Larry Festa, Curatorial Intern
For most of American History, “art” was thought of, among the public, as the iconic works of European masters across various mediums, with notable American art evidently following in their footsteps. Painters like Cole Thomas or Indiana’s own Otto Stark visited Europe to learn and take inspiration for future work and eventually mentor their own students in developing proficiency in traditional styles. However, the changing winds of the twentieth century brought with them new approaches to thinking and producing art, including the development of a new visual language we know as “abstract art.” It was, however, the efforts of the then-young Museum of Modern Art, Albert Gallatin’s Gallery of Art, Hans Hoffman’s School, and other organizations that brought abstract art to the front and center of public conversation in the States. One such organization is American Abstract Artists, founded in 1936 as a response to the popularity of already established European abstract artists of the time. This group was also responding to the critical feedback the world initially had to abstract art as fascism began to roar in Europe.
Now on view in the Dr. Louis A. and Anne B. Schneider Foundation Gallery, From Gesture to Geometry: American Abstract Artists displays 27 pieces from 21 member artists and celebrates the group’s 90th anniversary. The exhibition’s displayed works date from 1937 to 2003, representing 66 years of abstract art’s evolution in America, from shortly after American Abstract Artist’s inception to the turn of the 21st century and beyond. Time is not the only marker of evolution in From Gesture to Geometry, however. American Abstract Artists’ founders chose an intentionally broad name for their group, as they wanted it to encompass as many mediums within the abstract art scene as possible. It was this decision that has allowed museums like FWMoA to collect and display pieces from a variety of mediums created by the group’s artists, ranging from traditional oil-on-canvas pieces, to graphite pencil works, and even a polychrome, stainless steel sculpture. This variety means From Gesture to Geometry can demonstrate not only the evolution of American abstract art broadly over time, but how styles have evolved within given mediums. These pieces are pulled directly from the museum’s permanent collection and represent not only 90 years of the group’s history, but decades of its relationship with the FWMoA.
Notable in the exhibition is Yonkers native and founding member, Byron Browne. Browne, a student of Hans Hoffman and his avant-garde European predecessors, committed himself to oil-on-canvas works during his artistic career, and held true that any abstraction seen in a piece exists objectively as a form in nature, and thus that no human being can imagine or create what does not already exist. Three of Browne’s pieces, including an oil on canvas painting, are visible in the exhibition. Browne’s work is also collected by the Whitney Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, and more.
Beatrice Riese, who served a 14 year tenure as president of American Abstract Artists, is another notable artist on display in From Gesture to Geometry. Her 1996 graphite pencil-on-paper piece currently on display titled Linotext demonstrates the intersection of Riese’s art career with her other endeavor: textile design, which she used to support herself. The piece’s emphasis on pattern and grid design is unique in comparison to other pieces on display, and is directly informed by her design work. Linotext is also drawn on a highly textured, rough paper, indicating that Riese’s sole intention was not precision. The use of textured paper also elevates the visual dimensions in the work itself, raising it beyond a simple two-dimensional design in the eye of the viewer.
Born in South Bend, Indiana, and raised in Scotland, kinetic sculptor George Rickey created designs representing a navigation of abstract stylization into the world of sculpting during the first half of the 20th century. Kinetic sculptures heavily incorporate movement and natural motions into their structure. Rickey began creating kinetic sculptures in 1950, inspired in part by his visit to American painter Mark Tobey in Seattle that same year. In 1960, Rickey and his family moved to East Chatham, NY, as he continued working on his kinetic sculptures. Rickey also spent decades teaching art in New York, Santa Barabara, and even Berlin, making his life influential inside and outside of the classroom. His work is now displayed throughout the United States and Europe.
Rickey’s polychrome stainless steel kinetic sculpture, titled Pivoted Folds – Baroque is on display in the exhibition/, positioned in the center of the exhibition space to draw the viewer in with its three-dimensional shape and eye-catching colors. Rickey himself provided Pivoted Folds – Baroque to the FWMoA for its 75th anniversary in 1996, demonstrating not only the museum’s longstanding reverence for kinetic sculptures, having previously displayed his work Twenty-Four Lines in its atrium, but also his love for Indiana and its art scene held for his entire life as a Hoosier native.
To see From Gestures to Geometry, visit the FWMoA by September 6!