American Abstract Artists

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American Abstract Artists ( AAA ) is an artist organization founded in New York City in 1936 to promote abstract art .

Through exhibitions, publications and lectures, American Abstract Artists established itself as a main platform for exchanging ideas and bringing abstract art to a wider audience.

The AAA was instrumental in the development and acceptance of abstract art in the United States . The AAA is one of the few artists' associations that survived the Great Depression and still exists.

history

Abstract art was viewed very critically in the United States in the 1930s and received little support from galleries and museums . The artists' association was founded to debate abstract art and to create opportunities for exhibitions.

The first exhibition took place in 1937 at the Squibb Gallery in New York City, which became the largest and most visited exhibition of American abstract paintings and sculptures outside a museum.

The artists' association established further exhibitions and publications as a main platform for the discussion and presentation of abstract art.

The most influential critics of the time condemned American abstract art as un-American and too European. In the New York newspapers and art magazines of the time there were reviews. American abstract art vied for recognition, and the artists' association fought tirelessly against hostility, paving the way for acceptance after World War II . The Artists' Association was also a pioneer of abstract expressionism by helping US abstract art find its own identity.

The New York School established itself in the early 1940s, and from the mid-1940s and during the 1950s, abstract expressionism dominated the American avant-garde . The artists' association continued to advocate abstract art and is still active today. To date, it has organized over 75 member exhibitions in the United States. In addition to 12 magazines, the association has published many brochures, books and catalogs and organized conferences and discussion events. The AAA also reaches international cultural organizations with its publications.

Portfolios of the artists' association can now be found in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art , the Museum of Modern Art , the Tate Gallery in London and the Archives of American Art .

The founders included Josef Albers , Burgoyne Diller , the married couple Suzy Frelinghuysen and George LK Morris , Carl Holty , Harry Holtzman , David Smith ; Mel Bochner , Louise Bourgeois , Ray Eames , Werner Drewes , Jean Hélion were among their members , Lee Krasner , Ibram Lassaw , Piet Mondrian , Ad Reinhardt , Robert Ryman and Robert Smithson .

literature

  • American Abstract Artists. The Language of Abstraction. Betty Parsons Gallery, Marilyn Pearl Gallery, 1979, (exhibition catalog, text by Susan Larson)
  • HH Arnason: History of Modern Art. Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography. 5th edition. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River 2003, ISBN 0-13-184105-X , pp. 406 and 418.
  • Ian Chilvers: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists. 3. Edition. Oxford University Press, New York 2003, ISBN 0-19-860477-7 , p. 15.
  • Ann Lee Morgan: The Oxford Dictionary of American Art and Artists. Oxford University Press, New York, USA, 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-512878-9 , p. 12.
  • Pioneers of Abstract Art. American Abstract Artists, 1936-1996. Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, 1996 (exhibition catalog, text by Susan Larson)
  • Continuum. In Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of AAA. St. Peter's College Art Gallery, O'Toole Library, Jersey City, NJ (Exhibition press release from March 21 to April 25, 2007).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Pioneers of Abstract Art. American Abstract Artists, 1936-1996. Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, 1996 (exhibition catalog, text by Susan Larson), p. 5
  2. ^ Pioneers of Abstract Art. American Abstract Artists, 1936-1996. Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, 1996 (exhibition catalog, text by Susan Larson), p. 9
  3. ^ A b c Susan C. Larsen: The American Abstract Artists. A Documentary History 1936-1941. In: Archives of American Art Journal. Vol. 14, No. 1, 1974, pp. 2-7
  4. ↑ American Abstract Artists. The Language of Abstraction. Betty Parsons Gallery, Marilyn Pearl Gallery, 1979, (exhibition catalog, texts by Susan Larson), p. 2
  5. ^ A b Pioneers of Abstract Art. American Abstract Artists, 1936-1996. Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, 1996 (exhibition catalog, text by Susan Larson), p. 25
  6. ^ Artists by Movement: American Abstract Artists