The Washington Color School, also known as the Washington, D.C., Color School, was an

art movement An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific art philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defined ...

starting during the 1950s–1970s in

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, in the United States, built of

abstract expressionist Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

artists. The movement emerged during a time when society, the arts, and people were changing quickly. The founders of this movement are

Morris Louis Morris Louis Bernstein (November 28, 1912 – September 7, 1962), known professionally as Morris Louis, was an American painter. During the 1950s he became one of the earliest exponents of Color Field painting. While living in Washington, D ...

and

Kenneth Noland Kenneth Noland (April 10, 1924 – January 5, 2010) was an American painter. He was one of the best-known American color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s as a minimal ...

, however four more artists were part of the initial art exhibition in 1965.

Overview

The Washington Color School, a visual art movement, describes a form of image making concerned primarily with color field painting, a form of non-objective or non-representational art that explored ways to use large solid areas of paint. The Washington Color School artists painted largely non-representational works, and were central to the larger color field movement. Though not generally considered

abstract expressionists Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

due to the orderliness of their works and differing motivating philosophies, many parallels can be drawn between the Washington Color School and the abstract expressionists. Minimally, the use of stripes, washes, and fields of single colors of paint on canvas were common to most artists in both groups. A common technique used in the Washington Color School was "soak staining" or just "staining", in which the artist would pour a thinned painting medium onto canvas and let it sit over time. The result would be a stain in the canvas with no visible traces of conventional application, such as brush strokes.

History

Greenberg, Louis and Noland

In 1954, art critic

Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formali ...

introduced Morris Louis to painter

Helen Frankenthaler Helen Frankenthaler (December 12, 1928 – December 27, 2011) was an American abstract expressionist painter. She was a major contributor to the history of postwar American painting. Having exhibited her work for over six decades (early 1950s u ...

, who was working in as a, "proto–color field painter". Her painting, '' Mountains and Sea'' (1952) had an impact on Louis and many other painters in Washington, D.C., and they borrowed Frankenthaler's process of staining raw canvas with color. In 1960, Clement Greenberg wrote in ''

Art International ''Art International'' known as ''Art International Magazine'', was an art journal based in Switzerland and issued 10 times per year, before moving to Paris, where it was issued quarterly. James A. Fitzsimmons was the magazine's first chief editor ...

'' magazine about the two local Washington, D.C., artists, Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. In his writing he labeled them as "color painters".

Washington Workshop Center for the Arts

Around 1945, painter Leon Berkowitz, poet Ida Fox Berkowitz, and artist founded the Washington Workshop Center (also known as the Workshop Art Center or Washington Workshop Center for the Arts). The center became a key gathering place and gallery for the Washington Color School artists, including Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Howard Mehring, Thomas Downing, and Gene Davis. Berkowitz did not like the label "Washington Color School" and often rejected it for his own work.

Jefferson Place Gallery

Many of the Washington Color School artists exhibited at the

Jefferson Place Gallery The Jefferson Place Gallery was an art gallery in Washington, D.C., founded in 1957 and closed in 1974. It had been located at 1216 Connecticut Street, NW in Washington, D.C.. The gallery was associated with the Washington Color School artists. ...

in Washington, D.C., originally directed by Alice Denney starting in 1957 (later owned and directed by Nesta Dorrance). Along with the original Washington Color School painters, a second generation also exhibited at Jefferson Place Gallery. (6/69, “Four Minds With It” Wash Star; Benjamin)

''Washington Color Painters'' (1965)

The Washington Color School originally consisted of a group of painters who showed works in an exhibit called the ''Washington Color Painters'' at the now-defunct Washington Gallery of Modern Art in Washington, from June 25 to September 5, 1965. The exhibition's organizer was Gerald "Gerry" Nordland and the painters who exhibited were Gene Davis, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Howard Mehring, Thomas Downing, and Paul Reed. This exhibition, which subsequently traveled to several other venues in the United States, including the

Walker Art Center The Walker Art Center is a multidisciplinary contemporary art center in the Lowry Hill, Minneapolis, Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is one of the most-visited modern and contemporary art museums in ...

, solidified Washington's place in the national movement and defined what is considered the city's signature art movement, according to art historians and journalists alike.

''Eighteenth Area Exhibition'' (1965, 1967)

After their initial benchmark exhibition, Davis, Mehring, and Reed were joined by Timothy Corkery, Willem de Looper,

Sam Gilliam Sam Gilliam ( ; November 30, 1933 – June 25, 2022) was an American abstract Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor, and Visual arts education, arts educator. Born in Mississippi, and raised in Kentucky, Gilliam spent his entire adult life in ...

, and Jacob Kainen at The Seventeenth Area Exhibition of Artists of Washington and the Adjacent Area at The Corcoran Gallery of Art from November 12 to December 19, 1965. The ''Eighteenth Area Exhibition'' at The Corcoran from November 18 to December 31, 1967 again featured artists including de Looper, Corkery, Downing, Gilliam and Kainen.

Artists

First generation

The six artists participating in the exhibition, ''Washington Color Painters'' (1965) were called the first generation.

Second generation

The group is thought to have expanded as it achieved a dominant presence in the Washington, D.C., visual art community through the 1960s into the 1970s.

Present-day

During spring and summer 2007, arts institutions in Washington, D.C., staged a citywide celebration of color field painting, including exhibitions at galleries and museums of works by members of the Washington Color School. In 2011, a group of Washington art collectors began the ''Washington Color School Project'', to gather and publish information about the history of the color painters and abstract art in Washington. Though some of them were not born in Washington, D.C., the artists exhibited together and represent Washington as a new hub for the visual arts.

References

Sources

* J. D. Serwer. 1987. ''Gene Davis, A Memorial Exhibition''. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. * Introduction & Text by Roy Slade, "The Corcoran & Washington Art" Copyright 1976 The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.: 2000 copies printed by Garamond Press, Baltimore, MD LCCC# 76-42098 * Smithsonian Archives of American Art, Interview with Gerald Nordland Conducted by Susan Larsen, Chicago, Illinois May 25–26, 200

* ''Washington Art'', catalog of exhibitions at State University College at Potsdam, NY & State University of New York at Albany, 1971 o copyright or LCCC # listed Introduction by Renato G. Danese, printed by Regal Art Press, Troy NY. * ''The Vincent Melzac Collection,'' Foreword by

Walter Hopps Walter "Chico" Hopps (May 3, 1932 – March 20, 2005) was an American museum director, gallerist, and curator of contemporary art. Hopps helped bring Los Angeles post-war artists to prominence during the 1960s, and later went on to redefine pract ...

, Introduction by Ellen Gross Landau, Retrospective Notes on the Washington Color School by Barbara Rose, Copyright 1971 The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.: printed by Garamond/Pridemark Press, Baltimore, MD LCCC#75-153646 {{Authority control Contemporary art movements Cultural history of the United States American art movements