothko, Entrance to Rothko Chapel, 1965-1966. Oil on canvas,

Houston, Texas. Opened 1971

What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act of defiance against mans fall and an assertion

that he return to the Garden of Eden? For the artists are the first men.”

— Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman, Genesis- The Break, 1946. Oil on canvas, 24” x 27”. Collection DIA

Center for the Arts, NY.


Barnett Newman (1905-1970)•Like many from the New York School Newman studied at the Art Students League in NY during the 1920s.•He gained recognition as a writer, critic, curator, and even runs for NYC mayor in 1933 but loses to Henry La Guardia•Throughout the 1940s, he worked in a Surrealist style before reaching his signature Abstract Expressionist style.


Barnett Newman (1905-1970)•Newman’s abstract style differs greatly from his contemporaries.

– He does not reject the painterly surface like his colleagues.

•His work would become a major influence on later generations, especially Minimalist painters of the 1960s.•Like many of his contemporaries, Newman shared an interest in the sublime, the primitive unconscious, and myth.•He also studied and took as his subject the myth of creation and cosmic theories of birth and creation.

Barnett Newman, Genesis- The Break, 1946. Oil on

canvas, 24” x 27”. Collection DIA Center for the Arts, NY.


Barnett Newman (1905-1970)•Newman’s abstract style differs greatly from his contemporaries.

– He does not reject the painterly surface like his colleagues.

•His work would become a major influence on later generations, especially Minimalist painters of the 1960s.•Like many of his contemporaries, Newman shared an interest in the sublime, the primitive unconscious, and myth.•He also studied and took as his subject the myth of creation and cosmic theories of birth and creation.

Barnett Newman, Onement, I, 1948. Oil on canvas and oil on masking tape on canvas, 27 ¼” x 16 ¼”. Museum of

Modern Art, NYC.


Barnett Newman (1905-1970)•Newman’s , Onement, I, is considered his breakthrough painting.•The artist employs his “Newman Zips” (these became his signature gesture).

– To create these zips, the artist would usually apply tape to the canvas and then painted over it and around it.

– The “Zip” remained a constant feature throughout the full extent of his career.

– The “Zip” represents many things and still elicits debate.

Barnett Newman, Onement, I, 1948. Oil on canvas and oil on masking tape on canvas, 27 ¼” x 16 ¼”. Museum of

Modern Art, NYC.

• Newman’s , Onement, I, often draws comparison to Giacometti’s sculpture including Man Pointing and existentialist thought.

• Giacometti’s sculpture advertises man’s realization of his limitations in this world.

• Newman’s zips have been interpreted as representing the upright human figure.

Alberto Giacometti, Man Pointing, 1947. Bronze, 70 ½” x 40 ¾” x 16 3/8”. Tate,

London.

Barnett Newman, Onement, I, 1948. Oil on canvas and oil on

masking tape on canvas, 27 ¼” x 16 ¼”. Museum of Modern Art,

NYC.

• His Onement I often draws comparison to Friedrich’s, Monk by the Sea.

• Newman shared a deep interest in the sublime.

Casper David Friedrich, Monk by the Sea, 1808-1810. Oil on canvas, 43.3” x46.5”. Alte

Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

Barnett Newman, Onement I, 1948. Oil on canvas, 27 1/4 x

16 1/4" . MoMA, NYC


Barnett Newman (1905-1970)•Newman's Vir Heroicus Sublimis is a mature realization of his “Zip” gesture.•The zips in this work differ in color and intensity.•All maintain human scale reflective of humanist ideology.

Barnett Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimis (Heroic Sublime Man), 1950-51. Oil on canvas, 7’11 ⅜” x 17’ 9 ¼”. Museum of

Modern Art, NYC.


Barnett Newman (1905-1970)•Newman’s Stations of the Cross, a series of 14 canvases painted between the years 1958 and 1964, represent a sentiment shared with many Abstract Expressionist artists who sough to surround the viewer with large canvases or installations.•For the series, the artist restricted himself to unprimed canvas hosting black and white paint.

– The nature of the zip (its thickness and quality of shape) vary as do the materials used (his pigment switches between Magna, oil, and acrylic).

Barnett Newman, Installation view of The Stations of the Cross, 1966. Guggenheim

Museum, NYC. Now at National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.


Barnett Newman (1905-1970)•The subject of Stations is the Passion of Christ.•The series was inspired and takes its subtitle from the cry Lema Sabachthani" (God, Why have you forsaken me?) •Newman selected the topic to explore “the unanswerable question of human suffering”.

Barnett Newman, The First Station, from of The Stations of the Cross, 1966.

Magna, acrylic, and oil on unprimed canvas, approximately 78” x 60”

each. National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.


Clyfford Still (1904-1980)•Still comes to NY bay way of San Francisco.

– San Francisco differed greatly in from the New York School its style, approach to painting, and general ideology.

•He rarely exhibited rejecting the NY art scene.

– Still shared the West Coast artists’ skepticism and disdain for the art establishment (its galleries and museums) and commercial success.

Clyfford Still, Number 2, 1949. Oil on canvas, 7’8” x 5’7”. Private Collection

June Lang Davis, Medina, Washington.


Clyfford Still (1904-1980)•Unlike his NY contemporaries, Still denied any influence from Surrealism or interest in mythmaking shared by Rothko, Pollock, and Newman.

Clyfford Still, Number 2, 1949. Oil on canvas, 7’8” x 5’7”. Private Collection

June Lang Davis, Medina, Washington.


Clyfford Still (1904-1980)•Still’s work never fully evacuated the figural. •To avoid his work from being associated with any particular subject Still, like many Abstract Expressionists, refused to title his works opting for the more designative date and more neutral identifiers.

Clyfford Still, 1947-J, 1947. Oil on canvas, 68” x 62”. Albright-Knox

Art Gallery.

Abstract Expressionism: The Color Field SchoolRobert Motherwell (1915-1990)•Compared to his older contemporaries, Motherwell had a considerable education in art history, literature, and philosophy.

– His 1951 anthology The Dada Painters and Poets was an instrumental source responsible for introducing Dada to the New York School.

•As a painter, Motherwell was mostly self-trained aside from time spent with Surrealist artist Kurt Seligmann.•Motherwell’s association with Ernst, Masson, and Matta introduced Surrealist automatism to his technique.

Robert Motherwell, Pancho Villa, Dead and Alive, 1943. Gouache and oil with

cut-and-pasted papers on cardboard, 28” x 35 ⅞”. Museum of Modern Art, NYC.


Robert Motherwell (1915-1990)•The Elegy series represents Motherwell’s best known work and his mature style.•Inspired by the defeat of the Spanish Republic in 1939, Motherwell commenced the series creating over 150 works throughout the course of his life.•The series consists of predominantly black and white forms arranged in simple vertical composition.

Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic No. 34, 1953-54. Oil on canvas, 6’8”

x 8’ 4”. Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY.


• As Abstract Expressionism continued to develop as a style of painting, sculpture evolved in its own form.

David Smith, The Royal Bird, 1947-1948. Steel, bronze, and stainless steel, 21 ¾” x 59” x 9”. Walker Art Center,

Minneapolis.

New American Sculpture c. 1946-1960s


• Never formally trained as a sculptor; learned iron working at an automobile plant and working on trains.

• Drew inspiration from the sculpture of Pablo Picasso and Julio González who taught Picasso how to weld.

• His work from the 1930s and 1940s draws inspiration from their Surrealist sculpture.

David Smith, The Royal Bird, 1947-1948. Steel, bronze, and stainless steel, 21 ¾”

x 59” x 9”. Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

David Smith (1906-1965)•American sculptor who studied painting at the Art Students League under Ashcan artist John Sloan (1871-1951).

Pablo Picasso, Woman in the Garden, 1929-30. Bronze after iron original, 6’10 ¾” high. Museu Picasso de Barcelona.

Julio González, Cactus I or Cactus Man I, 1937; bronze, 26” high. Guggenheim

Museum, NYC.


David Smith (1906-1965)•His work from the 1950s the work of his contemporaries like Adolph Gottlieb.

David Smith, The Letter, 1950. Welded steel, 37 ⅝” x 22 ⅞” x 9 ¼”. Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute of

Art, Utica, NY.

David Smith, The Letter, 1950. Welded steel, 37 ⅝” x 22 ⅞” x 9 ¼”. Munson-Williams-

Proctor Institute of Art, Utica, NY.

Adolph Gottlieb, Voyager’s Return, 1946. Oil on canvas, 37 ⅞“ x 29 ⅞”.


Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974)•Like Smith, Gottlieb study under John Sloan as well as Robert Henri at the Art Students League.•Works like Gottlieb’s Voyager’s Return take inspiration from a variety of sources including the writings of Jung, knowledge of the work of friends and contemporaries like Rothko and Milton Avery, as well as European modernists (Mondrian, Míro, and Klee), African and Native American culture.•Smith’s work from the 1950s has an affinity to Gottlieb’s pictographs which read like a compilation of mysterious signs.

Adolph Gottlieb, Voyager’s Return, 1946. Oil on canvas, 37 ⅞“ x 29 ⅞”.


• Later works like Sentinel I, seem to embody the Constructivist ideas of sculptor Naum Gabo.

David Smith, Sentinel I, 1956. Painted steel, 89 ⅝” x 16 ⅞” x 22 ⅝”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Naum Gabo, Column, 1923, reconstructed in 1937; wood,

painted metal, and glass, (later replaced with Perspex). Guggenheim

Museum, NYC.


David Smith (1906-1965)•His later series, Cubi represents his mature work.•The scale of this work is monumental, his materials specific. •In the Cubi series he allows for a high polish to create dazzling effects with the sunlight.•His work becomes a primary inspiration for 1960s Minimalist artists.

David Smith, (left) Cubi XVIII, 1964. Stainless steel, height 9’ 8,” (center) Cubi XVII, 1963. Stainless steel, height 9,’ (right) Cubi XIX, 1964. Stainless steel, height

9’ 5”. Dallas Museum of Art.


Mark di Suvero (b.1933)•Considerably younger than artists of first generation, di Suvero translates the calligraphic strokes of Kline into three dimensional media.•The artist uses various materials, including found objects to create his large scale sculptures.

Mark di Suvero, Hankchampion, 1960. Wood and chains, nine wooden pieces, overall 6’5” x

12’ 5” x 8’9”. Whitney Museum of Art.

• Di Suvero’s Hankchampion, 1960 looks like a literal translation of Kline’s Mahoning from 1956.

Mark di Suvero, Hankchampion, 1960. Wood and chains, nine wooden pieces, overall

6’5” x 12’ 5” x 8’9”. Whitney Museum of Art.

Franz Kline, Mahoning, 1956. Oil on canvas, 6’8” x 8’4”. Whitney Museum of American

Art, NYC.

Mark di Suvero’s Hankchampion (1960) and Franz Kline’s Mahonig (1956) in "The Third Mind” Exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, 2009.

Isamu Noguchi (1904-1988)•American born, Noguchi had a very different wartime experience than his contemporaries.

– Because he was of Japanese heritage, Noguchi spent time in a Japanese interment camp voluntarily as research.

•He studied the work of the Cubists, Surrealists, and Constructivists while in Paris. •His work recalls Rothko and others interest in the archetype and modernizes the sculpture of ancient cultures, including Greece.

Isamu Noguchi, Kouros, 1944-45. Pink Georgia marble on slate base, 117” x 34 ⅛” x 42”. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

• In Kouros he evokes the human form in name and shape.– The title is taken from ancient

Greek sculpture and the form recalls the biomorphic imagery of artists like Miró.

Isamu Noguchi, Kouros, 1944-45. Pink Georgia marble on slate base, 117” x 34 ⅛” x

42”. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

NY/MET Kouros or Naxos Kouros, ca. 600B CE,

Naxian marble, 6’ ½ ”high. Metropolitan Museum of

Art.


Isamu Noguchi, Kouros, 1944-45. Pink Georgia marble on slate base, 117” x

34 ⅛” x 42”. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Joan Miró, The Poetess from the Constellation Series, December 31, 1940. Gouache and oil wash on paper, 15 x 18”.

Private Collection.


Louise Bourgeois (1911-2010)•Recently deceased artist, Louise Bourgeois, worked in many media but is primarily known as a sculptor.•Her early career began as a Surrealist artist and the movement made a lasting impact on her oeuvre.•Her work, featured here, resembles Surrealist artist Giacometti own.•Her work always is autobiographical and contains psychic associations.

Louise Bourgeois, Quarantania I, 1947-1953. Painted wood on wood base, 62 ⅜” x 11 ¾”. Museum of Modern Art, NYC.

Louise Bourgeois, Listening One, 1947. Bronze, painted white, life-size.

Galerie Karsten Greve and Galerie Hauser & Wirth.

Louise Bourgeois, Personages, begun 1940s. Originally carved wood, many later cast in

bronze, life-size. Guggenheim Museum, NYC.

Alberto Giacometti, The Forest (Composition with Seven Figures and One Head), 1950. Painted bronze, 22” x 24” x

19 ¼”. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC.

Louise Bourgeois, Personages, begun 1940s. Originally carved wood, many later

cast in bronze, life-size. Guggenheim Museum, NYC.

Modernist PhotographyRobert Capa (1913-1954)•Modernist photographer Robert Capa successfully captures expressivist potential of his medium•Here, a photography of the storming of the beaches at Normandy, appears blurry as if to capture the action of the event.•The fluidity of paint seems to have influenced the photographer in his choice of composition.•Capa translated the painter’s need to express him/herself in pigment to his own need to unveil the truth of war.

Robert Capa, Normandy Invasion, June 6,1944. Gelatin-silver print. Magnum Photos.

Modernist Photography

Aaron Siskind (1903-1991)•In comparison to Capa, Siskind took a metaphorical approach to photography.•Siskind attempts to realize the gestural imagery of Abstract Expressionist painters through his careful selection of subjects to photograph.

– He photographed sides of buildings, graffiti, the detritus of modern living.

• His work bears a striking resemblance to the imagery of Franz Kline.

Aaron Siskind, Chicago, 1949. Gelatin-silver print. Smart Museum of Art, University of

Chicago.

Aaron Siskind, Chicago, 1949. Gelatin-silver print. Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago.

Franz Kline, Mahoning, 1956. Oil on canvas, 6’8” x 8’4”. Whitney Museum of American

Art, NYC.

• The two pieces here demonstrate the artists took part in conversation; each paying homage to the other in their respective media.

Aaron Siskind, Jalapa 66, from Homage to Franz Kline, begun December 1972. Museum of Contemporary

Photography, Chicago.

Franz Kline, Siskind, 1958. Oil on canvas, 80” x 111”. The Detroit Institute of the Arts.

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