GENERAL DESCRIPTION
During the 1950s, painters Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman expanded from Abstract Expressionism's existential themes of self and the universe. Rather than the emotive gestures Jackson Pollock employed, Rothko and Newman experimented with large expanses of color and the margins between them. They continue to be widely recognized as generative color field painters. However, color field artists of the 1960s, such as Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis, moved in a new direction. While they retained Rothko and Newman's interest in color, line, and non-representational shapes, they abandoned the idea that art could communicate the truth of the artist's innermost being. Instead, they stressed clarity and openness, favoring the conceptual power of visual or formal problems. Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis applied flowing paint to unprimed canvas as if they were staining or dyeing the cloth. The effect of color embedded in large expanses of canvas allowed these artists to create works which seemed to envelop the viewer in a breath of color.
Adapted From:
- Ken Kelsey, Gail Davitt, Mary Ann Allday, Barbara Barrett, and Troy Smythe, Contemporary Art and Design at the Dallas Museum of Art, Teaching Packet, 1995.
- Anne Bromberg, "Development of Abstraction," DMA Unpublished material, 1987.
NOTES
An important tendency which developed in the late 1950s was Color-Field painting, a new abstraction consisting of simple arrangements of pure forms and color on large canvases. Reacting against Abstract Expressionism, the Color-Field painters stressed clarity and openness and favored purely visual or formal problems over expressive content. The leading figure of this movement was Morris Louis, working in Washington D.C., along with his younger colleagues, Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis, and others. The development of this group of painters in Washington, all sharing a fundamental interest in color and knowledgeable of each other's work represents a major "school" of abstraction distinct from New York painting.
After seeing paintings by Jackson Pollock and Helen Frankenthaler in New York in the early 50s, Louis worked in seclusion in Washington, where he developed a radical form of painting by staining the then new medium of acrylic (plastic) paint into unsized, unprimed canvas. In his later series of "veils" around 1959 he poured layer upon layer of liquid pigment onto the canvas, forming a dense, rich screen of color. Rejecting traditional composition, Louis created painting based purely on the interaction of color. Louis utilized Pollock's drip technique, combining drawing and color in the poured line, as well as Frankenthaler's staining of indistinctly bounded areas of color. These works are visually quite complex, and often imply depth.
High by Louis is part of a series developing from his "veils" and anticipating his later "unfurleds" and stripes. It is a more direct statement of his emphasis on drawing, through its lines of color arranged more or less symmetrically around a central void of umprimed canvas. Unlike the lateral, spreading composition of the "veils" and "unfurleds," High, in its vertical format, seems to move upward. (See also Delta Kappa.)
Excerpt from Anne Bromberg text cited above.
"Seeing Contemporary Art" gallery brochure (c. 1995), located in education files
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General Description
During the 1950s, painters Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman expanded from Abstract Expressionism's existential themes of self and the universe. Rather than the emotive gestures Jackson Pollock employed, Rothko and Newman experimented with large expanses of color and the margins between them. They continue to be widely recognized as generative color field painters. However, color field artists of the 1960s, such as Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis, moved in a new direction. While they retained Rothko and Newman's interest in color, line, and non-representational shapes, they abandoned the idea that art could communicate the truth of the artist's innermost being. Instead, they stressed clarity and openness, favoring the conceptual power of visual or formal problems. Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis applied flowing paint to unprimed canvas as if they were staining or dyeing the cloth. The effect of color embedded in large expanses of canvas allowed these artists to create works which seemed to envelop the viewer in a breath of color.
Adapted From:
- Ken Kelsey, Gail Davitt, Mary Ann Allday, Barbara Barrett, and Troy Smythe, Contemporary Art and Design at the Dallas Museum of Art, Teaching Packet, 1995.
- Anne Bromberg, "Development of Abstraction," DMA Unpublished material, 1987.
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Notes
An important tendency which developed in the late 1950s was Color-Field painting, a new abstraction consisting of simple arrangements of pure forms and color on large canvases. Reacting against Abstract Expressionism, the Color-Field painters stressed clarity and openness and favored purely visual or formal problems over expressive content. The leading figure of this movement was Morris Louis, working in Washington D.C., along with his younger colleagues, Kenneth Noland, Gene Davis, and others. The development of this group of painters in Washington, all sharing a fundamental interest in color and knowledgeable of each other's work represents a major "school" of abstraction distinct from New York painting.
After seeing paintings by Jackson Pollock and Helen Frankenthaler in New York in the early 50s, Louis worked in seclusion in Washington, where he developed a radical form of painting by staining the then new medium of acrylic (plastic) paint into unsized, unprimed canvas. In his later series of "veils" around 1959 he poured layer upon layer of liquid pigment onto the canvas, forming a dense, rich screen of color. Rejecting traditional composition, Louis created painting based purely on the interaction of color. Louis utilized Pollock's drip technique, combining drawing and color in the poured line, as well as Frankenthaler's staining of indistinctly bounded areas of color. These works are visually quite complex, and often imply depth.
High by Louis is part of a series developing from his "veils" and anticipating his later "unfurleds" and stripes. It is a more direct statement of his emphasis on drawing, through its lines of color arranged more or less symmetrically around a central void of umprimed canvas. Unlike the lateral, spreading composition of the "veils" and "unfurleds," High, in its vertical format, seems to move upward. (See also Delta Kappa.)
Excerpt from Anne Bromberg text cited above.
"Seeing Contemporary Art" gallery brochure (c. 1995), located in education files
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