American Abstract Artists Celebrate the First Fifty Years
Geierhaas, Franz. “American Abstract Artists Celebrate the First Fifty Years”Journal of the Print World, Vol. 10, No. 3, Summer 1987, p. 14.
When 44 individual artists are involved in producing black/white lithographs one might expect a great variety of images, levels of germaneness to the imposed medium and perhaps even a certain monotony; after all, same size, same (lack of) color, all abstract. The good news is that if such fears were held, they were held for naught. The prints show vitality, originality and almost all transcend the character of “Pflichtubung” (required exercise) and are a real pleasure to behold. Just the same, every viewer will have some favorites. Mine include Richard Anuszkiewicz’s Transl’umina Graphic, a very strong quadratic statement; Ruth Eckstein’s Portais, which shows a slightly ajar gate against a rich background; Helen Gilbert, a Hawaiian artist, produced Study for Square Dancer in which fluid lines are boxed in rectangular configurations. Gilbert spent considerable time in Paris helping to supervise the printing of the editions. As a sort of afterthought, I find it strange to use titles in which figurative or representational meaning is conveyed when the work is meant to be abstract! It is somewhat like singing Lutheran hymns in a Roman Catholic service! (I am told that in the new spirit of ecumenism this is exactly what sometimes happens.) Perhaps the sharp dialectical battle lines between abstract and figurative and representational are not always apparent any longer. Heidi Glück’s Untitled (wisely so) print is a true minimalist statement with much impact; John Goodyear’s contribution is called Drawings and contains 17 little squares all arranged on top of one another—totem pole style—each containing some form, some suspiciously figurative. Bud Hopkin’s Untitled uses calligraphic elements reminiscent of Chinese kanchi (which are totally abstract to us, the non-Chinese readers, but what about the Chinese?); James Juszcyk’s print Haiku Clouds does not only give away his interest in Japanese and Zen elements by the title but, according to Goodyear, he was hard to reach during the production months since he actually was staying at a Zen monastery in Japan. A large rectangle contains a series of black and white bars, perfectly balanced (i.e. at the very verge of being unbalanced). Leroy Lamis sent John Goodyear a computer generated image with the almost contradictory title: Untitled: Computer Generated Image. Is the latter part actually a title as in “the medium is the message?” Good year had to have it transferred onto a plate and, with permission of the artist, darkened the outlines so as to obtain sufficient contrast in the litho. I also liked Mary Obering’s slightly wavy lines arranged in near parallel pairs. She also gives her print the Untitled label. Hiroshi Murata’s Untitled finds this artist again and fruitfully occupied in the explorations of his chosen universe of patterns. In recent shows I have detected a movement away from hard-edged geometric forms towards more fluidity of line.
It is fitting, I believe, to close this celebratory article and review by letting Naomi Boretz and John Goodyear have the last word (excerpted with their permission from the introductory statement accompanying the Fiftieth Anniversary Print Portfolio), to be followed by the roll call of participants of both portfolios:
As in the 1937 Portfolio, constructivist tendencies predominate. Some current works are more mechanistic, employing “found” patterns and even computer generated imagery. In other works, brushstroke, drip, and gesture recall that abstract expressionism—or, more closely, neo-expressionism—which surrounds us; many artists here also employing a sensitive line and a fluidity not clearly evident in the1937 prints. The are few overt reference to the figurative images still prevalent (and perhaps unexpected) in some works of the thirties, whose creators were so militant about abstraction. Subjectivity exists in the new work of the eighties, but feeling is produced by more formal means.
Although they dared to break with many traditions (as has been well documented) some of the AAA artists represented in the 1937 portfolio built there compositions with a balance of black, white and grey reminiscent of traditional/ figurative work. Now, even this kind of moderation is avoided as the AAA artists represented in the 1987 Portfolio employ exaggerated expanses of black, or all encompassing greys, or extremely large areas of empty space. In these current prints, opposites are juxtaposed more vigorously; new kinds of opposition have been invented. Hard edges dissolve into soft; impulsiveness gives way to thoughtfulness; rigid structure seems to move, through the dynamics of optics or even “cinematic” repetition. Many of the images pit the flatness of the page against a dense, vegetal build-up of space. Some of the images hover in the middle of the page; others meander off the edge of the allotted space, implying an extension of the border.
More than a few of the artists included in this new Portfolio have built reputations as printmakers over decades of hard work. Others have seldom or never made a print. The result is that the prints function differently. Some reveal a sophisticated utilization of lithography, while others have the freshness of a notebook sketch.
Most of the American Abstract Artists members appear to accept that the basic battle of abstraction has indeed been won. The job is now to make an art that make sense to oneself, to go further in one’s own direction than ever before.
1937 Portfolio participants:
Rosalind Bengelsdorf, Ilya Bolotowsky, Harry Bowden, Byron Browne, George Cavallon, A. N. Christie, Werner Drewes, Herzl Emmanuel, Balcomb Greene, Gertrude Greene, Hananiah Harari, Carl Holty, Ray Kaiser, Paul Kelpe, M. Kennedy, Ibram Lassaw, Agnes Lyall, Alice Mason, George McNeil, George L. K. Morris, John Opper, Ralph M. Rosenborg, Louis Schanker, Charles G. Shaw, Esphyr Slobodkina, Albert Swinden, R. D. Turnbull, Vaclav Vytlacil, Frederick J. Whiteman, W. M. Zogbaum.
1987 Portfolio participants:
L. Alcopley, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Will Barnet, Naomi Boretz, Jean Cohen, Robert Conover, Nassos Daphnis, Ruth Eckstien, Suzy Frelinghuysen, Vito Giacalone, Helen Gilbert, Heidi Glück, John Goodyear, James Gross, Paul Heald, Budd Hopkins, Ward Jackson, James Juszczyk, Harold Krisel, Leroy Lamis, Ibram Lassaw, Jane Logemann, Vincent Longo, Oscar Magnan, Katinka Mann, Jeanne Miles, Brenda Miller, Hiroshi Murata, Judith Murray, Mary Obering, Henry Pearson, Lucio Pozzi, Joan Webster Price, Raquel Rabinovich, Leo Rabkin, Ce Roser, Irene Rousseau, James Seawright, Louis Silverstein, Esphyr Slobodkina, Helen Soreff, Peter Stroud, Merrill Wagner, Mac Wells.