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Tino Zago
American, b. Italy, 1937
Primavera #12
oil on canvas, 1993
42 x 72 inches
Gift of Jesse Karp, 2010.237
exhibition and lecture is sponsored by
5.5.12 – 8.19.12
Abstract Expressionism: Then and Now
Hodge & Temporary Exhibition Galleries
Drawing on works in the FIA permanent collection, along with important loans from regional collections, this exhibition surveys the American art movement Abstract Expressionism from its origins in the postwar period to the latest developments in the 21st century. The Abstract Expressionists, a group of artist who emerged in New York City in the 1940s, broke with the European painting tradition by creating canvases that did not represent recognizable subjects or familiar themes of religion or history. Artists as diverse as Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner created works in the mid-20th century that were characterized by powerfully expressive techniques, emphasizing the individual's experience of the world.
Artists from subsequent generations sought to not only build on what the Abstract Expressionists achieved, but to add to the dialogue. Artists such as Larry Poons, Robert Goodnough, and Jules Olitski continued experimentation with texture and color to maximize the medium's emotional and expressive potential. Third-wave Abstract Expressionist painters, including Roy Lerner, Stanley Boxer, and Joseph Drapell, also built on the earlier movement, using paints that they invented through working with paint maker Sam Golden, developing new techniques and forms of expression.
Abstract Expressionism: Then and Now was organized by the Flint Institute of Arts, including loans from the Detroit Institute of Arts, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, and the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago.
Lecture
Tom & Jack:
Benton, Pollock, & the Battle for the Soul of America
Thursday 6.21.12 • 6:00p
Guest Lecturer
Henry Adams
Professor of American Art, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland
This talk will explore the intense and sometimes stormy relationship of two men who challenged European dominance and made America the leader of modern art.
The drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, with their pulsing clouds of color dribbled or flung on the canvas, appear to be the polar opposite of Thomas Hart Benton's murals with undulating American landscapes peopled by cowboys and steelworkers. Yet the two artists had a close and intense personal relationship dating from Pollock's earliest days in New York, when Benton, then one of the most famous artists in America, took the young artist under his wing, despite the fact that he was seemingly the least talented student in his class.
Henry Adams is a graduate of Harvard University, and received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale, where he received the Frances Blanshard Prize for the best doctoral dissertation in art history. He is the author of over 300 publications in the American field on topics ranging from the 17th century to the present. Adams' most recent book is Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock.
Abstract Expressionism: Then and Now
Hodge & Temporary Exhibition Galleries
Drawing on works in the FIA permanent collection, along with important loans from regional collections, this exhibition surveys the American art movement Abstract Expressionism from its origins in the postwar period to the latest developments in the 21st century. The Abstract Expressionists, a group of artist who emerged in New York City in the 1940s, broke with the European painting tradition by creating canvases that did not represent recognizable subjects or familiar themes of religion or history. Artists as diverse as Robert Motherwell, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and Lee Krasner created works in the mid-20th century that were characterized by powerfully expressive techniques, emphasizing the individual's experience of the world.
Artists from subsequent generations sought to not only build on what the Abstract Expressionists achieved, but to add to the dialogue. Artists such as Larry Poons, Robert Goodnough, and Jules Olitski continued experimentation with texture and color to maximize the medium's emotional and expressive potential. Third-wave Abstract Expressionist painters, including Roy Lerner, Stanley Boxer, and Joseph Drapell, also built on the earlier movement, using paints that they invented through working with paint maker Sam Golden, developing new techniques and forms of expression.
Abstract Expressionism: Then and Now was organized by the Flint Institute of Arts, including loans from the Detroit Institute of Arts, Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, and the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago.
Lecture
Tom & Jack:
Benton, Pollock, & the Battle for the Soul of America
Thursday 6.21.12 • 6:00p
Guest LecturerHenry Adams
Professor of American Art, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland
This talk will explore the intense and sometimes stormy relationship of two men who challenged European dominance and made America the leader of modern art.
The drip paintings of Jackson Pollock, with their pulsing clouds of color dribbled or flung on the canvas, appear to be the polar opposite of Thomas Hart Benton's murals with undulating American landscapes peopled by cowboys and steelworkers. Yet the two artists had a close and intense personal relationship dating from Pollock's earliest days in New York, when Benton, then one of the most famous artists in America, took the young artist under his wing, despite the fact that he was seemingly the least talented student in his class.
Henry Adams is a graduate of Harvard University, and received his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale, where he received the Frances Blanshard Prize for the best doctoral dissertation in art history. He is the author of over 300 publications in the American field on topics ranging from the 17th century to the present. Adams' most recent book is Tom and Jack: The Intertwined Lives of Thomas Hart Benton and Jackson Pollock.
