Clyfford Still: “The Vertical Necessity of Life”

Clyfford Still - Untitled - 1960 - Oil on canvas - 113 x 146 1/4in. (287 x 371.5cm) - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (click photo for larger image)Artist Clyfford Still (1904-1980) was known to be  an extremely difficult man, who eschewed the New York art world, resisted most critiques of his work, and very tightly controlled the ways in which his art was marketed, sold, collected and exhibited.

His evolution to an abstract style in the 1940s predated and influenced similar trends in other of his Abstract Expressionist contemporaries. One of his primary goals was to address what he saw as the monumental conflicts between humankind and nature. Still believed that art could play a moral role in a disorienting modern world. Vast, vertical fields of color became a key means of expression for the artist, and he would eventually influence a second generation of Color Field painters. His work does call to mind many of the vibrant, enormous stained glass panels created during the Middle Ages.

"These are not paintings in the usual sense," he once said, "they are life and death merging in fearful union...they kindle a fire; through them I breathe again, hold a golden cord, find my own revelation." 

Adolph Gottlieb: Universal Symbols

Adolphe Gottlieb - Composition - 1955 - Oil on canvas - 6' 1/8" x 60 1/8" (183.3 x 152.5 cm) - MoMA, New York (click photo for larger image)Growing up during the Depression and maturing throughout the interwar period and the rise of Hitler, American Abstract Expressionist Adolph Gottlieb (1903-1974) “staunchly defended the art of the avant-garde for its ability to express authentic feeling in the face of the trauma of World War II.” (The Art Story) His work remains highly relevant today, since great evils and profound ignorance, as well as noble aspirations and achievements continue to be part of the human experience.

In the 1940s, Gottlieb began to emulate the art of early Native American and Middle Eastern cultures, explorations that eventually inspired what came to be known as his Pictograph paintings. Gottlieb developed his own system of symbols, designed to appeal to the unconscious mind. He felt that new imagery was needed to address the complex issues and psyches of his day. He found inspiration and “a sense of primeval spirituality” in the Native American art and the arts of other tribal cultures. His objective was always to work toward creating universal meanings—using simple forms. The work featured here is an example of that idea.

In the artist’s own words, ”Different times require different images. Today when our aspirations have been reduced to a desperate attempt to escape from evil, and times are out of joint, our obsessive, subterranean and pictographic images are the expression of the neurosis which is our reality. To my mind certain so-called abstraction is not abstraction at all. On the contrary, it is the realism of our time.”

Agnes Martin: Grid-Like Abstractions

Agnes Martin - Untitled - 1952 - Watercolor and ink on paper - 11 3/4 x 17 3/4" (29.9 x 45.3 cm) - Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (click photo for larger image)Canadian born American painter Agnes Martin (1912-2004) was one of the leading practitioners of Abstract Expressionism in the 20th century. She was a prominent exponent of geometric abstraction. To her eye, a gray grid of intersecting penciled lines became the ultimate geometric composition. Her grid-like works were also noted for their light-soaked appearance and quiet effect. In the 1970s, she produced printed equivalents of her paintings.

Agnes Martin - Little Sister - 1962 - Oil, ink, and brass nails on canvas and wood - 9 7/8 x 9 11/16 inches (25.1 x 24.6 cm) - Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (click photo for larger image)Born on a farm in rural, Canada, Agnes Martin immigrated to the United States in 1932. After earning a degree in art education, she moved to the desert plains of Taos, New Mexico. At the urging of New York gallery owner, Betty Parson, Martin moved to lower Manhattan in 1957—living among a community of artists benefiting from the then cheap, expansive loft spaces of Lower Manhattan, located in close proximity to the East River. It was there—and during the next decade—that she would experiment with abstraction, and arrive at her signature style. Martin is often referred to as a Minimalist, however she always referred to herself as an Abstract Expressionist.

Artists are rarely “born” with the style for which they become known. The creative process is evolutionary. While some artists do remain faithful to a particular passion or idea throughout their lives—such as Camille Pissarro (ca. 1830-1903) or Henri Matisse (1869-1954) — others, like Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)  continually change their styles and approaches. As noted from the Untitled work featured here (from 1952)—it took time for Agnes Marin to fully embrace non-representation and the grid! 

The Guggenheim Museum in New York will be hosting an exhibit of Martin’s works, from October 2016 through January 2017. I lead a Museum Preview series for the Center for Continuing Education, and Agnes Martin will be the focus of our October 6, 2016 program. Please check out the website to see the schedule and to register. These programs fully prepare attendees to go to exhibits and visit museum and gallery collections well-informed about the featured artists.

Where Arts Collide – Movies About Artists – “Pollock”

Ed Harris as Jackson PollockThe IMDB (Internet Movie Database) describes the film “Pollock” (2000) as, “a film about the life and career of the American painter, Jackson Pollock” (1912-1956). In truth, the movie only covers a brief period in the artist’s later life—however it does so brilliantly. Ed Harris directed “Pollock” and also plays the title character in the film. His performance was enhanced by the close physical resemblance he bears to the artist, and by the lengths he took to prepare for the role. Harris read everything he could get his hands on about Pollock, talked to many people who knew the artist, and also set up a studio so he could practice painting in Pollock’s. He truly immersed himself in the role.

Critics largely admired the film for its depiction of the creative process in action, however they felt it fell short of giving us insights into Pollock the person. However, WAA doesn’t agree with that consensus. Pollock himself gave us very few insights into himself, and that’s one of the key points of the film. In an interview, Harris described Pollock as “almost pathologically shy” (except when he was drinking) and that concurs with everything with know about the artist. But there are many issues not touched on in the movie.

During the first sixteen years of his life, Pollock’s family moved eleven times. Alcoholism had long been a struggle for the artist—and he underwent psychiatric treatment for it, beginning in 1937. In 1938, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was institutionalized for four months. He was very heavily influenced by both Jungian symbolism and Surrealism—and by such artists as Picasso, Miró, and José Clemente Orozco.

Jackson Pollock paintingFrom 1939 through 1941, Pollock was in treatment with two successive Jungian psychoanalysts who used the artist’s own drawings in their therapy sessions. Pollack was a WPA Federal Art project artist during the latter years of the Great Depression, and his work was most definitely influenced by Thomas Hart Benton, under whom he studied at the Art Students League. (The film denies any such influence.)

“Pollock” also portrays the artist as executing his “drip paintings” in an almost frenzied way. In truth, he often alternated weeks of painting with weeks of contemplation before finishing a canvas. Despite these omissions, however, the film does give us a believable portrait of the artist’s life from about 1947 until his death. 

Marcia Gay Harden delivers a remarkable performance as Pollock’s wife, Lee Krasner. But the film suggests that Krasner had less time for her own career, because she was so involved in promoting her husband. Such was not the case. Pollock and Krasner both actively pursued their art during their married years, and the influence they had on one another was immense and reciprocal. It’s also important to note that Lee Krasner was one of the few artists to have a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Mark Rothko: A Deep Mysticism

Mark Rothko - Orange and Yellow - 1956 - Oil on canvas - 231 × 180 cm. - Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (click photo for larger image)Mark Rothko (1903-1970) was an American painter of Russian Jewish descent. He developed a unique form of Abstract Expressionism. In contrast to the approach of Jackson Pollock, Rothko created “virtually gestureless paintings [which] achieved their effects by juxtaposing large areas of melting colors that seemingly float parallel to the picture plane in an indeterminate, atmospheric space.” The somer intensity of his later works reveal a deep mysticism.