Pavia, Philip (1912–2005)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther T. Thyssen
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Abstract Expressionism ◽  
Abstract Art ◽  
New York School ◽  
John Cage ◽  
Critical Writing ◽  
Mature Phase ◽  
Willem De Kooning ◽  
Art Community ◽  
Abstract Sculpture

American sculptor and organizer of the New York art community, Philip Pavia sought to forge a group identity for the New York School. Pavia founded the Downtown Artists Club (1949–1955) with Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline, Ibram Lassaw and others. "The Club" transformed earlier gatherings into an intellectual and social forum as artists debated propositions and principles of Abstract Expressionism as well as the moniker itself. Lectures by luminaries like Joseph Campbell, John Cage and Hannah Arendt, and bi-weekly discussions nurtured artists’ theories. Harold Rosenberg’s milestone essay "The American Action Painters" (1952), for example, evolved from club panels convened by Pavia on "problems" of Abstract Expressionism. Dislike of French Surrealist influence and challenges to the validity of formalist arguments were common. Pavia initiated annual exhibitions with the Ninth Street Show in 1951. Between 1958 and 1965, as an extension of the annuals, Pavia edited and published the periodical It is. A magazine for abstract art (sic). Critical writing, manifestoes and statements by fellow artists were printed alongside reproductions of new work. The periodical was structured as an artists’ archive for Abstract Expressionism during the mature phase of the movement. Concurrently Pavia made abstract sculpture in bronze, stone, and clay.

Hofmann, Hans (1880–1966)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christa Noel Robbins
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
York City ◽  
Abstract Expressionism ◽  
Picture Plane ◽  
Depth Of Field ◽  
New York School ◽  
American Modernism ◽  
Core Group ◽  
The Core ◽  
Clement Greenberg

Hans Hofmann was a German–American painter associated with Abstract Expressionism. Known as much for his paintings as for his role as a teacher, Hofmann moved to New York City in 1932. Much older than the core group of New York School painters, Hofmann acted as a kind of bridge between European and American modernism. Hofmann’s paintings are highly recognizable: they feature large planes of thickly applied, bold color, often interspersed with expressionistic fields of gestural painting. The result, which can be seen in his 1962 painting Memoria in Aeternum, is a dynamic play with depth of field and colour relations. Hofmann referred to this spatial and optical play as the "push–pull" effect, indicating the manner in which areas of a canvas can appear to push back behind the picture plane and pull forward into the viewer’s space, while simultaneously reading as flat surface. The spatial and material relationality introduced through this device influenced a generation of New York painters and critics, both those taught directly by Hofmann and those who learned of his theories through second parties. Hofmann’s students from this period include Lee Krasner, Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Stella, Allan Kaprow and, importantly, Clement Greenberg. Many of their first lessons in modernist painting took place in his school.

ORDINARY MATTERS: CHRISTIAN WOLFF ON HIS RECENT MUSIC

Tempo ◽  
2004 ◽  
Vol 58 (229) ◽  
pp. 19-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Chase ◽  
Clemens Gresser
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
New York School ◽  
John Cage ◽  
Music Festival ◽  
Christian Wolff ◽  
Morton Feldman

Christian Wolff, who turned 70 in March this year, is the last remaining member of the so-called New York School of Composers. Very briefly he studied with John Cage, and was exchanging thoughts with Earle Brown, Morton Feldman and David Tudor from the age of 16 in 1950. Along with friends and colleagues Cornelius Cardew and Frederic Rzewski, he began in the 1970s to draw upon musical ideas that reflected his social and political concerns in a more direct manner. The following is an extract of a much longer interview which took place during the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in November 2002 where Christian Wolff was a featured composer. Wolff discusses his recent compositions, his attitude to writing for voice, and his approach to performance and to begin with, recording.

Lassaw, Ibram (1913–2003)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther T. Thyssen
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Abstract Expressionism ◽  
New York School ◽  
Jackson Pollock ◽  
Active Participant ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Founding Member ◽  
The Family ◽  
Galactic Cluster ◽  
Brooklyn Museum

A sculptor of the New York School, Ibram Lassaw was born to Russian parents in Alexandria, Egypt. The family immigrated to Brooklyn, NY, in 1921, where Lassaw learned modeling, casting, and carving. He discovered avant-garde art at the Brooklyn Museum in 1926, and continued to study sculpture at the Clay Club from 1927 to 1932. An active participant in New York modernist circles, Lassaw was a founding member of the American Abstract Artists Group (1935), and The Club (1949). Lassaw’s interest in cosmic and religious themes culminated in abstract sculptures for Jewish synagogues, such as Pillar of Fire (1953) at Temple Beth El, Springfield, MA. Known for his web-like structures, Lassaw dripped, fused, and spattered metal, embracing the resulting accidental contours that accrued on his gridded designs, as in Galactic Cluster #1 (1958, Newark Museum). He wielded the oxyacetylene torch like a paintbrush and the intricately structured wires twist, turn, and redouble like skeins of paint by Jackson Pollock. His work was included in the 1959 Kassel Documenta, which showcased American Abstract Expressionism.

Clement Greenberg, Harold Rosenberg, and Their Jewish Issues

Prospects ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 651-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Baigell
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Art Criticism ◽  
Abstract Expressionism ◽  
Immigrant Parents ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Jackson Pollock ◽  
The Social ◽  
Willem De Kooning ◽  
Clement Greenberg ◽  
Art Critics

Clement Greenberg (1909–94) and Harold Rosenberg (1906–78) were the two art critics most closely associated with abstract expressionism in the 1940s and 1950s. Neither began their careers as art critics, however. By the mid-1980s, Rosenberg had published literary essays and poems in left-wing magazines, and Greenberg's articles and reviews first appeared at the end of that decade. During the 1940s, Greenberg began to write art criticism, and Rosenberg's essays began to appear frequently in the 1950s. By that time, both had become part of the group known informally as the New York Intellectuals, many of whom were Jewish and children of immigrant parents.Highly verbal, vocal, argumentative, and politically left of center, they often published in magazines such as Partisan Review, Commentary, and Dissent. Although both Greenberg and Rosenberg ultimately rejected the more dogmatic and authoritarian aspects of leftist politics, they nevertheless supported the idea that society must move forward, but not necessarily by political means. Greenberg thought that such momentum could be maintained by the cultural elite, and Rosenberg, influenced by surrealism's concerns for the creative process, believed that individuals who were independent minded and creative could do the same. Both encouraged artists to turn from the social concerns that engaged many during the 1930s to apolitical, self-searching themes that came to characterize the art of the 1940s. In effect, they, especially Rosenberg, lionized the artist as an heroic individual. In the words of one historian, both “worked to find a safe haven for radical progress within the realm of individualistic culture.” And both, among the most perspicacious critics of their time, discovered, encouraged, and/or supported artists who ultimately became major figures, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

scholarly journals The Cage Case. Arts and Social Neuroscience

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amendola Alfonso ◽  
Jessica Camargo Molano
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
Social Research ◽  
New York School ◽  
John Cage ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Figurative Art ◽  
Post War ◽  
The Relationship

A great story told by a musician is the basis of the best stage experimentation of the second half of the 20th century. The musician is John Cage, whose work synthesizes the entire system of arts within the extraordinary world of the avant-garde. This great story begins with the experimental artistic activities which were developed in the 1920s, consolidated in the thirties and continued through the post-war period up to the dawn of the fifties. Apart from the socio-historical cross-section Cage’s experimentation provides, it is also a pretext for reflecting on the artist’s work as well as the relationship between neuroscience and art. Important contributions to this topic come from the neuro-scientific-social research on new expressions “of creativity, imagination, genius” (Pecchinenda, 2018). This study is based on the assumption that Cage was the forerunner of neuronal experimentation that would be central to the experiments and research of many other artists. The theoretical reference model can be found in the research of the neuroscientist Kandel et al, whose work was the starting point for this investigation. Kandel grasps the definitive break between scientific logic and humanistic sensitivity in the methodological reductionism practiced by neuroscience and in the experiments of contemporary creativity. According to Kandel, both neuroscience and artistic experimentation have similar objectives and problems, and in some respects seem to develop similar methodological practices. Kandel identifies the use of memory, synthesis and knowledge of the world in authors such as Mondrian, de Kooning, Pollock, Rothko, Louis, Warhol as well as the New York school of which Cage was an important member. The relationship between art and neuroscience is synthetized in the avant-garde action of Cage and in all the artists who launched continuous attacks against traditional forms. The transition from figurative art to abstraction is “comparable” to the reductionist process that is used in the scientific field to explain complexity and phenomenology. The prolegomena of this discourse are anticipated by a previous work written by Kandel in 2012 and can also be found in other studies on the relationship between neuroscience and art, in particular in the reflections of the neurobiologist and father of neuroaesthetics, Semir Zeki. Zeki analyzed artists work as a practice perfectly comparable to the research carried out by neuroscientists. Cage, the focus of this investigation, carried out a sound-stage-vision experimentation affecting theatre, media and art which can be examined from at least two different perspectives. The first concerns the definitive subversion of “innate rules of perception” (Kandel) and the second deals with the relationship between art and neuroscience.

The Bay Area Figurative Movement

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Nay
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
San Francisco ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
West Coast ◽  
San Francisco Bay Area ◽  
Abstract Expressionism ◽  
New York School ◽  
Bay Area ◽  
Human Figure

The Bay Area Figurative Movement, also commonly referred to as the Bay Area Figurative School, was an art movement in the 1950s and 1960s. It was made up of a group of artists working in the San Francisco Bay Area who, in a move away from the New York School mode of abstraction, abandoned painting in the established style of Abstract Expressionism. These West Coast artists focused predominantly on the human body as their subject matter and eschewed Abstract Expressionism’s rejection of representation. The artists’ concentration on figurative work ultimately lent the group its name, although its subject matter included landscapes, cityscapes and still lifes as well. The Bay Area artists shared mutual interests and evolved a shared stylistic vocabulary. They received significant critical recognition, and helped redefine figurative art following Abstract Expressionism through a uniquely regional interpretation of modernist painting. The evolution of the Bay Area Figurative Movement was also culturally associated with the rise of beat culture in San Francisco, West Coast jazz, and reactions to World War II. It remains highly contested whether the Bay Area Figurative Movement was a deliberate and rebellious break with Abstract Expressionism or simply a cyclical return to the human figure as subject matter.

Shaken into Seeing and Hearing

2019 ◽  
pp. 131-170
Author(s):  
Ryan Dohoney
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Abstract Expressionism ◽  
Musical Aesthetics ◽  
Jackson Pollock ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
George Balanchine ◽  
Willem De Kooning ◽  
Mark Rothko ◽  
The University ◽  
The City

Chapter 3 chronicles the intersection of Feldman’s and Dominique de Menil’s spiritual aesthetics. It begins by reconstructing the conditions of their first meeting: the New York City Ballet’s 1966 performance of Merce Cunningham’s Summerspace, re-choreographed for George Balanchine. It goes on to document Feldman and de Menil’s 1967 collaboration on the gallery show Six Painters at the University of St. Thomas. Through her family’s patronage, as well as Dominique’s presence as self-installed head of the art department, the University became a major presenting organization offering avant-garde cultural events in the city. Six Painters featured paintings by Piet Mondrian, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Philip Guston, and Franz Kline. Feldman was also given a residency at the university in 1967, where he lectured on abstract expressionism and his own musical aesthetics as well as presented a concert of his music.

Between creativity and death: Abstract expressionists and alcohol use disorders

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S519-S520
Author(s):  
O. Vasiliu ◽  
D. Vasile ◽  
F. Androne ◽  
M. Patrascu ◽  
E. Morariu
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Abstract Expressionism ◽  
Heavy Drinking ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Jackson Pollock ◽  
Willem De Kooning ◽  
Mark Rothko ◽  
Innovative Work ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Car Accident

American Expressionists were a group of American artists who valued free expression of unconscious elements, combining emotional intense expressions with anti-figurative abstract style. Their main place of creative debates was Cedar Tavern in New York City, considered by art critics an important incubator of the Abstract Expressionism. Jackson Pollock, one of the most prominent figures of this movement, suspected of having bipolar disorder, abused alcohol during long periods of his life, for which he even underwent psychotherapy. Unfortunately, he died in a car accident while driving under influence, after decades of innovative work, during which he created a new painting method and produced compositions which are nowadays between the most expensive works of art. Mark Rothko also had periods of heavy drinking, and finally he died by cutting his arms with a razor. He is considered a genius, who created a completely new perspective over painting, and his works are also between the most expensive paintings in the world. Willem de Kooning was affected by alcoholism since his early years, and developed dementia, at least partially induced by abusive drinking. Although affected by neurocognitive disorder, he continued to produce amazingly creative paintings until his final years and in 2016 one of his works obtained the record for the most expensive painting ever sold. Using alcohol as a tool for increasing creativity risks to expose the creator to severe disorders or even death, the subject walking on a narrow line between sublimation of unconscious impulses and tragic resignation before them.Disclosure of interestThe presenting author was speaker for Bristol Myers Squibb and Servier, and participated in clinical research funded by Janssen Cilag, Astra Zeneca, Eli Lilly, Sanofi Aventis, Schering Plough, Organon, Bioline Rx, Forenap, Wyeth, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, Dainippon Sumitomo.

Zen Influence, Inherence, and Denial

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gregory P. A. Levine
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
New York School ◽  
John Cage ◽  
The West ◽  
Postwar Art ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Rhetorical Patterns

Centering on the work and reception of the composer John Cage, famous for his “indeteminant” works, Yoshihara Jirō and his “Circle works,” and the filmmaker Ozu Yasujirō’s Tokyo Story, this chapter examines the twining postwar rhetorical patterns of Zen influence, Zen inherence, and Zen denial as they inform interpretation of works of postwar art produced by artists in the West and Japan. Contrary to certain practitioner narratives, at times beguiled by hagiography and inclined towards grand narratives, the chapter suggests a grittier sensibility that reflects the rhetorical tussles that emerged contemporaneously and have since continued. Doing so, it points again to the multifarious nature of Zen in the postwar period, including those forms espoused by the avant-garde and its advocates, as well as the parallax effect of affirmative orientalist reception in the West of Japanese artists—praised when their work looked Zen, otherwise dismissed as derivative of New York School artists.

A Generous Vision

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cathy Curtis
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Abstract Expressionism ◽  
Art World ◽  
Critical Rhetoric ◽  
Prime Mover ◽  
Sense Of Humor ◽  
Bodily Movement ◽  
Willem De Kooning ◽  
Cave Paintings

Elaine de Kooning (1918–1989) was a noted art critic and artist, and a prime mover in the New York art world. She was a vivacious social catalyst. Her sparkling wit enlivened meetings of the Club, nights at the Cedar Tavern, and chance conversations on the street. Her droll sense of humor, generosity of spirit, and freewheeling spending were as legendary as her ever-present cigarette. An incisive writer, she pinpointed the essence of artists as diverse as Franz Kline and August Renoir, and deftly refuted pompous critical rhetoric. As a painter, she melded Abstract Expressionism with her lifelong interest in bodily movement to capture the characteristic postures of portrait sitters ranging from artist and writer friends to President John F. Kennedy. Driven to focus on a single theme for years at a stretch, she produced multiple paintings reflecting her fascination with people and animals in motion; her subjects include bullfighting, basketball, Paleolithic cave paintings, and a multi-figure sculpture in the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris. Married to Willem de Kooning from 1943 until her death, she credited him as her greatest influence. Although the couple separated in 1957, after episodes of unfaithfulness on both sides, nearly two decades later she bought a house near his to rescue him from severe alcoholism. Rather than being overshadowed by his fame, she said, she worked “in his light.”

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