The American avant-garde movement emerged during the cultural upheaval of the post-war years, centered around a group of radical artists in New York including painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning. The New York School, as the scene came to be known, opened up new pathways for abstract expressionism that recentered the international art world.
Now through April 23, an exhibition featuring the work of New York School artists and those they influenced will be on display in the Main Gallery at the Loveland Museum.
“What was wonderful about the movement overall, is that, even though we talk about it as the New York School, there isn’t one way into it, there’s more than one way to understand it,” Loveland Museum Art Curator Maureen Corey said. “And that could be why so many artists jumped on board, because it really allowed them to really create their artistic vision.”
The exhibit features paintings and sculptures from 22 artists, such as David Hockney, Ilya Bolotowsky and Helen Frankenthaler. Many of the pieces are on loan from the private collection of entrepreneur Doug Erion, a longtime Loveland resident with an affinity for the New York School, according to Corey.
“Doug approached the museum with the idea that he had this artwork and his various businesses and his nonprofits, and he felt that would be a great opportunity to share not only the artwork, but also the New York School movement,” she explained.
Corey rounded out the exhibit with pieces from other collectors, including Jack Rutberg Fine Arts and Robert G. Lewis. She also found pieces in the city’s inventory of public art, notably The Family by William Zorach, a pioneer of abstract sculpture.
Also showcased in the exhibit are several pieces on loan from Dr. Robert Baller, another longtime collector with an eye for the modern masters. Though he lives in Illinois, Baller and Corey have collaborated on several previous shows, and he was only too happy to share his artwork with her again.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to share this art with 40,000 or so people, and 20,000 have come through Loveland,” he said. “Maureen has been priceless, and the descriptions that she wrote are so scholarly. …I’d walk across coals for Maureen.”
Chief among his contributions is “Going Abroad (from The Waves II Series),” an original lithograph by Frank Stella from his series paying homage to the novel “Moby Dick”.
“They spent two to three years on development of this piece,” Baller said, pointing out details of the artwork. “They made this special paper, so special that they would actually weave edges of the paper together.”
Baller also loaned pieces by Jim Dine from the Hearts and Bathrobe series, and “Number One Chair,” by Hockney, which Baller described as an “ode to Van Gogh.”
“The more you look at it, the more fascinating it is,” he said of the piece.
The exhibit also highlights work from the women of America’s avant-garde movement, who often struggled to find the same recognition as their male peers, Corey said. Of the 72 artists who exhibited at the New York School’s seminal Ninth Street Show in 1951, just 11 were women.
“It’s important to uncover that history,” she said. “Whenever we do a show, we try to create a balance of representation, and uncover artists that people might not know.”
Among her discoveries are Louise Nevelson, known primarily for her Cubist-inspired, monochromatic sculptures, Claire Falkenstein, a California-based sculptor and artist, and Frankenthaler, who was an early adopter of the color field technique.
The museum will also pay tribute to the musicians and poets of the New York School with A Night of Music, Poetry, Art & Wine on March 16 from 5 to 7 p.m. and a poetry night on April 14 from 6 to 8 p.m. Guests will also get free admission to the exhibit.
For more information, visit www.thelovelandmuseum.org/new-york-new-york.
