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Untitled
Orange Rectangle and Black
The Abstract Expressionist artists preferred to be called the New York School artists. Motherwell, the youngest of the New York School artists received a bachelor?s degree in philosophy before deciding to become a painter. He was also the most affluent and educated of this group. The bohemian lifestyle of the others hardly resembled the wealthy trappings Motherwell was accustomed to. These differences in wealth and education didn?t seem to matter. Meyer Schapiro, his art history instructor introduced the European Surrealists to him and he became fast friends with most of them as well. Motherwell?s fascination with their use of automatism (the suspension of consciousness which allows one the freedom to uncover the ideas and images in the subconscious) led him to his experimentations with it. Surrealists employed conventional means when describing their findings but Motherwell believed automatism should be taken a step further than that. He felt that in the process of searching the unconscious and making discoveries about yourself, you must also retain the excitement of those moments as they become known. The Orange Rectangle and Black collage exhibits evidence of Motherwell?s astonishing ability to capture the vitality during moments of self- discovery. Motherwell?s drive for perfection served him well when he challenged himself to capture these rare moments.
Apollo Series
In childhood, Natkin recalls a dream where he dives into an Oriental rug and as he floats down into the rug he passes through bejeweled mazes of color that appear exotic to him. This recurring dream is not surprising to anyone familiar with this artist?s work, since much of Natkin?s work reminds one of textiles. He achieves this look by his use of cross-hatching, blottings, dottings and his own technique of transferring textures right onto the canvas by pressing with a heavy cloth or paper towel.
from the series Bath (Color Bath)
In childhood, Natkin recalls a dream where he dives into an Oriental rug and as he floats down into the rug he passes through bejeweled mazes of color that appear exotic to him. This recurring dream is not surprising to anyone familiar with this artist?s work, since much of Natkin?s work reminds one of textiles. He achieves this look by his use of cross-hatching, blottings, dottings and his own technique of transferring textures right onto the canvas by pressing with a heavy cloth or paper towel.
from the series Bath (Love is Blind #2)
In childhood, Natkin recalls a dream where he dives into an Oriental rug and as he floats down into the rug he passes through bejeweled mazes of color that appear exotic to him. This recurring dream is not surprising to anyone familiar with this artist?s work, since much of Natkin?s work reminds one of textiles. He achieves this look by his use of cross-hatching, blottings, dottings and his own technique of transferring textures right onto the canvas by pressing with a heavy cloth or paper towel.
from the series Bath (Pharoah)
In childhood, Natkin recalls a dream where he dives into an Oriental rug and as he floats down into the rug he passes through bejeweled mazes of color that appear exotic to him. This recurring dream is not surprising to anyone familiar with this artist?s work, since much of Natkin?s work reminds one of textiles. He achieves this look by his use of cross-hatching, blottings, dottings and his own technique of transferring textures right onto the canvas by pressing with a heavy cloth or paper towel. Natkin once was on a train traveling to his studio when he noticed a fisherman?s sweater. He stared at the large looped popcorn style weave of the sweater for a long while. He began imagining the results he could achieve in his paintings if he used it and he decided he must have it. The story ends by the artist offering the fisherman $50 for his bedraggled sweater and the other fishermen then offering to sell Natkin their own clothing. He immediately exited at the next stop to avoid any further embarrassment. Pharaoh typifies the artist?s abundant use of color and texture that creates a fabric-like surface. His ability to unify his overlays of color of texture is evident in this painting. Light appears to travel right through this work that exhibits his love of pattern and paint so well.
Untitled (DD #1)
Represented by ARS (Artist’s Rights Society) for all copyright requests
Summer Seizure
Known as one of the Colorfield painters, Olitski developed his own unique method of this style of painting. First, he saturated an unprimed canvas with paint by dragging it through a trough of acrylic paint. The next step involved spraying paint on the already wet canvas. Sometimes this step involved one spray gun and other times Olitski would use as many as three at once. This spray gun method allowed him to achieve differences in the densities of color. Summer Seizure exemplifies this technique employed by Olitski. He abandoned this method upon discovering how dangerous the fumes were that were emitted while spraying with the Magna acrylic paint. He wisely decided to change to the water-based Aqua-tec. Once he changed paints he started working with a variety of nozzles for better control and no longer needed to use more than one spray gun at once. Olitski has written on the back side of this canvas ?To Clem?. Also found on the back is a sticker printed ?Collection of Clement Greenberg.
King Tige
Born in Japan to American parents, Larry Poons changed his name professionally to Lawrence Poons in 1982. In this painting titled King Tige, he had begun painting vertical squirts of paint on his canvas. In earlier works, he painted in sweeping arcs that ran diagonally across the surface of the canvas. These thick vertical drips of paint applied to the canvas recall earlier times for some. Melted crayons in art class often comes to mind as does making ?cool? candle holders using wine bottles and a variety of different colored candles. The vertical drips of paint in King Tige end abruptly at the top of the canvas. Some think of waterfalls or waves while viewing Poon?s large vertical paintings with their unusual mix of colors and thick textures. Before taking up painting, Poons studied music with the modern composer, John Cage at the New England Conservatory of Music in the mid 1950’s. After two years studying music, he switched to painting. He attended the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965.