Glory of the World, Color Field Painting
Book Cover courtesy of SKIRA
Glory of the World, Color Field Painting ($50, 168 pages, 85 color illustrations, published by SKIRA) casts new light on mid-20th Century Color Field painting (early 1950s to 1983) from the perspective of the artists’ ambitions for the future of abstract painting (it also includes text written by the late Frank Stella, one of the many artists whose work is showcased in the book which is edited by art historian and former Curator of The Mark Rothko Foundation Bonnie Clearwater).
Edward Clark (b. 1926, New Orleans, NY; d. 2019, Detroit, MI) PARIS SERIES, 1966 Acrylic on canvas Object: 60 x 77 in (152.4 x 195.58 cm) Courtesy of The N’Namdi Collection © The Estate of Ed Clark Photo by Steven Brooke
Color Field became a convenient, albeit imperfect term to describe paintings in which vast areas of color appear as the dominant force. Color Field was not an art movement, rather a cohort of likeminded artists like Frank Bowling, Peter Bradley, Jack Bush, Ed Clark, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Morris Louis, Al Loving, Robert Motherwell, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Larry Poons, Frank Stella, and Alma Thomas, to create abstraction anew. Experimenting with non-traditional painting mediums and methods, as well as these artists’ probing of the conventions of painting, led to unprecedented works.
Helen Frankenthaler (b. 1928, New York, NY; d. 2011, Darien CT) Signal, 1969 Acrylic on canvas Object: 102 in x 99 in ( 259.08 cm x 251.46 cm) Private Collection Photo by Michael Visser © 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc. / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The selection of paintings focuses primarily on the earlier years of Color Field beginning in the 1950s with Frankenthaler’s large stain paintings and ends 1983 when post-modern and imagist painters began to dominate the art scene.
Frank Stella (b. 1936, Malden, MA; lives and works in New York) Sacramento No. 6, 1978 Acrylic on canvas Object: 103 1/4 in x 103 1/4 in ( 262.255 cm x 262.255 cm) S. Donald Sussman © 2023 Frank Stella / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York Photo by Steven Brooke
The title, Glory of the World, takes its cue from the writings of Frank Stella on Hans Hofmann whose glorious and exalted abstract paintings, produced solely through the straightforward manipulation of pigment, set a high bar for this generation’s aspirations.
Frank Bowling (b. 1934 Bartica, South America; lives and works in London) Yonder II, 1972 Acrylic on canvas Object: 68 1/2 in x 68 1/2 in; 173.99 cm x 173.99 cm Collection of Beth Rudin DeWoody © 2023 Frank Bowling. All Rights Reserved / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / DACS, London
The book also forefronts the participation of Black artists in expanding the possibilities of Color Field painting.
Hans Hofmann (b. 1880, Weissenburg in Bayern, Germany; d. 1966, New York, NY) Iris, 1964 1965 Oil on canvas Object: 72 in x 84 in ( 182.88 cm x 213.36 cm) Private Collection Photo by Michael Visser. With permission of the Renate, Hans & Maria Hofmann Trust / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
The book includes reprints of text by Frank Bowling, Clement Greenberg, Alex Greenberger, William Rubin, and Frank Stella.
Please visit the SKIRA website for more information about this title and others here.
