Abstract Art in America before Abstract Expressionism

Abstract

Although the New York School of the 1940s and 1950s has received considerable attention, the abstract artists who are their immediate predecessors have been consistently undervalued. In most surveys of American art, abstract painting of the 1930s has been neglected for Social Realism, Regionalism, and American Scene images. Certain sculptors of this decade, notably David Smith and Alexander Calder, have fared better, but most American constructivists have been largely ignored. Therefore, Abstract Painting and Sculpture in America, 1927–1944, an exhibition organized by the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, was a welcome reassessment of the generation that preceded the Abstract Expressionists. With works by forty-three artists and an impressive scholarly catalogue, this show was the most comprehensive study to date of American abstraction prior to 1945. There have been previous exhibitions devoted to avant-garde sculpture in America of this period and several shows that presented the followers of Mondrian, but the ambitious scope of this recent survey is unrivaled.