Viewing page 22 of 24

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

[[image 1]]
Larry Poons. Way out on the Mountain, 1965. Acrylic/canvas, 72 x 144'. Collection Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College; Ruth C. Roush Fund for Contemporary Art.

[[image 2]]
Helen Frankenthaler, Blue Atmosphere, 1963. Acrylic/canvas, 117 1/2 x 70".
Lent by the André Emmerich Gallery

 
philosophical pretensions of Newman's. The best of them exhibit irregular, sharp-edged shapes, strong colors in almost brutal contrasts, and a surface of ridged, crusty pigment. The flat, colorful, vigorous pattern produces a distinctly "Gothic" effect. Like Newman and some younger artists, he has one story to tell, but it is in the tradition of Poe or Isak Dinesen rather than John Donne or William Blake.
Newman and Still never achieved the vigorous and varied expression of Kline, or de Kooning, for example, or the ineffable, subjective insights of Rothko. As different as they are, however, both are more closely related to the so-called Color-Field painters than some other artists of their own generation. Broad expanses of color, emphasis on surface, and limited expression are common to both and to many of the younger painters.
Current fashion proposes that Louis' "Stripes" and "Unfurleds" are his most important works. They may be the most advanced of Louis' paintings in terms of treating the composition as a flat, unified, expansive entity; however, the "Florals" and "Veils" are more sensuous and poetic.
Helen Frankenthaler has received recognition for her important works in themselves as well as for her influence on subsequent painting. Her works exhibit a peculiar awkwardness which-- like Manolete's strut--becomes, paradoxically, a kind of superior grace. 
Two artists who have not always received the attention they deserve are Friedel Dzubas and Adja Yunkers. Dzubas was working near Frankenthaler when Louis and Noland paid their visit. His abstract landscape-like composition and unique color form a flat, subtle arrangement of irregular, firmly contoured shapes butting up against one another and seeming to expand off the canvas.
Concerning Yunkers, suffice to remark here that I believe his is the most serious omission from the exhibition.
Among the newer names, Charles Pollock, and Walter Darby Bannard, along with a few others, seem to promise most. Certain younger figures such as John Seery belong in the exhibition but came to attention too late to be included. No exhibition can do everything it should this one does more than most and reflects credit on Mrs. Colt. It demonstrates that the art of abstract painting is far from moribund. It is less vigorous but more refined than it was twenty years ago. It is still varied in style and in content; some works are purely decorative while others seem to refer to subjective experiences. However, the latter are generally elegant and subtle rather than vigorous and rugged. The "poetry" depends on color, nuance, muted tones, and delicately defined surfaces which appear to extend into the space around the canvas.
After an "archaic" or "primitive phase called Abstract-Expressionism, perhaps abstract art is now entering a "rococo" phase concentrating on elegance, refinement, decorative qualities, and technical virtuosity.

Transcription Notes:
[[image 1: Way out on the Mountain, by Larry Poons. 1965]] [[image 2: Blue Atmosphere, by Helen Frankenthaler. 1963]]