American Abstract Artists
AbbreviationAAA
Formation1937
TypeArts organization
HeadquartersNew York, New York, United States
Region served
United States
Official language
English
Websiteamericanabstractartists.org

American Abstract Artists (AAA) was founded in 1937 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.[1] It is one of the few artists’ organizations to survive from the Great Depression and continue into the 21st century.

History

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

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.[2] 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 amongst the attendees.[3] 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.[4][5][6][7] It outlined the purpose of AAA and the importance of exhibitions in promoting the growth and acceptance of abstract art in the United States.[8]

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.[9] Future exhibitions and publications would establish AAA as a major forum for the discussion and presentation of new abstract and non-objective art.[10]

The most influential critics dismissed American abstract art as too European and therefore “un-American”. There was extensive hostile criticism of AAA exhibits in New York City newspapers and art magazines of the time.[11] 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 a protest in front of MOMA.[12] 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.[13]

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".[14] It also characterized the aesthetic vacillations of Thomas Craven, critic of the New York American,[15] 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.[16] 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."[17]

AAA combated prevailing hostile attitudes toward abstraction and prepared the way for its acceptance after World War II.[11] AAA was a precursor to abstract expressionism by helping abstract art discover its identity in the United States.[18] 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.[19][20] Marin was credited with influencing Abstract Expressionists.[21] San Francisco Bay Area Abstract Expressionists were also not in AAA like Clyfford Still, Jay DeFeo and Frank Lobdell.[22][20] 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.[23][24]

During the early 1940s the New York School gained momentum and throughout the mid-1940s and 1950s Abstract Expressionism dominated the American avant-garde.[25] 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. [26][27] American Abstract Artists continued its mandate as an advocate for abstract art.[25]

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.[28] 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,[25] and the Archives of American Art.[9] Early members included Josef Albers, Willem de Kooning, Lee Krasner, Jackson Pollock, David Smith,[29][30][31] John Ferren, I. Rice Pereira and Ad Reinhardt.[32] Ferren, a California native, was one of the few AAA members to reach artistic maturity in Paris.[33]

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.[34] 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.[35][36]

Founding members

The following artists are considered founding members:[37]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, exhibition catalog. Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, 1996. Text by Sandra Kraskin. p 5.
  2. ↑ Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, Sandra Kraskin. p 5, 9.
  3. ↑ Mecklenburg, Virginia M. (1989). The Patricia and Phillip Frost Collection: American Abstraction 1930-1945. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 11. ISBN 0874747171.
  4. ↑ Mecklenburg, Virginia M. (1989). The Patricia and Phillip Frost Collection: American Abstraction 1930-1945. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. p. 11. ISBN 0874747171.
  5. ↑ "About Harry Holtzman | Harry Holtzman (see Early life)". Harry Holtzman. Archived from the original on May 20, 2023. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  6. ↑ "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.
  7. ↑ "Burgoyne Diller | Untitled | Smithsonian American Art Museum". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Archived from the original on March 18, 2023. Retrieved January 14, 2024.
  8. ↑ Larsen, Susan C. “The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941”, Archives of American Art Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1 (1974), p 3.
  9. 1 2 Larsen, Susan C. “The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941”, p 3.
  10. ↑ American Abstract Artists, The Language of Abstraction, exhibition catalog. Betty Parsons Gallery, Marilyn Pearl Gallery, 1979. Text by Susan Larson. p 2.
  11. 1 2 Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, Sandra Kraskin. p 5.
  12. ↑ Larsen, Susan C. “The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941”, p 4, 6.
  13. ↑ Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, Sandra Kraskin. p 11.
  14. ↑ "The Art Critics —! | American Abstract Artists Brochure 1940". Archived from the original on June 20, 2011. Retrieved March 27, 2011.
  15. ↑ "Dictionary of Art Historians".
  16. ↑ Larsen, Susan C. “The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941”, p 6, 7.
  17. ↑ "Kramer, Hilton. "ART VIEW." The New York Times. July 8, 1979, Section D, Page 25".
  18. ↑ Larsen, Susan C. “The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941”, p 7.
  19. ↑ "Alfred Stieglitz and His Circle, National Gallery of Art".
  20. 1 2 "American Abstract Artists Past Members".
  21. ↑ Schwendener, Martha (October 26, 2006), "Art in Review: John Marin", The New York Times.
  22. ↑ "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".
  23. ↑ "Susan Landauer, The San Francisco School of Abstract Expressionism, University of California Press, 1996. Introduction by Dore Ashton. p.5, 52-54".
  24. ↑ "Clyfford Still and the San Francisco Scene, 1946–1950".
  25. 1 2 3 Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996, Sandra Kraskin. p 25.
  26. ↑ "Sandler, Irving. "The Club: How the artists of the New School found their first audience-themselves." Artforum, September 1965, pages 27-31".
  27. ↑ "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".
  28. ↑ 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).
  29. ↑ "Tate - American Abstract Artists". Tate - Art Term - American Abstract Artists (AAA). Lists members: Albers, de Kooning, Krasner, Pollock and Smith.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  30. ↑ "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).{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  31. ↑ "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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  32. ↑ "Elderfield, John. "American Geometric Abstraction in the Late Thirties." Artforum, Dec. 1972, 35-42".
  33. ↑ "John Ferren | Smithsonian American Art Museum". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved January 7, 2024.
  34. ↑ "Pioneers of American Modernism: George LK Morris – Harry Holtzman". MondrianTrust.com. Retrieved July 7, 2020.
  35. ↑ "Mondriaan - News". Archived from the original on July 26, 2014. Retrieved July 21, 2014.
  36. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on August 9, 2014. Retrieved July 21, 2014.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  37. ↑ "Founding Members". American Abstract Artists. Retrieved July 6, 2020.

References

  • 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).
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