Fred Lionel Orton (born 1945, Coventry, Warwickshire England) is an English art historian. His initial training was at

Coventry College of Art Coventry School of Art and Design is part of Coventry University in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands in the UK. It is home to a number of departments that teach and research in the areas of art, media and design including the ...

in painting as a Dip.A.D student. He extended his experience in the History and Development of Art initially at the

Courtauld Institute The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...

in London and then professionally as a scholar of art history and art theory at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

Scholarship

Orton published an influential essay in 1991 in the ''Oxford Art Journal'' that argued that

Harold Rosenberg Harold Rosenberg (February 2, 1906 – July 11, 1978) was an American writer, educator, philosopher and art critic. He coined the term Action Painting in 1952 for what was later to be known as abstract expressionism. Rosenberg is best known for h ...

, the critic who coined the term "

Action painting Action painting, sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical ...

", developed the concept as a result of his commitment to

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

rather than to the photographs of

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 ...

in action. According to art critic Stephen Moonie, Orton's essay was one of the first attempts to define the term, offering a "political reading" which, "as Orton shows with great diligence", was a continued effort in Rosenberg's career. With

Griselda Pollock Griselda Frances Sinclair Pollock (born 11 March 1949) is a British art historian, whose work focuses on analyzing visual arts and visual culture through global feminist and postcolonial feminist lenses. Since 1977, Pollock has been an influen ...

he wrote ''Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed'' and ''Vincent van Gogh: Artist of his Time''. A social historian of art, he is influenced by

Marxist theory Marxist philosophy or Marxist theory are works in philosophy that are strongly influenced by Karl Marx's materialist approach to theory, or works written by Marxists. Marxist philosophy may be broadly divided into Western Marxism, which drew f ...

. His 1994 book ''Figuring Jasper Johns'' investigated the relationship between

Jasper Johns Jasper Johns (born May 15, 1930) is an American painter, sculptor, draftsman, and printmaker. Considered a central figure in the development of American postwar art, he has been variously associated with abstract expressionism, Neo-Dada, and ...

and

Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

. Orton is also one of the editors of a collection on the

Ruthwell Ruthwell is a village and parish on the Solway Firth between Dumfries and Annan, Dumfries and Galloway, Annan in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. In 2022 the combined population of Ruthwell and nearby Clarencefield was 400. Thomas Randolph, Earl ...

and Bewcastle crosses, and with Catherine Karkov edited an important collection on Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture; he contributed one essay, and three other essays are responses to his.

Books published

*''Vincent van Gogh: Artist of his Time'' (London: Phaidon, 1978) *''Figuring Jasper Johns'' (London: Reaktion, 1994) *''Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed'' (with Griselda Pollock; Manchester University Press, 1996)Reviews of ''Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed'': * * *''Theorizing Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture'' Medieval European Studies 4. (Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 2003, edited with Catherine Karkov)Reviews of ''Theorizing Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture'': * * * * *''Fragments of History: Rethinking the Ruthwell and Bewcastle Monuments'' (Manchester University Press, 2007, with

Ian N. Wood Ian N. Wood, (born 1950) is an English scholar of early medieval history, and a professor at the University of Leeds who specializes in the history of the Merovingian dynasty and the missionary efforts on the European continent. Patrick J. Ge ...

and

Clare Lees Clare A. Lees is professor of medieval literature and history of the language, and Director of the Institute of English Studies, University of London. Education Lees earned her Bachelor of Arts and master's degree at the University of Leeds bef ...

)Reviews of ''Fragments of History'': * * * * *''Aesthetic Thinking: Essays on Intention, Painting, Action, and Ideology'' (Brill, 2022)

Selected articles

; republished in Orton and Pollock, ''Avant-Gardes and Partisans Reviewed'', 3-17.

References

1949 births Living people Academics of the University of Leeds British social historians British art historians {{Europe-art-historian-stub