Shaken into Seeing and Hearing

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.

Black Mountain College

Between 1933 and 1957, Black Mountain College served as an unlikely crucible of modernism. Despite its isolated location near Asheville, North Carolina, at various times its permanent and summer faculty included the likes of Anni Albers, Josef Albers, Ilya Bolotowsky, Jean Charlot, Lyonel Feininger, Joseph Fiore, Buckminster Fuller, Walter Gropius, Karen Karnes, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Jacob Lawrence, Robert Motherwell, Beaumont Newhall, Amédée Ozenfant, Xanati Schawinsky, Ben Shahn, and Jack Tworkov. These artists and architects were joined by composers John Cage, Lou Harrison, Ernst Krenek, David Tudor, and Stefan Wolpe; writers and poets Robert Creeley, Charles Olsen, and M.C. Richards; as well as critic Clement Greenberg, musicologist Heinrich Jalowetz, and choreographer Merce Cunningham. There are few evident commonalities among the practices of this mix of European émigrés and Americans, yet the educationally progressive ethos of the College appealed to each of them. Its founding program was predicated upon a belief that the arts were central to higher education and that the practice of democracy would benefit from their curricular integration. Participation was prioritized in all activities, particularly in learning.

Ghani, Yusof (1950--)

Yusof Ghani is a Malaysian artist who was significantly influenced by American Abstract Expressionism. Ghani’s first solo exhibition in 1984 was held at Anton Gallery in Washington, DC, where he showed his Protest series. However, this series failed to fit in with the work of other Malaysian artists who were at that time intent on developing a national identity for Malaysian art. Rather than acquiescing to the same theme, Yusof pursued his interest in "cultural dance," which he had explored in his MA thesis, eventually expanding it into the fundamental theme of his SiriTari (Dance Series) (1984–1992). Yusof Ghani’s works possess an astonishing fluidity that captures the exhilaration and tension of his subject matter. Heavily influenced by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Ghani’s works are intense, powerful, and are usually noted for their spontaneous and ferocious brushstrokes. His works consist of abstract (or semi-abstract) forms and imageries, emphasizing formalistic experimentation in his use of colors, emphasis on the simplification of forms, and expressive qualities of his lines.

de Kooning, Willem (1904–1997)

A leading post-World War II artist, Willem de Kooning painted in the vigorous style known as ‘‘gestural abstraction’’ or ‘‘action painting,’’ one of the two divisions of Abstract Expressionism. The artists associated with this Abstract Expressionism—Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Robert Motherwell, among others—emphasized the act of painting and used pronounced, often energetic, brushstrokes to convey expression. A preeminent figure of Abstract Expressionism, de Kooning occupied a distinct place within a group that rejected any critical labels. In 1955, de Kooning declared ‘‘Words and labels are very confusing. We need definitions. I’m not an Abstract Expressionist, but I express myself.’’ Although he experimented with various degrees of abstraction and epitomized the bold, improvisational brushstroke of Action Painting, de Kooning created a style that remained unique within the movement, with a deep commitment to the body and the human figure. Blending expressionist, cubist, and surrealist elements with technical skill, his paintings explored the ambiguous relations between figure and ground, abstraction and representation, and abstract versus overt figuration.

Guston, Philip (1913–1980)

American artist Philip Guston is best known for the comic-strip-inspired paintings he created during the last decade of his life. Though they prompted scathing reviews when first exhibited in 1970, Guston’s late works became a precedent for 1980s Neo-expressionism. Born Philip Goldstein to Jewish-Ukrainian immigrants in Montreal, Guston was raised in Los Angeles, where he attended the Otis Art Institute, as well as the Manual Arts High School with Jackson Pollock. Inspired by Italian Renaissance frescoes and Mexican muralism, Guston began his career painting political murals—first in California and Mexico, and later in New York as part of the WPA’s Federal Art Project. While teaching at the University of Iowa and Washington University in St Louis in the 1940s, Guston gained critical acclaim for his allegorical street scenes. In 1951, he moved to New York and began producing gestural abstractions in the manner of Willem de Kooning. His return to figuration in the late 1960s, prompted by the social and political unrest of the period, combines the iconography of his early paintings; specifically, these works feature hooded figures and brick walls, with an expressionist style marked by his signature short, thick brushstrokes.

Pavia, Philip (1912–2005)

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.

Hasegawa, Saburô (長谷川三郎) (1906–1957)

Hasegawa Saburô was a Japanese writer, art historian, and abstract painter. Born in Yamaguchi prefecture, as a youth he trained under the oil painter Koide Narashige (1887–1931). He studied Japanese art history at Tokyo Imperial University while continuing to paint. After graduating in 1929, he moved to Paris for three years, where he studied the work of abstract painters, particularly Mondrian, whose style he found inspirational. Upon his return to Japan he contributed to exhibitions organized by the Nikakai (Society of Progressive Japanese Artists). In 1936 he published Abstract Art (Abusutorakuto âto), one of the first authoritative Japanese-language texts on the subject. The next year he joined with several other artists to create the Free Artist Society (Jiyû Bijutsuka Kyôkai), an influential pre-war avant-garde collective. Paintings such as Locus of a Butterfly (Chô no kiseki, 1937) — which was contributed to the Free Artist Society’s first exhibition — demonstrate Hasegawa’s interest in combining Western-style abstraction with East Asian calligraphy. During a visit to New York in 1951, he gave lectures on Zen and East Asian aesthetics that were attended by Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, and other New York School painters. From 1955 he worked as a lecturer in art history, painting, printmaking, and calligraphy at the California College of Art and Crafts.