Abstract Expressionism

There is a monstrous show on at the RA at the moment.  It is on until January and is called Abstract Expressionism.  Monstrous in that there are some big names,  monstrous in that there is a large number of paintings to see and monstrous in that many of the works on display are very big.  All images in this blog are from the RA web page. 

It is well worth seeing.  It is a very bombastic exhibition.  Lots of male ego on display, big paintings and lots of paint.  There are a few women artists there but it is dominated by the names you are familiar with, Rothko (top right), Pollock(top left - the famous Blue Poles, de Koonig (bottom right) and the sculptor David Smith (bottom left).  In addition some less well known and to me new names.  

The exhibition stretches over 12 rooms.  The same 12 rooms that hold the summer exhibition (told you it was monstrous).   One of the benefits  of these exhibitions is seeing people you didn't know, and unknown styles from those you do.   I won't do a review of everything in the exhibition.  It would be a little tedious and far to long,  instead I will set out those things that particularly interested me. 

The first room contained peoples early work.  There you can early Pollocks like the one above left.  I really like this.  I like the colours and the shapes.  It is very different from his classic work.  More familiar in style to my favourite of his the enourmous Mural (above  bottom right).  The picture maybe tiny but it is massive.  I like the more organic lines to it and the swirling shapes.  Like many of the pictures in the exhibition you have to stand a long way back to appreciate it.    

The second room was entirely dedicate to someone new to me, Arshile Gorky.  Large paintings, riots of colour with shapes emerging and disappearing again out of the colour. 

The paintings on display are mainly men.  By no means all though.  There was of course Lee Krasner (above).  However a new discovery and apologies for the appalling photograph was Helen Frankenthaler's Europa (right).  I had never heard of Frankenthaler before but she achieves very interesting things but thin washes of paint sent accross the canvas.  This is true of all the paintings here but especially this one it is much better in the original.  There is a lot going on here but the wash effect has creates a strange stillness to it.  

The Violent Mark was the title of the room the contained the above two, Franz Kline (left) and Robert Motherwell (right).  It is a good title because they have a great deal of energy to them. There were a number of Kline's work on display, in this room and others.  I had heard of him before, seen images even but they really appealed to me in person.  They reminded me of calligraphy which I also like.  Simple energetic dark marks on the canvas.  I found them most buigling.  Of all the works in the exhibition if I can own one, it would something by Franz Kline.  Motherell is more stately, more oozing. 

There was a room of Rothko's (like the one left which is one of my favourite) all emanating menace and a strange energy.  Rothko I think more than any other artists benefits from being displayed with other Rothko's.  The different compositions play off each other and contrast each other.   They were very well displayed (in fact it has to be said this was a superbly well curated exhibition) in a central hexagonal room.

Coming off it was a large room with very large paintings on the wall.  They were by a man called Clyfford Still.  Who you say?  So did I.  I like him now though.  Enormous simple canvases,  deceptively simple.  They struck a chord with me somehow.  I can't quite say why but I found myself grinning in that room and kept going back in to have another look.    

These are just some of the highlights.  There were other paintings that really struck home.  Adolph Gottlieb's Penumbra, Sam Francis' Summer No.2, Norman Lewis Metropolitan Crowd and everything by  the disturbingly serious Ad Reinhardt and Barnett Newman's large blocks of colour (see below).  There were some things I decidedly didn't like,  everything by Phillip Guston for example. Despite this go and see them.  You will not be disappointed.  I came away with much to think about.