Curatorial Introduction

The mid to late twentieth century was a period that can be readily described by the works of art being articulated during this time.  With abstract expressionism in full swing and clearly dominating the art world, by the mid 1960’s artists and critics such as Clement Greenberg began to call for something new, a transformation of sorts, away from the painterly, blended and smooth qualities of Abstract expressionism and toward uninterrupted and sharp definitions of contour as well as solid and segmented areas of color with a clear emphasis on linear representation (Greenberg, 1). In 1964 Greenberg was called upon by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to curate an exhibition dedicated to abstract expressionism, this exhibition ended up being entitled “Post-Painterly Abstraction”, so entitled based on specific qualities that each painting possessed and techniques utilized by specific artists (The Art Story: Post-Painterly Abstraction Movement, 1). Inspired by paintings of Jackson Pollock and his efforts at creating works with “limitless opticality”, Post-Painterly Abstraction artists seemed to yearn for transcendence and realization of the infinite. They abandoned all suggestions of figuration and instead investigated the relevance of the use of color as well as form (Fried, 19).

The following compilation includes forty works demonstrating aspects of Post-Painterly Abstraction by artists who were outwardly involved in the movement. This includes major players such as Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Frank Stella, Mark Rothko, and Ellsworth Kelly, and others whose pieces date from early works in 1958 to much later works in 1998. Each artist played with different aspects of Post Painterly Abstraction, working in styles such as shaped canvas painting, color field painting, hard edge painting, Washington color school painting, etc. in an effort to escape previously held notions and boundaries. Each work demonstrated specific aspects of Post-Painterly Abstraction including, but certainly not limited to, simplified forms, linear designs, contrasts of pure hues of color, blocked areas of color as well as form, and the like.

Color Field painting was a style of much attention for many Post Painterly artists. What the Color Field painters, such as Kenneth Noland, contributed to the movement of Post-Painterly Abstraction was the presentation of a vast field of color that seems so ambiguous and while expansive, one could not even begin to enter. A phrase that has come up multiple times that expresses the objective of these color field painters is their desire to “ravish the eye” while at the same time engage the feelings of the onlooker. These painters further push their idea through the new medium of stained canvas, which fuses the paint with the canvas (Wilkin 47). Noland was inspired by Frankenthaler’s methods and soon broke out into his own unique style which started with bold-colored concentric rings and later explored different geometric shapes. The main objective of Noland in his circular paintings was a sort of optical illusion—to grab the viewer’s attention and draw it into the painting, and also to allow the viewer to question the depth and space the painting occupies.

On the more illusionistic side of Post Painterly Abstraction there existed those artists who decided to paint on a canvas of unorthodox shape. Shaped canvas painting is easily an example of Post-Painterly Abstraction as is clearly demonstrated by its simple fundamentals. Shaped canvas pieces show a direct desire to escape the boundaries that are created by a rectangular shaped canvas’ and demonstrate a clear desire to create a literal representation of shape, instead of just painting form. Artists such as Frank Stella not only used a carved out, angular, and shaped canvas to create new meaning to form and figure, but also utilized new materials such as fluorescent paint that allowed new representation of color, essentially aiding in the creation of a new kind of illusion within the realm of painting emphasizing linear clarity (Colpitt, 54). This use of new and improved technology and supplies within the art world was a common occurrence during this time period and new materials where especially utilized by Post-Painterly Abstraction artists.

Late in 1961, Olitski adopted staining already used by Frankenthaler, Louis and Noland: thin water-based acrylic pigment, which would soak through the unprimed canvas fabric. The images were immediately in a very different, much higher key; color was bright and assertive (Geldzahler, 29). Staining automatically gives a continuous material flatness, but unlike dripping or pouring, it does not dictate any specific kind of figuration. The tendency of the stain painters has been to find a design or layout that presses the illusion still closer to the surface. Noland did this with geometric design, thereby identifying areas of color as closely as possible with the support—which itself is geometric—and reinforcing the effect of staining. This makes the painting pure, sheer surface, and gives the whole a weightless feeling. There is an openness to composition. Like Noland, Olitski favored concentric configurations that nowhere echoed the rectangle’s edges; but while Noland stuck to centered circles, Olitski used concentricity as a way to anchor the whole surface or field (Moffett, 34).

Rothko, Noland, and Olitski executed their art on extremely large canvases. As evident in his Seagram commission, from which he later withdrew, Rothko abhorred the idea of art used as decoration for the rich. He harbored strong feelings against his art being background ornamentation rather than actual art. Using canvases that covered up to an entire wall not only resolved the issue of art as decoration, but also changed the perception and perspective of the viewer. The paintings in the Rothko Chapel are all large in size to emphasize “the installation’s modulation between virtual and actual space” (Nodelman 170). Kenneth Noland’s famous concentric paintings, particularly Askew, are on canvases spanning up to five or six feet. He uses overlapping and gradually diminishing circles to invite the viewer into the painting through a series of optical techniques. The expansive canvas is essential in capturing this awareness. Jules Olitski, like Noland, used Stain painting to make the paint sink into the canvas and give his works a “lush physicality” using large-scale canvases to emphasize the characteristics of the Stain technique (“Revelation: Major Paintings by Jules Olitski”).

The revelation that traditional boundaries are set in order to be crossed is not an idea that was new to the Post-Painterly Abstraction artists. These artists took this idea and utilized it in an effort to create moving and inspirational art works that challenged contemporary values and tradition, not only in style and form, but right down to the very materials used to execute the work. Post-Painterly Abstraction is exemplified by all the above named artists, as well as many more, and is aspects of this movement is seen individually in all of their works.