American Abstract Artists

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American Abstract Artists
AbbreviationAAA
Formation1937
TypeArts organization
PurposeExhibition of abstract art
HeadquartersNew York City, United States
Region served
United States
Official language
English
Websiteamericanabstractartists.org

American Abstract Artists (AAA) was founded in 1937[1][2][3][4] in New York City, to promote and foster public understanding of abstract art. American Abstract Artists exhibitions, publications, and lectures helped to establish the organization as a major forum for the exchange and discussion of ideas, and for presenting abstract art to a broader public. The American Abstract Artists group contributed to the development and acceptance of abstract art in the United States and has a historic role in its avant-garde.[5] It is one of the few artists’ organizations to survive from the Great Depression and continue into the 21st century.

History[edit]

Irene Rice Pereira smoking a cigarette while looking at a painting
Irene Rice Pereira with a painting, 1938. I. Rice Pereira was an early member of American Abstract Artists.

During the 1930s, abstract art was viewed with critical opposition and there was little support from art galleries and museums. The American Abstract Artists group was established as a forum for discussion and debate of abstract art and to provide exhibition opportunities when few other possibilities existed.[6] In late 1935 and early 1936 a small group of artists, who would become founding members of AAA, had sporadic informal meetings in their studios about exhibiting abstract art. This culminated in November 1936 at a larger meeting in Harry Holtzman's loft where he was seeking support for an abstract artist cooperative and workshop but the idea was not accepted among the attendees.[7] However Holtzman's organization of the November meeting was crucial in bringing together many of the painters and sculptors who would establish AAA the following year. The American Abstract Artists "General Prospectus" was issued in January 1937 founding the organization.[8][9][10][11] It outlined the purpose of AAA and the importance of exhibitions in promoting the growth and acceptance of abstract art in the United States.[12]

José Ruiz de Rivera carving wood with hammer and chisel
José Ruiz de Rivera, 1937. The sculptor was an early American Abstract Artists member.

Under the heading General Purpose, the American Abstract Artists General Prospectus (1937) says "Our purpose is to unite American 'abstract' artists, (1) to bring before the public their individual works, (2) to foster public appreciation of this direction and painting and sculpture, (3) to afford each artist the opportunity of developing his own work by becoming familiar with the efforts of others, by recognizing differences as well as those elements he may have in common with them." The prospectus also proposes "that the most direct approach to our objective is the exhibition of our work."[13]

American Abstract Artists General Prospectus did not place limitations upon its members showing with other groups.[14] Other 1930s Depression Era artist run organizations included AAA members: Sculptors Guild (Louise Bourgeois, Ibram Lassaw, José Ruiz de Rivera, Louis Schanker, Wilfred Zogbaum[15]), The Ten also known as The Ten Whitney Dissenters (Ilya Bolotowsky, Louis Schanker[16]), Artists Union (Byron Browne,[17] Balcomb Greene, Gertrude Greene, Ibram Lassaw, Michael Loew[18]) and American Artists' Congress (Ilya Bolotowsky, Byron Browne, Werner Drewes, Carl Holty, Irene Rice Pereira[19]).[20]

AAA held its first exhibition in 1937 at the Squibb Gallery in New York City. This was the most extensive and widely attended exhibition of American abstract painting and sculpture outside of a museum during the 1930s. For the 1937 exhibition AAA produced its first print portfolio of original zinc plate lithographs, instead of documenting the exhibit with a catalog.[21] Future exhibitions and publications would establish AAA as a major forum for the discussion and presentation of new abstract and non-objective art.[22]

Paul Kelpe, Untitled, From the Williamsburg Housing Project Murals, 1938. Brooklyn Museum (L1990.1.3). Paul Kelpe was a founding member of American Abstract Artists.

There was extensive hostile criticism of AAA exhibits in New York City newspapers and art magazines of the time. The most influential critics dismissed American abstract art as too European and therefore "un-American", a term that meant suspected of having communist ties.[23] Artist run organizations like the Artists Union and American Artists' Congress, which included AAA members, were involved with the Communist Party USA.[24] Art Front was a magazine published by the Artists Union in New York. The first two Artists Union presidents would become American Abstract Artists founders and future AAA founding and early members were Editors-in-Chief and on the Business Staff of Art Front.[25][26][27][20] Art Front had a proletariat political viewpoint where the artist was a worker "like a machinist, bricklayer or cobbler in the industrial sphere."[28][29] "National Organization" was permanent feature of the magazine for "organizing artists groups on an economic basis" as a labor movement.[30] Artists organized as cultural workers used militant trade union tactics like picketing and confrontations with the police which contributed their solidarity.[18] In 1936 the Artists Union held a sit-in at the Federal Art Project offices where the police arrested 219 artists.[31] American Abstract Artists would issue its own publications in protest and demonstrate as well.[32]

American abstract art was struggling to win acceptance and AAA personified this. The 1938 Yearbook addressed criticisms levied against abstract art by the press and public. It also featured essays related to principles behind and the practice of making abstract art. In 1940, AAA printed a broadside titled "How Modern is the Museum of Modern Art?" which was handed out at their protest in front of MoMA.[32] At the time the Museum of Modern Art had a policy of featuring European abstraction while endorsing American regionalism and scene painting. This policy helped entrench the notion that abstraction was foreign to the American experience.[33]

In 1940 AAA also produced a 12-page pamphlet: “The Art Critics – ! How Do They Serve the Public? What Do They Say? How Much Do They Know? Let’s Look at the Record.” The AAA publication quoted critics, highlighting misstatements and contradictions in the press. The pamphlet excoriated notable New York Herald Tribune critic Royal Cortissoz for his rigid loyalty to traditionalism, his patent distaste for abstract and modern art, and generally for what the pamphlet regarded as his "resistance to knowledge".[34] It also characterized the aesthetic vacillations of Thomas Craven, critic of the New York American,[35] as opportunistic. In 1936, Craven labeled Picasso's work "Bohemian infantilism". The ensuing years would see a growing public appreciation for abstract art until, in 1939, the critic made an about-face and lauded Picasso for his "unrivaled inventiveness". The pamphlet applauded Henry McBride of the New York Sun and Robert Coates of The New Yorker for their critical efforts regarding abstract art. "The Art Critics" showed the lack of knowledge the critics from New York City newspapers and art publications had about developments in 20th-century art.[36] Controversy persisted and in a 1979 New York Times review Hilton Kramer asserted that the group's "continued existence is little more than an act of nostalgia" and that it was "time to disband."[37]

Marsden Hartley (American, 1877–1943). Painting No. 48, 1913. Brooklyn Museum

AAA combated prevailing hostile attitudes toward abstraction and prepared the way for its acceptance after World War II.[23] AAA was a precursor to abstract expressionism by helping abstract art discover its identity in the United States.[38] However American Abstract Artists included many but did not represent all early American artists working abstractly such as those in Stieglitz Group like Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley and John Marin.[39][40] Marin was credited with influencing Abstract Expressionists.[41] San Francisco Bay Area Abstract Expressionists were also not in AAA like Clyfford Still, Jay DeFeo and Frank Lobdell.[42][40] In the 1940s Clyfford Still was teaching at California School of Fine Arts, later renamed San Francisco Art Institute. He had his first museum show at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts in 1943.[43][44]

During the early 1940s the New York School gained momentum and throughout the mid-1940s and 1950s Abstract Expressionism dominated the American avant-garde.[45] The AAA was influential for a few years, from 1937 to 1940, setting the trend at the moment before the center of the art world shifted from Paris to New York after World War II. Though some members of American Abstract Artists rose to fame and international recognition in the following decades, the membership represented the interwar generation with all the doubts and inner turmoil of that time.[46] Founding member Alice Trumbull Mason wrote in a letter to the AAA membership dated May 23, 1944: "it has become apparent that, as public interest in abstract art has increased the members have shown less and less interest in furthering the aims for which the group was founded. This year indeed many, as far as the group is concerned, have ceased to function entirely." By the spring of 1947 only 14 out of 39 founding members remained to take part in the AAA 11th annual exhibit at the Riverside Museum.[47] In the fall of 1949 The Club became the major forum for discussion of the avant-garde and abstraction in New York City, which included some of the AAA members.[48][49] American Abstract Artists continued its mandate as an advocate for abstract art.[45]

Jean Xceron wearing a beret, painting with a brush while holding a palette
Jean Xceron painting, 1942. Jean Xceron was an early member of American Abstract Artists.

American Abstract Artists is active today. To date the organization has produced over 75 exhibitions of its membership in museums and galleries across the United States. AAA has published 5 Journals, in addition to brochures, books, catalogs, and has hosted critical panels and symposia. AAA distributes its published materials internationally to cultural organizations.[50] American Abstract Artist produces print portfolios by its membership. AAA print portfolios are in the collections of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Modern Art, Tate in London,[45] and the Archives of American Art.[21] Early members included Josef Albers, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, David Smith,[51][52][53] John Ferren, I. Rice Pereira and Ad Reinhardt.[54] Ferren, a California native, was one of the few AAA members to reach artistic maturity in Paris.[55]

In 2014 Harry Holtzman and George L.K. Morris, founding members of the American Abstract Artists were paired in an intimate 2-man exhibit, curated by Kinney Frelinghuysen and Madalena Holtzman, and designed to evoke an informal conversation between the two artists.[56] This exhibition marked also the beginning of a collaboration between the Estates of George L.K. Morris and Harry Holtzman, with support of the Netherlands Institute for Art History. The collaboration aims at sharing, editing and exhibiting new historical materials related and connected to the world of abstract art of the seminal period of the 1930s and 1940s in Europe and in the USA. For this reason in this first show will be present also the works of other European protagonists of the time like Jean Hélion, Cesar Domela, and Ben Nicholson. A project, that duly enlarged and in the details curated will be evolving into a wider exhibition initiative.[57][58]

American Abstract Artists was one of a number of Great Depression Era artist run organizations in the United States, others included Artists Union, American Artists' Congress, American Artists School, John Reed Club,[59] Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors,[60] Harlem Artists Guild[61] and Sculptors Guild.[62]


Founding members[edit]

The following 39 artists, who participated in the first AAA exhibit in 1937, are considered founding members:[63][64][65]


Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ Dabrowski, Magdalena (October 2004). "Geometric Abstraction – Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Archived from the original on October 3, 2023. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
  2. ^ "Ralph Rosenborg, 79, Abstract Painter, Dies". The New York Times. October 27, 1992. pp. Section B, Page 7. Archived from the original on October 19, 2023. Retrieved January 21, 2023.
  3. ^ "'Second Show in Special Series Opens at the Museum of Modern Art.' Museum of Modern Art, Press release. April 25, 1961. Page 1" (PDF). Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 13, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  4. ^ Wolff, Robert Jay (1972). "On the Relevance of Abstract Art: A Memoir". Leonardo. 5 (Winter 1972): 20 – via JSTOR.
  5. ^ Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, exhibition catalog. Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, 1996. Text by Sandra Kraskin. p 5.
  6. ^ Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, Sandra Kraskin. p 5, 9.
  7. ^ Mecklenburg, Virginia M. (1989). The Patricia and Phillip Frost Collection: American Abstraction 1930–1945. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 11. ISBN 0874747171.
  8. ^ Mecklenburg, Virginia M. (1989). The Patricia and Phillip Frost Collection: American Abstraction 1930–1945. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 11. ISBN 0874747171.
  9. ^ "About Harry Holtzman | Harry Holtzman (see Early life)". Harry Holtzman. Archived from the original on May 20, 2023. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  10. ^ "Tamara Abstraction – Works – Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (see Description)". Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Archived from the original on September 13, 2022. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  11. ^ "Burgoyne Diller | Untitled | Smithsonian American Art Museum". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  12. ^ Larsen, Susan C. "The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941”, Archives of American Art Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1974), p 3.
  13. ^ American Abstract Artists General Prospectus (pamphlet). New York, NY: American Abstract Artists. January 1937.
  14. ^ American Abstract Artists General Prospectus (pamphlet). New York, NY: American Abstract Artists. January 1937.
  15. ^ Sculptors Guild Currently 80 (PDF). New York City: Sculptors Guild and Westbeth Gallery. 2017. pp. 76–78. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 29, 2023. Retrieved January 23, 2024.
  16. ^ Weiss, Jeffrey S and John Gage (1998). Mark Rothko (2nd print ed.). Washington : National Gallery of Art ; New Haven, Conn. : Yale University Press: National Gallery of Art (U.S.); Whitney Museum of American Art; Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris. p. 336. ISBN 0300075057.
  17. ^ "Byron Browne - Smithsonian American Art Museum (see More Information – Artists Biography)". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Archived from the original on September 22, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  18. ^ a b Hemingway, Andrew (2002). Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist Movement, 1926–1956. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p. 85. ISBN 0300092202.
  19. ^ Hemingway, Andrew (2002). Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist Movement, 1926–1956. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p. 129. ISBN 0300092202.
  20. ^ a b "Past Members - American Abstract Artists". American Abstract Artists. Archived from the original on October 19, 2023. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  21. ^ a b Larsen, Susan C. "The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941”, p 3.
  22. ^ American Abstract Artists, The Language of Abstraction, exhibition catalog. Betty Parsons Gallery, Marilyn Pearl Gallery, 1979. Text by Susan Larson. p 2.
  23. ^ a b Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, Sandra Kraskin. p 5.
  24. ^ Hemingway, Andrew (2002). Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist Movement, 1926–1956. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. Artists Union: pp. 85, 149. American Artists' Congress: pp. 123-124, 129. ISBN 0300092202.
  25. ^ Monroe, Gerald M. (1974). "Artists As Militant Trade Union Workers during the Great Depression". Archives of American Art Journal. 4 (1): 7 – via JSTOR.
  26. ^ "Staff listing". Art Front. New York (December 1936): 3.
  27. ^ "Staff listing". Art Front. New York (April 1936): 3.
  28. ^ Weber, Max. "The Artist and His Audience". Art Front. New York (May 1936): 8.
  29. ^ Hemingway, Andrew (2002). Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist Movement, 1926–1956. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p. 41. ISBN 0300092202.
  30. ^ "National Organization". Art Front. New York (April 1936): 2 (also in the other issues).
  31. ^ Compagnon, Madeleine (October 5, 2020). "How the Artists Union Shook Up the New Deal". JSTOR Daily. Archived from the original on May 19, 2023. Retrieved January 31, 2024.
  32. ^ a b Larsen, Susan C. "The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941”, p 4, 6.
  33. ^ Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, Sandra Kraskin. p 11.
  34. ^ "The Art Critics —! | American Abstract Artists Brochure 1940". Archived from the original on June 20, 2011. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
  35. ^ "Dictionary of Art Historians".
  36. ^ Larsen, Susan C. “The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941”, p 6, 7.
  37. ^ "Kramer, Hilton. "ART VIEW." The New York Times. July 8, 1979, Section D, Page 25". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  38. ^ Larsen, Susan C. "The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941”, p 7.
  39. ^ "Alfred Stieglitz and His Circle, National Gallery of Art". National Gallery of Art. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  40. ^ a b "American Abstract Artists Past Members".
  41. ^ Schwendener, Martha (October 26, 2006), "Art in Review: John Marin", The New York Times.
  42. ^ "Susan Landauer, The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism, University of California Press, 1996. Introduction by Dore Ashton. Still: p. 5, DeFeo: p. 165, Lobell: p.141".
  43. ^ "Susan Landauer, The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism, University of California Press, 1996. Introduction by Dore Ashton. p.5, 52–54".
  44. ^ "Clyfford Still and the San Francisco Scene, 1946–1950". Clyfford Still Museum. Archived from the original on January 3, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  45. ^ a b c Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, Sandra Kraskin. p 25.
  46. ^ Seibert, Elke (2019). "'First Surrealists Were Cavemen': The American Abstract Artists and Their Appropriation of Prehistoric Rock Pictures in 1937". Getty Research Journal. University of Chicago Press. 11: 31, 35.
  47. ^ Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, Sandra Kraskin. New York: Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College and The City University of New York, 1996. p 19-20.
  48. ^ "Sandler, Irving. "The Club: How the artists of the New School found their first audience-themselves." Artforum, September 1965, pages 27–31".
  49. ^ "Winchell, Louisa. "When 'the Club' Ruled the Art World from East 8th Street," Off the Grid – Village Preservation Blog. Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation. April 3, 2019".
  50. ^ Continuum: In Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of AAA, exhibition press release. St. Peter's College Art Gallery, O'Toole Library, Jersey City, NJ (March 21 – April 25, 2007).
  51. ^ "Tate – American Abstract Artists". Tate – Art Term – American Abstract Artists (AAA). Lists members: Albers, de Kooning, Krasner, Pollock and Smith. Archived from the original on January 1, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  52. ^ "A dictionary of modern and contemporary art". Chilvers, Ian and John Glaves-Smith. "American Abstract Artists (AAA)." Oxford Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2009. p. 20. (lists members: Albers, de Kooning, Pollock, Smith and several others).
  53. ^ "Galaxy, 1947 by Jackson Pollock". Jackson Pollock. Website cites Clement Greenberg's review of the 1947 American Abstract Artists annual exhibition. Lists Pollock as an AAA member. Archived from the original on January 6, 2024. Retrieved January 22, 2024.
  54. ^ "Elderfield, John. "American Geometric Abstraction in the Late Thirties." Artforum, Dec. 1972, 35–42".
  55. ^ "John Ferren – Smithsonian American Art Museum". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Archived from the original on January 7, 2024. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
  56. ^ "Pioneers of American Modernism: George LK Morris – Harry Holtzman". MondrianTrust.com. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  57. ^ "Mondriaan – News". Archived from the original on July 26, 2014. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  58. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 9, 2014. Retrieved July 21, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  59. ^ Hemingway, Andrew (2002). Artists on the Left: American Artists and the Communist Movement, 1926–1956. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. pp. Artist Union: 86, American Artists' Congress: 125, American Artists School: 132, John Reed Club: 47. ISBN 0300092202.
  60. ^ "About". Federation of Modern Painters & Sculptors. Archived from the original on September 29, 2023. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  61. ^ Patton, Sharon F. (1998). African-American Art. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 147. ISBN 0192842544.
  62. ^ "About SG - Sculptors Guild". Sculptors Guild. Archived from the original on June 28, 2023. Retrieved January 26, 2024.
  63. ^ "Founding Members". American Abstract Artists. Retrieved July 6, 2020.
  64. ^ "Membership List, from the portfolio American Abstract Artists 1937". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved January 24, 2024.
  65. ^ Jewell, Edward Alden (April 6, 1937). "Abstract Artists Open Show Today: They Arrange 'Demonstration of Revolt Against Literary Subject-Paintings'". The New York Times. p. 21. Retrieved January 12, 2021.

References[edit]

  • American Abstract Artists, The Language of Abstraction, exhibition catalog. Betty Parsons Gallery, Marilyn Pearl Gallery, 1979. Text by Susan Larson.
  • Larsen, Susan C. "The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941”, Archives of American Art Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1974), p 2-7.
  • Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, exhibition catalog. Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, 1996. Text by Sandra Kraskin.
  • Continuum: In Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of AAA, exhibition press release. St. Peter's College Art Gallery, O'Toole Library, Jersey City, NJ (March 21 – April 25, 2007).

External links[edit]

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