Abstract Expressionist Movement

A free-spirited revolution of creative power swept through San Francisco art community after World War II. Hard accepted settings of painting, Abstract Expressionists produced highly experimental works that jolted the public out-of its postwar complacency. Susan Landauer's comprehensive examination of this dynamic activity offers the very first obvious image of the performers and impacts that emerged collectively in san francisco bay area's invigorating world of Abstract Expressionism.

Landauer argues that Abstract Expressionism resulted from an extensive collective impulse rather than the inspiration of a tiny musical organization of the latest York designers. Documenting the interchanges between the East and western Coasts, she alludes to areas of mutual impact and shows the effect of San Francisco regarding ny School, including designers such as for instance Mark Rothko and Ad Reinhardt. Bay area's overcome poets, Dixieland jazz artists, and the area's stunning vistas were crucial elements of Abstract Expressionism, as were artistic and spiritual connections with Asia.

Under Douglas MacAgy and Clyfford Still, the California School of Fine Arts became the undisputed center of vanguard abstraction from the West Coast. Musicians and artists such as for example Edward Corbett, Jay DeFeo, James Budd Dixon, Frank Lobdell, and Hassel Smith produced gritty, provocative photos whoever influence extended really beyond California. Landauer also notes the significance of Grace L. McCann Morley, director for the san francisco bay area Museum of contemporary Art, just who started the museum to major Abstract Expressionist numbers, and Jermayne MacAgy, just who introduced neighborhood and international designers together.

Enlivened by dental histories, Landauer's guide is a satisfying research of an important period in contemporary art. Richly illustrated with 96 shade dishes, it celebrates the energy and enduring effect of a special time.

Susan Landauer is an unbiased journalist and curator residing in Oakland, Ca. Her past magazines include Clyfford However: The Buffalo and San Francisco Collections (1992) and, with Janice Driesbach, Obata's Yosemite (1993). Dore Ashton is Professor of Art background within Cooper Union in nyc. Among her numerous books is A Fable of contemporary Art (California, 1991).

"This well-written, completely researched, and handsomely illustrated amount offers potent new lease of life to performers and tips almost destroyed to United states art record. Susan Landauer's informative book will play an important role in redefining the post-World War II avant-garde as a national without an East Coast phenomenon."—Henry T. Hopkins, University of Ca, L . A .