So a rational and considered conversation between intelligent people about some of the mutual but very specific
issues of abstract painting is out, then?
«Shinique's addressing
issues of abstract painting and dealing with this idea of how fabric and castoff clothing has meaning to her personally, as well as social and cultural significance.»
Within the rigorous system of his chosen strategy, he's developed methods to engage with the primary
issues of abstract painting, focusing on gesture, light, gravity, and color.
Not exact matches
But in her work, and that
of other
abstract painters I've mentioned, the
issue of whether there is anything already in such
paintings, as opposed to what we might «read» into them, is often raised.
As so regularly in Rauschenberg's best work, a
painting such as Charlene (1954), with its exuberant central panel
of abstract marks and its competing compartments made
of so much stuff, completes a tendency in his work, killing it off with a flourish and
issuing a reckless demand for more — more and different.
Mary Lou Siefker will exhibit her new Celebration series
of abstract acrylic
paintings and Wilma Bulkin Siegel will display recent portraiture in the watercolor medium addressing social
issues.
Thinking about
issues of global awareness, Kunik's first body
of abstract paintings dealt with the environment; more specifically rain forest deforestation.
Esopus 23 presents specially - commissioned projects exclusive to this
issue including a series
of images printed on translucent and metallic stocks by Marilyn Minter, a portfolio
of die - cut works by Mickalene Thomas, a collection
of images and documentation by Jody Wood relating to her ongoing «Beauty in Transition» series, a new series
of paintings by Stefan Kürten; drawings by Karo Akpokiere dealing with the challenges
of living and working between Berlin and Lagos, and a series
of abstract photographic «landscapes» created in the darkroom by master black - and - white printer Chuck Kelton.
What was it that launched our own
painting out
of the
issues of abstract expressionism?
We will explore the
issues central to
abstract painting, such as nature, structure, geometry, the human form and master
paintings as potential sources
of investigation and inspiration.
Gualdoni's fluid,
abstract paintings reference the still life in domestic space but are conceptually grounded in
issues of labor and feminism.
Peter Schjeldahl writes in the October 9th, 2017
issue of The New Yorker, «The happiest surprise in Trigger is a trend in
painting that takes inspiration from ideas
of indeterminate sexuality for revived formal invention... Christina Quarles... rhymes ambiguous imagery
of gyrating bodies with dynamics
of disparate pictorial techniques... The wholes and parts
of bodies in Quarles's cheerfully orgiastic pictures entangle in alternating styles
of line, stroke, stain, and smear... called to mind early nineteen - forties Arshile Gorky and Willem de Kooning, who fractured Picassoesque figuration on the way to physically engaging abstraction... Quarles playing that process in reverse, adapting
abstract aesthetics to carnal representation.
Chapter 1: Things Must be Pulverized:
Abstract Expressionism Charts the move from figurative to
abstract painting as the dominant style of painting (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko Chapter 2: Wounded Painting: Informel in Europe and Beyond Meanwhile in Europe: abstract painters immediate responses to the horrors of World War II (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, Viennese Aktionism, Wols Chapter 3: Post-War Figurative Painting Surveys those artists who defiantly continued to make figurative work as Abstraction was rising to dominance - including Social Realists (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Alice Neel, Pablo Picasso Chapter 4: Against Gesture - Geometric Abstraction The development of a rational, universal language of art - the opposite of the highly emotional Informel or Abstract Expressionism (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Lygia Clark, Ellsworth Kelly, Bridget Riley, Yves Klein Chapter 5: Post-Painting Part 1: After Pollock In the aftermath of Pollock's death: the early days of Pop, Minimalism and Conceptual painting in the USA (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly Chapter 5: Anti Tradition - Pop Painitng How painting survives against growth of mass visual culture: photography and television - if you can't beat them, join them (1960s and 70s) Key artists discussed: Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol Chapter 6: A transcendental high art: Neo Expressionism and its Discontents The continuation of figuration and expressionism in the 1970s and 80s, including many artists who have only been appreciated in later years (1970s & 80s) Key artists discussed: Georg Baselitz, Jean - Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel, Chapter 7: Post-Painting Part II: After Pop A new era in which figurative and abstract exist side by side rather than polar opposites plus painting expands beyond the canvas (late 1980s to 2000s) Key artists discussed: Tomma Abts, Mark Grotjahn, Chris Ofili, Christopher Wool Chapter 8: New Figures, Pop Romantics Post-cold war, artists use paint to create a new kind of «pop art» - primarily figurative - tackling cultural, social and political issues (1990s to now) Key artists discussed: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Luc
painting as the dominant style
of painting (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko Chapter 2: Wounded Painting: Informel in Europe and Beyond Meanwhile in Europe: abstract painters immediate responses to the horrors of World War II (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, Viennese Aktionism, Wols Chapter 3: Post-War Figurative Painting Surveys those artists who defiantly continued to make figurative work as Abstraction was rising to dominance - including Social Realists (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Alice Neel, Pablo Picasso Chapter 4: Against Gesture - Geometric Abstraction The development of a rational, universal language of art - the opposite of the highly emotional Informel or Abstract Expressionism (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Lygia Clark, Ellsworth Kelly, Bridget Riley, Yves Klein Chapter 5: Post-Painting Part 1: After Pollock In the aftermath of Pollock's death: the early days of Pop, Minimalism and Conceptual painting in the USA (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly Chapter 5: Anti Tradition - Pop Painitng How painting survives against growth of mass visual culture: photography and television - if you can't beat them, join them (1960s and 70s) Key artists discussed: Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol Chapter 6: A transcendental high art: Neo Expressionism and its Discontents The continuation of figuration and expressionism in the 1970s and 80s, including many artists who have only been appreciated in later years (1970s & 80s) Key artists discussed: Georg Baselitz, Jean - Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel, Chapter 7: Post-Painting Part II: After Pop A new era in which figurative and abstract exist side by side rather than polar opposites plus painting expands beyond the canvas (late 1980s to 2000s) Key artists discussed: Tomma Abts, Mark Grotjahn, Chris Ofili, Christopher Wool Chapter 8: New Figures, Pop Romantics Post-cold war, artists use paint to create a new kind of «pop art» - primarily figurative - tackling cultural, social and political issues (1990s to now) Key artists discussed: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Luc
painting (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Willem de Kooning, Barnett Newman Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko Chapter 2: Wounded
Painting: Informel in Europe and Beyond Meanwhile in Europe: abstract painters immediate responses to the horrors of World War II (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, Viennese Aktionism, Wols Chapter 3: Post-War Figurative Painting Surveys those artists who defiantly continued to make figurative work as Abstraction was rising to dominance - including Social Realists (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Alice Neel, Pablo Picasso Chapter 4: Against Gesture - Geometric Abstraction The development of a rational, universal language of art - the opposite of the highly emotional Informel or Abstract Expressionism (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Lygia Clark, Ellsworth Kelly, Bridget Riley, Yves Klein Chapter 5: Post-Painting Part 1: After Pollock In the aftermath of Pollock's death: the early days of Pop, Minimalism and Conceptual painting in the USA (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly Chapter 5: Anti Tradition - Pop Painitng How painting survives against growth of mass visual culture: photography and television - if you can't beat them, join them (1960s and 70s) Key artists discussed: Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol Chapter 6: A transcendental high art: Neo Expressionism and its Discontents The continuation of figuration and expressionism in the 1970s and 80s, including many artists who have only been appreciated in later years (1970s & 80s) Key artists discussed: Georg Baselitz, Jean - Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel, Chapter 7: Post-Painting Part II: After Pop A new era in which figurative and abstract exist side by side rather than polar opposites plus painting expands beyond the canvas (late 1980s to 2000s) Key artists discussed: Tomma Abts, Mark Grotjahn, Chris Ofili, Christopher Wool Chapter 8: New Figures, Pop Romantics Post-cold war, artists use paint to create a new kind of «pop art» - primarily figurative - tackling cultural, social and political issues (1990s to now) Key artists discussed: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Luc
Painting: Informel in Europe and Beyond Meanwhile in Europe:
abstract painters immediate responses to the horrors
of World War II (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Jean Dubuffet, Lucio Fontana, Viennese Aktionism, Wols Chapter 3: Post-War Figurative
Painting Surveys those artists who defiantly continued to make figurative work as Abstraction was rising to dominance - including Social Realists (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Alice Neel, Pablo Picasso Chapter 4: Against Gesture - Geometric Abstraction The development of a rational, universal language of art - the opposite of the highly emotional Informel or Abstract Expressionism (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Lygia Clark, Ellsworth Kelly, Bridget Riley, Yves Klein Chapter 5: Post-Painting Part 1: After Pollock In the aftermath of Pollock's death: the early days of Pop, Minimalism and Conceptual painting in the USA (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly Chapter 5: Anti Tradition - Pop Painitng How painting survives against growth of mass visual culture: photography and television - if you can't beat them, join them (1960s and 70s) Key artists discussed: Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol Chapter 6: A transcendental high art: Neo Expressionism and its Discontents The continuation of figuration and expressionism in the 1970s and 80s, including many artists who have only been appreciated in later years (1970s & 80s) Key artists discussed: Georg Baselitz, Jean - Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel, Chapter 7: Post-Painting Part II: After Pop A new era in which figurative and abstract exist side by side rather than polar opposites plus painting expands beyond the canvas (late 1980s to 2000s) Key artists discussed: Tomma Abts, Mark Grotjahn, Chris Ofili, Christopher Wool Chapter 8: New Figures, Pop Romantics Post-cold war, artists use paint to create a new kind of «pop art» - primarily figurative - tackling cultural, social and political issues (1990s to now) Key artists discussed: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Luc
Painting Surveys those artists who defiantly continued to make figurative work as Abstraction was rising to dominance - including Social Realists (1940s & 50s) Key artists discussed: Francis Bacon, Lucien Freud, Alice Neel, Pablo Picasso Chapter 4: Against Gesture - Geometric Abstraction The development
of a rational, universal language
of art - the opposite
of the highly emotional Informel or
Abstract Expressionism (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Lygia Clark, Ellsworth Kelly, Bridget Riley, Yves Klein Chapter 5: Post-
Painting Part 1: After Pollock In the aftermath of Pollock's death: the early days of Pop, Minimalism and Conceptual painting in the USA (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly Chapter 5: Anti Tradition - Pop Painitng How painting survives against growth of mass visual culture: photography and television - if you can't beat them, join them (1960s and 70s) Key artists discussed: Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol Chapter 6: A transcendental high art: Neo Expressionism and its Discontents The continuation of figuration and expressionism in the 1970s and 80s, including many artists who have only been appreciated in later years (1970s & 80s) Key artists discussed: Georg Baselitz, Jean - Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel, Chapter 7: Post-Painting Part II: After Pop A new era in which figurative and abstract exist side by side rather than polar opposites plus painting expands beyond the canvas (late 1980s to 2000s) Key artists discussed: Tomma Abts, Mark Grotjahn, Chris Ofili, Christopher Wool Chapter 8: New Figures, Pop Romantics Post-cold war, artists use paint to create a new kind of «pop art» - primarily figurative - tackling cultural, social and political issues (1990s to now) Key artists discussed: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Luc
Painting Part 1: After Pollock In the aftermath
of Pollock's death: the early days
of Pop, Minimalism and Conceptual
painting in the USA (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly Chapter 5: Anti Tradition - Pop Painitng How painting survives against growth of mass visual culture: photography and television - if you can't beat them, join them (1960s and 70s) Key artists discussed: Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol Chapter 6: A transcendental high art: Neo Expressionism and its Discontents The continuation of figuration and expressionism in the 1970s and 80s, including many artists who have only been appreciated in later years (1970s & 80s) Key artists discussed: Georg Baselitz, Jean - Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel, Chapter 7: Post-Painting Part II: After Pop A new era in which figurative and abstract exist side by side rather than polar opposites plus painting expands beyond the canvas (late 1980s to 2000s) Key artists discussed: Tomma Abts, Mark Grotjahn, Chris Ofili, Christopher Wool Chapter 8: New Figures, Pop Romantics Post-cold war, artists use paint to create a new kind of «pop art» - primarily figurative - tackling cultural, social and political issues (1990s to now) Key artists discussed: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Luc
painting in the USA (1950s and early 1960s) Key artists discussed: Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, Cy Twombly Chapter 5: Anti Tradition - Pop Painitng How
painting survives against growth of mass visual culture: photography and television - if you can't beat them, join them (1960s and 70s) Key artists discussed: Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol Chapter 6: A transcendental high art: Neo Expressionism and its Discontents The continuation of figuration and expressionism in the 1970s and 80s, including many artists who have only been appreciated in later years (1970s & 80s) Key artists discussed: Georg Baselitz, Jean - Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel, Chapter 7: Post-Painting Part II: After Pop A new era in which figurative and abstract exist side by side rather than polar opposites plus painting expands beyond the canvas (late 1980s to 2000s) Key artists discussed: Tomma Abts, Mark Grotjahn, Chris Ofili, Christopher Wool Chapter 8: New Figures, Pop Romantics Post-cold war, artists use paint to create a new kind of «pop art» - primarily figurative - tackling cultural, social and political issues (1990s to now) Key artists discussed: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Luc
painting survives against growth
of mass visual culture: photography and television - if you can't beat them, join them (1960s and 70s) Key artists discussed: Alex Katz, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter, Andy Warhol Chapter 6: A transcendental high art: Neo Expressionism and its Discontents The continuation
of figuration and expressionism in the 1970s and 80s, including many artists who have only been appreciated in later years (1970s & 80s) Key artists discussed: Georg Baselitz, Jean - Michel Basquiat, Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel, Chapter 7: Post-
Painting Part II: After Pop A new era in which figurative and abstract exist side by side rather than polar opposites plus painting expands beyond the canvas (late 1980s to 2000s) Key artists discussed: Tomma Abts, Mark Grotjahn, Chris Ofili, Christopher Wool Chapter 8: New Figures, Pop Romantics Post-cold war, artists use paint to create a new kind of «pop art» - primarily figurative - tackling cultural, social and political issues (1990s to now) Key artists discussed: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Luc
Painting Part II: After Pop A new era in which figurative and
abstract exist side by side rather than polar opposites plus
painting expands beyond the canvas (late 1980s to 2000s) Key artists discussed: Tomma Abts, Mark Grotjahn, Chris Ofili, Christopher Wool Chapter 8: New Figures, Pop Romantics Post-cold war, artists use paint to create a new kind of «pop art» - primarily figurative - tackling cultural, social and political issues (1990s to now) Key artists discussed: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Luc
painting expands beyond the canvas (late 1980s to 2000s) Key artists discussed: Tomma Abts, Mark Grotjahn, Chris Ofili, Christopher Wool Chapter 8: New Figures, Pop Romantics Post-cold war, artists use
paint to create a new kind
of «pop art» - primarily figurative - tackling cultural, social and political
issues (1990s to now) Key artists discussed: John Currin, Peter Doig, Marlene Dumas, Neo Rauch, Luc Tuymans
He believed that the main
issue of painting was the subject matter that in the case
of abstract art, deprived
of any classical standards for making art, touching the most basic human emotions.
He was diagnosed with AIDS in 1991, and his work shifted from more formal and
abstract paintings to
issues of mortality and anonymous portraits, while still engaged in color and light.
Michael Kessler «s large,
abstract paintings are the perfect complement to any room, and one
of his works was featured in the September
issue of Interior Design magazine.
They were so fresh and inventive, yet from their complexity and the assurance
of the vocabulary — loose geometry, gridlike formations, unnamable shapes, and squiggly lines — I knew at once that this was the work
of a confident and mature artist, even though it fit into the context
of what many younger painters were engaged in at the time, when
abstract painting had returned to
issues of eccentric composition and irregular forms realized through diverse approaches
of painting styles.
In their work we see a sustained interest in the advancement
of abstract painting, responses to the landscape connected to environmental
issues, a continued engagement with surrealism and the development
of a new kind
of non-specific representational narrative
painting.
But, and this is a big «but», I was thrown off sympathising thus by two things: firstly, that Diebenkorn changed tack just when things were getting interesting / challenging in terms
of how three - dimensional space in his
abstract painting might be tackled anew; and secondly, that the figurative
paintings on show here seem to offer no furtherance to, or deliverance from, those
issues.»
Kim's work explores the history
of abstract painting, the problems
of color and vision, and
issues of human identity and existence.
The 40
paintings and drawings explore the cerebral spaces
of information technology and
issues of cognition and narration as they relate to
abstract painting.
Julie Mehretu, born in Ethiopia and raised and educated in Michigan and Rhode Island, explores the unwieldy
issues of mobility, social organization, political entanglement, and global competition in her large
abstract paintings.
These
abstract paintings examine
issues of race, sexuality, and identity, responding to events like the riots in LA in 1992 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Chris Johanson's vivid,
abstract paintings on scavenged wood hint at the artist's deep engagement with
issues of environmentalism, pacifism, and anti-materialism.
This essay, which builds upon an essay about contemporary
abstract painting that I wrote for The Brooklyn Rail in 2011, was just published in the January / February 2014
issue of Christie's Magazine.
These
issues, however, had been redefined by a younger generation
of abstract artists and theorists, the Minimalists and Color Field painters, into a question
of painting's essential identity: was it a thing or a surface or both?
Artworks range from installations to performances,
paintings to large scale photographs, which address a broad range
of issues such as subcultures, architecture,
abstract spaces, identity, and isolation.
An
abstract expressionist painter in a grand scale, his work is part
of the discourse
of styles,
issues, and developments in American
painting.
Many
abstract expressionists are said to create
paintings about human tragedy, doom and
issues within the world, though their works are devoid
of figure or subject matter.
A modern alternative to the tired academic formula
of history
painting was to turn to a more
abstract form
of art when depicting monumental or grave
issues.
Known for confronting history and addressing political and social
issues in his
abstract collage
paintings, Bradford plans to incorporate figuration in his work for the first time and is «taking as a point
of departure» a major Civil War
painting.
Strongly influenced by pop art, graffiti, and the calligraphic art, Fridriks» hyperkinetic
abstract paintings are filled with swirls
of vibrant color, address serious and rather worrying environmental and political
issues such as genetic research, cloning, overconsumption and exhaustion
of natural resources.
This
issue is dedicated to the passing
of our three friends, Robert T. Buck Jr. (1939 - 2018) for his great contributions to the Brooklyn Museum as a former director and Anthology Film Archives as a trustee; Marcia Hafif (1929 - 2018) whose ascetic monochrome
abstract paintings have long been esteemed by her peers and continue to be consequential and inspiring; Dorothy Cantor Pearlstein (1928 - 2018), who came from Pittsburgh to New York City to be a painter along with her husband Philip Pearlstein and classmate Andy Warhol (Andrew Warhola)-- her inquisitive mind and generous spirit won her love and admiration from her community
of friends.
Fans
of abstract expressionist art, like many
of the
paintings shown in this
issue, can find lots to relate to in fashion, what with all the layering, color combinations and mixing and matching going on.
Purely
abstract painting is impossible now, Oropallo seems to argue, because we see the world — art included — through a screen
of social
issues, whether we like it or not.
Like Mark Rothko (1903 - 1970), Robert Motherwell (1915 - 1991), Clyfford Still (1904 - 1980) and Pollock, Newman saw
abstract painting as the vehicle
of profound human
issues that a society focused on greed, status and entertainment ignored at its peril.
Pollock
painted nothing in 1956, and thus failed to resolve the
issue of primacy between the figurative and
abstract aspects
of his style.
Continuing in a largely
abstract style, in the 1960s Lewis
painted a number
of works dealing explicitly with
issues of race and civil rights.
In addition to his close friendships with
abstract expressionist painters and sculptors, he was one
of the «Irascibles» made famous in Nina Leen's 1951 Life photograph, and in 1948, together with Motherwell, Hare, and Mark Rothko, he co-founded the Subjects
of the Artist School, an artists group that provided a forum to discuss the
issues at stake in contemporary
painting.
Elsewhere, other historical exhibitions
of abstract painting provided opportunities to assess current
issues.
What I think is still an
issue / dilemma / conundrum for
abstract painting is the illusion
of deep space.
For almost five decades, Frecon has created
abstract paintings that address
issues of horizontality and verticality, asymmetrical balances, and interacting arrangements
of color.