In celebrating the momentous return of Willem de Kooning’s Woman-Ochre, Abstract Perspectives in Mid-Century Art takes a broad perspective at the cultural milieu that surrounded de Kooning’s artistic development, particularly during the years 1950-1970.
Some artists, such as Jeanne Miles and Irene Rice Pereira, gravitated toward structured compositions inspired by the universal properties of geometric forms. Others, like Jackson Pollock and Helen Frankenthaler, were focused on process and the experiential possibilities of painting materials. Some artists continued to work with representational subjects, but unleashed new approaches driven by an impulse to express the human condition.
While not intended as an exhaustive representation of all abstract artists and movements, this exhibition illustrates the breadth of abstract approaches during these two seminal decades. It features works by Elaine de Kooning, Ida Kohlmeyer, Lee Krasner, Yuki Katsura, Morris Louis, Louise Nevelson, Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock as well as an exciting recent acquisition to the UAMA collection – George McNeil’s Daisy, 1968.
