Unveiling Unconsciousness

What is perhaps most notable about the current Fogg exhibition of works from the Abstract Expressionist period is simply its presence in the museum which seems hard-pressed to give much attention to the existence of modern art. The Fogg has presented several temporary shows of modern art in recent years, but the museum keeps its permanent collection of twentieth century work largely away from the public gaze in libraries, offices and storerooms.

The show is not a truly representative sampling of abstract expressionism in that it does not contain some of the abstract expressionist works typically thought of with the school and because it includes a few artists who are not strictly abstract expressionists. The holes in the Fogg's collection of work from the period and the fact that the exhibit is designed in conjunction with a current Fine Arts department offering on the subject, may explain why this exhibit does not provide the public with a sampling of great and famous moments in abstract expressionism.

This period is one of America's first and most significant contributions to the history of modern art. The movement which reached its high-point in the late 1940's and early 1950's, stressed the role of the unconscious in artistic expression. The artist, in a sense, painted his emotions articulating them in line, color, form and brushstrokes.

The period divides into two sub-movements. Gestural painters like Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline energized their canvases with wild brushstrokes, and textured their surfaces by building up their paint. The color-field painters, notably Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, articulated their sufaces with two or three areas of unruffled color.

The exhibit concentrates on the gestual element of abstract expressionism. Hans Hoffman's "Blue Rapsody", not one of his better efforts, dominates one wall of the gallery and features fire-work burst of paint. Hoffman who was probably more influential as a teacher than as a painter during his lifetime, generally filled his canvass with intense, vibrant color.

Ironically, Hoffman's painter colleagues who specialized in pessimistic views about the world expressed frequent feelings of pity for "poor Hans" who nevertheless adhered to a brighter view of things--a view which his canvases reflect. Hoffman, perhaps not in-coincidentally, was one of the few major abstract expressionists who did not commit suicide or experience periods of mental instability.

Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky and Franz Kline are among the other major abstract expressionists shown. The lineup of artists is quite good, reading like a veritable Who's Who of the period. The work which represents them in this show is, however, another story. Jackson Pollock is a case in point. The Fogg owns a very good example of Pollock's mature or "drip" work (1947-53), but it is not on exhibit here because it's now in Washington D.C.--on loan to the National Gallery.

Replacing it is "Figure" an example from Pollock's "myth and totem" period which preceded his "drip" style and coincided with his experiences in Jungian analysis. This work which incorporates primitivesque figures and symbols reminds us that Pollock did not spend his entire artistic career dripping paint on canvas on his way to fame, fortune and artistic fulfillment. But even if "Figure" provides a good academic lesson, any show of abstract expressionist work is incomplete, as this one proves, without a mature Pollock to epitomize the nature and aims of the period--an expression of the unconscious through the emotional versus formalist use of color, line, paint and abstraction.

Although no finished Gorky paintings are in the show, his drawings and preliminary studies for other compositions are examples of the mature Gorky--the abstract expressionist whom Gorky eventually discovered in himself with the help of the Chileam surrealist Matta, after years of imitating the work of his contemporaries and past masters. The study for "Calendars", recently donated to the Fogg, is a very strong work which shows Gorky in one of his finer moments.

Franz Kline's "High Street" is nicely juxtaposed with a smaller oil-on-paper work of 1952. "High Street" which is an excellent example of Kline's work unfortunately spends most of the year in an upstairs Fogg office and is therefore not on view for the general public. The inclusion of the two pieces allows for comparison of the artist's work in two different media and in two different scales.

Another insightful juxtaposition is that of David Smith's sketches with several pieces of his sculpture. Originally trained as a painter, Smith later concentrated on sculpture. Smith the sculptor, however, never quite lost his painter's orientation. His pieces, as a result, most always retain a reference to a frame and therefore the works do not always function as truly three-dimensional pieces. Such is his "Detroit Queen", an enchanting bronze creature whom Smith composed from auto parts in 1957.

If the museum doesn't have it, or can't borrow it, it can't show it and so the exhibit must display two rather unsatisfying Robert Motherwell collages. The Fogg sadly lacks any high-calibre Motherwell canvases, one of which, perhaps something from his "Elegy" or "Open" series, would have enhanced the exhibit immeasurably.

Willem de Kooning's "July 1956" is one of the better pieces in the show. Also included are two smaller do Kooning works. The 1950 "Reclining Woman" relates to his famous "woman" series. Some art historians speculate that de Kooning's mother inspired that series. If this is so, he must not have had a very happy relationship with her because he portrays her in a less than flattering manner.

Also featured are a light, airy-hued canvas by Philip Guston--a lesser abstract expressionist but a very good work of his and William Baziotes' "Bird of Paradise" executed in 1947. Ad Reinhardt also manages to slip into the show with an untitled work done in 1964.

The show has problems but this is largely due to holes in the Fogg's collection. Both the Hoffman and the Motherwells are weak and the absence of the Pollock doesn't help things either. In addition, the show suffers from a lack of any work by Barnett Newman, a major figure on the color-field side of abstract expression. Though the Mark Rothko is an example of this school, it hardly compensates for Newman's absence. On the positive side, the show is well exhibited, and it is a nice surprise to see what the Fogg can fish out of its storerooms when it wants to.