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Lyrical Abstraction

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Norman Bluhm, Untitled (1984)
Main articles: Tachisme, Art Informel, and School of Paris

Lyrical Abstraction refers to two related but distinctly separate movements in Post-war Modernist painting. European Lyrical Abstraction is an art movement born in Paris in 1945. The French critic Charles Estienne created its name in 1946.

At that time, France was trying to reconstruct its identity. Some art critics looked at the new abstraction as an attempt to try to restore the image of artistic Paris, which had held the rank of capital of the arts until the war. It is possible that Lyrical Abstraction also represented a competition between Paris and the new American school of painting, Abstract Expressionism, based in New York and represented by Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and many others. It could thus be seen as the School of Paris versus the New York School.

Lyrical Abstraction was opposed not only to Cubist and Surrealist movements that preceded it, but also to geometric abstraction (or "cold abstraction"). Lyrical Abstraction was in some ways the first to apply the lessons of Kandinsky, considered one of the fathers of abstraction. For the artists in France, Lyrical Abstraction represented an opening to personal expression.

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[edit] The "European" "Lyrical Abstraction" movement in Paris

Just after World War II, many artists old and young were back in Paris where they worked and exhibited : Nicolas de Staël, Serge Poliakoff, André Lanskoy and Zaks from Russia; Hans Hartung and Wols from Germany; Árpád Szenes and Simon Hantaï from Hungary; Alexandre Istrati from Romania; Jean-Paul Riopelle from Canada; Vieira da Silva from Portugal; Gérard Ernest Schneider from Switzerland; Feito from Spain; Bram van Velde from Holland; Albert Bitran from Turkey; Zao Wou Ki from China; Sugai from Japan; Sam Francis, John Koenig, Jack Youngerman and Paul Jenkins from the U.S.A.

All these artists and many others were at that time among the “Lyrical Abstractionists” with the French : Georges Mathieu, Pierre Soulages, Nallard, Jean René Bazaine, Doucet, Bryen, Jean Le Moal, Gustave Singier, Alfred Manessier, Roger Bissière, Pierre Tal-Coat etc.

Lyrical Abstraction was opposed not only to “l’Ecole de Paris “ remains of pre-war style but to Cubist and Surrealist movements that had preceded it, and also to geometric abstraction (or "Cold Abstraction"). Lyrical Abstraction was in some ways the first to apply the lessons of Kandinsky, considered one of the fathers of abstraction. For the artists in France, Lyrical Abstraction represented an opening to personal expression.

Many exhibitions were held in Paris, for example in the galleries Arnaud, Drouin, Jeanne Bucher, Louis Carré, Galerie de France, and every year at the “Salon des Réalités Nouvelles” and “Salon de Mai” where the paintings of all these artists could be seen. Georges Mathieu decided to hold two exhibitions: "L'Imaginaire" at the Palais du Luxembourg in 1947 with Camille Bryen and then "HWPSMTB" (Hartung, Wols, Francis Picabia, the sculptor Stahly, Mathieu, Michel Tapié and Bryen) in 1948.

An exhibition entitled "The Lyrical Flight, Paris 1945-1956" (L'Envolée Lyrique, Paris 1945-1956), bringing together the works of 60 painters, was presented in Paris at the Musée du Luxembourg from April to August 2006 and included the most prominent painters of the movement : Mathieu, Soulages, Schneider, Zao Wou-ki, Bitran, Poliakoff.[1]

[edit] European artists who painted in the manner of Lyrical Abstraction (1945–1956) and beyond

[edit] Lyrical Abstraction in America

Ronnie Landfield, For William Blake 1968, a/c, 110 x 256 inches, exhibited: Tower 49, NYC, January 3, 2002-November 15, 2002.[2]

Lyrical Abstraction is an American abstract art movement that emerged in New York City, Los Angeles, Washington, DC, and then Toronto and London during the 1960s - 1970s. Characterized by intuitive and loose paint handling, spontaneous expression, illusionist space, acrylic staining, process, occasional imagery, and other painterly and newer technological techniques.[3] Lyrical Abstraction led the way away from minimalism in painting and toward a new freer expressionism.[4] Painters who directly reacted against the predominating Formalist, Minimalist, and Pop Art and geometric abstraction styles of the 1960s, turned to new, experimental, loose, painterly, expressive, pictorial and abstract painting styles. Many of them had been Minimalists, working with various monochromatic, geometric styles, and whose paintings publicly evolved into new abstract painterly motifs. American Lyrical Abstraction is related in spirit to Abstract Expressionism, Color Field painting and European Tachisme of the 1940s and 1950s as well. Tachisme refers to the French style of abstract painting current in the 1945–1960 period. Very close to Art Informel, it presents the European equivalent to Abstract Expressionism.

[edit] Context

Lyrical Abstraction is a term that was used by Larry Aldrich (the founder of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield Connecticut) in 1969 (after Charles Estienne) to describe what Aldrich said he saw in the studios of many artists at that time.[5] It is also the name of an exhibition that originated in the Aldrich Museum and traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art and other museums throughout the United States between 1969 and 1971.[6] For many years the term Lyrical Abstraction was a pejorative, which unfortunately adversely affected those artists whose works were associated with that name. In 1989 Union College art history professor, the late Daniel Robbins correctly observed that Lyrical Abstraction was the term used in the late sixties to describe the return to painterly expressivity by painters all over the country and "consequently", Robbins said, "the term should be used today because it has historical credibility"[7]

Between 1960 and 1970 Abstract Expressionism had waned, emerging directions such as Formalism, Color Field painting, Fluxus, Happenings, Minimalism, Pop Art, and Op art had decidedly swerved the focus of the avant-garde away from subjective expressionism toward a more objective geometric precision and socio-political theatricality, commentary and observation. During the mid-1960s American painting was declared dead by various critics including Minimalist sculptor/critic Donald Judd citing three-dimensional, volumetric objects as the embodiment of visual truth. Pictorial illusionism as it appears in painting - which is flat and merely depicts space, was described as deceptive and outdated, in a European old-fashioned way. Formalist arguments generally put forth in the name of Clement Greenberg seemed dated and outmoded and missed the point of new painting being made after the mid-1960s altogether.

[edit] Lyrical Abstraction in the late 1960s and early 1970s in America

Lyrical Abstraction in America, according to John I. H. Baur, curator of the Whitney Museum of American Art, NY[8] was a trend during the sixties and early seventies. It was represented by a circulating exhibition which commenced at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut from April 5 through June 7, 1970, and continued to the Civic Center Museum Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Phoenix Art Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. The circulating exhibition ended at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 25 through July 6, 1971. The exhibition was proposed by Larry Aldrich, collector and founder of The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum. Mr. Aldrich defined the trend of Lyrical Abstraction and explained how he came to acquire the works.[9] In his "Statement of the Exhibition" he wrote,

"Early last season, it became apparent that in painting there was a movement away from the geometric, hard-edge, and minimal, toward more lyrical, sensuous, romantic abstractions in colors which were softer and more vibrant...As I researched this lyrical trend, I found many young artists whose paintings appealed to me...The majority of the paintings in the Lyrical Abstraction exhibition were created in 1969 and all are a part of my collection now."

Larry Aldrich donated the paintings from the exhibition to the Whitney Museum of American Art. According to Aldrich: [10]

The artist’s touch is always visible in this type of painting, even when the paintings are done with spray guns, sponges or other objects. [11], [12]

[edit] Participants in the Lyrical Abstraction exhibition

[13][14]

  • Helene Aylon (1931 - )
  • Victoria Barr (1937 - )
  • James Beres (1942 - )
  • Jake Berthot (1939 - )
  • Dan Christensen (1942 – 2007)
  • David William Cummings (1937 - )
  • Carl Gliko (1941-)
  • John Adams Griefen (1942 - )
  • Carol Haerer (1933 – 2002)
  • Gary Hudson (1936 - )
  • Don Kaufman (1935 - )
  • Jane A. Kaufman (1938 - )
  • Victor Kord (1935 - )
  • Ronnie Landfield (1947 - )
  • Pat Lipsky (1941 - )
  • Ralph Sessions Moseley (1941 - )
  • David Paul (1945 - ) only in 1970
  • Herbert Perr,(1941 - )
  • William Pettet (1942 - )
  • Murray Reich (1932 - )
  • Garry Lorence Rich (1943 - )
  • Ken L. Showell (1939 – 1997)
  • John Seery (1941- )
  • Alan Siegel (1938 - )
  • Lawrence Stafford (1938 - )
  • William Staples (1934 - )
  • James Sullivan (artist) (1939 - )
  • Herbert Schiffrin (1944 - )
  • Shirlann Smith (1931 - )
  • John Francis Torreano (1941 - )
  • Jeff Way (1942 - )
  • Thornton Willis (1938 - )
  • Philip Wofford (1935 - )
  • Robert Zakanych (1935 - )

[edit] History

Lyrical Abstraction along with the Fluxus movement and Postminimalism (a term first coined by Robert Pincus-Witten in the pages of Artforum in 1969)[15] sought to expand the boundaries of abstract painting and Minimalism by focusing on process, new materials and new ways of expression. Postminimalism often incorporating industrial materials, raw materials, fabrications, found objects, installation, serial repetition, and often with references to Dada and Surrealism is best exemplified in the sculptures of Eva Hesse.[16] Lyrical Abstraction, Conceptual Art, Postminimalism, Earth Art, Video, Performance art, Installation art, along with the continuation of Fluxus, Abstract Expressionism, Color Field Painting, Hard-edge painting, Minimal Art, Op art, Pop Art, Photorealism and New Realism extended the boundaries of Contemporary Art in the mid-1960s through the 1970s.[17] Lyrical Abstraction is a type of freewheeling abstract painting that emerged in the mid-1960s when abstract painters returned to various forms of painterly, pictorial, expressionism with a predominate focus on process, gestalt and repetitive compositional strategies in general. Characterized by an overall gestalt, consistent surface tension, sometimes even the hiding of brushstrokes, and an overt avoidance of relational composition. It developed as did Postminimalism as an alternative to strict Formalist and Minimalist doctrine.

Lyrical Abstraction shares similarities with Color Field Painting and Abstract Expressionism especially in the freewheeling usage of paint - texture and surface, an example is illustrated by the painting by Ronnie Landfield entitled For William Blake. Direct drawing, calligraphic use of line, the effects of brushed, splattered, stained, squeegeed, poured, and splashed paint superficially resemble the effects seen in Abstract Expressionism and Color Field Painting. However the styles are markedly different. Setting it apart from Abstract Expressionism and Action Painting of the 1940s and 1950s is the approach to composition and drama. As seen in Action Painting there is an emphasis on brushstrokes, high compositional drama, dynamic compositional tension. While in Lyrical Abstraction there is a sense of compositional randomness, all over composition, low key and relaxed compositional drama and an emphasis on process, repetition, and an all over sensibility. The differences with Color Field Painting are more subtle today because many of the Color Field painters with the exceptions of Morris Louis, Ellsworth Kelly, Paul Feeley, Thomas Downing, and Gene Davis evolved into Lyrical Abstractionists. Lyrical Abstraction shares with both Abstract Expressionism and Color Field Painting a sense of spontaneous and immediate sensual expression, consequently distinctions between specific artists and their styles become blurred, and seemingly interchangeable as they evolve.

Abstract Expressionism preceded Color Field painting, Lyrical Abstraction, Fluxus, Pop Art, Minimalism, Postminimalism, and the other movements of the 1960s and 1970s and it influenced the later movements that evolved. The interrelationship of/and between distinct but related styles resulted in influence that worked both ways between artists young and old, and vice-versa. During the mid-1960s in New York, Los Angeles and elsewhere artists often crossed the lines between definitions and art styles. During that period - the mid 1960s through the 1970s advanced American art and contemporary art in general was at a crossroad, shattering in several directions. During the 1970s political movements and revolutionary changes in communication made these American styles international; as the art world itself became more and more international. American Lyrical Abstraction's European counterpart Neo-expressionism came to dominate the 1980s, and also developed as a response to American Pop Art and Minimalism and borrows heavily from American Abstract Expressionism.

[edit] Paintings

Helen Frankenthaler, Mountains and Sea, 1952

Ronald Davis, Ring, 1968

Pat Lipsky, Spiked Red, 1970

John Seery, East, 1973

Richard Diebenkorn, Ocean Park No. 67, 1973


[edit] Some Lyrical Abstractionist painters

[edit] Selected early references

  • Landfield, Ronnie, In The Late Sixties, 1993-95, and other writings - various published and unpublished essays, reviews, lectures, statements and brief descriptives at [17].
  • Robbins, Daniel. Larry Poons: Creation of the Complex Surface, Exhibition Catalogue, Salander/O'Reilly Galleries, pp. 9-19, 1990.
  • Zinsser, John. Larry Poons, an interview reprinted from Journal of Contemporary Art, Fall/Winter 1989, vol.2.2 pp. 28-38. Exhibition Catalogue, Salander/O'Reilly Galleries, pp. 20-24, 1990.
  • Peter Schjeldahl. New Abstract Painting: A Variety of Feelings, Exhibition review, "Continuing Abstraction ", The Whitney Downtown Branch, 55 Water St. NYC. The New York Times, October 13, 1974.
  • Carmean, E.A. Toward Color and Field, Exhibition Catalogue, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, 1971.
  • Henning, Edward B. Color & Field, Art International May 1971: 46-50.
  • Tucker, Marcia. The Structure of Color, New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, 1971.
  • Ratcliff, Carter. Painterly vs. Painted, Art News Annual XXXVII, Thomas B. Hess, and John Ashberry, eds.1971, pp..129-147.
  • Prokopoff, Stephen. Two Generations of Color Painting, Exhibition Catalogue, Philadelphia Institute of Contemporary Art, 1971.
  • Lyrical Abstraction, Exhibition Catalogue, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, 1971.
  • Sharp, Willoughby. Points of View, A taped conversation with four painters," Ronnie Landfield, Brice Marden, Larry Poons and John Walker (painter), Arts, v. 45, n.3. December 1970, pp.41-.
  • Lyrical Abstraction, Exhibition Catalogue, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Conn. 1970.
  • Domingo, Willis. Color Abstractionism: A Survey of Recent American Painting, Arts, v. 45.n.3, December 1970, pp.34-40.
  • Channin, Richard. New Directions in Painterly Abstraction, Art International, Sept. 1970; pp.62-64.
  • Davis, Douglas. The New Color Painters, Newsweek 4 May 1970: pp.84-85.
  • Ashton, Dore. Young Abstract Painters: Right On! Arts v. 44, n. 4, February, 1970, pp. 31-35.
  • Aldrich, Larry. Young Lyrical Painters, Art in America, v.57, n6, November-December 1969, pp.104-113.
  • Ratcliff, Carter. The New Informalists, Art News, v. 68, n. 8, December 1969, p.72.
  • Davis, Douglas M. This Is the Loose-Paint Generation, The National Observer 4 Aug. 1969: p.20
  • Martin, Ann Ray, and Howard Junker. The New Art: It's Way, Way Out, Newsweek 29 July 1968: pp.3,55-63.


[edit] See also

[edit] Bibliography

1. "L'Envolée Lyrique" ("Lyrical Flight"), Paris 1945–1956, texts Patrick-Gilles Persin, Michel and Pierre Descargues Ragon, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris and Skira, Milan, 2006, 280 p. ( ISBN 8876246797 ).
2. Gérard Xuriguera. "Les Années 50", Arted, Paris, 1984.
3. Dora Vallier. "L'Art Abstrait", Livre de Poche, Paris, 1980.

[edit] References

  1. ^ The Lyrical Flight, Paris 1945–1956, texts Patrick-Gilles Persin, Michel and Pierre Descargues Ragon, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris and Skira, Milan, 2006, 280 p. ISBN 8876246797.
  2. ^ 2002 Exhibition review, retrieved October 27, 2008
  3. ^ Ashton, Dore. Young Abstract Painters: Right On! Arts v. 44, n. 4, February, 1970, pp. 31-35.
  4. ^ Ratcliff, Carter. The New Informalists, Art News, v. 68, n. 8, December 1969, p.72.
  5. ^ Aldrich, Larry. Young Lyrical Painters, Art in America, v.57, n6, November-December 1969, pp.104-113.
  6. ^ Lyrical Abstraction, Exhibition Catalogue, the Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, Conn. 1970.
  7. ^ Robbins, Daniel. Larry Poons: Creation of the Complex Surface, Exhibition Catalogue, Salander/O'Reilly Galleries, p. 10, 1990.
  8. ^ Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 25 - July 6, 1971, Foreword
  9. ^ The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyrical Abstraction, exhibition: April 5 through June 7, 1970, Statement of the exhibition
  10. ^ The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, ’’Lyrical Abstraction’’, exhibition: April 5 through June 7, 1970, ‘’Statement of the exhibition
  11. ^ The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Lyrical Abstraction, exhibition: April 5 through June 7, 1970
  12. ^ Lyrical Abstraction Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, May 25 - July 6, 1971
  13. ^ Lyrical abstraction Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, 1970
  14. ^ Lyrical Abstraction Gift of the Larry Aldrich Foundation, 1971
  15. ^ Movers and Shakers, New York, "Leaving C&M", by Sarah Douglas, Art and Auction, March 2007, V.XXXNo7.
  16. ^ Movers and Shakers, New York, "Leaving C&M", by Sarah Douglas, Art and Auction, March 2007, V.XXXNo7.
  17. ^ Martin, Ann Ray, and Howard Junker. The New Art: It's Way, Way Out, Newsweek 29 July 1968: pp.3,55-63.
  18. ^ [1] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  19. ^ [2] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  20. ^ [3] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  21. ^ [4] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  22. ^ [5] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  23. ^ [6] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  24. ^ [7] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  25. ^ [8] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  26. ^ [9] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  27. ^ [10] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  28. ^ [11] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  29. ^ [12] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  30. ^ [13] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  31. ^ [14] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  32. ^ [15] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009
  33. ^ [16] Expanding Boundaries: Lyrical Abstraction: Selections from the Permanent Collection, Boca Raton Museum of Art, retrieved June 17, 2009

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