The British Response to Abstract Expressionism of the USA c. 1950-1963

DISSERTATIONS THE BRITISH RESPONSE TO ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM OF THE USA C. 1950-1963 BY HUI PING WANG

PhD Dissertation by the same title submitted at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne DATE 1995 SOURCE Courtesy of the Author

EXPLORE MORE DISSERTATIONS AT BENURI.ORG

The British Response to Abstract Expressionism of the USA c. 1950-1963

A thesispresentedfor the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Newcastleupon Tyne

by Hui Ping Wang

NEWCASTLE

UNIVERSITY

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LIBRARY

2

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Departmentof Fine Art University of Newcastleupon Tyne, December 1995

To my parents

Acknowledgments

My gratitude to

opportunity

had

I am grateful for

his

in

University

generous

and National helped

for

patience,

guidance

also

part to

extend

to

read

all

of

I am also

of Wales,

warmth

Finally

I would

Prof.

John

Milner,

for

the

of

Fine

Art

for

his

and supervision

Norman Horrell the

text,

and

throughout

and Jenny and

also

Fell,

my who

Dr.

Brian

of Fine

Art,

to

text.

Robson,

Northumb6ria

Library

enduring

the

of

Gavin

support.

me with

their

Department

and critically

who had read

Clifford

the

at

is

My gratitude

carefully

my supervisor,

study

humour,

encouragement, study.

to

Head of the to

grateful

Department the

librarians

and staff

at Newcastle

Library,

National

Art

Gallery

Archive

and Tate

Gallery,

who

and my daughter,

Na,

Tate

Library

and patience. like

support.

to

thank

my wife,

Lin,

Abstract Expressionism

Abstract after

the

Second

subsequent

art

movements

movement all

of Abstract

presence

World in

most

many ways

War and it

has

in

the

This

thesis

West.

in

Expressionism

Britain

important

the

art

influenced

investigates it

to

and responses

the in

the

1960s.

1950s and early Abstract literature

arguably

was

Expressionism

was presented

exhibitions

by

and

institutions

after

Expressionist

paintings

denounced

by many,

firstly,

established

abstract

form

younger

generation

1947,

it

individual it

but

became

to

not

from

who were

two

main

by

American

that

from

of

art

students.

The British

established

painters,

Abstract

Abstract

While

it

of

artists:

groups

and figure,

was

incorporation

of

and secondly,

the

the

exploring

landscape

through

any quantity.

imagery

with

public and

1956

until

in

accessible

painters

British

Americans

was

won sympathies

the

constructivists

were

unaffected. For

these

inspiration

a pure

than

dramatic

changes

restricted

interest

Under an

of

influence

the

awareness

authentic

reflection

contribute

to

it

the

end

At

in

it.

The reai

impact

was on the

the

Independent

Group,

which

in

London,

urbanism

later of

but

development

contemporary

also the

of

a result,

to

others

the

majority

of

status

of Abstract

Expressionism.

Its

Patrick

Heron

and Lawrence

Alloway,

were

activists

restricted

his

argument

by

Heron

scene.

combination the

idealism

on the

the

painting

qualities

of

the

1930s

abstraction

hand,

other

promote

of

a new

successfully

that

British-movement.

His

and technology,

were

embraced

by young

artists.

British

art

was thus

transformed

in

art,

which

came from

the

inspired influence, world

or the

rather realms

than of

retreating artistic

what

consumerism,

to

eager

had

accepted

the

world

into

landscape,

critics,

essentially

a

had qualified

and

was

Fry

Read.

1960s,

Alloway,

Expressionism

inspired popular

"real'

idealism.

as an

only

British

by Herbert

ideas,

as well

as American

critics

Abstract

Expressionism

Abstract

on t he contemporary

Roger

exploited

generating

not

two major

promoted

in

own.

current

art

artists.

Abstraction,

They were

as their

a very

young

treated

Post-Painterly

it

showed

helped

they

society.

embrace

1950s,

while

was more of

them experienced

as

a new

and its

A few of

stereotype.

style

of

of

Expressionism

a stylistic

Expressionism

by culture,

to

to

Abstract science

a urbanism-

and was receptive a psychological

to

its

inner

Table of Content

introduction

1

..........................................................

Chapter 1: The origins of abstraction the influence of post-war

in Britain before USA..................................

Chapter 2 Expressionism Abstract and its critical discourse in the 1950s .........................................

46

Chapter 3 The presence of Abstract Expressionism in Britain ..................................................... Chapter 4 The British

response

- the Middle

Chapter 5 The British

response

- the younger generation

Chapter 6 The critical List

of illustrations

Bibliography

...............................................

........................................................

79

Generation ..................

response .........................................

24

.................

107 151 187 212 216

Introduction

The artistic in

late

the

fifties

and

politics

and government

perhaps

excessively

the

American

the

and so is

understanding

as a phenomenon

than

art,

insight

Europe

there

Cold

it is

dispute the

War.

Abstract

the

influence

of

enphasised by

Expressionism

Although

studies

Abstract

of

since

is

Expressionism

Expressionism,

is

that

as the

artists'

original

reassess

this

there

be taken

do

as such

a danger

seems that to

as recognised

rethinking

use made of

the

our

subsequent

the

in to

critics'

this

of

in

been

on Abstract

policies

governments

Expressionism, has

sixties,

process

contribute

enormously more

early

During

seventies.

early

of Abstract

achievement

the

intention. In

American

post-war

highly Abstract

the

Expressionism,

movement

and

Americans.

While

foundation

of

were echoes

in America,

Expressionism

questions

sinply

This revealed

the fact

that

artistic

Expressionism,

the

bulk whether

set

post-war

Britain

to

Modern

later the

United

' By questioning

American American

critics

of

the

of European

criticism

of Abstract

it

a better

was qualitatively

States

had claimed

art.

convinced

for

Abstract

10,

Summer 1989,

for

of the

relation

between

in

and it

was entitled

'Special

of a phrase

used mainly

Painters,

a retrospective

and the

art.

of Abstract

decades.

was devoted

European

criticisms

four

example,

too

the Europeans were never thoroughly

nearly

of

by all

its

itself

valuing

all

of

of

of various

critics

even after

process

important

almost

achievements*American

The editorial

Relationship?

target

emergence

of contemporary

internationally

Expressionism

of-the

for

was criticised

achievements

primary

there

the

critically

as the first

the

was the

achievements,

to

analyse

America

ignoring

and for

was a trend

and to

art

In general,

recognition.

art

also

No.

the qualification

art

which was first

in politics, the

War,

editorial 1 art.

American in line

the

taken

by the

editor

stance

towards

To explore

further

the phrase

a proper

context

for

British

reception

phrase has real

of

for

already

in the hands of the Nazis,

the

thereafter

a co-operative

coming world

powers

home and abroad, to maintain financial

support

of the United

its

overseas

to be suspicious

of its

consolidating

EEC, did Britain

the start

seeking

the rest

of Europe

succeeded

and the in-

were fixed

on the policy

the United

States

The

was essential

for

of

at home and to

governments

special

at

States.

progranues

and, this

and

interests

and leaning

danger

strong

of British

enemies and friends.

and realised

and

to win the war. America

The British

European neighbours

was awesome to both office

abroad.

option,

Britain

with

with

war reconstruction

interests

them a more comfortable

came into

governments

and political

maintain

and

government

In consideration

relationship

the post

Political

between the by-going

possible

to realise

America

The Churchill

British

The

had the potential America -

the closest

Britain

for

subsequent

Expressionism.

had been

alone,

to

to reconstruct

between

was not going

relationship

started.

may help

application.

relationship

was

art.

which attenpts

could turn

of the war.

course

American

to Abstract

Britain

to which it

was the only direction alter

that

realised

of post-war

underpins

of Modern Painters

government

as soon as it

the Second World

relationship'

original

the

The Churchill

allies

to

thesis,

in its

only

the tone

set

States.

United

this

'special

and response

substance

reality

economic the

challenge

the European critical

with

establish the

to

attempted The position

during

by Churchill

applied

inclined

to America

seemed

relationship

with

Only when Edward Heath being

to work together

excluded with

other

from

a

European

countries. For America, an intimate

who had secured a leading

relationship

Europe and Western

with

interests

Britain

role

could best

in Far East

in the post-war serve their

and Middle

world,

interests

in

East where British

2

influence

been a reliable,

could

also

British

empire

available.

the

to

increase

its

in

the to

America

Middle

It

countries.

in

East the

willingly

On the

other

politically

out

of

facilitated free

regime,

dangerously

and

encouraged

Britain

restrained

while

the

Wilson

of

oil-producing

mutual

benefit

that

Britain

the

special had

in

the

tended

American

France.

The scale

and level

to

equate

of

cabinets

leverage

of

the for

was certainly

Fourth

Republic

a stable

French

by the

and de Gaulle,

afforded

intervening

for

France

hoped

fascism.

with

in

represented

view,

more

contrast

system

extremes

retained

was a sharp

affairs

the

American

There

internal

of

Britain

countries.

2 America

least

the

suffered

The political

and the

relationship.

in

either

asked

East

in

the

government

Middle

Communists,

whose political

The multiplicity

of parties

American

ambassadors

astute

in

directly

between

comoradeship

continued

special

Britain

and America

may have helped

relationship

the British

a healthier

psyche compared with

and German,

when they

started

into

culture

and art

seeking

a matching

military

Asia

French

political

3 This

their

and even

and that

of

unprecedented

was allowed

Britain

Britain.

instability

the

crises.

in

external

they

programae

to

partner

the

European

influence.

strong

stable

remnants

East

of

Britain

major

intervention in

had

were still

and economically.

situation

question

more, Britain

as there

eventually

basis

hand,

independence,

of American

South

maintained

among the

the

the

resources

interventions

between

America

and,

was on the

States

Further

spread of commmism.

the favour

return

influence

share

from vanished.

the worldwide

Britain of

United

far

and, perhaps more appreciably,

willing

in conbating

work with

itself

but

was shrinking

that

it

Europe

to which

deal

that the

with

was resulted

status

in the arts

had found

recently.

during

to

war

of the French,

and

for

constitute

Italian

flooding

of American

by America's

effort

as the one in politic, At the

the

same time

the

in

economy and intensifying

3

Cold War gave America the

of American

rise

were

the extra art

calculated

well

the

fifties.

American

culture

in

immediately came back

Europe:

aggressively

the

steadily.

Sometimes

interests

and vice

versa.

radicalism

in order

to placate

and often

mindless

forms

recapturing

its

American

product

thing

pre-war

of

the

consumer society,

it

Abstract cultural

the

or

usage

as a Cold

War weapon.

great

flexibility

and

block

from

those

So that,

pre-war, in

criticism

increased

art

commercial

example,

purged

itself

and turned it

whilst

of

to apolitical

was interested

And Coca-Cola,

there.

'way of

up

with

in

a popular

was "the most American

importance

the

"essence

as manifestation

of the

fitting

of the

contained

4A

life.,

symbol

completed

so far

the

range

Abstract

Expressionism

is

art.

-

individualism,

and freedom. painting

proved

to

manoeuvre.

It

realistic

paintings severe

the

of

artists

another

commitment, ambiguity

leaves

that

not

a symbol

significant

art

or

a powerful,

most

a kind

under

of American

The characteristic

is

It

operated whether

is

It

of

ideology

sphere

social

whose governments

principles.

for

was set

combined

a symbolic

creativity

Expressionist

different

contemporary

species

Abstract

of

of American

of Coca-Cola

on offer.

life

energy,

and severe

bottle

and distinctive

seriousness,

Paris

protest

markets

Expressionism

American

of

established

launched

also

was a symbol of anticommunism as well.

production

extraordinary

already

anti-Americanism,

American

Europe

film,

by mass advertising,

marketed

in

art

in

activities

export

there

School

of entertainment

and carried

superiority

American

So that

American

Hollywood,

in America, I and every

of capitalism'

side

cultural

output.

enterprises

American

exhibitions

and celebrating

American

and provoked

in particular;

France

cultural

promoting

various

the war;

after

of its

as part activities

throughout

in promoting

motivation

is

also

produced

in

and rigid

in

its the

critics remarkably the

conuunist

orthodox

Leninist

had anything

to

do with

4

American

any post-war

by the

exploited

Before States,

some

exporting

it

politics,

USA governments

critics

The problem

for

the

does

not

mean only

portion

of

the

step,

American

of

home

painting

for

that

their

work

was

as

any European

modern

master.

But

the

the

Europeans

of

the

from the European

would

effectively

' American

example Michel

actively

sought American patrons.

the

and dealers

critics

Tapi6 in France and Patrick Abstract

perhaps

the most prestigious

cultural

centre,

by America.

1950s was not a good time

non-figurative

art

publications art

The Parisian

art

and especially

to younger

that

concerned

appeared

had a column

in

only

galleries

casually

Art,

but

Combat and Georges

also

was the showcase most

abstract

in Art

the single

strangely,

for

were virtually

contemporary

Heron in

Expressionist

that,

in Paris.

the

approached public

fine

The early

of the

convince

of Contemporary

Paris,

5

approval

at the Institute art

a

in Europe and went to influential

In London the first

in

their

be more difficult.

for,

institution

Estienne

convince

one,

British

contemporary

to

into

were exhibited

few

first

convince

in

(and

also

were combined

paintings

United

but

was

fact

pioneered

artists

to

and to institutions.

the

artists,

the

in major capitals

galleries

avant-garde

prove

of home public.

in

dealers

would

England,

artists

that:

American

was to

That

the two steps

argued

public

of

course,

qualities.

European critics,

Guilbaut

art

in

and were

recognised

and

supporters)

as that

sophisticated

sought after

was fully

Serge

museum

and private

effortlessly.

Europe.

and

'portion

agents

American

critics

new American

its

or

leading

Guilbaut

In fact

could

Expressionism

here

other

works

Abstract

to

be,

their

closed

Articles

dlaujourd'hui.

Boudaille

to

There were

artists. art.

abstract

on Charles

was allowed

to

5

write

small

in Les Letters

articles

painters

had not

profile.

It was at this

in Paris.

During the earliest

provided

by Samuel Kootz at Galerie

certain

aspect, typically

poetic

started

to be known

Expressionist

painting

exhibition

Maeght in 1946, Estienne

praised

Abstract

at Fachetti Is in Paris

in the early

in the early

1950s and quickly

Switzerland.

The arrival

of early

Abstract

Expressionist

1950s. SamFrancis

made a name for

of the important

American modern art exhibition

Parisian

as it

did in the Tate Gallery

in promoting Abstract The presentation a context

different

nation

time than its

Expressionism,

to that

winning

fifties

British

the V&A

right

including

and

In the early from the

international

politics.

For

wing rhetoric

of 'freedom'

in his lecture

at

found echoes in Britain.

By contrast,

in

scandals and inter-party

conflicts

were

where political

prominent phenomena, artists 'correctness'

minimum prejudice.

artists

for

Museumin 1953 hardly

France and Italy

as a

psyche at the

had no serious concerns about the threat

nor any appetite

Barr's

The British

Europe.

This allowed the British

to embrace American art with

example, Alfred

Expressionism in the UK was in

the War, had a somewhat healthier

critics

communist block,

had done more

But the British

of continental

European counterparts.

artists

and literature,

as well as American popular culture.

of Abstract

and reception

Franý,aise-ý'

in the domain of art to Paris.

priority

in

sensation

in London, although it

was vehemently attacked by Beaux-Arts and Les Letters

America gave strategic

in Paris

in France and

himself

Moderne in 1956 caused a tremendous

To dominate internationally

to Paris,

arrived

at the Mus6e d'Art art world,

a

American, in the works of Hans Hofmann.7

to Europe. Michel Tapi6 also brought Jackson Pollock

painting

a low

Expressionism

time Abstract

Peggy Guggenheim took her collection

heroic

Informale

and kept

attention

much critical

attracted

6 The Art

Frangaises.

too played politics.

must have effected

their

8 Awareness of political

view of all

American phenomena

new painting.

6

feature

Another

American

the

British

and

informed

audience

was much larger Heron

discussions

Britain

than

that

to

American

any

relieve

time

to

such

auspicious

time,

to

gateway

for

There

Not

did

or

the

seemingly

of

But

the

do with

movements

France;

British

the

others

such

readily

participate

could

Finally

British

and American

the

rhetoric

governments

certainly

there

any.

in

France

and Italy

as one could

so in

Britain.

It

to

the

the

American

Institute

Art,

Embassy

introducing

and

following

additional

politics

Abstract British

British

with

the

Americans,

in

Britain

in

the

the

exhibitions but

and culture

also

to

artists

policies

of

the

time

has been

eriphasised

Abstract

Expressionism

also

the

past

abstract

art

art

of

the

of

period

of

modernist

Expressionism

in

to

trend.

and government

heritage

be the

London

art

encouragement

of

Art

actually

launching

art

particular

perception

artistic

in

new American

this

under

Council

held

Americans

the

Arts

cooperation

help about

that

American

exhibitions

the

from

observe

9

American

they

Anti-

Contemporary

of

and the

of their

were

appropriate

was quite

and culture.

art

in 'special

a

of

if

that

as Patrick

critics,

Britain,

perhaps

in particular.

Britain Kandinsky

which

America,

of

promotion

excessively. had to

authors

recognition

The interaction with

American

as agencies

information

official

following

of

of

important

only

and spreading gave

writings

were many examples

those

fifties.

the

Contemporary

of

times

at

including

for

American

The Institute

public.

an

proposed

Europe

functioned

permitting

circumstances

Committee

Managing

thus

suspicions

was never

the

tongue

critics.

furious

sentiment,

context:

same

and

the

this

the

Alloway

between

in

Britain

share

in

American

with

relationship' helped

in

Lawrence

and

to

was particular

did

not

or Mondrian

produce during

despite

those

British

painters

However,

the

theories

of

masters the

Roger

of

exciting

abstract early

who explored Fry

and Clive

status

art

these

domains

for

a while.

Bell,

which

were

largely

7

from the paintings

derived

exclusively,

significant.

cultivated

a familiarity

with

the kind

of painterly

C6zanne and Matisse.

British

painters

in

critics

major

all

looked

and thirties

twenties

and his

most prominent forties,

had to

appreciate

Fry's

the fifties

in the fifties.

The second phase of development

in

stage

by

Paris. the

It

from

in

abstract

of abstract

including was firmly

period

the

practice

of

abstract

art

by these

made the

"foundation'

for

what

quarter

of

the

most

important

respective

century.

Their

nature. Hepworth's

in

to

synthesise

schemes

case)

after

painters

of

Nicholson,

Hepworth

next

The short as a movement "context.

Ill

10 Ben Nicholson

artists

schemes

art

the

abstract to

continued they

moved to

generation

rose,

be

practising

forms

from

and

during

this

and

their

come in

the

next

were

the

developed their (in

where

the

Naum. Gabo

Hepworth

they

a later

at

artists,

was to

perfected

started Creation

established

and

Cornwall under

of the painter

Abstraction

and Barbara

movement

legacy

Fry's

in Britain

Mondrian,

Abstract

Read,

forms.

he

while

and strengthened

among others.

supporter

theory

art

Moholy-Nagy and

in the thirties

art

movement

movement

Europe

Read, the

but eloquently,

alone,

international

was a sustained

refugees

techniques

Fry's

the pen and brushes

through

criticism

centred

and

of

formalist

the

reverence,

analysis

in

Heron who was almost

of

with

formalist

Patrick

some way as a part

the

on Fry's

and critic

in

up during

For example Herbert

of the

subtlety

growing

paintings

taste.

pictorial

can be

that

quality

acknowledge

embarked an assault

into

extended well

to

and supporter

critic

and the

have

simply

forms

analysing

at C6zannels

of painting

had successfully

discourse

Their

proved

found

forms

by C6zanne and addressed

their in

sensation

in

particular

a few major

auspicious

abstract

support

from

and Gabo.

lived because,

Objective

Abstraction

as one of

Such an irrational,

its

in

the

participants

spontaneous

mode of

failed

mid-thirties asserted, working

it

had

no

may be ahead

8

existence

in

after

years

of

its

time.

of

the

desire

for

abstract

art.

Their

unrecognised

experiments,

when the

fifties' kind

Its

abbreviated a new taste

faculty.

of

Rodrigo

Hitchens,

another

sensuous,

while

thirties.

He was later Victor

in that

whose works

with

engaged

experimenting dialectic

both by his influence

on Terry

when the

latter

teaching

cultivated

drawing

and painting

followers after

include

still

Frost,

Frost's

appetite

(elsewhere,

automatism

that

it

the Neo-Romanticism a viable

state

Artists

in 1954.12

as recorded

At approximately

this

that

discussions

the

predominantly

formal.

of

its

Abstract

The majority

before.

early

and

imagery,

Pasmore

was

as the

bridged

in the

pre-

fifties

in the fifties,

1948 and 1950.

His

imaginative

and techniques

came

in Britain).

The

place

and Gabo, in Cornwall

they in

emerged

the dominance of

to challenge

Alloway

in London, as mentioned

the

since

free,

by Lawrence

to be felt

and

painter

a few years

time Abstract

lyrical

Pasmore had a decisive

Within

and realism.

his

time,

seems such taste

trend

Ivon

as well

lyrical,

of Pasmore in London and Nicholson

the war as the most promising

mid-fifties.

abstraction

him between

found

of

Abstraction

war.

a short

on others.

for

never

this

spontaneity

a major non-figurative under

favour

Abstraction,

the

Pasmore, for

was studying

in

recognisable

after

emphasising

influence

own works and his

the

fifties.

the

Objective

of

and the much freer

abstraction

from Surrealist

in

between forms.

relation

war geometric

influence

seriously

a method

with

many ways

landscape of brushwork

did

abstraction

the

geometric

in

Objective in

from

a veteran

exhibition

the

of

combination

a forceful again

changed

again

evolved

simple

Pasmore,

one

creativity

participant,

extremely

had

a measure

the

anticipated

sentiment

his

revitalised

participants,

was only

developing

of

attempts

Moynihan,

thirties

the

quickly

his

Expressionist

Nine

reached Abstract

painting

began

What needs to be errphasised

Expressionism of American

artists

in

Britain

later

is

were

identified

9

with

schools,

modernist their

from

particularly

Cubist

predecessor

the

nearest

had a presence

were pro-Abstract

Expressionism

movement

thirties

at

Rightly

they

did

international relationship elements from

general

are

other

Expressionists mature Abstract

only;

are

usually

because

in

discarded

they

had its

origins

Alan

is

that

artists

in

Davie

the the

left

after

it

gained

We know the

American

Hess,

Expressionism

in

the

Surrealism

in

of

their

a Surrealist

poet,

Rosenberg,

himself

Surrealism

and

'American

Action

critics.

Clement

Abstract

Expressionism,

and

conveniently

did

Abstract

Expressionism

Painters'

which

Greenberg,

kept

did it

out

the not

all

have

from

his

any

the

status

theorist

Harold

for

how the

published

writings.

address

in

his

system

connections

two

between

influential

article

as a source

by British

formalist interest of

as an

and these

not

serious

was

days

early

important

formative

the

was responsible

was much used

mature

Surrealism

writing

by Thomas B.

as the

of

was misunderstood with

most

areas

than

connection

joined

with

early

close

Rosenberg,

deal

saw more

painting

in

not

previously,

their

origins

development

Apart

were

from

Expressionist

a

beginning

Expressionism

their

such important

possible

independent

did

the

by Abstract

exceptionally

critical

Abstract

with

works

Abstract

America.

it.

fact,

discussed

of

its

follow

in America.

This

nature

of the

neglected

works.

Abstract

perceived

in

and,

circumstances them

to

art

Expressionism

American

British

intend

hand,

although

later

abstract

other

One of

that

who

On the

British

fact

the

of

and critics

thirties

much more remote

Furthermore,

works.

artists

the

to

the

of

art

of

that

rarely

abstract

not

Abstract

and political

Expressionist

although

with

did

European

various

geometric

British

certainly

Expressionism

reasons.

misunderstanding works

exist.

available

works

they

associate

social

or

purist

had associations

movement

not

in Abstract

there

not

abstract does

the

but

some stages

the

and Surrealist,

in America.

which

from

lessons

had taken

Expressionism

Abstract

stylistic

critic in

of

Surrealism evaluation.

10

Thus he rarely

mentioned

and Surrealism

in

the

very

critics

the

Surrealist

Sutton's

report

of

American

art

had

not

attracted

Abstract

Expressionism

European

art

Abstract

had analysed as

he was

American

painting,

but,

it

in

terms

of

the

as well rather

trend

psychological

art

were

his

Heron

circle.

with

Surrealism.

In

fifties

Heron

wrote

and Nation

and later

formalist,

as he was influenced

himself

is

in

in

to

a more

advantageous

Expressionism,

because

in

question.

of

1958 and 1974,

painting.

Heron's

It

the

had paid

art

criticism

mainly

The overtone

of

formalist

position

Heron

for

areas

were

superior

a formalist of

line

Greenberg's

of

of to

is and he

Fry,

of

as a stylistic Heron

and pictorial

fellow

formulated,

and

criticism

Generation

Middle

explore

was eventually

by Heron

New Statescnm

colour

to

theory

that

other

avant

The weakness

he and his

as Europeans

overlaps

and

and

amount

Heron's

that

they

on Freud

much attention

Cubism. its

new

by Alloway

theory

was in

the

he explained

a considerable

Analytical

to

to

as championed

neither

painting

Surrealism

to

approach

but

the

Read also

contemporary

after

by following

sometime

based

Expressionism

14 He believed

explore.

analysis

Abstract

left

were

Europe,

contributed

by the

Expressionist

These

composition.

in

treated

or breakthrough

Abstract

painters

New York.

Heron

a painter.

development found

Arts

attitude

so far

from

Herbert

his

formalist

In

attention

regard

renewed

continuum'

Expressionism

1949.13

with

to

culture

had

in

relation

the

connection the

in

either

and Alloway

on Abstract

writing its

art/popular

paintings

similar

garde

example,

was neglected.

as the

pure

for

stake,

much

in

contributions,

"fine

article

written

Horizon

certain

The inportant practice,

in

not

time

Jung.

or the

yet

Expressionism

was at

connection

Expressionist

at

Abstract

about

and Sutton's

world

Expressionism

Abstract

writing. literature

by British Denys

between

connection

early

In

in

his

the

painters

were

beyond

Abstract

to

Americans

the

during

the

course

development

in

modern

but

it

is

not

as rigid

11

and

it

art

practitioner,

generated

to

problems

faced

by him

jeopardised

his

explanation

lacks

occasionally

regard

sometimes

Lawrence

Alloway

is

criticism

of

Abstract

under

the

influence

of

Rosenberg

the

United

States,

the

first

balanced

account

subjected

to

art,

his

subject.

primary

concern

he saw them

although

Heron's.

the

of

He would

few

of

his

total

Like

or

in

order

to

groups.

At

other

times

he may deliberately

young

British

to

provide

abstract

immediate

predecessors

surpass

their

Abstract

Expressionism,

along in

technology,

were

used

references

to

distinguish

abstract/landscape It

point

of

American

painting

against

the

superiority

and in

at

other

pictorial

art

The majority introduced original

it

to

American

of

- the

Middle

Generation

popular

culture,

their critics

between

writing

Alloway they

from

Abstract

who supported

home audience

by

and their

task

adopting was,

at

as

from

upheld

a

some aspects

of

the

the at

1940's

European

the

time.

Expressionism

terminology times,

1962

and

much of

Paris

and

dual-read

the

emphasis

would

came exactly

of

up and

and

and Heron

praised

conservatism

an attempt

artists.

1958

Generation

they

between

science

Middle both

of

artist

catch

by

that

authors

in

from

times

or

made connections

painting

relative

Abstract

artists

Hard-Edge

view.

of

could

Sometimes

nationalist

that

artists

that

British

from

young

the

was

contemporary

Expressionism,

was important

strong

School

his

much of

a more

offer criticism

British

American

with

paintings

constructivism.

Paris

the

on which

to

elements

have

mainly

he visited

After

perspective

and Abstract

a spring-board

1958.

about

particular

champion

artists

Expressionism

certain

Expressionism

who

Abstract

to

Alloway's

Heron,

exclude

This

critics

he was able

a different

with

artists.

output

Abstract

issues

with

of

English

and Hess before

from

reveal

the

1958,

as an

Expressionism.

of

in

Heron,

Expressionism

generation

approached

time

that

obvious

of Abstract

one

have

his

and

proportion

He seems to

Expressionism.

It

was

a larger

contributed

consistency.

reduced

from

the

to

the

12

dissemination the

Towards

of the theories

and ideas

developed

in the United

fifties

Clement

Greenberg

became increasingly

end of the

prominent

after

was that

the discussion

the

winning

of Abstract

became more and more formalist influential

figure

emphasis

on issues

Greenberg's

theory

of formal

of Alloway

and his

fellow

than

British

development

directly

involved

internationally supported

justify

with

British

the

sculptor British

artist.

In

of Greenberg's

theory.

Expressionism was in

was still

fact

see

subsequent

Greenberg his

became

support

and

became

an

who later return,

Caro's

deplored

by the majority

of British

a group

the

by lending

art

Caro,

it

critics

abstract

can

in the writings

alive

such theories.

Anthony

Abstract

As one

In fact,

Roger Coleman.

a further

Britain

evolution.

was largely

reduction

States

became a much more

in

led

and this

The result

in the United

Greenberg

formal

seemed to

the claims

of British

Rosenberg

acclaimed

Whilst

dominated.

critic

Rosenberg.

with

Expressionism

concerning

to

encouragement

battle

critical

States.

success

artists

who first

approved

of it.

The formal

properties

of Abstract

Expressionist

painting

prompted

their

praise

sometimes,

criticism.

The Middle

Generation

abstract

artists

they

were in their

mid-career

easily

Abstract

and

were

and,

met the Americans

working

in

while

that

a mode

could

Expressionism.

Their

favourable

response

an American

assumption

of the

recognition

of Abstract

The formal

characteristics

of

painting,

especially

the gestural

Abstract

size,

obvious

evidence

of

the

energy

Abstract

- were appealing.

recognise

the new American painting

practice

the techniques

from

the

early

Pollocks.

paintings

after

he saw the latter's

for

Expressionism

in

(as early

Expressionist

Expressionist and the

Alan Davie was the

materials

was vital

to the Americans

Europe.

sheer

adopt

painting

sense

first

British

as 1948-49)

of

its -

paint

as

artist

to

and to put into

of mobilising

a canvas surface

which he learned

Bryan

was influenced

by Mark Tobey's

at the

ICA in 1955. Heron

Wynter

exhibition

13

had

to

started

independent

pictorial

an appreciative in

Gallery

plane

Braque-like

on the

for

an American

in

Heron's

Subsequently

and strokes. from

Art

Modern

the

in

audience,

inserting

by

composition

of patches

report 1956

plane

pictorial

his

animate

painting

was syrrptomatic

Abstract

Expressionism

at Davie,

he wrote

States,

United

Arts

Tate Such

New York.

influence

the

of

a

a of

Tdbey and Sam Francis. The encounters caused

dramatic

although

they

they

took

did

style,

to

simply

imitate

the

Americans.

this

newly

obtained

of

mainly

respective

mature

Middle

Generation

painters,

Frost

development

in

Nevertheless, bolder, them

not

advantage

Terry

and

in

changes,

their

reached other

with

the

United

States

they

showed,

at

and larger

a subtle to

response

including

the

became the

leading

abstract

painters

of the gestural

led

to

a new kind

in the

fifties.

rather

than mere fine

contact

with

Independent

Its

the

Abstract

themselves

discussion

effective

or

later

In

the

meantime,

of

with

stayed

with

members

art, of

their

present

the

agenda. in

the

trend

of

the

American

Generation

artists'

including

those

the

sixties,

their on

who

immediate

were

As many of those

the Independent

Group at the ICA, they

The Independent

with

art

culture

in the

anywhere.

the

Group

Independent eyes to

a very

Group

and raised

had no equivalent

Group opened-their

of

Expressionists.

reasoning.

concern

awareness

Lanyon

basis.

mid-fifties,

in

a few

Peter

of

of

Middle

forum about contenporary broad

Scott,

William

the

in

were

sooner

general,

painters

affiliated

and

The influence

younger

artists

freedom

an awareness

Many

followers

fact,

was on an individual

Americans

and Wynter, of

paintings. In

one.

times,

Heron

same degree

but

time

particular

As a matter

styles.

had the

among others,

brighter was

personal

that

was an

many issues

post-war

new era

The young artists'

was beneficial.

wide

young

variety

The

of visual

sources.

14

American

contemporary

art

be accessed

could

end of the

decade.

The glossy

American

circulation

in

Britain

and were

readily

American

exhibitions

and even travelling

before.

Young British

artists

the

in the United

States.

Rothko

and Still

United

States

irresistible plain

the

paintings

in the

William

artists

found

couple

in

of years the

have

to

Abstract

many of those Expressionist

another.

to the Middle

Generation

made the move prior

In a few years they,

together

status

was verified

by the

well-known

post-war

avant-garde

(the

ICA 1959)

and the

Situation

exhibitions

1960,

Marlborough

New London

fellow

hand,

radical

marginalised

of

art

in

in the early

Britain

that

those

of the

as avant

who still

Galleries remained

who had gained

in Royal College

students

Between 1955-56

the place

constructivists

Green,

such as William

painters

had taken

and the

other

but

to anyone

by Robyn Denny, Ralph Rumney, Richard

painters

On the

visual

urbanising

fifties

of the

their

the

with

abstract

1962).

an

presented

more to Pop art,

Galleries

in the

Kelly

devoted

Place

of Newman,

paintings

one after

juniors,

his

and John Hoyland among others.

like

than

developments

a continuously

gestural

who by age belongs

He was soon followed

else.

further

matched

to Hard-Edge painting,

and influenced

who worked with

were more

was much easier

of Ellsworth

seemed

perfectly

last

Turnbull,

field

their

movement. Even more significantly,

who once followed

now turned

painting

1960

and

language

British

So that artists

young

and the Hard-Edge

visual

environment London.

colour

new international

simple,

for

watched carefully

1958

There

available.

The celebrated

between

increased

magazines

to America

towards

more widely

of Art

with

Smith artists

Middle

Generation

gardists.

Their

1961,

new

activities (The RBA Arts

Council

gestural

or action

most publicity

among his

in 1956 and 1957, became

sixties.

and 1960 there accompanied

were many changes in the practice with

the

growing-up

of the

young

15

generation. American

art

perhaps

that,

unlike

all

These changes should

perhaps

on an international

scale.

in the mainstream

no intention

basically It

world.

for

Britain

to tie

themselves

with

interesting

Paris

to

New York

is

or its

art

in Britain

than France.

other

from Paris

The

to New

seen in Britain

best

perhaps

more importantly,

and,

had

development

prominence

transition

party

inspiration.

for to

produced

during

art

artists

and the

Picasso

were

large

highly

but

their

predecessors,

British

painters

Modern

Art

for

is

London

American

critics'

already

heard.

series

of

support

from

came to

London

When the

the

was

eagerly

looked

war

modern

Giacometti

showcases

were

much less

grand

intruded

The Americans

to

view

American

contemporary

sometimes

arrogant,

excessive

such

exhibition

claims

some Americans

lobby

Abstract

Expressionist

exhibition,

Heron

Heron

for

in

his

the

review

British

worked

and

School, introduced

than

Tate

the

support.

was over

by

also

critical

16 AS soon

in

war

those

of

admiration

of

Before

the

1956,

not

in

paintings

we know that

paintings

had decided

the

least

At

end.

were

briskly.

helped

certainly

exhibitions, receiving

at

artists

Paris

commanded the

still

eyes

as Matisse

the

of

their

at

such

and others

were

some time

masters

States

American

to

world.

The new members

While

the

art

United

chance

British

Parisian

successful.

who for

the

decades

For

of

their

turned

artists

exhibitions

and critics.

from

many had the

the

de Sta6l,

Dubuffet, British,

see how British

to

attracted

French

the

of cultural

art

artists, them,

preceding

a major

is

change

garde

Parisian

of

and New York. 115

is

including

for

avant

movement in a country

of the

It

habitually

to

artists

was a third

"Between Paris

from

British

an art

The occurrence

The most important

modern

shows a transition

situation York.

with

the upsurge

with

new generation

in modern history

was rare

to be associated

the

sixties,

be related

while

some

acclaim

were of

hard

secure

Clement

to

Greenberg

as he had access

1956

American

that

from

the

success

modern

to art

now on he and his

16

would

colleagues

17 The situation Paris.

but regarded

same way as the

the

exactly

in Paris.

that

had been about seems that

It

French art.

among others,

large

American

like

in New York.

in

attitude

to

younger generation

artists'

enthusiasm direct

by their

experience

of

American

a large

proportion

interested

in

cities; thought

oriental

of their

as a result a certain

study

influence

gained

Gottlieb

and Motherwell. causing

of Place

The younger generation or presenting

and Situation,

painting

The most benefit

was by

as exhibited

not only mastered

artists

as shown on the

controversies,

but also

became

of the Pacific

that

art.

of oriental

art

about the

them

Expressionist

of Abstract

at

or indirect

of

(especially

and art

art

and the

art

from the American brand of professionalism

perhaps

occasions

and Yves

changes

largely

of

avant

profound

For exanple,

tactic

Parisian

and American

London was inspired

the

than

Expressionism

also

bears

rather

Geogie Mathieu

in

which

garde

Abstract

caused

region),

in avant

with

experiences

life

urban

long periods

art

of developmnts

came as a confirmation

Their

profession.

for

of some influential

fifties,

regarded

predecessors

of the conversation

the presence

in

advantage,

or even study

contemporary

in London in the late

garde artists Klien

to visit

In London the hot topics

circles

artist

eyes on New York

their

of their

generations

They were anxious

in New York.

kept

only

of New York as a distinct

experience

personal

in the minds of the young

than Paris

They not

artists.

garde

avant

have watched

would

1956 and 1960 so that

between

changed so rapidly

New York become much more important British

as they

New York as eagerly

watch

strived

to retain

the overall

of the promotion

of their

art.

The relationship

between

post-war

British

abstract

painting

Abstract

Expressionism,

and its

successor

in the

sixties,

are essential

topics

of any discussion

control

been dealt

with

about British

in a casual

art

in the period,

manner in most cases.

It

although

was not until

and

it

has the

17

that

early

sixties

"the

American

invasion

'British

article

American

a few year

London

influence

of Abstract

New York,

also

published

the

few articles

in

London American

did

not

Heron

mean anything

of

term

produced

the

alleged

American

the

Middle

most

Heron's

vow of

because

he

American

extremely

in

exhibitions

Lynton's

his and -

personal

special

reference

to

the

who later

migrated

to

American

presence

in

the

in America,

for

presumably

an

imperialism

in

the

way that

In

fact

Heron

the

one

who had

defence

of

his

defence

of

(the

out

From

'The

1974 Heron connection

imperialism trouble,

unpopular.

both Heron

in

critical

or

writing.

1958 came to

an end

London'

in

1966

to

the

"British

Influence

on New York'

in

defended

himself

of

Expressionism

waves

the

adopted

sixties and

some degree

was to criticism

of

the

from

Europe

of

accusation

of

St Ives

and other

Heron's

late

domestically

inevitably

bothered

certain

critics. the

never

mainly

of

Abstract

with

the

chauvinism

of

and British

coincidence

the

protest

vigorously

artists,

his

since

writing

Ascendancy

series

with

some American

British

he

against

generation

1966 when he resumed

critics.

was

generation

younger

to

was in

American

cultural

an obligation

cultural

of

Bowness,

title

felt

American

on

the

critical

was in

materials

in

of

Americans

the

invasion'

time.

in

started

in

America

'American

word

Heron's

The Qiardian

by

the

artists

keeping

whose

Britain.

of Art

of

one

19 Alan

in

Bussell,

for

substantial

and well-known

abused

John

American

controversies

painters

with

he wrote

influences.

do so)

to

scene

observation

that

at

Generation

needed

art

his

used

the

to

complement

Lynton's

1963,

and broadcast

record

Expressionism.

Bowness

used

of

of

20

audience. While

influence'

Expressionism)

perfect

process

18 Norbert

of published

was a personal

-a

the

of

experience

Abstract

the

response.,

British

a review

later

and Europe

Britain

the

document

to

started

and American

Painting

(mainly

art

critics and

was basically

earliest,

essay

British

-

at

a time

internationally,

some political

when

and was terms

in his

18

but

vocabulary

he made his

argument

by

assertion

in Heron's

articles

is

famous New York painters,

rather

than

the

Cornwall,

were

the

extraodinary

given

that

nonetheless

The most extraordinary

analysis. as the

title

British

the

suggested, in

painters

artist's

a remote

followers

who had been influenced.

Abstract

Expressionism

long been perceived

that

that

Heron British

from American critics

to them.

in

argument

from the Americans.

By contrast

the

differences

position

held

by the

painting

was its

but as visual

Alloway

and his

Middle

Generation

many British his

circles

in his

essay

effort

to differentiate

the

analysis

former

inclined

symmetry;

landscape

with

to

indicates

otherwise

characteristics

of British

landscape not -

as the object

in opposition

was perceived

the

younger

generation

in the

fifties.

It

the artist's

visual

asymmetry

in composition

the former

normally

had tonal

colours

while while

held

by

was bound by

also

went to

For example,

properties.

to

from the

21 Much of the

from the Americans

formal

by

by Brandon Taylor

of Heron himself.

artists

applied

strongly

expression

illustrated

was perhaps best

respective

A view

to the

as an urban

to distinguish late

defensive

the

was also

British

their

tended

versa,

on Heron and the writings

of

in

inspiration, that

between

have been established

vice

was that

environment.

the

from

differentiate

to

of comparison

critics

also

British

fundamentally

same thought,

artists

critics

visual

One of

and spiritual

the

art

that

painting

Actually

experience.

fact

British.

Expressionist

Abstract

American

-a

association

Some patterns

in the period

paintings

overlook

their

so

seemed

articles

successive

made references

and British

of painting

while

continuously

attempted

that,

of post-war

art

in those

argument

differs

discussions.

these

and authentic

whose aesthetics

and others

artists

American

Heron's

formal

had and have for

Abstraction

Fuller,

such as Peter of Heron's,

still

as the most adventurous

never to have any response critics

is

This

and Post Painterly

is understandable

It

era.

in

colony

lavish

the

latter

prefered

the latter

did not;

the

19

former

the

doing

avoided used

another

so,

etc.

set

of

coimnunication,

younger

avant

Middle

Generation

garde

from

their

were

all

it

unanswered, functioned

as such

seems,

and

anbiguity,

illusion

and

the

new abstract

paintings

by

American

prototypes,

and from

the

of individual

What was left

impact

from Abstract

Expressionism

artists'

progress.

influence?

compelling

experience

It

to repeat.

Abstract

rather

than

is,

in technical

did not allow

of this

a study

further

of its

merits

receivers

words in the

Expressionism

To the

that

Expressionism

Or in other

The technical

terms.

significance.

is the kind painting

refinement.

Abstract

its

members did not explain

especially

were

artists.

in conceptual

was considered

and they

relevant

how the

of that

nature

was initially

is

individual

or affected

what was the

further

went

painters.

when used in the studies

appropriate

latter

the

while

still

colleagues

differentiate

to

quality

as perceptual

such

artists

Comparisons

it

and his

Alloway

concepts

spatial

fifties,

a hand-painted

purposely

retained

art,

of pictorial

terms,

too easy

evolution,

as it

was an end itself. It

seems appropriate

to say that

Abstract

provided

the

impetus

a few major

painters

to

much needed break

with

C6zanne and Matisse generation

artists

Expressionism

taste

by Fry and Bell.

As far

itself,

they

joined

the

stream.

simultaneous

with

that

of

own destinations.

of Britain

from

as the younger

simply

they

found their

setting

derived

Whilst

Abstract

The movement was

and hence the movement became

own. It

taken

was almost

to the cultural

adopted their

as promoted

Generation

Middle

pictorial

predominant

were concerned

development

their

the

for

in general

Expressionism

seems,

Abstract

in many cases, Expressionism

described

in his

importance

in the past

essay

that for

British their

on de Kooning (that

Abstract

that,

artists

and critics

Rosenberg

own convenience. the

Expressionism

works is

of

had

art

such art

of great is

still

20

in

doubt)

were

treated

usually

looked

in

at

problems

Britain

of the time.

largely

in the

artists

at that

the

text

following,

information

main

points

provide

American

of

and British

of abstract

are

are instrumental

Chapter

of Abstract

Expressionism

The remaining

is

devoted

supporters all

to

- they

Expressionism;

Expressionism

in Britain discuss

who formed

sixties;

Chapter

Chapter

in this

discussion.

of

the presentation

British

artists

developments:

(although

4

earliest

reservation

the

influence

and

Chapter

with

in raising

sixties.

status

of

Abstraction

on a group of young British

British

major

of the subject

the

6 reviews literature.

between the

some of whom were the

role

of

are intended

and early

of

later

surveys

5 discusses

groug

and its

fifties

painting

a major

Expressionism subjects

and its

in

highlight

to

to record

responses

an important

and Post-Painterly

artists

the

Expressionist played

the

fifties

comparisons

order

task

in the

Generation,

Middle

of Abstract

the time)

Abstract

the

made in

simple

Expressionism

to Abstract

critics

the

they

to the understanding

3 has a rather

chapters

provide

rather,

movements

the thesis.

2 will

These are not comprehensive

Where necessary

that

was

to

before

art

reference.

differences

the

a solution

1 and

the complex movements over such a long period; to

for

Chapter

about the developments

and the USArespectively.

Britain

Expressionism

Abstract

same way,

from

time.

of British

In

isolated

artefacts

context

and political

cultural

as pure

of

creative

personalities

critics'

reception

Patrick

of Abstract

of of

the

Abstract

Heron and Lawrence Alloway

are

21

1

"Editorial',

2

After

Abdern Painters,

a brief from

Gaulle

period

1944-46,

a strong

of

the

Sunuer 1989.

N0.10,

executive

provisional

resurgent

parties

power

that

a new constitution

wrote

features many of the unstable reproduced of the prewar regime. 3 influence direct Other means used by the American used include and

manipulation

of

French

public

opinion.

lay

in

realm

of

influence

American

for

and passes France

the

in

Americanisation becoming

could

not

avoid

trappings

of

the

consumer

directly

the

shaping

society.

of

the

French American

the

American

businesses

in

France.

the

Coca-colonisation

were

especially

export

of

attempts

successful

American

assistance

to

for

emulation,

steer

French

enterprise.

But

structured

framework

4

in

As quoted

French the

Wall,

Art

in

New York,

Paris

1990,

p. 33.

I-1IT Press, 6

John-Franklin

by the

export

of

film,

the

investments

by

the

media

of French Of greater

their

1991.

1945-1964,

'Abstract

chaud

University

Press,

Modernism:

Art

Guilbaut,

The =

in

New York, p.

9

The ICA Memo, 1956,

Tate

10

Herbert

Art

in

Read,

Britain

"A Nest 1930-1940

the

more

the

making

in

the

Modernism: Guilbaut,

in

Paris

the

and Mntreal

idea

of

of

modern

The

1950s,

l

1945-1964,

The

art,

1983. 'Post

Press,

in

Serge

ed.

Paris

New York,

stole

Guilbaut,

free

games, ' Reconstructing

How New York

Serge

of

efforts

Press,

1990.

See

Washington

own model

University

The MIT Press,

8

its

the

as one

model

modernizers.

and

and Montreal

Chicago

technical

States

Serge Guilbaut, ed., 7 Serge Guilbaut, of

through

The United

war painting

in

were

American

own

drinks

soft

Plan.

M.,

Art

the

toward

efforts

in

importance

productivity of

of

tastes

the

adopted

cultivation

by French

Cambridge

Abdernism:

the

and the

emergence

Monnet

Koenig,

Reconstructing

influence

pursued

Irwin

France 1945-1954, postwar 5 'Post Serge Guilbaut,

to

neither

modernization

of

attempt

imitation

for

the

did

increase

and the

it

Americans

significant. to

methods

modernisation. as

military,

But

or

programmes,

suitable tried

at

instead,

passed

what

America

mentality

of

Much of

of

like

more

presence

the

is,

upon

manifestation

mass culture.

France

exemplary

nor

A final

de

under

of

war Paris

painting and

games,

Montreal

'

Reconstructing

1945-1964,

ed.

Serge

32. Gallery

Archive.

Gentle

Artists,

Centred

around

' catalogue

to

Axis,

Circle,

the

exhibition Unit

One,

22

Marlborough

Fine Art,

September 1962. 11 Rodrigo Moynihan,

1965, originally

March-April

'A Nonconformist,

William

in Apollo,

published

Goldstream. interviewed

by

Lausanne, Spring 1965. Rodrigo Moynihan, I Art and Literature, 12 Lawrence Alloway, Nine Abstract Artists, 1954. Tiranti, 13 Denys Sutton, 14 Middle

"The Challenge

Generation

of American Art, ' Horizon,

as a term was first

used by Heron for

Oct.

1949.

an exhibition

Roger Hilton, and Bryan Wynter at the Waddinton of work by himself, in May 1959. The term was used loosely in the thesis to include Galleries similar age and working mode. a larger number of paintef/of 1-5 Margaret Garlake, "Between Paris and New York: critical constructions "' in Malcolm Gee, ed., Since 1900, Art Criticism of '"Englishness, Manchester 16 Patrick

1990.

University

Press,

Heron,

'The British

influence

"The Americans

in the Tate Gallery,

10, Oct. 1974. 17 Patrick Heron,

18 Alan Bowness used the phrase Studio Inte-mational, 19 Norbert Lynton,

July "British

on New York I, ' The Guardian,

as the title

for

' Arts,

March 1956.

article

appeared in

influence,

' Cambridge

his

1967. painting

Q?Inion, No. 37,1963. 20 John Russell, 'London/NYC:

the

and American two-way

traffic,

' Art

in

America,

1965. April 21 At one point

is

the visual

in

Heron presumed that narrow gap in Newman's painting residue of an image of the sky seen through the skyscrapers

Madison Avenue where Newman then lived.

23

Chapter 1 OF ABSTRACTION

THE ORIGINS

bulk

The Expressionism's

of

abstract

developed

critics

who endeavoured

before

art

practice

in

of

the

modern

early

not

Europe

elaborated

by

subsequent

OF

at

international

an abstract

respected.

mainly

Post-Impressionism, in

and Barbara

Cr6ation,

but

Mondrian,

Naum Gabo,

also

in

expressed the

other

hand,

away

from

young

artists

the

abstraction

World

Not

only

as Nicholson, the

the

in

Circle

young

London mid

fifties.

fifties. in

an

its

explanation.

in

the

It

St

the

was only

in

the

and

at

war,

including the

St.

the

On the to

keep

educated

some

Ives

a strong

also

war,

Pasmore,

London.

they

were

end of

Ben

Abstraction

by Victor in

1937,

was

a strong

After

force

of

Objective

enjoyed

a brief

fifties

that

movement

the

and was

with

Europeans

London.

artists

at

The second

twenties

constructivists

1933

much

practitioners,

inherited

during

theory on

Paris-based

famous

of

Ives

Such

and 1937 when Circle

The short-lived

between

late

in

art

influence

had

and Gabo settled

London

abstract

two prominent of

England

and Kandinsky,

was a movement

were

British

there.

in

Abstraction,

its

presence

in

the

It

members

bombardment

of

and

started

were

Hepworth

These

theory.

and Moholy-Nagy

the

of

art

art

was the

articles

centre

formalist

War II.

Hepworth,

Gropius

the

One was founded,

of

there

of

Bell

to

Cubism

Britain

Clive

art

promote

The introduction

was still

abstract

brink

the

Nicholson

in

to

when Unit

flavour.

who was in

art,

abstract

1934,

and

British

in

between

and

modernise

development

hailed

practice artists

a prominant

in

the

by British

and

development

of

Abstract

left

Fry

of

before

The legacy

an equivalent but

fifties,

the

was a continuation

Roger

phase

published,

to

art,

in

Continental

revival

THE INFLUENCE

war.

the

Britain,

result

in

art

intrusion,

sudden

theories

ideas

BEFORE

USA

POSTWAR

did

IN BRITAIN

in

a

of abstract

new generation

artists,

exhibition

and the two Situation

of an Arts

Council

broke

touring

conceptionally

The significant in

developments

French

Impressionist

effort

French

St.

Ives

painters

and

to

introduce

into

Britain

the

last

painting

for

artists

the

Impressionist

exhibitions,

Impressionism

in

as he was the

introduce

the

founder

long,

exhibitions

of

In the first

like

which

two famous Post

audience.

used his

in England,

also,

introductary

discussion

of the

such as that

which was respected

led

to

debates significant

subject

aroused

Magazine,

by including

of the

by the

exhibitions

of

many formalist

two exhibitions. critical

ideas

to

they

in his Sargent,

of

It

accompanying

about

perceptions

second exhibition

and Fry's

and their

exhibitions

a crystallisation

C6zanne, from whose painting focused

editorial

1 and secure.

The two Post-Impressionist debates

among

Fry smoothed the way for

acceptance

art,

sheer

in which

terms

Post-Impressionism's articles

the

interest

of Burlington and the

painters

and Post-

provided

in a lasting

and co-editor

influential

very

decade

The International

was Roger Fry's

Fry deliberately

Post-Impressionist

the

of

and the Fauves were featured

and resulted

and academicians.

to its

decade

Manet and the Post-Impressionists

inspection

for

were presented

It

latest

the

the

organisations

Club.

Art

authority,

the

British

were still

in London galleries.

1910 and 1912 respectively,

critics

critical

a

painters

Before

the British.

and artist

and New English

number of works

landscape

Post-Impressionism

century

in galleries

occasionally

in

started

were held

painting

of the twentieth

artists,

movements.

when the Barbizon

century

nineteenth

Society

They attained

previous

the

over

movement that

in the sixties.

constructivists

favoured

the

in the art

involved

Place

one was in the form

(a third

exhibitions

exhibition),

with

position

superior

associated

important

the

with

the

of art

new art. comes, was

and drew most attention

in

the

two

was mainly writings,

through

supported

by Clive

25

Bell,

the

Minch,

Mtisse,

revolutionary

British

to

Braque, artists

formalist

Picasso

and

paintings

was

indebted

to

the

aesthetic

and

on C6zanne he published

in

Burlington

in

the

his

elements.

theory

in his

in art

element

laws

formulating

his

the

German

they

Art:

English

deal

from

Maurice

in

form

at

its

barest,

Much of the

theoretical

ground

for

the

most abstract

in England was prepared

by a preceeding

Arts

Movement.

the

for

the

critics

and Fry

fused

his

formalism

4 Spiritual

and purity. with

with

concepts

interpretation

art

language

to understand

and audience

movement -

and principle

Fry's

exhibitions

such as limitation,

bareness

early

in

fitted

of Post- Impressionism

the way in which Post-Impressionism's

of the

acceptance

Post-Impressionism

necessary

away at the

more and more firmly

to establish

provided

exhibition

are cutting

expressive

It

1910.2

Post-Impressionist

of

and Crafts

critic

Modern

about the first

article

'more and more regardlessly

representative

0

whose Fry

In

Post-Impressionism

a good

located

fundamental

the

of

took

1908.

commitment to form as he stated

merely

system

also

in

his

by C6zanne.

of

and

elaborated

Fry

meantime

Gauguin,

became familiar

Kandinsky,

History

chiefly

that

Van Gogh,

who discussed

critics

positively

whose article Fry

few

the

of

was published

in Nation

the

the

extensively

Denis

In

public. from

one

Seurat,

and eventually

mainly

Nleier-Graefe,

edition

C6zanne,

of

theory Fry

theory

works

saw the new

supporters

painting. It

was in the

catalogue

Clive

now,

the

help

This

was a shift

exact

nature

of

transmitted.

of

Bell

for

the

second exhibition

that

focused

the

discussion

on form

itself.

from

the

emotion

to

of

concentration

that

emotion

and the

means by which

of

art

by the

Post-Inpressionists

"place

or tim,

The work

every

day life

and of

any

or point

of view.

15 Their

concerns

here

with

it

associated

of

the

outside

world

solely

which

expression

or

were with

of it

with

was realised

the and

was independent

a particular form

and with

Fry,

itself

canvas,

civilisation rather the

than

product,

26

than

rather

with

the

artist

the

use

of

and Bell

used

a similar

'

The validity

introduction design' 'aesthetic Fry

emotion. them

used

to

like

concepts

set

of

plastic

artists, devices

comTmicator

forms

as the

This

theory

laid

much errphasis

form

paintings

by

the

Albert

the

Kandinsky

which

were

shown

in

1913,

paintings.

7 Duncan

papier-coll6

in

1912

They

to

experiment

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relation

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Collage

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fact

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with. critical

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were

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8 The

1913.

a

Grant

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Omega Workshops.

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Painting

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Bloomsbury

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Artists in

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and C6zanne

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and

form'

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or

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inspiration at

catalogue

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like

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abstract

Fry

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situations

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nor

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true,

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applied

to

Fry the

post-

ZI

C&anne

generations.

Even

in

Fry's

as they

seemed

to

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position

was challenged

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monopolising his

softened

by using

stance

had an alternative

concept

Jacob

Vorticists

- the

Etchells

art

(Vorticism)

bareness,

'

by the

and

Lewis,

was

he claimed

for

also

'a

things.

1 10 Bomberg,

the

one

implication

of

the

Bomberg

stated

in

Gallery

that

his

'reject

(s)

everything

was not

able

to

make

constant

use

Fry

the

forty

by many major

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formalist

art

criticism

Pure

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theory

he

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example,

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informed

in

was,

For

art.

large

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Patrick

the

The American dominated

do with

Fry's

the

measure, forties

hands

had even more to

Form. 111 Because

in

in

who had

and he

was followed

revived

critic

Chenil

at

the

rules

the

formalist

was based.

for

the

end of

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symbolic

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language,

the

artist

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Generation

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sixties,

to

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and Vorticism.

years.

dealing

critics

Read's

Futurism helped

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one

Post-Impressionist

of

the

imagery

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painting

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in

all

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'construction

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objective

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striving nature

experiment

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of

participated

associated

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was

and confusion

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formal

catalogue

develop

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Herbert

the

to

standpoint

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a desire

natural

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characterised

the

was concerned

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and away from

manifesto,

continental,

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structure

loosely

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Hulme

Vorticism

only

with

While

towards

but

Fry. 9 Hulme,

Bomberg,

and

activities

latter

David

austerity

Vorticist

When

Hulme the

critic

from

make a

terminology.

associated

Futurists.

of

his

use

aesthetics

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opponents

derived

Wyndham

branch

English

new

significant

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Epstein,

to

terminology

of modernism

ideas

German

particularly,

the

his

own time

most

formalist

critical

Clement of

the

of

formalist

Fry's

Heron,

critic

abstraction

the

Middle

Greenberg, fifties

and

the the

theory.

28

The second more

fruitful

Seven

and

phase

one which Society

Five

Second World

War.

during

this

period.

relevant

to

was never

organisation

The

in

and

reached

a climax

just

before

the

first

time

that

were

One was that

there

landscape.

1924

had

was firmly

in

art it

in

the

sense

fifties.

the

that

one

a British

relationship

with

Surrealism.

comfort

because

Surrealism

was accepted

time

association

with

literature

automatism,

on the

with

mingled

provided other

British

There

was a sharp

contrast

between

the

attitutes

towards

Surrealist

automaticism.

United

States

where

Surrealist

automatism

was a possitive

1924,

the

members.

After

Paris

society There

and

Britain

and the

stimulus

to

were

Germany

Society

Ben Nicholson

was introduced

by

Ivon

in

its

abstract

fell

gradually

a lot

of

in

group

the

Helion,

discussions the

-

Jean

Alberto

Giacometti

were

towards

abstraction

when Ben Nicholson

1934 a new name for exhibition

consisted

entirely

exhibition

in

had been

Seven and Five

Mondrian,

and its

in

all

Expressionists.

The members of existence.

long

serious

and theorists.

its

one

attracted

artists

Abstract

On the

never

among British

major

for

affection

breeding-ground.

interest

the

the

painting's

a ready

hand,

from

may get

with

hand

Surrealist

the

characteristics

art

always

was its

The other

for

established

distinct

two

abstract

Rather,

was a

artists'

It

Fry.

Britain

a loose

art

plastic

in

art

with

Abstract

a pure

abstract

of

started

understanding

of

writings

development

of

the a year of

favour about works

Hans Arp,

Sophie

discussed

and analysed.

group, later,

non-figurative

last

contemporary by

artists

Taeuber,

ever

Group,

in

as Piet and

was baised in

1926.

In

was proposed

one before

the

society

It

was

the

works.

artist

Calder

The society

Abstract

in

painting

Alexander

chairman

since

Hitchens

such

its

became

Seven &, Five the

of

changing

first

stopped, such

Britain.

29

Among were

particularly

Both

developed

the

their

was

published

in

1922. 12

Design.

painting

by

Hitchens

formal

later,

An

Essay

in

Plane

to

Another.

Hitchens in

continued

ever

after,

Bankshead

near

Brampton

landscape

paintings

quality.

Hitchens'

harmonies

and

acheived

in

his

unique

in

sensitivity

almost

the

some

aspects

Patrick

were

all

aware

of

Nicholson

by the early

achieved was

than

more distort

and

what

he

he

group

-

the

But

he

had

shapes. because

Hitchens'

although

he

reduced

the

he

found great

with painting

forms

and

landscape Even

Peter

he

design

landscape

fifties.

which

painterly of

and

and

One

of

declared,

form

of

a

colour.

and

subtitle

produced

for

Hilton

the

at

feeling

Roger

was

Nicholsons

compress

the

example,

Relation

problems

colours

in

Vision

characteristic

still

of

Fry's

was

the

with

of

treatise

it

painting,

and

paintings Heron,

of

stayed

a

His

was to

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a

Lanyon

glance will

at

some

tell

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period

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Hitchens. was

under

the

influence

1920s he moved much closer

In Nicholson's

forms

he

abstract

by

paintings

he

relationship

essentials. of

when

future

which

lyrical

extraordinarily

1925

interest

to

mind

his

Hitchens

paintings

of

found

Dynamic

Cumberland.

main

method

the

in

rhythmical his

and

by

after

for

1922,

indicated

landscape.

his

Barn

as

or

into

ideas

experiment Form

with these

Curved

form

of

of

painting

Essential

call

imTediately

some

fifties.

the

abstract

acquaintance

introduced

important

in

art

the

C6zanne

subsequent

soon

about

all

gave

also

to

Nicholson

and

incorporate

to

Since

Hitchens

abstract

response

Bell's

had

He

first

His

painting. a

influenced

of

methods

sensuous

with

Five,

and

discussions

to

respective

form

Hitchens

Seven

the

of

relevant

semi-abstract

and

members

first

Abstract

Painting

1924,

according

to principles

a freshness

and clarity

completely

of

Lewis

to the

non-figurative

for

ideas

a brief

of Fry than composition,

Lewis. First

forms were organised

by him into

derived

Cubism yet he invested

from synthetic

of colour.

Nicholson

had synthesised

flat

'planes' in

two aspects

30

of

the

Cubist

previous

Braque's

paintings

of

interpenetrate

in

space

after

1913,

where

clear

divisions

functioned

that

the

areas

produces

abstract

works.

by the

world.

Imitation

than

what

he had read

coirplete

abstraction.

of

those

of

his

Paris

equivalent

to

that

to

the

his

a natural

clarity

which

example,

the

snow

Nicholson

further

landscape

when he was at

was associated

particular

places

in

and

Ticino

explored

this St.

an intuitive

and

Paris,

or

Lewis,

painting

to

escape

from

led

him

and

the

different

from

a feeling

although

his

paintings

were.

Nicholson's

use

preference

for,

quality

of

light

moments;

for

particular cottages

relation

rather

evoke

with

white-washed

interactive

Ives

at

in the

rows

in

atmosphere,

an extreme in

caused

rural

came from

Britain

it

that

reliefs

in

paintings

the

his

over

future

abstract

relief

Hitchens'

his

of

were

than

or

movement

Fry

elements

fields

abstract

works

landscape

The contrast

in

colleagues

first

lines

and fine

painter

England,

in

started,

colour

What made his

relief.

suggest

explored

abstract

his

to

used

of

by either

theories

produced

from

was

in

he saw from

works

thin

surface

exhibition

kind

are

Picasso's

independence.

of

rough

in

very

1926 and his

colleagues

more remote

even white

errploy

a degree

planes

Nicholson

international

white

of

colour

Paris-based

what

atmosphere

and

1924,

of the

from

first

year

of,

in

Nicholson

second

pursuit

and another.

and the

The first

same year.

the

"level'

with

lines

Cr6ation

1933

of

as a major

art

of

one

flat

areas

rose

the

appeared

forms

Nicholson

in

In

hand,

and this

Abstraction

to

other

results

the

to

and on the

beautiful

when he was absorbed

appear

and

and Pears

thin

very

of

forms

descriptively

between

quality

where

hard-edged

Goblet

"transparent'

1911-12,

between

like

paintings

one hand the

on the

art:

between

Germany's

in

St

and

Ives.

painting

and

bombardment

of

London.

31

before

Even

was involved

Nicholson It

one.

Seven

the

initiated

was

founding by

together

artists

Nicholson,

(sculptors),

his

to

Edward

and Colin

Lucas

(architects).

and more accessible

Gallery

and Dali

had his

exhibition

be ignorant

was the of

evocative

of

Nash,

Britain,

had conceded

between

Surrealism

derived

the

and abstraction

that

his

field.

had

works

active

future

for

his

Lefevre

of

attempt

to

in

London.

British

the

Surrealism

and incidence

was in had

soon

a union

done

his

'objects, before,

paintings

some

was convinced in

his

' which

he

and abstraction

by transplanting

in

Surrealisrn

of art

and

political in

them

himself

while

artists

excessive

advocates

Surrealism

constructive

and

an

contemporary

a short

Gallery)

English,

unpredictability

of

Mayer

in

13 Nash

The union

was achieved in

briefly

used

most

abstraction.

with

Surrealist

the

the

one of that

from

at

the

neglected

As the

and Ernst

What interested

and others.

experiments was not

have

(Mir6

Edward

Burra,

at

appeared

to

or

Breton power

imagery.

its

published

were vocabulary

of Andr6

overtones

one-man

Surrealism

to

seemed

Hepworth

Bigge,

became more

new drew

Barbara

John

Coates

the

successfully

John Armstrong,

work

Surrealist

and

Unit

became to

response

Moore,

Surrealist

synthesise

in

Henry

Wells

the

group

as

(painters),

about

activities,

Surrealism

when

Nash,

Wadsworth

texts

artist

friends

artist

dissimilar

as

1933

phenomenon.

idea

the

proposed

in

Nash

its

ceased

a more ambitious

Paul

an international

increasingly trend,

in

Society

and Five

in

landscape

not

open

setting. The

major

abstract

compromise

and believed

Nicholson,

for

While the artistic

example,

that

to

Surrealism,

was in

fact

competition

had waited

they

for

were,

there

Nash,

unlike

was room for

only

of these saw it

between

abstract

as an opposition them.

recognition,

For

a long

and they

outset.

had decided

artists

and rival time did

to

one modernism.

even at its

wanted to squash Surrealism

persuasion

attitude

artists

artists

the

not'want

their

- there abstract a new

32

representational

to

the

major

Hepworth,

Barbara

in,

strictly

two

and guarded

come into

to

art

in

artists

abstract

territory

their

carefully,

dominance.

Nicholson

and

the

thirties,

kept

in

reaction

to

the

Surrealism.

of

rise

approach

Surrealists

British

from the fact

Apart

abstractionists.

lost

have

to

seemed

was a lack

there

that

battle

the

the

with

of convincing

surrealist

works

by them,

it

had also

something

predominant

critic

of the time,

Herbert

Read. When Read cam to resettle

in London after

his

two year

close

to most of the members of Unit

Moore.

On his

functioned in

most of the time

different

One, by a generous

managed to

ways,

'rapidly

a close

relationship

position

as the

defender

Hampstead

to

his

England.

' 14 Indeed

Read

proselytiser

for

his

artists

at Haripstead

Irrpressionism

twenty

years

or more earlier.

The formalist

theory

of Roger Fry,

denied

Read,

like

T.

E.

Hulme

whose

Germany

Northern

was

truly

a partisan

of

inportance

of

French

art

as well.

While

his

criticism

Fry

knowledge

inherent

in

Fry's

theory

From Read's

intellectual

the

air,

Read

deep

into

in the

to

and

attention

still

looked

ranging

capacity

then

had also

eye

of and

to private

the

to

art

history,

was

concerned

which

Fry

point

of

view,

to

an

apprehension

art

according

reductive, polemics

of

of

his

world

brought of

art

of

the

of Post-

1933,

painter's

role

as Fry had done for

in

the

in

just

he was editing

the

whole

the

But

recognising

'

fill

art.

because

values.

at

Read,

of modernism

in

aesthetic

subtle

began

camps had, with

elements

expressionistic Speculations

rising

at once and he

retain

realising

most

from Henry

offer

in both

Artists

as a go-between.

the

at Hampstead,

in the controversy

Read was caught

arrival

he settled

at Edinburgh

stay

do with

to

he

art

his

while

Read acknowledged his

and the

attacked

too

for

widenotions

'plastic

much with

was in

danger

of

of

formal

values.

Anti-

failed

to

to

Read,

time

and he tended

Fry

the

reducing

to

pay

retreat

own sensibility.

33

Read's

Although

a fervent

he remained

his

Surrealism,

with

accordance

One as

Surrealists

equally.

Read's

ideological

belief.

Abstract

that

revolutionary

representations and intellectual

harrimers

of

Surrealism

as the

other

revolutionary

subjective

and actively

Communist'

response

in

doubted

automatism,

which

Andr&

in

a Surrealist

17 The English and it

because

in

the

it

kept

art,

Surrealists

never