Presenting a group of paintings reflective of the period when Abstract Expressionism was in its formative years. This was a time when American artists faced existential dilemmas in the aftermath of World War II and the escalating Cold War arms race. The works evoke the artists’ belief in action painting as a means of embodying freedom. In this manner, they reacted against totalitarianism, old rules, and the devastations of the atomic bomb and the recent war. Taking risks in their work, artists sought to step into the unknown, giving rise to a new idiom. As the noted critic Harold Rosenberg wrote in Artnews in December 1952: “The big moment came when it was decided to paint . . . Just to paint. The gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation, from Value—political, aesthetic, moral.” [Image: John Little “Phobos” (1958) oil on canvas 48 x 36 in.]
http://www.spaniermanmodern.com/11-Abstract-Expressionism-Le… Photo and review courtesy of NY ART BEAT http://www.nyartbeat.com/event/2011/55E4
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