Past Exhibitions: 2003

The New York School: Abstract Expressionism and Beyond

July 20-January 19, 2003
Twentieth Century Gallery

Sam Francis American
1923-1994)
Untitled, 1963
Lithograph
Museum Purchase

As a companion to the exhibition New York Observed, this new installation of twentieth-century art from the UMMA collections focuses on the important American art movement led by a group of New York painters who became known as Abstract Expressionists. In the 1940s and 50s, the aggressive painting style of these American and European émigré painters challenged the art world, with New York eventually replacing Paris as its capital. Freedom, impulse, and dynamism, often on large canvases, characterize this movement. Works by Lee Bontecou, Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, Adolph Gottlieb, Grace Hartigan, Hans Hofmann, Ellsworth Kelly, Franz Kline, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Jackson Pollock, Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt, and Larry Rivers help document the powerful innovations of these ground-breaking artists.

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