The Abstract Expressionists

59 Pages·1987·27.347 MB·English

by  Eugene Victor Thaw

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The
Abstract
Expressionists
EUGENEV ICTORT HAW
The
Museum
Metropolitan
of Art
THE METROPOLITAN ON FEBRUARY 3 the Metropolitan promised gifts of groups of works. The
MUSEUMO F ART BULLETIN
Museum will open the Lila Acheson first, in 1981,w as the promised gift of
Winter 1986/87
VolumeX LIV Number 3 Wallace Wing for twentieth-century art. seventy-two works from Muriel Kallis
(ISSN0 026-1521) For the first time the Museum will have a Steinberg Newman. This Chicago collec-
Published quarterly ? 1987 by The Metropolitan Museum permanent home for its collection of tion, renowned for its Abstract
o1f0 0A2r8t., SFeicfothn dA-cvleanssu e apnodst a8g2en d pSatidre eatt, NNeeww YYoorrkk,, NN..YY.. and works dating from 1900 to the present: Expressionist paintings, dramatically
Additional Mailing Offices. Tbe Metropolitan Museum of more than eight thousand paintings, strengthened the Museum's holdings
Art Bulletin is provided as a benefit to Museum members
and available by subscription. Subscriptions $18.00 a year. works on paper, and pieces of sculpture, of postwar art. Nine of Mrs. Newman's
Sofi nagdled rceosps.i esP O$S4T.7M5A. FSToEuRr : wSeeenkds' andodtricees s recqhuainrgeeds ftoor Mcheamng- e as well as a design and architecture col- works are illustrated here, including
bership Department, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, lection. The wing is named for the de Kooning's Attic (fig. 19),o ne of the
Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10028. Back
issues available on microfilm, from University Microfilms, cofounder of Reader's Digest, who in her artist's finest paintings and one that has
313 N. First Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan. Volumes I- long association with the Metropolitan been at the Metropolitan since 1982. Sev-
XXVIII (1905-1942) available as a clothbound reprint set
or as individual yearly volumes from The Ayer Company, became one of its single greatest bene- eral other gifts have greatly expanded our
fPruobmli sthheer sM, uIsnecu.,m 9, 9 BMoxa in7 0S0t,r eMeti,d dSlael eVmi,l laNg.eH, . N0.3Y0.7 191, 3o7r9 . factors. Mrs. Wallace, who died in 1984, Abstract Expressionist collection-from
General Manager of Publications: John P. O'Neill. Editor donated the major portion of the funding Lee Krasner, the Mark Rothko Founda-
in Chief of the Bulletin: Joan Holt. Editor: Joanna Ekman.
Design: Betty Binns for the construction of the building and tion, and from the family of the late
Statement of Ownership Management and for the endowment of its operating costs. Audrey and Thomas B. Hess-and these
Circulation We are also greatly indebted to New York are represented in the Bulletin by impres-
Title ofpublication: THEM ETROPOLITAMNU SEUMO FA RT City for a generous contribution to the sively strong works by leading members
BULLETIN
Publication no.: 0026-1521 construction of the wing, which was of this New York school.
DFraetqe uoefnfcilyin ogf: isSseupet:e mFobuerr ti4m, e1s9 8p6e r year designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo In 1982 Metropolitan received from the
No. of issuespublished annually: Four and Associates. estate of Scofield Thayer the bequest of
Annual subscriptionprice: $18.00, or Free to Museum
Members Well before the opening of the Lila a major private art collection. It com-
L82oncdat iSotnr eoetf, kNnoewwn Yoofrfkic,e N of.Ypu. b1l0i0ca2t8i on: Fifth Ayenue and Acheson Wallace Wing, the Metropolitan 'prises 343 works, including paintings by
Names and addresses ofpublisber editor, and managing edi- made a firm commitment to contem- Picasso, Braque, Munch, and Matisse,
tor: Publisher: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth
Avenue and 82nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10028; Editor: porary art. The Museum began col- and was assembled between 1919a nd
Joan Holt, Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, New York, N.Y. lecting the art of its time by acquiring 1924, when Thayer was editor of the
10028; Managing Editor: None
Owner: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue and commissioning works by the literary magazine The Dial. Two years
aKnndo w82nn bdo nSdtrheoeltd, eNrse, wm oYrotrgka,g eNe.sY, a1n0d0 2o8th er security bolders sculptor Rodin shortly after its founding later, in 1984, Heinz Berggruen, a col-
owning or holding one percent or more of tbe total amount of in 1870.O ther major early acquisitions lector and art dealer living in Geneva,
bonds, mortgages, and otber securities: None
were two Manets in 1889, Renoir's gave ninety works by Klee-a gift that
Averacgoep nieus mdbuerri nogf Single issue Madame Charpentier and Her Children in makes the Metropolitan the second most
preceding 12 months nearest to 1907,a nd Cezanne's La Colline des Pauvres important Klee center in the world.
(Sept. 85- filing date
Aug. 86) (Aug. 86) from the landmark 1913A rmory Show. These donations have immeasurably
A. Total copies printed (net Purchase funds given by George A. enriched our holdings and make the task
press run) 124,517 124,810 Hearn in 1906 and 1911( the latter in of building a more systematic and com-
B. Paid and/or requested
circulation honor of his son Arthur) were designated prehensive twentieth-century collection
1. Scaarlersie rths,r osutrgehe t dveeanledrosr, s, for works by living American artists. In less formidable.
and counter sales none none 1949 the Metropolitan received the Alfred We are grateful to Eugene Victor Thaw,
2. Mail subscription (paid
and/or requested) 119,250 119,500 Stieglitz Collection, which included coauthor with Francis V O'Connor of the
C. Total paid and/or works by such American Modernists as catalogue raisonne of Jackson Pollock,
requested circulation 119,250 119,500
D. Free distribution by mail, Dove and O'Keeffe and by the European for having provided the text of this
carrier or other means, artists Brancusi, Matisse, Picabia, and Bulletin. The solid scholarship that Mr.
samples, complimentary,
and other free copies 1,000 1,000 Picasso. In 1970 we established the Thaw brings to his discussion of the
E. CTo atnadl dDis)t ribution (sum of 120,250 120,500 Department of Twentieth Century Art, Metropolitan Museum's Abstract Expres-
F. Copies not distributed headed by Henry Geldzahler. sionists is further informed by his own
1. Left over, unaccounted, Under the guidance of William S. broad experience as a dealer, collector,
spoilage 4,517 4,810
2. Returns from news Lieberman, who became chairman in and critic.
agents none none
1979,a fter the death of the consultative
G. Total (sum of E, Fl and 2) 124,517 124,810 chairman, Thomas B. Hess, the depart- Philippe de Montebello
ment has been extremely fortunate to DIRECTOR
receive several outstanding gifts and
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®
www.jstor.org
following fourteen artists, only two of
rom about 1945t o 1950,t he years Introduction whom are still alive:
immediately following the Second
World War, in one of those mysterious Hans Hofmann 1880-1966
transformations of cultural history, a Bradley WalkerT omlin 1899-1953
small group of American painters Adolph Gottlieb 1903-1974
working mostly in New York became the MarkR othko 1903-1970
leading edge of avant-garde art and Arshile Gorky 1904-1948
changed the direction of painting Willem de Kooning 1904-
throughout the world. Although these ClyffordS till 1904-1980
artists did not form a stylistically cohesive Barnett Newman 1905-1970
group-and they insisted vehemently on Lee Krasner 1908-1984
their individuality-they nevertheless FranzK line 1910-1962
recognized themselves as a fraternity. William Baziotes 1912-1963
They were mostly well acquainted with Jackson Pollock 1912-1956
each other, and, with reservations, Philip Guston 1913-1980
tended to acknowledge the various labels Robert Motherwell 1915-
under which art critics and historians
Of course there are other artists repre-
subsequently placed them: New York sented in the Museum's collection who
School, Action Painters, or, most could have been included: Jack Tworkov,
commonly, Abstract Expressionists. The for instance, James Brooks, or Richard
success attained by the work of the Pousette-Dart and Ad Reinhardt. The
Abstract Expressionist painters caused Metropolitan owns work by each of these
many others to emulate them and, later, artists, whose careers overlapped the
to react against them. Both the critics and mainstream of Abstract Expressionism
the artists themselves subsequently but were not central to its development.
differentiated "First Generation"
The list does include Arshile Gorky, who
1
Abstract Expressionists from those of died in 1948, well before the Abstract
the "Second Generation." In this essay we LAaRnSdHsILcaEGp Oe,R 1K9Y3 3 Expressionists triumphed on the world
are concerned with the so-called First
Oil on canvas art scene. Gorky was a precursor and
Generation as they are represented in the 25 x 21 in.; 63.5 x 53.3c m a transitional figure, whose brilliant
collection of The Metropolitan Museum Gift of Dr. MeyerA . Pearlman, 1964 (64.177) last years saw a rich outpouring of draw-
of Art. Every book on the Abstract ings and paintings that bridged the
Expressionists contains a slightly tremendous gap between sophisticated
different list of those who qualify for
European Modernism and what had
membership in the movement-lists remained until then insular and provin-
determined by taste, bias, or arbitrary
cial American styles. Hans Hofmann is
dates. The Department of Twentieth not included in every art historian's list of
Century Art has its own list to define the the First Generation: He was much older
First Generation, a list consisting of the than the others, and was a European
artist who had fully matured as a painter
before arriving in the United States. He
was, however, a stimulating teacher and a
3
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®
www.jstor.org
2
ARSHILEG ORKY
Watero f the FloweryM ill, 1944
Oil on canvas
412 x 483Ain .; 107.3x 123.8c m
George A. Hearn Fund, 1956( 56.205.1)
Although his pictures were
composed carefully and deliberately,
Gorky achieved a look of
unconscious expression and
spontaneity through various
strategies including thinning his
paints.
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pervasive influence on many artists of De Kooning, Pollock's rival as leading
the 1940s and 50s, and his own late work painter of the group (and still his rival
clearly became a part of the Abstract today in the loyalties of the divided camps
Expressionist aesthetic. of critics and art historians), was a close
Of the Metropolitan's group, only Lee friend and, for a time, a disciple of Gorky,
Krasner was an actual student in whose connections with traditional
Hofmann's school. Now recognized as an European painting were very strong.
important painter of the period, Krasner De Kooning's career shows a less radical
-the only woman among the fourteen break with the past than that of Pollock,
artists we are discussing-lived with and Still, or Rothko. He too, like Pollock,
was subsequently married to Jackson moved to The Springs but much later-
Pollock from 1942 until his death in 1956. he was there intermittently during the
Her own career and considerable talent 1950s and settled permanently in 1963.
were overlooked in most early critical Rothko, Gottlieb, Still, and Newman by
surveys of Abstract Expressionism, no means constituted a coherent group,
because as the devoted wife of that diffi- nor did their works resemble one
cult and troubled giant of the group she another's, yet they did form a kind of
seemed to stand in his shadow. Today coterie among the Abstract Expres-
numerous historical exhibitions and new sionists by virtue of certain shared ideas
research have conclusively shown that her about the act of painting and, more
own work and her visual sensibility particularly, about the content or
played an important role in Pollock's meaning of abstract art. These four had
development, and that her forceful both philosophical and mystical aspira-
personality and keen intelligence were tions; they tended to characterize the
very much appreciated in New York artist in the modern world as a kind of
School circles. (The Metropolitan shaman or magician-priest who could
possesses only a late painting by Krasner restore our contact with primordial
-as well as two drawings-so she will knowledge, and revitalize myths and
join Tworkov, Brooks, Reinhardt, beliefs that had been lost. The four artists
and Pousette-Dart in the epilogue to in this subgroup leapt from early work of
our survey.) primarily documentary interest to a full-
Among the rest of the artists on the blown personal style or "image" that each
Museum's list, other personal and stra- maintained with only slight variations for
tegic groupings that took place should the remainder of his life.
be noted. Except for his marriage to Like Pollock and de Kooning, Mother-
Krasner, Pollock remained something of 3 well, the youngest of the Abstract
a loner. Although he knew most of the WILLIAMB AZIOTES Expressionists, has had a career marked
artists of the group quite well and was Dragon, 1950 by many complex developments and
during a certain period their acknowl- Oil on canvas changes. His aesthetic homeland has
edged leader, he belonged to no 4734 x 393Ai n.; 121.3 x 100.9 cm always been the Cubist collage, as origi-
particular clique. He was also the first to Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1950( 50.27) nated by Braque and Picasso just before
leave New York City to settle and work far the First World War. Indeed, in his taste
4
in the country (The Springs, East and elegance, Motherwell is as much a
PHILIPG USTON
Hampton, Long Island-which in 1945
The Performers, 1947
was very rural).
Oil on canvas
481/2x 323/ in.; 123.3x 82.2 cm
Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, 1950( 50.32)
6
performer in the tradition of French Philip Guston's career was certainly the
5
Modernism as he is an American postwar most curious and problematic of any of
painter. His group of works called Elegy ROBERT MOTHERWELL the fourteen artists under consideration.
La Danse II, 1952
to the Spanish Republic constitutes his He remained a traditional W.P.A.- trained
Oil on canvas
most pervasive and familiar motif, academic artist longer perhaps
60 x 76 in.; 152.4 x 193 cm
continuing to reappear as he develops than was considered seemly, turning to
George A. Hearn Fund, 1953 (53.94)
other, dissimilar series. William Baziotes, abstraction only in 1950.T he sensitive
a lesser-known artist among these brushwork of his brilliant early 50s
powerful colleagues, died at a relatively paintings, akin to passages in late
early age, only a few years after Pollock. semaphorlike sign pictures demonstrate Monets, finally dissolved, and at the end
His biomorphic imagery and the modest to perfection one kind of allover pattern of the 1960s Guston turned to a kind of
size of both his work and his ambition painting. Franz Kline, whose short and strange, symbolic, cartoonlike figuration
connect him to American between-the- brilliant career was almost entirely that has become influential in the
wars abstractionists such as Arthur contained within the decade of the 1950s, aesthetic of figurative Postmodernism.
Dove, but he also fitted well into Peggy was noted for his powerful use of black
Guggenheim's circle of artists influenced and white, continuing and developing a
by Surrealism. A poetic and elegant if theme already begun by de Kooning,
peripheral figure in the group was Pollock, and Motherwell in the late 40s.
Bradley Walker Tomlin (born in 1899, the Kline's dynamic and seemingly recklessly
oldest except for Hofmann), whose classic balanced black-and-white canvases owed
something as well to sources in both
earlier landscape paintings, such as
Marsden Hartley's Maine log-jams and
cataracts, and (despite the artist's denials)
Japanese Zen calligraphy.
7
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art
is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin ®
www.jstor.org
through the prodding and foresight of its
y gift and purchase, The Metro- The curators-Robert Beverly Hale, Henry
politan Museum of Art has Geldzahler, Thomas B. Hess, and
assembled a distinguished collection of Metropolitan William S. Lieberman-acquired highly
the work of the First Generation. Other
significant works by some of the group
institutions have become famous for Museum
fairly early in the game. In 1950 Baziotes's
their holdings in this field, but the Collection painting of the same year, Dragon (fig. 3),
Metropolitan, not hitherto noted for its was acquired as well as a transitional,
concentration in postwar art, now has a still figurative 1947 painting by Guston,
comprehensive representation of these The Performers (fig. 4). Motherwell's
painters that is probably second only to Matisse-inspired La Danse II of 1952
that of the Museum of Modern Art.
(fig. 5) was bought the following year,
The two greatest figures of the period, while Gorky's superb Water of the Flowery
Pollock and de Kooning, are particu- Mill was an inspired and timely purchase
larly well shown in the Metropolitan's in 1956, as was de Kooning's recently
collection, with several acknowledged painted Easter Monday of 1955-56 (covers,
masterworks. There remain, of course,
fig. 36). Pollock, who died during the
gaps to be filled and areas to be ex- summer of 1956, had been represented in
panded. There is only one painting the Metropolitan's collection since 1952 by
by Gorky (plus an early sketch), but a black-and-white painting of the
that landscape, a mature work, previous year. Robert Hale, who wanted
Water of the Flowery Mill (fig. 2), is cer- this museum to have one of Pollock's four
tainly one of his most beautiful. major mural-sized poured paintings,
The collection boasts several fine
negotiated with the artist's widow and the
Hofmanns. However, there are still no
Sidney Janis Gallery early in 1957,a nd in
early collages by Motherwell, and no an act of courage, finally acquired the
Krasners of her vintage years. The
great Autumn Rhythm (fig. 7) for $30,000
Metropolitan has splendid examples by (which included a $12,000 credit for the
Rothko, Kline, Still, Guston, Baziotes,
black-and-white canvas returned in the
and Gottlieb. A superb major Tomlin and transaction). In 1957t hat sum was an
a characteristic Barnett Newman were
almost unheard of price for an American
acquired by the Museum in 1953a nd 1968 painting, and it was a quantum leap for
respectively, just before the deaths of both the whole market for the Abstract
artists. In fact, the purchase policy of the Expressionists. After all, the greatest
Metropolitan with regard to this genera- museum in the nation-and one of the
tion of artists is one of the curious
greatest in the world-had given a vote
footnotes to the cultural history of our
of confidence to what was to some a
times and one of the unsung glories of the
wild and even subversive type of art.
Museum. Although looked upon in the
De Kooning, in a grudging tribute to
past as a bastion of conservatism, pick- Pollock's priority as an adventurer into
eted by advanced artists on occasion, and new artistic terrain, was once quoted as
never really considered a factor in
saying "Jackson broke the ice." So one
contemporary art, the Metropolitan, could also say of the Metropolitan's post-
6
humous purchase of a Pollock that it
ADOLPH GOTTLEB
Thrust, 1959
Oil on canvas
108x 90 in.; 228.5x 274.5c m
George A. Hearn Fund, 1959( 59.164)
B_sj_i_ ~~b;~
9