February 7
The New York School
WWII
1939 - 1945
Art of This Century Gallery
owned and operated by Peggy Guggenheim
Spring 1945 "A Problem for Critics" exhibit
Jackson Pollock
1912 - 1956
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"
Every so often, a painter has to destroy painting. Cezanne did it,
Picasso did it with Cubism. Then Pollock did it. He busted our idea
of a picture all to hell. Then there could be new paintings again."
- Willem de Kooning
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Jackson Pollock. Going West.
c. 1934 -35.
Emmerling, Leonhard. Pollock. Koln:
Taschen, 2003.
Jackson Pollock. Male and Female. c. 1942.
Jackson Pollock. The Moon
Woman. 1942.
Emmerling, Leonhard. Pollock. Koln:
Taschen, 2003.
Pollock standing in front of
blank canvas for Mural
Harrison, Helen A. ed. Such Desperate Joy:
Imagining Jackson Pollock. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 2000.
Jackson Pollock. Mural.
1943. 8' X 19'.
Emmerling, Leonhard. Pollock. Koln:
Taschen, 2003.
Thomas
Hart Benton. Palisades, from the series American Historical
Epic. 1919 - 1924.
Oil on cotton duck on aluminum honeycomb panel.
Richard
G. Tansey and Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages.
(Fort Worth: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1996) Tenth ed., 1049.
Jackson Pollock. The Key. 1946.
Jackson Pollock. Composition
with Pouring II. 1943.
Emmerling, Leonhard. Pollock. Koln:
Taschen, 2003.
Jackson Pollock. Cathedral. 1947.
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What's
so innovative about the drip paintings?
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All-over
composition
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Painted
horizontally, on the floor
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Painted
with sticks and house paint
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Draws
attention to the act of creation - the artist's "presence"
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Considers
space in a totally new way
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Jackson Pollock at work, 1950.
Salvador Dali. Christ of St. John of the Cross. 1951.
Jackson Pollock. Number 1. 1948.
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"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 fear of 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." "On the floor I am more at ease… This way I can… literally be I the painting…When I am in the painting I am not aware of what I am doing… There is pure harmony." - Jackson Pollock |
Jackson Pollock.
Autumn Rhythm (Number 30). 1950.
Stokstad,
Marilyn. Art History. Revised Second ed. Vol. 2. New York: Prentice
Hall Inc., and Harry N. Abrams, 2005.
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"My
opinion is that new needs need new techniques…the modern painter
cannot express his age, the airplane, the atom bomb, the radio in the
old forms of the Renaissance…the modern artist is living in a mechanical
age…working and expressing an inner world- in other words, expressing
the energy, the motion, and other inner forces." - Jackson Pollock
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Jackson Pollock. Blue Poles, Number 11. 1952.
August 8, 1949 issue of Life Magazine
Hans Namuth and Paul Falkenberg.
Stills from the film Jackson Pollock. 1951.
Emmerling, Leonhard. Pollock. Koln:
Taschen, 2003.
The Irascibles" from 1950,
published in Life Magazine, January 15, 1951.
Emmerling, Leonhard. Pollock. Koln:
Taschen, 2003.
Abstract Expressionism = term used to describe a wide variety of work produced in New York between 1940 and 1960
The New York School
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Sources
of direction that the New York School shared:
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Imperative
of social relevance
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Existentialism
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Surrealist
interest in the unconscious mind
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Mexican
muralist's belief in art for the people
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Absolute
individuality of the artist
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Two kinds
of Abstract Expressionism:
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Gestural
abstraction a.k.a. Action Painting
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Purified
abstraction a.k.a. Color Field Painting
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"At
a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter
after another as an arena in which to act- rather than a space in which
to reproduce, redesign, analyze or express an object, actual or imagined.
What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event." -
Harold Rosenberg
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Characteristics
of New York School:
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Large canvases
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Emphasis
on canvass's inherent flatness
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All over
approach
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Belief in
the individuality of the artist
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Lee Krasner
1908 - 1984
Jackson Pollock and Lee Krasner
in the studio. 1949.
Emmerling, Leonhard. Pollock. Koln:
Taschen, 2003.
Lee Krasner. Untitled. 1940.
Brach, Paul. "Lee Krasner: Front and
Center." Art in America. February 2001: 90 - 99.
Lee Krasner. Image Surfacing.
c. 1945.
Brach, Paul. "Lee Krasner: Front and
Center." Art in America. February 2001: 90 - 99.
Lee Krasner. Continuum.
1947- 49. 53 X 42 inches.
Brach, Paul. "Lee Krasner: Front and Center."
Art in America. February 2001: 90 - 99.
Lee Krasner. Noon. 1947.
Girls, Guerrilla. The Guerilla Girls' Bedside
Companion to the History of Western Art. New York: Penguin Books, 1998.
Lee Krasner. Volcanic. c.
1951.
Brach, Paul. "Lee Krasner: Front and Center."
Art in America. February 2001: 90 - 99.
Lee Krasner. Prophecy. 1956.
Brach, Paul. "Lee Krasner: Front and Center."
Art in America. February 2001: 90 - 99.
Lee Krasner. The Seasons. 1957. 7 3/4' X 17'.
Willem de Kooning
1904-97
Willem de Kooning. Still Life: Bowl, Pitcher and Jug. c. 1921.
Willem de Kooning. Seated Woman. c. 1940.
Willem de Kooning. Pink Angels. 1945.
Willem de Kooning. Painting. 1948.
Wilem de Kooning. Excavation. 1950.
Willem de Kooning. Woman I. 1950-2.
Willem and Elaine de Kooning 1953.
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"To
establish once and for al that I did not pose for these ferocious women.
I was taken aback to discover in Hans' photograph that I and the painted
lady seemed like…mother and daughter. We're even smiling the same
way." - Elaine de Kooning
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Willem de Kooning. Woman and Bicycle. 1952-3.
Willem de Kooning. Two Figures. 1967.