New York Figurative Expressionism

New York Figurative Expressionism
Marsden Hartley's 1941 painting of "Lobster Fishermen" inspired by fishermen from his home state of Maine.
Years active	Beginning in the 1930s, reaching a height in the 1950s-1960s, but with practitioners still working in the style today
Country	United States
Major figures	Artists Max Weber, Marsden Hartley, Milton Avery, Edwin Dickinson
Influences	German Expressionism is the most direct influence, but representational painting has roots in Old Master and history painting

New York Figurative Expressionism is a visual arts movement and a branch of American Figurative Expressionism. Though the movement dates to the 1930s, it was not formally classified as "figurative expressionism" until the term arose as a counter-distinction to the New York–based postwar movement known as Abstract Expressionism.^[1]

Commenters like Museum of Contemporary Art of Detroit (MOCAD) curator Klaus Kertess observed that "[o]n the eve of the new abstraction's purge of figuration and its rise to all-encompassing prominence, the figure began to acquire a new and forceful vigor,"^[2] elsewhere explaining that "[d]uring the late forties and early fifties," figurative work was associated with a conservatism abstractionists sought to avoid. Their response was defensive, and "prone to blur the vast distinctions between figurative painters and to exaggerate the difference between the figurative and the nonfigurative. It was not until the late sixties and early seventies that the figure was permitted to return from exile and even to make claims to centrality."^[3] But that was not true of all abstract expressionists. Willem de Kooning (1904–1997) and Jackson Pollock (1912–1956), for example, started incorporating figurative elements far sooner.^[4] They, along with abstract expressionist Conrad Marca-Relli (1913–2000) among others, built upon the figure as a framework for expanding their otherwise abstract canvases.^[2]

Marsden Hartley's "Adelard the Drowned, Master of the Phantom," 1939.

Max Weber's sculpture "Aurora," 1937.

Edwin Dickinson's "Portrait of Biala," 1924.

Early New York figurative expressionists included Max Weber (1881–1961) and Marsden Hartley (1877–1943), known for their work with myth and spirituality. Other early practitioners spanned the lyrical restraint of Milton Avery (1885–1965) and the clear, direct work of Edwin Dickinson (1891–1978).

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This exhibition assembles more than a hundred works of art made by Abstract Expressionist artists in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. What's amazing to me is they all come from the collection of this museum. For me, it was very important to do this exhibition -- for two reasons. One is the sheer pleasure and the sheer, I felt, importance of, fifty or sixty years later, looking again at Abstract Expressionism. It's become something so identified with New York and with MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art), and something that we take for granted -- almost as much as we take something like French Impressionism for granted. Like, "Oh yes, those beautiful landscapes by Monet." And I thought, over the last year or two, that this is painting and sculpture that we need to look at again, and -- now that it's the 21st century -- see what of it really carries forward its message into this next century. It's been a long time now since that work got a serious reconsideration. I think it's going to be exhilarating, frankly, to see the power of these objects in the galleries -- the ambition, the sheer majesty and grandeur of this art -- because that's very much what its creators wanted it to be, is something that is knocking my socks off, anyway, all over again. But the other reason that I wanted to do this exhibition is to point out to our visitors that what you normally see at The Museum of Modern Art, you're seeing the tip of an iceberg. The real Museum of Modern Art is not what you see on the walls and the galleries when you're walking through as a visitor. The real Museum of Modern Art is in our drawing center, in our print center, in our photography study center, where there are just hundreds and thousands of works of art that we've collected over the decades, but that obviously there isn't a space to show on a regular basis. So for me, this is actually quite a thrilling opportunity to have our visitors get the chance to walk through what is actually, in total, 25,000 square feet worth of gallery space -- all devoted to one subject -- that people can immerse themselves in, can really dig into. Instead of just seeing the normal two or three paintings by Mark Rothkoe, see ten paintings by Mark Rothkoe. Instead of just seeing the big names like Mark Rothkoe or Jackson Pollock, see works by artists such as Jack Tworkov, William Baziotes, Grace Hartigan, Lee Krasner -- people who were incredibly important at that time, and who had major, major impact on their peers. And yet, over time, their names have not been remembered as well. The Museum of Modern Art is often very closely identified with Abstract Expressionism. We were on hand for Abstract Expressionism's birth. In small part, at least, one can say, because MoMA did exist, and because MoMA was here to show that art from the first half of the century by European greats, such as Matisse and Picasso -- to young artists at work in New York. Although we are so closely identified with Abtract Expressionism today -- (And, indeed, our collection is the richest in the world.) -- in the beginning, this museum was slow to come to Abstract Expressionism. It was not obvious at the end of the 40s that this was a movement that had some kind of coherence, and was going to be as great, if not greater, than these earlier European avant gardes. We did buy a painting by a Pollock -- a painting by Pollock -- from his first show at the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery in 1943. And we made other historic purchases like that. In fact, our first Rothkoe painting, which was offered as a gift from a trustee, (Philip Johnson, the architect, in fact, in 1952) caused another trustee to resign in disgust. The early trustees and the early audience was not necessarily ready for Abstract Expressionism. And so I think the curators were conscious of that, and wanted to take it slow. In 1958, we organized an exhibition called 'The New American Painting.' It toured to eight countries in Europe. The influence of that exhibition was enormous on painters in France, Switzerland, England, Spain, Italy, etc. And when that exhibition was done with its tour, it came back and was here at MoMA in 1959 -- 'The New American Painting.' And that kind of sealed the movement as a great, important art historical phenomenon of the 20th century.

Figurative Art during Abstract Expressionism: 1950s

The use of the figure was influenced by Old Master and history painting for some of the New York Expressionists, notably Larry Rivers (1923–2002) and Grace Hartigan (1922–). For many others, the figure served as the logical subject of representational portraiture: Elaine de Kooning (1918–1989); Balcomb Greene, (1904–1990); Robert De Niro Sr. (1920–1993); Fairfield Porter, (1907–1975); Gregorio Prestopino (1907–1984); Lester Johnson (1919–2010); George McNeil (1909–1995); Henry Gorski (1918–2010); Robert Goodnough (1917–); and Earle M. Pilgrim (1923–1976).

The figure also served as a stylistic element reminiscent of the German Expressionists, but with the heroic scale of the Abstract Expressionists for many of those with allegorical or mythical interests. Artists in this category included: Jan Müller, (1922–1958); Robert Beauchamp, (1923–1995); Nicholas Marsicano, (1914–1991); Bob Thompson, (1937–1966); Ezio Martinelli, (1913–1980) Irving Kriesberg, (1919–2009).^[5]

Figurative Partisans: 1950–1964

"During the war years and into the 1950s," Judith E. Stein writes, "the general public was to remain highly suspicious of abstraction, which many considered un-American. While the art critic Clement Greenberg successfully challenged the public's negative response to abstraction, his attempt to communicate to the New York figurative painters of the fifties was less successful."^[6] A conversation recollected by Thomas B. Hess emphasized the perceived power of the critic:"It is impossible today to paint a face, pontificated the critic Clement Greenberg around 1950. "That's right," said de Kooning, "and it's impossible not to."^[7]

In 1953, the journal Reality was founded "to rise to the defense of any painter's right to paint any ways he wants."^[8] Backing this mission statement was an editorial committee that included Isabel Bishop (1902–1988), Edward Hopper (1882–1967), Jack Levine (1915–2010), Raphael Soyer (1899–1987) and Henry Varnum Poor (1888–1970).

The sculptor Philip Pavia became "partisan publisher" of It is. A Magazine for Abstract Art that he founded in 1958. In an open letter to Leslie Katz, the new publisher of Arts Magazine, he wrote: "I am begging you to give the representational artist a better deal. The neglected representational and near-abstract artists, not the abstractionists, need a champion these days."^[9]

Although none of these figurative advocates had the stature of critics like Clement Greenberg or Harold Rosenberg, they were recognized by critics as radicals, "represent[ing] a new generation to whom figurative art was in a sense more revolutionary than abstraction."^[10]

The literary historian Marjorie Perloff has made a convincing argument that Frank O'Hara's poems on the works of Garace Hartigan and Larry Rivers proved "that he was really more at home with painting that retains at least some figuration than with pure abstraction."^[11] Frank O'Hara wrote an elegant defense in "Nature and New Painting," 1954, listing Grace Hartigan (1922–2008), Larry Rivers (1923–2002), Elaine de Kooning (1918–1989), Jane Freilicher (1924–), Robert De Niro Sr. (1922–1993), Felix Pasilis (1922–), Wolf Kahn (1927–) and Marcia Marcus (1928–) as artists who responded to "the siren-like call of nature."^[12] O'Hara aligned the New York Figurative Expressionists within abstract expressionism, which had always taken a strong position against an implied protocol, "whether at the Metropolitan Museum or the Artists Club." Thomas B. Hess wrote: "[T]he 'New figurative painting' which some have been expecting as a reaction against Abstract Expressionism was implicit in it at the start, and is one of its most lineal continuities."^[13]

Books

Paul Schimmel and Judith E Stein, The Figurative fifties : New York figurative expressionism, (Newport Beach, Calif. : Newport Harbor Art Museum : New York : Rizzoli, 1988.)ISBN 978-0-8478-0942-4
Bram Dijkstra, American expressionism : art and social change, 1920–1950, (New York : H.N. Abrams, in association with the Columbus Museum of Art, 2003.) ISBN 978-0-8109-4231-8
Marika Herskovic, American Abstract and Figurative Expressionism Style Is Timely Art Is Timeless (New York School Press, 2009.) ISBN 978-0-9677994-2-1
Marika Herskovic, ed. New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists, (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0-9677994-0-6
Gregory Battock, ed. The new art; a critical anthology, (New York: Frederick A. Prager, 1957or 3rd ed. New York, E.P. Dutton, 1973.) OCLC 788661

References

^ Lafo, Rachel; Capasso, Nicholas; Uhrhane, Jennifer (2002). Painting in Boston, 1950-2000. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. p. 171. ISBN 1558493646.
^ ^a ^b Paul Schimmel and Judith E Stein, The Figurative fifties : New York figurative expressionism, Introduction (Newport Beach, Calif.: Newport Harbor Art Museum: New York : Rizzoli, 1988.) ISBN 978-0-8478-0942-4
^ Paul Schimmel and Judith E Stein, The Figurative fifties : New York figurative expressionism, The Other Tradition (Newport Beach, Calif. : Newport Harbor Art Museum : New York : Rizzoli, 1988.)ISBN 978-0-8478-0942-4 p.17
^ Dubin, Zan (Jul 17, 1988). "Expressionism's Zigzag in '50s New York: It Figured". Los Angeles Times.
^ Paul Schimmel and Judith E Stein, The Figurative fifties : New York figurative expressionism (Newport Beach, Calif. : Newport Harbor Art Museum : New York : Rizzoli, 1988.)ISBN 978-0-8478-0942-4 p.15
^ Paul Schimmel and Judith E Stein, The Figurative fifties : New York figurative expressionism (Newport Beach, Calif. : Newport Harbor Art Museum : New York : Rizzoli, 1988.)ISBN 978-0-8478-0942-4 pp. 37–51
^ Willem de Kooning; Thomas B. Hess; M. Knoedler & Co., De Kooning; recent paintings, (New York, Walker and Company, 1967.) OCLC: 320929 p.40
^ ”Editorial,” Reality, A Journal of Artists’ Opinions (Spring 1954), p.2 and p.8
^ Philip Pavia, “An Open Letter to Leslie Katz, Publisher of Arts Magazine, New York City,” It is (Autumn 1959), p.79
^ Martica Sawin, “Jan Müller: 1922–1958,” Arts Magazine 33 (February 1959), p.39
^ Marjorie Perloff, Frank O’Hara, poet among painters, (New York: G. Braziller, 1977.) ISBN 978-0-8076-0835-7 p.85
^ Frank O’Hara, Nature and new painting, (New York: Tiber Press, 1954.) OCLC 6890031
^ Thomas B. Hess, “The Many Death of American Art,” Art News 59 (October 1960), p.25

External links for image reproductions

Willem de Kooning, Woman, I. 1950–52. Oil on canvas, from MoMA.org
Jackson Pollock, Easter and the Totem. 1953. Oil on canvas from MoMA.org
Conrad Marca-Relli, Seated Figure, 1953–54 Oil and canvas on linen^{[permanent dead link]} from artic.edu
Larry Rivers, Study for George Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1953. Pencil on paper, from MoMA.org
Grace Hartigan, Homage to Matisse, 1955 oil on canvas from RISD.edu/museum.cfm
Elaine de Kooning, Fairfield Porter, 1954 oil on canvas from kemperart.org
'Robert de Niro Sr., Lola Montez, 1958 – 1959 charcoal and pencil on paper from hirshhorn.si.edu
Fairfield Porter, Katie and Anne, 1955 oil on canvas from hirshhorn.si.edu
George McNeil, Jezebel, 1960 oil on canvas from collections.walkerart.org
Jan Muller, (1922–1958), The Search for the Unicorn, 1957 oil on canvas from michaelrosenfeld.com
Bob Thompson, Untitled, 1962 oil on canvas^{[permanent dead link]} from hirshhorn.si.edu

This page was last edited on 20 September 2023, at 16:34

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