Clyfford Still

1957-D No.1 Clyfford Still (1957)

Clyfford Stills work is without titles!

      As before, the pictures are to be without titles of any kind.  I want no allusions to interfere with or assist the spectator!!

Still was a leading first generation abstract Expressionist post war 1957.

This painting is majestic, painted on a massive scale.  Encrusted with texture, visually dynamic and painted with expressive brushstrokes.

The thick impasto oozes and flashes accross the monumental canvas into jagged formation.

Still's canvases depict intense landscapes and natural forms.

As a man Still was known to be difficult and cantankerous.  He dropped out of the New York scene in latter years.   Clyfford Still's work on the other hand is full of personality, drive and personal expression.  Still was not able to relate so well to mixing colour which is why his canvases are rich in tonal colours and not pure colours.

The jagged way in which the paint is applied reveals the layers beneath.

-Nicki

Jasper Johns

Jasper Johns was twenty-four years old when he destroyed all of his old art work it was at this point that he stated he wanted to

    ..Stop becoming and to be an artist....

Jasper Johns created his most iconic work ‘Flag’ and exhibited it in New York in 1958. This piece sparked huge debate especially in terms of its reproduction from an existing image. Johns commented that painting existing images..

    So I went on to similar things like targets-things the mind already knows. This gave me room to work on other levels.

Jasper Johns encaustic, oil and collage on fabric, mounted on plywood to create this work. The use of encaustic allowed Johns to work on other levels in the way that it separated and persevered each layer of paint applied, building in a painterly way multilayer’s symbolic of the different layers of meaning in his work. 

-Vikki 

Rebel Painters/New York School

During the 1940s-1950's America, There were two main Art styles focused on were Existentialism and Abstract Expressionism.  As a group we will be focusing on the Abstract Expressionism style. In each of our individual essays, we will each be looking at an artist from this group, but here we will be researching facts about the artists. The Artists we are looking at are Andrew Bucci, Clyfford Still, Robert Rauschenberg, Romare Beardan, William De Kooning, Franz Kline and Jaspers Johns, known as the 'New York School'.


The 1950s saw the end of World War II and the beginning of new styles of art, new artists and new movements. The 1950s was a fresh, clean start for the people of the US after the war, therefore this meant the art being created would reflect on what was going on socially.  


Carl Morris; Agriculture, from the Art Movement of Northwest School, a movement during the 1930s-1940s from Washington, and below, Franz Kline; Mahoning, 1956 an example of Abstract Expressionism, to show the contrast between the two eras/movements.

Introduction

After looking at different decades, we decided to focus our research on 1950s Art in America. During this time period, Pop Art evolved and Abstract Art movements were being formed. This is particularly what we all want to look at, the post war era that involved the Rebel Artists/New York School of Artists. We want to research what is going on socially and how it is reflecting on the art produced.