Arts & Entertainment
Abstract Expressionism at Nassau Museum
Nassau County Museum of Art features mid-century American stars of Abstract Expressionism.
Artists of the Abstract Expressionist school rejected the mass cultural values which were being formulated in America at mid-century, searching for alternatives to the consumer and advertising culture that had become prevalent in post-World War II America.
Abstract Expressionism Reconsidered, on view at Nassau County Museum of Art on March 9-June 16, explores both the best known and less familiar practitioners of abstract and gestural painting who dominated American art, criticism and commentary during the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s.
Included in the exhibition are works by the stars of Abstract Expressionism, among them Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko.
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The exhibition also offers viewers the excitement of discovering some of the lesser-known but highly-regarded artists of the movement, among them Fritz Bultman and Jon Schueler. Bultman, a member of the inner circle of Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock and a close associate of Motherwell and Hofmann, is the topic of The Lost Irascible, a talk presented at the museum on May 5 by the noted art writer Charles A. Riley II, Ph.D. Schueler, the subject of Jon Schueler: A Life in Painting, a 28-minute film being screened four times a day throughout the exhibition, was influenced by Clyfford Still (his teacher) and Milton Avery, and became a part of the New York School of artists.
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Three focused installations included in AB-EX / RE-CON are devoted to Abstract Expressionists working today: Judith Godwin of New York City, Stan Brodsky of Huntington, Long Island, and Rita Rogers of Rhode Island. On April 27, independent curator Kenneth Wayne, Ph.D. presents a talk on Stan Brodsky.
The museum is offering several other programs in conjunction with the exhibition in addition to The Lost Irascible, Jon Schueler: A Life in Painting and Dr. Wayne’s talk on Stan Brodsky. A 20-minute film, Abstract Expressionism, is being screened four times a day throughout the exhibition.
Visit nassaumuseum.org/events.