gesturalabstraction – Painting After Art is Dead

de Kooning

Both Elaine and Willem were painters which I haven’t yet blogged about. As readers are likely aware it has taken some recent academic pushes to rewrite Elaine’s (and others) deserved place in the narrative of NY-based painters in mid-century America (with the Denver museum making perhaps the biggest move although not the only one).

There’s been no shortage of words written about her husband of course. When I first noted their absence from this blog I immediately became curious about how their relationship informed their work.

More #elainedekooning

More #willemdekooning

Nava Lubelski

While looking at the Mint Museum’s website for info on Thomas I found this good interview with Nava.

#navalubelski

Wols

After blogging about Bram I decided I should brush up on Tachisme. Which leads one to (among others) Wols.

(From above- Tachisme “is often considered to be the European equivalent to abstract expressionism, although there are stylistic differences (American abstract expressionism tended to be more “aggressively raw” than tachisme). It was part of a larger postwar movement known as Art Informel (or Informel), which abandoned geometric abstraction in favour of a more intuitive form of expression, similar to action painting.“)

#wols

Robert Motherwell

Robert Motherwell (1915-1991) was the baby of abstract expressionism. Youngest of his generation’s greats, he was also the most literate, the most eloquent, and the most fully reflective of the movement’s diverse roots in European modernism, including not only surrealism but also Matisse.

Probably the most political, too.

#robertmotherwell

Robin Greenwood

discusses his own newest on the occasion of his 70th.

#robingreenwood

Ying Li

Ying would probably say these are abstractions and not abstraction. Buttery goodness regardless. From #hyperallergic (of course).

#yingli

Ann Thomson

Is, like Gemma and Kudditji, an Australian icon of abstraction.

#annthomson

Richard Wright

I would agree with Richard that these are old fashioned paintings. Also, AbCrit is a good, international perspective on abstraction.

#richardwright

Nigel Cooke

The online edition of Artforum spotlights Nigel’s newest works on paper at Pace.

#nigelcooke

Terry Winters

Always fun to find an idea for a blog in your own Pinterest profile.

It would be hard to overstate how much I was enthralled with the work that Terry was making in the late ’90s as I was beginning grad school (example below).

More (current)

#terrywinters

Manuel Mathieu

Manuel (who I first discovered at the Armory Show) is a contemporary Haitian visual artist best known as a painter of abstract works that often evoke figurative shapes in nondescript environments. Mathieu draws from Haitian visual cultures and from Western art movements such as expressionism and existentialism.

#manuelmathieu

Flora Yukhnovich

Artforum- rightfully- notes Flora’s newest from her time in Venice in a space set up by #victorimiro “for invited artists to spend extended time in the historic city and make new bodies of work“. These are definitely abstractions although not clear she would call them nonrepresentational. Reminds me of Erin’s brushwork.

#florayukhnovich

Tag: gesturalabstraction