Publications

Publication details [#2292]

Gauthier, Ninon. 2007. Une première grande révision de l'histoire de l'abstraction lyrique [A first great revision of the history of lyrical abstraction]. Journal of Software 209 : 22–23. 2 pp.

Abstract

The article discusses the exhibition 'Sota La Bomba. El Jazz de la Guerra d'Imatges Transatlàntica. 1946-1956' on show at the Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (5 Oct- 2007-7 Jan. 2008), which presents post-war abstract art from around the world. The author explains that the exhibition aims to present developments in art in the context of history and politics, highlighting the link between Abstract Expressionism and the rise in dominance of the U.S.A., emphasizes the inclusion of work from Europe, North and South America, with reference to Picasso, Matisse, Kandinksy, Klee, Hartung, Ben Shahn, Mark Tobey, Arshile Gorky, Wilfredo Lam, Matta, Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni, Tinguely and Niki de Saint-Phalle, and considers the presentation in the exhibition of a film of the H-bomb as a metaphor for the explosion of American culture. She suggests that the variations in work from Paris, New York and Barcelona, challenge Clement Greenberg's idea of purity in Modernist Art, emphasizes the juxtaposition of work by Pollock, Bran Van Velde, Soulages, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko and Tàpies, and refers to Marcel Barbeau, Pierre Gauvreau and Riopelle from the École de Montreal. She concludes by outlining the inclusion of Spanish artists Miro, Tapiès, Chillida, Saura, Modest Cuixart, Luis Feito, Manuel Milares, José Guerrero and Esteban Vincente. In an insert, the author studies the exhibition catalogue, with reference to the absence in the exhibition of work by the Italian artist Lucio Fontana, the Japanese Gutai group and Borduas, and concludes by proposing that there is a need for an exhibition comparing Abstract Expressionist art from around the world. (LLBA, Accession Number 00544760, (c) CSA [2008]. All rights reserved.)