Abstract Expressionist New York – Preview

We are finally in New York for “the season.” Many challenges were bested to get here but it was worth the hurry to have the opportunity to preview this show which will open to members today and to the public on October 3rd at the Museum of Modern Art.

“Abstract Expressionist New York” covers a period in time and a group of artists that have been important to me on a personal level for several decades. I thought hard about how I wanted to approach the exhibit and the advantages I hoped for by showing up in person to look at paintings that were already quite familiar. Somewhere in the Midwest, Nebraska or Iowa, I realized that I wanted to get close, I wanted to get a sense of texture from these masterworks. Here is a selection of details from pieces on the fourth floor. The camera got close enough to garner throat clearing from several guards but no paintings were injured.

Philip Guston, Edge of Town (detail), oil on canvas, 1969.

Jackson Pollock, White Light (detail), oil, enamel and aluminim paint on canvas, 1954.

Robert Motherwell, Pancho Villa, Dead and Alive (detail), cut-and-pasted printed and painted papers, wood veneer, gouache, oil and ink on board, 1943.

Willem de Kooning, Woman, I (detail), oil on canvas, 1954.

Arshile Gorky, Agony (detail), oil on canvas, 1947.

Lee Krasner, Untitled (detail), oil on composition board, 1949.

Ad Reinhardt, Number 43 (Abstract Painting, Yellow) (detail), oil on canvas, 1947.

Willem de Kooning, Painting (detail), enamel and oil on canvas, 1948.

Philip Guston, Painting (detail), oil on canvas, 1954.

Mark Rothko, No. 5/No. 24 (detail), oil on canvas, 1948.

Jackson Pollock, Gothic (detail), oil on canvas, 1944.

David Smith, Cubi X (detail), stainless steel, 1963.

Robert Motherwell, Elegy to the Spanish Republic, 108 (detail), oil on canvas, 1965-67.

Abstract Expressionist New York
3 October – 25 April 2010
MoMA
NYC