Hard-edge painting (also referred to as Hard Edge or Hard-edged) is painting in which abrupt transitions are found between color areas. Color areas often consist of one unvarying color. The Hard-edge painting style is related to

Geometric abstraction Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions. Although the genre was popu ...

Op Art Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses distorted or manipulated geometrical patterns, often to create optical illusions. It began in the early 20th century, and was especially popular from the 1960s on, the term "Op ...

, Post-painterly Abstraction, and Color Field painting.

History of the term

The term “Hard-edge painting” was coined in 1959 by writer, curator, and ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' art critic

Jules Langsner Jules Langsner (19111967) was an American art critic and psychiatric social worker. 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 ...

, 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, ...

, to describe the work of several painters from

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

who adopted a knowingly impersonal paint application and delineated areas of color with particular sharpness and clarity. This style was a significant reaction to the more painterly or gestural forms of

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 ...

, one of the United States’ primary painting movements at the time. The “hard-edge” approach to abstract painting became widespread in the 1960s, though California was its creative center. Other earlier art movements have also contained the quality of hard-edgedness; for example, 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-edge painting can be figurative or nonrepresentational.

''Four Abstract Classicists'' Exhibition

In the late 1950s, Langsner and Peter Selz, then professor at Pomona College, observed a common link among the recent work of

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 b ...

(1898–1978), Feitelson's wife Helen Lundeberg (1908–1999), John McLaughlin (1898–1976),

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

Karl Benjamin Karl Stanley Benjamin (December 29, 1925 – July 26, 2012) was an Americans, American painter of vibrant geometric abstractions, who rose to fame in 1959 as one of four Los Angeles–based Abstract Classicists and subsequently produced a c ...

(1925-2012). This 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 ''Four Abstract Classicists'' was a landmark exhibition organized by Jules Langsner in 1959. The show featured the work of Karl Benjamin, Lorser Feitelson, Frederick Hammersley, and John McLaughlin. The term “abstract classicists” was coin ...

'' 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 1961 ...

in Exposition Park. Helen Lundeberg was not included in the exhibit. ''Four Abstract Classicists'' was renamed ''West Coast 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 the

Institute of Contemporary Arts The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is an modernism, artistic and cultural centre on The Mall (London), The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. Located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps a ...

in London, where Alloway was assistant director, and Queen's University in Belfast. 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.

''California Hard-Edge Painting'' Exhibition

In 1964, a second major hard-edge exhibition curated by Jules Langsner, simply titled ''California Hard-Edge Painting,'' 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 in the U.S. state of California. In 1958, it was relocated across the street to ...

, and Heritage Gallery of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. Along with Feitselon, Lundeberg, McLaughlin, Hammersley, and Benjamin, ''California Hard-Edge Painting'' included

Florence Arnold Florence Arnold was an American hard-edge abstract painter from North Orange County, California. She had become active in Fullerton's art community by establishing organizations and showcases to promote interest in art in youth. She has had works i ...

, John Barbour, Larry Bell,

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 ...

, June Harwood, and

Dorothy Waldman Dorothy may refer to: *Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name. Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Dorothy'' (TV series), 1979 American TV series *Dorothy Mills, a 2008 French movie, sometimes titled simply ''Doroth ...

Legacy

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 s ...

presented 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''. ...

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'', an exhibition held at the Ben Maltz Gallery of the

Otis Art Institute Otis College of Art and Design is a Private university, private Art school, art and design school in Los Angeles, California, United States. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is l ...

in 2004-2005. In 2007-2008, the

Orange County Museum of Art The Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. The museum's collection comprises more than 4,500 objects, with a concentration ...

exhibited ''Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury'', which included the original "four abstract classicists" along with midcentury

design A design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word ''design'' refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

and

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

. ''Birth of the Cool'' traveled nationwide to the

Addison Gallery of American Art Addison may refer to: Places Canada * Addison, Ontario, a community United States * Addison, Alabama, a town * Addison, Illinois, a village * Addison, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Addison, Maine, a town * Addison, Michigan, a vil ...

, Andover, MA; the

Oakland Museum of California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, Oakland, CA; the Mildred Kemper Lane Art Museum, St. Louis, MO; and the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX. In 2011, the style was featured prominently at the

Getty Museum The J. Paul Getty Museum, commonly referred to as the Getty, is an art museum in Los Angeles, California, United States, housed on two campuses: the Getty Center and Getty Villa. It is operated by the J. Paul Getty Trust, the world's wealthies ...

’s initial iteration of ''Pacific Standard Time'', titled ''Crosscurrents in L.A. Painting and Sculpture, 1950-1970'', which showcased the artistic practices that characterized the postwar L.A. art scene. The exhibition highlighted selections from

including Karl Benjamin’s ''Stage II'' (1958) and Helen Lundeberg’s ''Blue Planet'' (1965). Louis Stern Fine Arts continues to exhibit and represent the estates of Hard-Edge painters, including Benjamin, Lundeberg, and Feitelson.

Selected Hard-Edge Artists

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

Kasimir Malevich Kazimir Severinovich Malevich (

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 ...

Theo van Doesburg Theo van Doesburg (; born Christian Emil Marie Küpper; 30 August 1883 – 7 March 1931) was a Dutch painter, writer, poet and architect. He is best known as the founder and leader of De Stijl. He married three times. Personal life Theo van Do ...

, 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 ...

. Aside from Feitelson, Lundeberg, McLaughlin, Hammersley, and Benjamin, other artists associated with Hard-edge painting include: * Herb Aach *

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 ...

Richard Anuszkiewicz Richard Joseph Anuszkiewicz (; May 23, 1930 – May 19, 2020) was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor. The son of Polish immigrants, he developed a geometric style. Life and work Anuszkiewicz was born in Erie, Pennsylvania, the son of ...

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 ...

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 an 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 geometric ...

* *

Nassos Daphnis Nassos Daphnis (July 23, 1914 in Krokeai, Greece – November 23, 2010 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, U.S.) was a Greek-born American abstract painter, sculptor and tree peony breeder. Army Service: 1942–1945 Daphnis served in the United ...

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 graphic ...

* Gene Davis * Robyn Denny * Howard Mehring *

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 *

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; he ...

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, ho ...

Robert Indiana Robert Indiana (born Robert Clark; September 13, 1928 – May 19, 2018) was an American artist associated with the pop art movement. Indiana is mostly known for his iconic image LOVE which was first created in 1964 in the form of a card. India ...

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, col ...

* 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 Publicatio ...

Agnes Martin Agnes Bernice Martin (March 22, 1912 – December 16, 2004) was an American abstract painter known for her minimalist style and abstract expressionism. Born in Canada, she moved to the United States in 1931, where she pursued higher education ...

George L. K. Morris George Lovett Kingsland Morris (November 14, 1905 – June 26, 1975) was an American artist, writer, and editor who advocated for an "American abstract art" during the 1930s and 1940s, and is best known for his Cubism, Cubist sculptures and painti ...

Marion Nicoll Marion Florence Nicoll (née MacKay; 11 April 1909 – 6 March 1985) was a Canadian painter. She is known as one of the first abstract painters in Alberta. In 1933 she became the first woman instructor at the Provincial Institute of Technology ...

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 ...

* Barbro Östlihn *

Georg Karl Pfahler Georg Karl Pfahler (8 October 1926 – 6 January 2002) was the first German people, German hard edge painter, printmaker and sculptor, and one of the leading proponents of post-war color field painting in Germany and Europe. Biography After en ...

Larry Poons Lawrence M. "Larry" Poons (born October 1, 1937) is an American abstract painter. Poons was born in Tokyo; he studied from 1955 to 1957 at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, with the intent of becoming a professional musician. Afte ...

* Mavis Pusey *

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 ...

* Deborah Remington *

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 West Norwood, No ...

Ivo Ringe Ivo Ringe (born July 5, 1951) is a German artist, who is classified as a concrete art painter, whose works can also be categorized as Minimalism and Hard-edge painting. He is also a docent and a curator of international group exhibitions. Ringe l ...

* * 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 follower of the Hard-edge school. His best-known paintings constitute maximally reduced forms, ch ...

Julian Stanczak Julian Stanczak ( ; November 5, 1928 – March 25, 2017) was a Polish Americans, Polish-born American Painting, painter and printmaker who is considered a central figure of the Op art movement in the U.S. during the 1960s and 1970s. Described as ...

Frank Stella Frank Philip Stella (May 12, 1936 – May 4, 2024) was an American painter, sculptor, and printmaker, noted for his work in the areas of minimalism and post-painterly abstraction. He lived and worked in New York City for much of his career befor ...

* John Stephan * Myron Stout * Robert Swain * Leo Valledor *

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 titled ''Zebra'', created in 1937, i ...

* Charmion von Wiegand * Neil Williams *

Sanford Wurmfeld Sanford Wurmfeld (born December 6, 1942) is an American abstract painter. His large-scale works investigate the impact of color on mood and perception using shifts of hue and tone across grids. Early life and career Wurmfeld was born in the Bron ...

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 ...

Larry Zox Lawrence "Larry" Zox (May 31, 1937 – December 16, 2006) was an American painter and printmaker who is classified as an Abstract expressionist, Color Field painter, a Lyrical Abstractionist, and a Hard Edge painter although he did not readily ...

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. *Mastin, Catharine. (2022).
Marion Nicoll: Life & Work
'' Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2022.

External links

Guggenheim collection online

- Art Movement and Style Overview on Art Story Foundation
British artist Robyn DennyLouis Stern Fine Arts
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hard-Edge Painting American art movements Artists from California Contemporary art Modern art Western art