Abstract Expressionism at The Museum of Modern Art

by Ann Temkin (Contributor)

More than 60 years have passed since Robert Coates, writing in the" New Yorker" in 1946, first used the term "Abstract Expressionism" to describe the richly colored canvases of Hans Hofmann. The name stuck, and over the years it has come to designate the paintings and sculptures of artists as different from one another as Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko, Lee Krasner and David Smith. The achievements of this generation put New York on the map as the center of the international art world, and constitute some of the twentieth century's greatest masterpieces. From the mid-1940s, under the aegis of Alfred H. Barr, Jr., works by then little-known American—including Pollock, de Kooning, Smith, Arshile Gorky and Adolph Gottlieb—began to enter the Museum's collection. These ambitious acquisition initiatives continued throughout the second half of the last century and produced a collection of Abstract Expressionist art the breadth and depth of which is unrivalled by any museum in the world. Supplemented by an essay by Ann Temkin, Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA, this volume celebrates the richness of the Museum's holdings of the paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints and photographs from this epochal moment in the history of art and of this institution.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

124 pages, Hardcover

First published October 31, 2010

Reviews

[Kerfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The essays give some information and context, but it's the art reproduced in this book that really shines, showing different sides of the usual suspects--prints from Pollock, collage from Motherwell, surrealism from Rothko, drawings from Barnett Newman--along with many artists whose work I knew--like de Kooning, Krasner, Kline, Mitchell, and Nevelson. There were also artists I was not familiar with including Norman Lewis, William Baziotes, and Ibram Lassow.

So much to look at, and take in. Very inspriational.

[Steven Scribner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hazy rectangles floating in the ether. Giant webs of colorful drips and splatters, or smaller tangles of shimmering white against misty backgrounds. Bursts of red flame. Stacks of irregularly-shaped alabaster bricks on beige. Biological but amorphous blobs. Sunrise over a city (or an atomic blast over destruction). There was drama in many (and beauty in some) of these works from one of the major movements of what is still called “modern art”. Many of the paintings are well-known; more surprising are the sculptures (such as Herbert Ferber’s “He is not a man”; vaguely humanoid with spiky decorations) and the photographs: textures of pealing walls, stacked rocks, and sunlight on water create “abstracts” very much in the same vein as the paintings. Also represented in the movement, though fortunately less common, is a repugnant ugliness (or mean "humor") – charges of misogyny are warranted for some of the more cartoonish pieces, as is the charge of making fun of certain pathologies.

This book has many examples of the style (actually a cluster of related, often signature styles), representing the bad along with the good. However, the book has very little text, mostly just a description of how and when some of the pieces were bought for the Museum of Modern Art. This is to be expected, of course, because the book is a catalogue of selected abstract expressionist works at said museum; but I would have preferred to read more analysis or discussion of the pieces shown.

--Steven E. Scribner, author of the "Tond" series (fantasy) https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

[Jack Cheng]

Finally took the time to read the short essay (8 pages) in this catalog. The story is really told in the plates, beautifully printed plates of art from the likes of Pollock, Rothko, Still, Newman, Bearden and more. The color is really incredible, as anyone who has tried to decipher a black on black or white on white painting could tell you.

Looking forward to seeing the travelling show in Toronto.

[Lesley Looper · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing collection of abstract expressionism at MoMA! I don't know a lot about abstract expressionism, but the paintings in this book made me want to go to MoMA and see the pictures in person!

[Taina · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good catalog, but it contains just a small portion of the vast amount of work from this epic show at the Museum.

[Edna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview of the period - now at MOMA.