American Abstract Artists
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American Abstract Artists (AAA) was founded in 1937 in New York City, to promote and foster public understanding of
abstract art Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...
. American Abstract Artists exhibitions, publications, and lectures helped to establish the organization as a major forum for the exchange and discussion of ideas, and for presenting abstract art to a broader public. The American Abstract Artists group contributed to the development and acceptance of abstract art in the United States and has a historic role in its
avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...
.''Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996'', exhibition catalog. Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, 1996. Text by Sandra Kraskin. p. 5. It is one of the few artists' organizations to survive from the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
and continue into the 21st century.


History

During the 1930s, abstract art was viewed with critical opposition and there was little support from
art galleries An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...
and
museums A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...
. The American Abstract Artists group was established as a forum for discussion and debate of abstract art and to provide exhibition opportunities when few other possibilities existed.''Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996'', Sandra Kraskin. p.p. 5, 9. In late 1935 and early 1936 a small group of artists, who would become founding members of AAA, had sporadic informal meetings in their studios about exhibiting abstract art. This culminated in November 1936 at a larger meeting in
Harry Holtzman Harry Holtzman (June 8, 1912 – September 25, 1987) was an American artist and founding member of the American Abstract Artists group. Early life At the age of fourteen, Holtzman visited the ''Société Anonyme’s'' 1926 “International ...
's loft where he was seeking support for an abstract artist cooperative and workshop but the idea was not accepted among the attendees. However Holtzman's organization of the November meeting was crucial in bringing together many of the painters and sculptors who would establish AAA the following year. On January 15, 1937 the artists met and decided they would create a group named American Abstract Artists. The ''American Abstract Artists General Prospectus'' was issued in January 29, 1937 founding the organization. It outlined the purpose of AAA and the importance of exhibitions in promoting the growth and acceptance of abstract art in the United States.Larsen, Susan C. "The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941", ''Archives of American Art Journal'', Vol. 14, No. 1 (1974), p. 3. Under the heading ''General Purpose'', the ''American Abstract Artists General Prospectus'' (1937) says "Our purpose is to unite American 'abstract' artists, (1) to bring before the public their individual works, (2) to foster public appreciation of this direction and painting and sculpture, (3) to afford each artist the opportunity of developing his own work by becoming familiar with the efforts of others, by recognizing differences as well as those elements he may have in common with them." The prospectus also proposes "that the most direct approach to our objective is the exhibition of our work." The American artists that embraced abstraction in the face of prevailing styles of realism and who banded together in New York to form AAA in 1937, sought to educate the American public about abstract art, promote solidarity among abstract artists, and explore new exhibition possibilities. ''American Abstract Artists General Prospectus'' grouped members into two tiers: Membership and Associate Membership. Associate Members did not exhibit but were sympathetic to the organizations goals. As an example of how the membership process worked, Charmion von Wiegand became an associate member of the American Abstract Artists in 1941 at AAA Founder Carl Holty's recommendation, then a full member in 1947, began exhibiting with AAA in 1948, and was its president from 1951 to 1953. The prospectus did not place limitations upon its members showing with other groups. Other 1930s Depression Era artist run organizations included AAA members: Sculptors Guild (
Louise Bourgeois Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...
, Ibram Lassaw, José Ruiz de Rivera, Louis Schanker, Wilfred Zogbaum),
The Ten The TEN is a track and field meeting held at the JSerra Catholic High School track in San Juan Capistrano, California, United States. Since 2023 it is a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver level meetingthe third-highest level of international ...
also known as The Ten Whitney Dissenters ( Ilya Bolotowsky, Louis Schanker, Karl Knaths, Ralph Rosenberg), Artists Union ( Byron Browne, Balcomb Greene, Gertrude Greene, Ibram Lassaw, Michael Loew) and American Artists' Congress (Ilya Bolotowsky, Byron Browne, Werner Drewes, Carl Holty, Irene Rice Pereira). AAA held its inaugural exhibition in 1937 at the Squibb Gallery in New York City. This was the most extensive and widely attended exhibition of American
abstract painting Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a Composition (visual arts), composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. ''Abstract art'', ''non-figurative art'', ''non- ...
outside of a museum during the 1930s. Two years earlier the Whitney Museum of American Art held an exhibit, "Abstract Painting in America," from February 12 - March 22, 1935, with 65 abstract artists working in the United States including future AAA founders and members Byron Browne, Werner Drewes, Balcomb Greene, Karl Knaths, Irene Rice Pereira, and Louis Schanker. The majority of AAA worked in either a Cubist inspired idiom, a geometric style with biomorphic forms or
Neoplasticism Neoplasticism or neo-plasticism, originating from the Dutch , is an avant-garde art theory proposed by Piet Mondrian in 1917 and initially employed by the De Stijl art movement. The most notable proponents of this theory were Mondrian and anoth ...
, and the group officially rejected Expressionism and
Surrealism Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...
. Ibram Lassaw was the only sculptor to be represented in the first AAA exhibit. For the 1937 exhibition AAA produced its first print portfolio of original
zinc Zinc is a chemical element; it has symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodic tabl ...
plate
lithographs Lithography () is a planographic method of printing originally based on the miscibility, immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone (lithographic limestone) or a metal plate with a smooth surface. It was invented in 1796 by ...
, instead of documenting the exhibit with a catalog. George L. K. Morris, an exhibitor and founding member of the AAA, purchased 10 pieces from the show. Morris had established the Gallery of Living Art in 1927, a public collection of modern art in New York City. Future exhibitions and publications would establish AAA as a major forum for the discussion and presentation of new abstract and non-objective art.''American Abstract Artists, The Language of Abstraction'', exhibition catalog. Betty Parsons Gallery, Marilyn Pearl Gallery, 1979. Text by Susan Larson. p. 2. Over the next few years Morris and his wife
Suzy Frelinghuysen Suzy Frelinghuysen (May 7, 1911 – March 19, 1988), also known as Suzy Morris, was an American abstract painter and opera singer. Early life and personal life Frelinghuysen was born on May 7, 1911, in Newark, New Jersey, to was a daught ...
, who joined AAA, collected artwork by 25 members of the American Abstract Artists group. There was extensive hostile criticism of AAA exhibits in New York City newspapers and art magazines of the time. The most influential critics dismissed American abstract art as too European and therefore "un-American", a term that meant suspected of having
communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
ties. The Communist Party in the United States and USSR viewed art as a weapon in class struggle and fascism. Radicalization of the unemployed American artist became a major factor in the life of
New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
artists, especially in New York City. Radical artists had been joining the Communist Party for years and forming their own organizations. In the 1930s American Abstract Artists was divided on political grounds with disagreements among Communist Party members who demanded AAA advocate political positions. Some artists who joined AAA were interested in Trotskyism, and there was turbulence between the group's
Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...
and
Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...
members. Lee Krasner's beliefs as a Trotskyite landed her in jail where she met AAA founding member Mercedes Carles Matter, through her Lee Krasner joined the AAA. AAA founders Balcomb and Gertrude Greene were heavily involved in political activism to promote mainstream acceptance of abstract art within the anti-Stalinist left. Communists opposed fascism, believed in the idea that art was a weapon in the war against it and "abstract art was seen as a threat to the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe." American Abstract Artists declared for its annual in March 1942 that it is a "privilege and necessity" to make and exhibit abstract art as an affront to fascism. The
National Socialists Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
forced
Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the , was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined Decorative arts, crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., ...
teachers, including Josef Albers and László Moholy-Nagy, to expatriate from Germany and immigrate to the United States where they continued teaching and influenced a group of artists in New York City who formed the American Abstract Artists, which Albers and Moholy-Nagy joined. Artist run organizations like the Artists Union and American Artists' Congress, which included AAA members, were involved with the
Communist Party USA The Communist Party USA (CPUSA), officially the Communist Party of the United States of America, also referred to as the American Communist Party mainly during the 20th century, is a communist party in the United States. It was established ...
. '' Art Front'' was a magazine published by the Artists Union in New York. The first two Artists Union presidents would become American Abstract Artists founders and future AAA founding and early members were Editors-in-Chief and on the Business Staff of ''Art Front''. Art Front had a
proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...
political viewpoint where the artist was a worker "like a machinist, bricklayer or cobbler in the industrial sphere." "National Organization" was permanent feature of the magazine for "organizing artists groups on an economic basis" as a labor movement. The argument of class struggle was that the government should eliminate the dependence of American artists (the worker or
proletariat The proletariat (; ) is the social class of wage-earners, those members of a society whose possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work). A member of such a class is a proletarian or a . Marxist ph ...
) from the caprice of private patronage (the
bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...
). In an ''Art Front'' review of AAA's first exhibit Jacob Kainen wrote that dictates of the market conspired against abstract artists in the United States and it is natural they band together in mutual defense. Artists organized as cultural workers used militant trade union tactics like picketing and confrontations with the police which contributed to their solidarity. On December 1, 1936 the Artists Union held a sit-in turned riot at the
Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...
offices where the police arrested 219 artists protesting WPA layoffs. American Abstract Artists would do the same issuing its own publications in protest and demonstrate as well. Lee Krasner as a board member of the Artists Union worked with American Abstract Artists to fight for fair pay of artists' work.American abstract art was struggling to win acceptance and AAA personified this. The 1938 Yearbook addressed criticisms levied against abstract art by the press and public. It also featured essays related to principles behind and the practice of making abstract art. In 1940, AAA printed a broadside titled "How Modern is the
Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...
?" which was handed out at their protest of the ''Italian Masters'' exhibit in front of MoMA.Larsen, Susan C. "The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941", pp. 4, 6. AAA questioned MoMA's stated commitment to modern and contemporary art when it was actually exhibiting Italian Renaissance artwork. At the time the Museum of Modern Art also had a policy of featuring European abstraction while endorsing American regionalism and scene painting. This policy helped entrench the notion that abstraction was foreign to the American experience.''Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996'', Sandra Kraskin. p. 11. Esphyr Slobodkina, a founding member and future president of the American Abstract Artists Group, described the Museum of Modern Art as a shameful display of "snobbish discrimination" that preferred to exhibit "gilt-edged, 100% secure, thoroughly documented and world renowned exponents of foreign abstract art." However, out of the fifty-two AAA members listed on the broadside distributed at the MoMA protest, eighteen had exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art including George L.K. Morris who had been a member of the museum's board of advisors. In 1940 AAA also produced a 12-page pamphlet: "The Art Critics – ! How Do They Serve the Public? What Do They Say? How Much Do They Know? Let's Look at the Record." The AAA publication quoted critics, highlighting misstatements and contradictions in the press. The pamphlet excoriated notable ''
New York Herald Tribune The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the '' New York Tribune'' acquired the '' New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and compet ...
'' critic Royal Cortissoz for his rigid loyalty to traditionalism, his patent distaste for abstract and modern art, and generally for what the pamphlet regarded as his "resistance to knowledge". It also characterized the aesthetic vacillations of Thomas Craven, critic of the ''
New York American :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 ...
'', as opportunistic. In 1936, Craven labeled
Picasso Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, Ceramic art, ceramicist, and Scenic ...
's work "
Bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, originally practised by 19th–20th century European and American artists and writers. * Bohemian style, a ...
infantilism". The ensuing years would see a growing public appreciation for abstract art until, in 1939, the critic made an about-face and lauded Picasso for his "unrivaled inventiveness". The pamphlet applauded Henry McBride of the ''
New York Sun ''The New York Sun'' is an American conservative news website and former newspaper based in Manhattan, New York. From 2009 to 2021, it operated as an (occasional and erratic) online-only publisher of political and economic opinion pieces, as we ...
'' and Robert Coates of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'' for their critical efforts regarding abstract art. "The Art Critics" showed the lack of knowledge the critics from New York City newspapers and art publications had about developments in 20th-century art. Controversy persisted and in a 1979
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
exhibition review
Hilton Kramer Hilton Kramer (March 25, 1928 – March 27, 2012) was an American art critic and essayist. Biography Early life Kramer was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts into a Jewish immigrant family, and was educated at Syracuse University, receiving a b ...
asserted that "The truth is, a group like the American Abstract Artists no longer has any serious function to perform, and its continued existence is little more than an act of nostalgia... Surely it is time to disband."The picketing, broadside and brochure in 1940 were a game of positioning the organization in opposition to an art institution and established critics as part of a self-conscious process to legitimizing an avant-garde. AAA combated prevailing hostile attitudes toward abstraction and prepared the way for its acceptance after
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. AAA was a precursor to
abstract expressionism 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 ...
by helping abstract art discover its identity in the United States. However American Abstract Artists included many but did not represent all early American artists working abstractly such as those in Stieglitz Group like Arthur Dove,
Marsden Hartley Marsden Hartley (January 4, 1877 – September 2, 1943) was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist. Hartley developed his painting abilities by observing Cubist artists in Paris and Berlin. Early life and education Hartley was bor ...
and
John Marin John Marin (December 23, 1870 – October 2, 1953) was an early American modernist visual artist. He is known for his abstract landscape paintings and watercolors. Early life and education Marin was born on December 23, 1870, in Rutherford, N ...
. Marin was credited with influencing
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 ...
.
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...
Abstract Expressionists were also not in AAA like
Clyfford Still Clyfford Still (November 30, 1904 – June 23, 1980) was an American Painting, painter, and one of the leading figures in the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, who developed a new, powerful approach to painting in the years immediat ...
,
Jay DeFeo Jay DeFeo (31 March 1929 – 11 November 1989) was an American visual artist who became celebrated in the 1950s as part of the spirited community of Beat artists, musicians, and poets in San Francisco. Best known for her monumental work ''The Rose ...
and
Frank Lobdell Frank Lobdell (1921–2013) was an American painter, often associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement and Bay Area Abstract Expressionism. Life and career Frank Lobdell was born on August 23, 1921, in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in ...
. In the 1940s Clyfford Still was teaching at California School of Fine Arts, later renamed
San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...
. He had his first museum show at the San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts in 1943. During the 1920s and 1930s many European artist immigrants settled in New York and joined AAA:
Josef Albers Josef Albers ( , , ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born American artist and Visual arts education, educator who is considered one of the most influential 20th-century art teachers in the United States. Born in 1888 in Bottrop, Westp ...
, Ilya Bolotowsky, Giorgio Cavallon,
Fritz Glarner Fritz Glarner (July 20, 1899 – September 18, 1972) was a Swiss-American painter. He was a proponent of Concrete Art movement and a disciple of Piet Mondrian. Work Glarner was a leading proponent of so-called Concrete Art, an artists' m ...
, Ibram Lassaw,
Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...
,
László Moholy-Nagy László Moholy-Nagy (; ; born László Weisz; July 20, 1895 – November 24, 1946) was a Kingdom of Hungary, Hungarian painter and photographer as well as a professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by Constructivism (art), con ...
, and
Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch Painting, painter and Theory of art, art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He w ...
and Hans Richter. Jean Xceron was in the inner circle of
Abstraction-Création Abstraction-Création was a loose association of artists formed in Paris in 1931 to counteract the influence of the Surrealist group led by André Breton. Founders Theo van Doesburg, Auguste Herbin, Jean Hélion and Georges Vantongerloo starte ...
, moved to New York City in 1937 and joined American Abstract Artists who welcomed him as a leading Parisian artist. This created a paradox for the group, AAA secured prestige by increasing the group's international character with its European expatriate modern masters but was then seen as not "American" enough to represent the United States. The exhibitions, organization and its strict geometrical style no longer functioned as an avant-garde influence in New York City. During the early 1940s the New York School gained momentum and throughout the mid-1940s and 1950s Abstract Expressionism dominated the American avant-garde.''Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996'', Sandra Kraskin. p. 25. The AAA was influential for a few years, from 1937 to 1940, setting the trend at the moment before the center of the art world shifted from Paris to New York after World War II. Though some members of American Abstract Artists rose to fame and international recognition in the following decades, the membership represented the
interwar In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period, also known as the interbellum (), lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days) – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II ( ...
generation with all the doubts and inner turmoil of that time. As an egalitarian artist run organization, AAA was serious about its professional goal of gaining acceptance of abstraction but applied minimal standards in selecting applicants based on the quality of their work for membership. Founding member Alice Trumbull Mason wrote in a letter to the AAA membership dated May 23, 1944: "it has become apparent that, as public interest in abstract art has increased the members have shown less and less interest in furthering the aims for which the group was founded. This year indeed many, as far as the group is concerned, have ceased to function entirely." Carl Holty recommended the group disband as AAA had served its purpose which was to show abstract artists who were not being shown. By the spring of 1947 only 14 out of 39 founding members remained to take part in the AAA 11th annual exhibit at the Riverside Museum.''Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996'', Sandra Kraskin. New York: Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College and The City University of New York, 1996. pp. 19–20. In the fall of 1949 The Club became the major forum for discussion of the avant-garde and abstraction in New York City, which included some of the AAA members. American Abstract Artists continued its mandate as an advocate for abstract art. American Abstract Artists exists today despite never disbanding, the association was most active from 1936 to 1941. AAA was founded during a very political time but is no longer politically engaged and doesn't host annual membership exhibitions any more. In a 2019 interview AAA affirmed that the key to its future is diversity, equity and inclusion in demographics, artistic disciplines and expanding with satellite chapters in other regions outside of New York City. Traditionally American Abstract Artists has always been a New York based group rarely opening its circle to artists beyond New York City. To date the organization has produced over 75 exhibitions of its membership in museums and galleries across the United States. AAA has published 5 Journals, in addition to brochures, books, catalogs, and has hosted critical panels and symposia. AAA distributes its published materials internationally to cultural organizations. The most recent journal ''Past/Present: American Abstract Artists Members Honor Their Predecessors'' is a nostalgic look back where "current members were asked to write about a deceased member they admired or who had influenced them" examining their personal history. American Abstract Artist produces print portfolios by its membership. AAA print portfolios are in the collections of the
Whitney Museum of American Art The Whitney Museum of American Art, known informally as "The Whitney", is a Modern art, modern and Contemporary art, contemporary American art museum located in the Meatpacking District, Manhattan, Meatpacking District and West Village neighbor ...
, Museum of Modern Art,
Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK ...
in London, and the
Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...
. Early members included Josef Albers,
Willem de Kooning Willem de Kooning ( , ; April 24, 1904 – March 19, 1997) was a Dutch-American abstract expressionist artist. Born in Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, he moved to the United States in 1926, becoming a US citizen in 1962. In 1943, he married pa ...
, Lee Krasner,
Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household ...
, David Smith,
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 ...
, I. Rice Pereira,
Ad Reinhardt Adolph Friedrich Reinhardt (December 24, 1913 – August 30, 1967) was an American abstract painter and art theorist active in New York City for more than three decades. As a theorist he wrote and lectured extensively on art and was a ...
and
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 ...
. Ferren, a California native, was one of the few AAA members to reach artistic maturity in Paris. American Abstract Artists was one of a number of Great Depression Era artist run organizations in the United States, others included Artists Union, American Artists' Congress, American Artists School, John Reed Club,
The Ten The TEN is a track and field meeting held at the JSerra Catholic High School track in San Juan Capistrano, California, United States. Since 2023 it is a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver level meetingthe third-highest level of international ...
, Federation of Modern Painters and Sculptors, Harlem Artists Guild, Sculptors Guild, Artists' Committee of Action and Unemployed Artists Group.


Founding members

Several different versions of the founding of American Abstract Artists exist. Each early member remembers a different story about the events preceding the founding of American Abstract Artists. In the beginning they weren't sure if they should be an informal discussion group concerned with the problems in their work, an exhibition society or a group focused on teaching. At one early meeting George McNeil was tasked with making a list of forty present and future members so the group could procure all four floors of the Municipal Art Gallery in New York City to exhibit. Failing to reach the required number of names he was authorized to use fictitious ones.
Arshile Gorky Arshile Gorky ( ; born Vostanik Manoug Adoian, ; April 15, 1904 – July 21, 1948) was an Armenian Americans, Armenian-American painter who had a seminal influence on Abstract Expressionism. He spent the last years of his life as a national of the ...
attended early meetings and was instrumental in founding the AAA but never formally joined the organization. The following 39 artists, who participated in the first AAA exhibit in 1937, are considered founding members. (Richard Taylor was included in the ''Present Membership'' list in the ''American Abstract Artists General Prospectus'' from January 1937 but was not on the membership list for the inaugural exhibition at Squibb Gallery April 3–17, 1937.) The idea for the organization was conceived in 1934 when Katherine Sophie Dreier, who founded the Society of Independent Artists with
Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, ; ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, Futurism and conceptual art. He is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Pica ...
,
Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American naturalized French visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, ...
and others, contacted Burgoyne Diller about forming a group of abstract artists for an exhibition and to produce portfolio of their work. A group assembled and would become the American Abstract Artists with its first exhibit in 1937 accompanied by the AAA 1937 portfolio of lithographs. In 1935, four friends, Rosalind Bengelsdorf, Byron Browne, Albert Swinden, and Ibram Lassaw, met in Bengelsdorf's 230 Wooster Street studio to discuss organizing an exhibit of abstract artists they knew in New York City which would become the inaugural AAA exhibition at Squibb Galleries. Rosalind Bengelsdorf's account lists 9 founders detailed as a "small group of abstract artists who met at Ibram Lassaw's studio at 232 Wooster Street, New York, early in 1936. The gathering consisted roughly of Byron Browne, Gertrude and Balcomb Greene, Harry Holtzman, George McNeil, Albert Swiden, Lassaw, Burgoyne Diller, and myself. It was on this occasion we decided to form a cooperative exhibition society. Therefore this association became the first actual meeting of the American Abstract Artists, and we were, in fact, its founders." The ''AAA General Prospectus'' from January 29, 1937 lists 28 artists: "The present membership (January, 1937) of American Abstract Artists consists of the following names: George McNeil, Jeanne Carles, A. N. Christie, C. R. Holty, Harry Holtzman, Marie Kennedy, Ray Kaiser, W. M. Zogbaum, Ibram Lassaw, Gertrude Peter Greene, Byron Browne, Rosalind Bengelsdorf, George L. K. Morris, Vaclav Vyrlacil, Paul Kelpe, Balcomb Greene, R. D. Turnbull, Frederick J. Whiteman, John Opper, Albert Swinden, lIya Bolotowsky, George Cavallon, Leo Lances, Alice Mason, Esphyr Slobodkina, Werner Drewes, Richard Taylor, Josef Albers." This published membership list of 28 artists existed months before the list for the first exhibit in April 1937 with 39 founding members, showing a discrepancy or another version of the founding. Some accounts list these 28 artists as the charter or founding members of American Abstract Artists.


Geometric style

In the 1930s, Paris was the center of geometric abstraction that came out of
Synthetic Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement which began in Paris. It revolutionized painting and the visual arts, and sparked artistic innovations in music, ballet, literature, and architecture. Cubist subjects are analyzed, broke ...
,
Cercle et Carré Cercle is French for ''circle''. It can refer to: * Circle (administrative division) * Cercle (French colonial), an administrative unit of the French Overseas Empire * Cercle (Mali), the Malian administrative unit ** The specific Cercles of Mal ...
, and
Abstraction-Création Abstraction-Création was a loose association of artists formed in Paris in 1931 to counteract the influence of the Surrealist group led by André Breton. Founders Theo van Doesburg, Auguste Herbin, Jean Hélion and Georges Vantongerloo starte ...
. The start of World War II caused the focus of geometric abstraction to shift to New York City and the American Abstract Artists group. At its founding in 1937 AAA was tolerant and diverse in the types of abstract artwork created by the membership: biomorphic, cubist, and geometric. There was debate that AAA should have a definitive definition of abstract art but the membership could never agree. Instead the group focused on the difference between abstraction based on observation of the natural world and non-objective work which used non-referential invented forms generally involving geometric abstraction. The geometric faction influenced the membership's work and the organization's policies, and by the late 1930s the AAA was a bastion of geometric abstraction. In a review in ''The New Yorker'' of the 1939 Annual Exhibit, Robert Coates said "the trend of the group is toward the purest of 'pure' abstraction, in which all recognizable symbols are abandoned in favor of strict geometric form." For the 1939 AAA Annual Exhibit, expressionist abstract art was eliminated by the exhibition committee during the selection and hanging of work for the show, a change from the group's original character and policies. In a Smithsonian Archives of American Art interview Ad Reinhardt discusses censorship in American Abstract Artists exhibits during the late 1930s when some members insisted on strict purity and urged that painters like Irene Rice Pereira, Louis Schanker and Byron Browne not be shown in the AAA exhibitions describing their shapes as gimmickry. Founder Jeanne Carles paintings took a different direction in abstraction from the group as well. Her work was reproduced in the 1938 Yearbook but she was excluded from the 1939 Yearbook even though she was listed as a member in the publication.
Piet Mondrian Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), known after 1911 as Piet Mondrian (, , ), was a Dutch Painting, painter and Theory of art, art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He w ...
had a strong influence on the membership and Ilya Bolotowsky, Harry Holtzman, Burgoyne Diller, Alice Trumbull Mason and Charmion von Wiegand incorporated Mondrian's
Neoplasticism Neoplasticism or neo-plasticism, originating from the Dutch , is an avant-garde art theory proposed by Piet Mondrian in 1917 and initially employed by the De Stijl art movement. The most notable proponents of this theory were Mondrian and anoth ...
into their painting further embeding AAA's aesthetic in geometric abstraction. The push for a geometric aesthetic continued with Paul Kelpe who was a founder, secretary, treasurer, and a controversial member. He was asked to resign his membership because his abstract shapes, inspired by
Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...
and
El Lissitzky El Lissitzky (, born Lazar Markovich Lissitzky , ; – 30 December 1941), was a Soviet Jewish artist, active as a painter, illustrator, designer, printmaker, photographer, and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant-garde, h ...
, appeared to float illusionistically in three-dimensional space making his paintings too representational for the AAA. During the 1940s some members left the cooperative, including founders Rosalind Bengelsdorf and Ray Kaiser, because the organization abandoned a broad interpretation of abstraction for strict geometry. The AAA helped abstract art gain acceptance among critics and audiences in the United States but only embraced a certain type of abstraction, work with a dynamic geometric clarity. AAA's members based their ideology and visual language on European modern art, specifically Cubism, Neoplasticism, and Constructivism.
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 ...
stated in American Type' Painting'' that Abstract Expressionism was the first manifestation of American art to draw serious attention in the United States and Europe, attacking the expendable conventions of art and influencing the avant-garde. With the popularity of abstract expressionism after World War II there was a dichotomy between geometric and gestural abstraction, which the group saw as American Abstract Artists vs. Abstract Expressionists. AAA preceded but ignored the rise of the "New York School" of Abstract Expressionism. The group remained separate from it, promoting pure geometric abstraction within AAA's ranks, and set itself apart from discussions about and reactions against Abstract Expressionism which included Post-Painterly Abstraction in the 1960s. The American Abstract Artists worked to develop a utopian vision of universal harmony using geometry and nonobjective art based on order and stability, free from references to the real world.


Footnotes


References

* ''American Abstract Artists, The Language of Abstraction'', exhibition catalog. Betty Parsons Gallery, Marilyn Pearl Gallery, 1979. Text by Susan Larson. * Larsen, Susan C. "The American Abstract Artists: A Documentary History 1936–1941", ''Archives of American Art Journal'', Vol. 14, No. 1 (1974), pp. 2–7. * ''Pioneers of Abstract Art: American Abstract Artists, 1936–1996'', exhibition catalog. Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, 1996. Text by Sandra Kraskin. * ''Continuum: In Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of AAA'', exhibition press release. St. Peter's College Art Gallery, O'Toole Library, Jersey City, NJ (March 21 – April 25, 2007).


External links


American Abstract Artists

American Abstract Artists records, 1935–1982
in the collection of the
Archives of American Art The Archives of American Art is the largest collection of primary resources documenting the history of the visual arts in the United States. More than 20 million items of original material are housed in the Archives' research centers in Washing ...

New Arts Alive. "Women of American Abstract Artists." BCTV, 54:10. Oct 23, 2019.Archived
Episode on history and female members of AAA * {{Authority control American artist groups and collectives Cooperatives based in New York (state) Arts organizations based in New York City Abstract art Abstract expressionism American contemporary art American art movements American abstract artists Arts organizations established in 1937 1937 establishments in the United States