Hard-edge painting is painting in which abrupt transitions are found between color areas. Color areas are often of one unvarying color. The Hard-edge painting style is related to Geometric abstraction,

Op Art Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses optical illusions. Op artworks are abstract, with many better-known pieces created in black and white. Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden image ...

Post-painterly Abstraction Post-painterly abstraction is a term created by art critic Clement Greenberg as the title for an exhibit he curated for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in 1964, which subsequently travelled to the Walker Art Center and the Art Gallery of Toront ...

, and Color Field painting.

History of the term

The term was coined by writer, curator and ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the ...

'' art critic

Jules Langsner Jules Langsner (19111967) was an American art critic and psychiatrist. Born in New York City in 1911 and died in 1967 in California. Although born in New York, Langsner did not grow up in New York. He and his family moved to Ontario, California ...

, along with

Peter Selz Peter Howard Selz (March 27, 1919 – June 21, 2019) was a German-born American art historian and museum director and curator who specialized in German Expressionism. Biography Peter Selz was born in Munich of Jewish parents. In 1936, aged 17, h ...

, in 1959, to describe the work of painters from

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, who, in their reaction to the more painterly or gestural forms of

Abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

, adopted a knowingly impersonal paint application and delineated areas of color with particular sharpness and clarity. This approach to abstract painting became widespread in the 1960s, though California was its creative center. Other, earlier, movements, or styles have also contained the quality of hard-edgedness, for instance the Precisionists also displayed this quality to a great degree in their work. Hard-edge can be seen to be associated with one or more school of painting, but is also a generally descriptive term, for these qualities found in any painting. Hard-edged painting can be both figurative or nonrepresentational. In the late 1950s, Langsner and Peter Selz, then professor at the

Claremont Colleges The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)— Pomona College, Sc ...

, observed a common link among the recent work of John McLaughlin (1898–1976),

Lorser Feitelson Lorser Feitelson (1898–1978) was an artist known as one of the founding fathers of Southern California-based hard-edge painting. Born in Savannah, Georgia, Feitelson was raised in New York City, where his family relocated shortly after his bi ...

(1898–1978), Karl Benjamin (1925-2012),

Frederick Hammersley Frederick Hammersley (January 5, 1919 – May 31, 2009) was an American abstract painter. His participation in the 1959 '' Four Abstract Classicists'' exhibit secured his place in art history. Early years Frederick Hammersley was born in Salt ...

(1919–2009) and Feitelson's wife Helen Lundeberg (1908–1999). The group of seven gathered at the Feitelson's home to discuss a group exhibition of this nonfigurative painting style. Curated by Langsner, ''Four Abstract Classicists'' opened at the San Francisco Museum of Art in 1959, then traveled to the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

in Exposition Park. Helen Lundeberg was not included in the exhibit. These painters were featured in a touring exhibition during 2008 called "The Birth of the Cool" in

museums along with midcentury

design A design is a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process or the result of that plan or specification in the form of a prototype, product, or process. The verb ''to design' ...

music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspe ...

and

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

Exhibition

''Four Abstract Classicists'' was subtitled ''California Hard-edge'' by British art critic and curator

Lawrence Alloway Lawrence Reginald Alloway (17 September 1926 – 2 January 1990) was an English art critic and curator who worked in the United States from 1961. In the 1950s, he was a leading member of the Independent Group in the UK and in the 1960s was an i ...

when it traveled to England and Ireland. The term came into broader use after Alloway used it to describe contemporary American geometric abstract painting featuring "economy of form," "fullness of color," "neatness of surface," and the nonrelational arrangement of forms on the canvas. In 1964, a second major hard-edge exhibition curated by Jules Langsner was held at the Pavilion Gallery in Balboa, CA (also known as the Newport Pavilion) with the cooperation of the Ankrum Gallery, Esther Robles Gallery, Felix Landau Gallery,

Ferus Gallery The Ferus Gallery was a contemporary art gallery which operated from 1957 to 1966. In 1957, the gallery was located at 736-A North La Cienega Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. In 1958, it was relocated across the street to 723 North La Cienega ...

and Heritage Gallery of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

. This was called, simply, ''California Hard-edge painting.'' Included in this show were Florence Arnold,

John Barbour John Barbour may refer to: * John Barbour (poet) (1316–1395), Scottish poet * John Barbour (MP for New Shoreham), MP for New Shoreham 1368-1382 * John Barbour (footballer) (1890–1916), Scottish footballer * John S. Barbour (1790–1855), U. ...

, Larry Bell, Karl Benjamin,

John Coplans John Rivers Coplans (24 June 1920 – 21 August 2003) was a British artist, art writer, curator, and museum director. A veteran of World War II and a photographer, he emigrated to the United States in 1960 and had many exhibitions in Europe and ...

, Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley, June Harwood, Helen Lundeberg, John McLaughlin, and Dorothy Waldman. In 2000, Tobey C. Moss curated ''Four Abstract Classicists Plus One'' at her gallery in

. The exhibit again featured John McLaughlin, Feitelson, Hammersley, and Benjamin, and added Lundeberg as the fifth of the original Hard-edge painters. In 2003,

Louis Stern Fine Arts Louis Stern Fine Arts is an art gallery located at 9002 Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood, California, in the heart of the city’s Avenue of Art and Design. History and development Louis Stern Fine Arts was founded in 1988 by Louis Stern, a second ...

showed a retrospective exhibition for Lorser Feitelson entitled ''Lorser Feitelson and the invention of Hard-edge painting, 1945–1965.'' The same year, NOHO MODERN showed the works of June Harwood in an exhibition entitled ''June Harwood: Hard-edge painting Revisited, 1959–1969.'' Art critic

Dave Hickey David Hickey (December 5, 1938 – November 12, 2021) was an American art critic who wrote for many American publications including ''Rolling Stone'', ''ARTnews'', ''Art in America'', ''Artforum'', ''Harper's Magazine'', and ''Vanity Fair''. He ...

solidified the place of these 6 artists in: ''The Los Angeles School: Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley, June Harwood, Helen Lundeberg, and John McLaughlin.'' The exhibition was held at the Ben Maltz Gallery of the

Otis Art Institute Otis College of Art and Design is a private art and design school in Los Angeles, California. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is located in the former IBM Aerospace headquarte ...

in 2004-2005.

The style

This style of hard-edge geometric abstraction recalls the earlier work of

Kasimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich ; german: Kasimir Malewitsch; pl, Kazimierz Malewicz; russian: Казими́р Севери́нович Мале́вич ; uk, Казимир Северинович Малевич, translit=Kazymyr Severynovych ...

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

Theo van Doesburg Theo van Doesburg (, 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch artist, who practiced painting, writing, poetry and architecture. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He was married to artist, pianist and choreographer Nell ...

, and

Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being o ...

. Other artists associated with Hard-edge painting include Herb Aach,

Josef Albers Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College ...

Richard Anuszkiewicz Richard Joseph Anuszkiewicz (; May 23, 1930 – May 19, 2020) was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Life and work Anuszkiewicz was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, the son of Victoria (Jankowski) and Adam Anuszkiewicz, who worked in a pap ...

Max Bill Max Bill (22 December 1908 – 9 December 1994) was a Swiss architect, artist, painter, typeface designer, industrial designer and graphic designer. Early life and education Bill was born in Winterthur. After an apprenticeship as a silversmit ...

Ilya Bolotowsky Ilya Bolotowsky (July 1, 1907 – November 22, 1981) was a leading early 20th-century Russian-American painter in abstract styles in New York City. His work, a search for philosophical order through visual expression, embraced cubism and ge ...

Herbert Busemann Herbert Busemann (12 May 1905 – 3 February 1994) was a German-American mathematician specializing in convex and differential geometry. He is the author of Busemann's theorem in Euclidean geometry and geometric tomography. He was a member ...

, Ralph Coburn, Nassos Daphnis,

Ronald Davis Ronald "Ron" Davis (born 1937) is an American painter whose work is associated with geometric abstraction, abstract illusionism, lyrical abstraction, hard-edge painting, shaped canvas painting, color field painting, and 3D computer graphics ...

, Gene Davis,

Robyn Denny Edward Maurice FitzGerald "Robyn" Denny (3 October 1930 – 20 May 2014) was one of a group of young artists who transformed British art in the late 1950s, leading it into the international mainstream. Reacting against the mainstream St Ives Sch ...

Howard Mehring Howard Mehring (1931–1978) was a twentieth-century painter born in Washington, D.C. Howard Mehring is associated with Color Field painting and the Washington Color School and the artists at Jefferson Place Gallery. Mehring and Robert Gates b ...

Burgoyne Diller Burgoyne A. Diller (January 13, 1906 – January 30, 1965) was an American abstract painter. Many of his best-known works are characterized by orthogonal geometric forms that reflect his strong interest in the De Stijl movement and the work of ...

Burhan Dogancay Burhan ( ar, برهان, ) is an Arabic male name, an epithet of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. It is especially popular in Turkey, as it respects Turkish vowel harmony and the end syllable "-han" can be interpreted as the Turkish variant of " K ...

John Ferren John Millard Ferren (October 17, 1905 – July 1, 1970) was an American artist and educator. He was active from 1920 until 1970 in San Francisco, Paris and New York City. Early life John Ferren was born in Pendleton, Oregon on October 17, 1 ...

Peter Halley Peter Halley (born 1953) is an American artist and a central figure in the Neo-Conceptualist movement of the 1980s. Known for his Day-Glo geometric paintings, Halley is also a writer, the former publisher of '' index Magazine'', and a teacher; h ...

Al Held Al Held (October 12, 1928 – July 27, 2005) was an American Abstract expressionist painter. He was particularly well known for his large scale Hard-edge paintings. As an artist, multiple stylistic changes occurred throughout his career, howe ...

Robert Indiana Robert Indiana (born Robert Clark; September 13, 1928 – May 19, 2018) was an American artist associated with the pop art movement. His iconic image LOVE was first created in 1964 in the form of a card which he sent to several friends and acq ...

Ellsworth Kelly Ellsworth Kelly (May 31, 1923 – December 27, 2015) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker associated with hard-edge painting, Color Field painting and minimalism. His works demonstrate unassuming techniques emphasizing line, c ...

Jack Youngerman Jack Albert Youngerman (March 25, 1926 – February 19, 2020) was an American artist known for his constructions and paintings. Biography Jack Youngerman was born in 1926 in Webster Groves, Missouri, moving to Louisville, Kentucky in 1929 w ...

, Günther C. Kirchberger,

Alexander Liberman Alexander Semeonovitch Liberman (September 4, 1912 – November 19, 1999) was a Ukrainian-American magazine editor, publisher, painter, photographer, and sculptor. He held senior artistic positions during his 32 years at Condé Nast Publicati ...

Agnes Martin Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004), was an American abstract painter. Her work has been defined as an "essay in discretion on inward-ness and silence". Although she is often considered or referred to as a minimalist, Mart ...

, George L. K. Morris,

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 he was though ...

, Ad Reinhardt,

Deborah Remington Deborah Remington (June 25, 1930 – April 21, 2010) was an American abstract painter. Her most notable work is characterized as Hard-edge painting abstraction. She became a part of the San Francisco Bay Area's Beat scene in the 1950s. In 1965 ...

Bridget Riley Bridget Louise Riley (born 24 April 1931) is an English painter known for her op art paintings. She lives and works in London, Cornwall and the Vaucluse in France. Early life and education Riley was born on 24 April 1931 in Norwood, Londo ...

, Ludwig Sander, David Simpson,

Leon Polk Smith Leon Polk Smith (1906–1996) was an American painter. His geometrically oriented abstract paintings were influenced by Piet Mondrian and he is a follow er of the Hard-edge school. His best-known paintings constitute maximally reduced forms, c ...

Julian Stanczak Julian Stanczak (November 5, 1928 – March 25, 2017) was a Polish-born American painter and printmaker. The artist lived and worked in Seven Hills, Ohio with his wife, the sculptor Barbara Stanczak. Biography Julian Stanczak was born in Boro ...

Jeffrey Steele Jeffrey LeVasseur (born August 27, 1961), known as Jeffrey Steele, is an American country music singer and songwriter. Along with recording his own material, Steele has become a prolific Nashville songwriter, having co-written more than 60 hit ...

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (born May 12, 1936) is an American painter, sculptor and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. Stella lives and works in New York City. Biography Frank Stella was born in Ma ...

Myron Stout Myron Stout (1908–1987) was an American abstract painter whose geometric paintings and drawings bridged the styles of Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism.Brenson 1987. He was born in Denton, Texas. During his senior year at North Texas State U ...

Leo Valledor Leo Valledor (1936–1989) was a Filipino-American painter who pioneered the hard-edge painting style. During the 1960s he was a member of the Park Place Gallery in Soho, New York City, which exhibited many influential and significant artists o ...

Victor Vasarely Victor Vasarely (; born Győző Vásárhelyi, ; 9 April 1906 – 15 March 1997) was a Hungarian-French artist, who is widely accepted as a "grandfather" and leader of the Op art movement. His work entitled ''Zebra'', created in 1937, is consid ...

, Charmion von Wiegand, Neil Williams,

John Stephan John Walter Stephan (1906–1995) was an American painter in the Hard-edge style. His magazine ''The Tigers Eye'' was widely read and is considered a lastingly influential magazine of art and literature. He was a contemporary and friends w ...

Larry Zox Larry is a masculine given name in English, derived from Lawrence or Laurence. It can be a shortened form of those names. Larry may refer to the following: People Arts and entertainment * Larry D. Alexander, American artist/writer *Larry Boon ...

Mino Argento Mino Argento (born January 5, 1927) is an Italian painter, mainly depicting abstract themes on canvas and paper. Life and work Mino Argento was born in Rome, Italy. He began as an architect, and first exhibited paintings at a 1968 exhibition at ...

and Barbro Östlihn .

References

Sources

*NOHO MODERN (2003) ''June Harwood: Hard-Edge Painting Revisited, 1959–1969'' exhibition catalogue

*Louis Stern Fine Arts (2003) ''Lorser Feitelson and the Invention of Hard-Edge Painting, 1945–1965'' exhibition catalogue

*Moss, Tobey C. (2000). ''Four Abstract Classicists Plus One'' exhibition catalogue

*Nittve, et al. (1998). ''Sunshine & Noir: Art in LA 1960–1997''. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

External links