Jackson Pollock (American, 1912-1956), One: Number 31, 1950. 1950, Oil and enamel paint on canvas.
The Museum of Modern Art will open its extensive “Abstract Expressionist New York” exhibit on October 3, 2010. Even though the museum is known for its participation in the growth of this avant-garde movement of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s, the new exhibit is, as Director Glenn Lowry put it, “the broadest and most comprehensive survey of abstract expressionism every presented by MoMA.” The 250 works ranging from painting, drawings, and prints to photographs, sculpture, and film are all taken from the Museum’s collection, and together they summarize the movement that put New York City on the art world map.
Divided into four sections, the “Abstract Expressionist New York” exhibit examines not just the work of the avant-garde artists, but the environment in which the abstract expressionist (abex) movement developed. The first part, “The Big Picture,” uses the galleries on the Museum’s fourth floor to display classic paintings like Jackson Pollock’s One: Number 31, 1950 (1950), Mark Rothko’s Swirl at the Edge of the Sea (1944), and Barnett Newman’s Vir Heroicus Sublimis (1950-1) as well as photographs by Aaron Siskind, Harry Callahan, Robert Frank, and Minor White.
The next section of the exhibit, located on the third floor, is “Ideas Not Theories: Artists and The Club, 1942-1962,” which refers to a space in Greenwich Village that served as a location during the Abex movement for dialogues between artists as well as for influential lectures, like those by writer Joseph Campbell, composer John Cage, and architect Richard Lippold. Their innovative ideas are embodied in the works presented in this section of the Abex exhibit, as is the visual poetry of Rudolph Burckhardt, Edwin Denby, and Franz Kline.
The third section “Rock Paper Scissors” displays sketches, etchings, and sculptures by Abex artists Isamu Noguchi, Seymour Lipton, David Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Dorothy Dehner, and Herbert Ferber. There is a general theme of surrealism and geometric forms, within a huge variety of mediums.
The final leg is “Abstract Expressionism and Film.” Inspired by the Abex movement, filmmakers experimented with and manipulated colors, animation, music, and even the traditional progression of narrative to create abstract films like Douglas Sirk’s All That Heaven Allows (1955) and Michelangelo Antonioni’s Il Deserto rosso (1964).
The exhibit will be on view at MoMA until April 25, 2011, and though it may sound daunting in its immensity, try taking Lowry’s own approach: “One of the pleasures about this exhibition is it feels to me like a rolling wave. Every room has its own story to tell, its own revelations of the familiar and the unfamiliar, and it comes at a moment when art-making had a kind of energy and a power to it that became mythic over time.”
Aaron Siskind (American, 1903–1991), Martha’s Vineyard. 1954–59, Gelatin silver print.
John Cage (American, 1912-1992), Music for Carillon, # 4, Page 3, 1961, Ink on transparentized graph paper on board.
Barnett Newman (American, 1905–1970), Vir Heroicus Sublimis, 1950-51, Oil on canvas.
Isamu Noguchi, American, 1904-1988, My Pacific (Polynesian Culture), 1942, Driftwood.
