After 1952, dripping and pouring paint were no longer the primary means of expression for Jackson Pollock. The totemic forms at the left and right in Easter and The Totem (1953) reflect his renewed interest in using a brush to paint quasi-figurative images. The bright colors and expansive spaces anchored by large swaths of black suggest the influence of Henri Matisse, who was the subject of a large retrospective that Pollack would have seen at MoMA the previous year. The push and pull between abstraction and figuration is a thread that weaves through Pollock’s entire career. As he said in the last year of his life, “I am very representational some of the time and a little al of the time.”
A powerful rendering by the artist in her twenties, this picture was made with a practical purpose; it was painted as a reception piece for admission to the life-drawing course at the National Academy of Design. While Lee Krasner (1908 – 1984) is best known for the personal style that she developed within the movement of Abstract Expressionism in the 19540s, this self portrait (c. 1930) is a rare example of her early work, using the thick brushwork and high color of the Impressionists and Realists of the previous generation. Strikingly, Krasner depicts herself at work in nature. She eyes the viewer, who stands on the spot where, presumably, a mirror hangs on a tree. Her expression and strong handling of light and shade evoke the resolve of a young woman rising to the challenge of her artistic vocation.
In The Seasons (1957), Lee Krasner (1908 – 1984) combined a traditional subject with modern, pictorial form, the all-over composition. Historically, the subject of the four seasons has offered artists the opportunity for allegorical mediations on the life cycle. Krasner’s version exemplifies the regenerative portion of that cycle, with boldly, almost garishly colored plant forms that seem to morph into sexual organs. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Lee Krasner, The Seasons→
Of all the modern artists about whom people who “don’t get” art might look at their work and say, “Oh, my kid could paint that,” American Abstract Expressionist painter Jackson Pollock is likely close to the top of that list. Above, you will see the oil on canvas work, Shimmering Substance (1946) which is occasionally on view at the Museum of Modern Art as part of its Permanent Collection. To me, the colors, textures and movement of this painting are just breathtaking. Continue reading Modern Art Monday Presents: Jackson Pollock’s Shimmering Substance→
Installation view of James Rosenquist’s F-111 (1964-65) at The Museum of Modern Art, 2012. Oil on canvas with aluminum, 23 sections, All Photos by Jonathan Muzikar (Image Source)
Pop artist James Rosenquist has been one of my favorite living contemporary artists since I was first turned on to his work back when I was in college. I was so excited today to see a full installation of his multi-panel painting entitled F-111. This large scale work, which takes up four walls of a special gallery at NYC’s MOMA, features Rosenquist’s signature style of compiling collages of pop culture images (many taken from magazine ads and photos from the ’60s) and reproducing them on canvas in his pop modernist style.This painting is so gorgeous! The exhibit also contains many framed studies the Rosenquist did in preparation for this executing this impressive work. Continue reading James Rosenquist’s F-111 at MOMA→
