Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience

Polcari provides an account of the contemporary artistic, intellectual and cultural history to establish a macrohistory of human beings under the pressures of war, fear, torment, and hope. Within this context, he convincingly presents Abstract Expressionism as a mode of modern, metaphysical 'history' painting that uses the forms and devices of modern art to come to terms with the brutality of contemporary history.

Polcari makes a passionate case for abstract expressionism as "a historical and public art" that consciously grapples with the spiritual crises of our times, the brutality, violence and losses of modern history. Rejecting the "big bang" theory of abstract expressionism which posits a post-WW II explosion of works laden with musings on existentialism, alienation and individuality, he charts an artistic continuum from the late 1930s through the early '50s, when "a unique Anglo-American view" underpinning abstract expressionism was born out of the interaction of Jungian psychology, surrealism, Joyce and Eliot, anthropological concepts of world culture, and the perceived collapse of much of the political and social order. With 322 plates (32 in color), individual chapters cover Rothko, de Kooning, Pollock, Baziotes, et al. Director of the Archives of American Art in New York, Polcari has produced a challenging, revolutionary reassessment of the abstract expressionist project, its history, goals and future.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Scholarship on Abstract Expressionism, the first American style of international importance and still highly controversial, tends to concentrate on individual artists or on a single theme or element. These two new surveys help to place the movement in its broader cultural and historical context. Polcari refutes the traditional view of Abstract Expressionism as an abstract art inspired by issues of the postwar period, arguing instead that it emerged as a public art actively engaged in the social, economic, and political turmoil of the 1930s and, more significantly, with the experience of World War II. A lengthy examination of historical and intellectual roots in the 1930s and 1940s is followed by chapter-length essays on several major artists--Still, Rothko, Gottlieb, Newman, Baziotes, Pollock, de Kooning, and Motherwell. Thirty-two color plates and 290 black-and-white prints illustrate the work. Polcari's emphatic persistence in challenging fundamental formalist premises enlivens this revisionist study. Artists and critics speak for themselves in editor Ross's anthology. The core of this book consists of writings, letters, speeches, essays, and interviews by individual artists as well as group statements and dialogs. The texts cover criticism, history, process, and politics, with the last category including cheerleading, in-fighting, and occasional slander. Artists represented include those on Polcari's list as well as Guston, Hoffman, Kline, Reinhardt, and Smith. A shorter section contains contemporary criticism from 1946 to 1961. Although largely extracted from readily available published sources, this book can be appreciated for its convenience--it draws together many primary texts into one volume. The book includes a chronology, a dozen color plates, and 52 black-and-white illustrations. General research collections will benefit from adding Polcari's study, and specialized collections will want to have Abstract Expressionism : Creators and Critics along with that book.
- Russell T. Clement, Brigham Young Univ. Lib., Provo, Ut.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.