April 28, 2008

Suitcase Paintings: Small-Scale Abstract Expressionism at Baruch’s Mishkin Gallery — May 2 - June 3

An expansive, eye-opening exhibition of abstract expressionism writ small includes the work of fifty painters, some of them famous, some not, all part of the post-war abstract expressionist movement that revolutionized American art and equated persona with style.

Janet Sobel, Philip Guston, Perle Fine, Alfonso Ossorio, Robert Richenburg, Robert Motherwell, and Elaine de Kooning shared little by way of personal history or artistic training. They came together, chiefly in New York and its satellite communities in the 1940s and 1950s to create a movement that transcended size and scale and transformed American art by asserting the primacy of paint. The paint itself, they believed, in its textures and application, carried the action and emotion of the painting.
    This exhibition is particularly noteworthy for bringing a sizeable group of lesser known abstract expressionists out of the shadows. Along with such familiar figures as William Baziotes, Franz Kline and Robert Richenburg, the canvases of such painters as Yvonne Thomas, who began her career as an illustrator, and Albert Kotin, who taught for many years at City College, enrich our understanding of the expressionist aesthetic as well as the fraternal bonds that helped to create this movement. Unlike other, better known works of the same period, the paintings included in this exhibit show a more intimate side, and reveal a surprising warmth and delicacy.

Franz Kline, Untitled, c. 1958
Oil and collage on paper,
(c) 2007 The Franz Kline Estate,
Collection of Art Enterprises, Ltd., Chicago

Accompanying the exhibit, an outstanding catalog essay by April Kingsley points out the many intersecting lines connecting the abstract expressionists, including their cubist antecedents, their shared patrons and galleries, and the long shadows cast by Pollock, Kline, and de Kooning, as well as the European masters Picasso and Braque.

The Mishkin Gallery is located at 135 East 22 Street in Manhattan. Gallery hours are Monday to Friday, noon to 5 pm, except Thursdays, when it closes at 7 pm.

Opening Reception:
Thursday, May 1, 6 – 8 pm.