Reinventing Abstraction: New York Painting in the 1980s

“David Reed with John Yau,” The Brooklyn Rail, March, 2010, p. 30.

Carrie Moyer, “Stephen Mueller at Lennon Weinberg,” Art in America, February, 2011, p. 100.

3 Richard Armstrong and Richard Marshall, Five Painters in New York, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1984, p. 9.

4 David Reed and Stanley Whitney recall their experiences with the draft in “Stanley Whitney by David Reed,” Bomb, 123, Spring, 2013, p. 38.

5 Katy Siegel, “Another History Is Possible,” in High Times Hard Times: New York Painting 1967-1975, ed. Katy Siegel, Independent Curators International, New York, 2006, p. 74.

6 Klaus Kertess, “Drawing Desires,” in Lisa Phillips, Terry Winters, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 1991, p. 28.

7 “To Philip Guston,” The Brooklyn Rail, November, 2003, p. 14.

8 Quote from “Thick and Thin,” a roundtable discussion of painting, Artforum, April, 2003, p. 240.

9 Carter Ratcliff, in Fact & Fiction: Abstract Paintings by Jonathan Lasker, Tom Nozkowski, Gary Stephan, Tibor de Nagy Gallery, New York, 1984.

10 “Bill Jensen by John Yau,” Bomb, 99, Spring, 2007, p. 32.

11 Peter Schjeldahl, Columns & Catalogues, The Figures, Great Barrington, 1994, p, 122. Originally published in The Village Voice, Dec. 7, 1993.

12 Nancy Princenthal, “Terry Winters: an Interview,” Art in America, February, 2009, p. 95.

13 Robert Storr, Elizabeth Murray, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2005, pp. 175-176.

14 Murray’s comments on Bean are in Elizabeth Murray: Paintings and Drawings, Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1987, p. 52.

15 Joan Simon, “Mixing Metaphors: Elizabeth Murray,” Art in America, April, 1984, p. 143.

16 Robert Storr, Elizabeth Murray, p. 177.

17 “Joan Snyder with Phong Bui,” The Brooklyn Rail, September, 2008, p. 35.

18 “Joan Snyder with Phong Bui,” The Brooklyn Rail, September, 2008, p. 36.

19 “Pat Steir with Phong Bui,” The Brooklyn Rail, March, 2011, p. 21.

20 “Laurie Simmons speaks to Carroll Dunham about his Paintings on Wood,” in Carroll Dunham: Paintings on Wood 1982-1987, Skarstedt Gallery, New York, 2008, p. 8.

21 Peter Schjeldahl, Columns & Catalogues, The Figures, Great Barrington, 1994, p, 19. Originally published in The Village Voice, Nov. 13, 1990.

22 “Stephen Mueller by Joe Fyfe,” Bomb, 79, spring 2002, p. 39.

23 Holland Cotter in Stephen Mueller, Fabian Carlsson Gallery, London, 1987, p. 5.

24 “Mary Heilmann by Ross Bleckner,” Bomb, 67, Spring, 1999, p. 58.

25 “Stephen Mueller by Joe Fyfe,” Bomb, 79, Spring, 2002, p. 33.

26 The cues that Reed took from Italian Baroque and Mannerist painting were very different from the program advocated by Stella in his 1986 book Working Space; Stella wanted to introduce real space into painting; Reed’s version of the Baroque was purely pictorial.

27 “Talking Pictures: David Reed interviewed by Stephen Ellis,” in David Reed, ed. William S. Bartman, ART Press, Los Angeles, 1990, p. 19.

Reprinted in Between Artists: Twelve contemporary American artists interview twelve contemporary American artists, ART Press, Los Angeles, 1996 p. 192.

28 Peter Schjeldahl, “A Visit to the Salon of 1986,” Art in America, December, 1986, p. 19.

29 This isn’t to say that Lasker’s pre-1985 paintings were purely “direct.” As Saul Ostrow has pointed out, for his early paintings Lasker “would fill pads of newsprint with gestural drawings before hitting on a shape to overlay in his paintings.” Saul Ostrow, “Jonathan Lasker: A Pre-Fab View,” in Jonathan Lasker: Paintings from 1978 to 1982, Bravin Post Lee, New York, 1994, p. 6.

30 Jonathan Lasker, email to the author, May 6, 2013.

31 Jonathan Lasker, “One’s Self, By Chance,” in Jonathan Lasker: The ‘80s, Timothy Taylor Gallery, London, and Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, 2011.

32 Jonathan Lasker in conversation with David Ryan, 1997, in David Ryan, Talking Painting: Dialogues with Twelve Contemporary Abstract Painters, Routledge, London and New York, 2002, p. 148.

33 For more on this subject, see Raphael Rubinstein, “Neo-Expressionism (Not) Remembered,” Art in America, February, 2013, pp. 80-87.

34 Robert Pincus-Witten, “Gary Stephan: the Brief Against Matisse,” Arts Magazine, March, 1982, p. 137.

35 Gary Stephan, email to author, May 13, 2013.

36 Robert Pincus-Witten, “Entries: Becoming American,” Arts Magazine, October, 1985, p. 101.

37 “Gary Stephan by Georgia Marsh,” Bomb, 25, Fall, 1988, p. 23.

38 “Gary Stephan with Phong Bui,” The Brooklyn Rail, September, 2012, p. 28.

39 “Louise Fishman with Sharon Butler” The Brooklyn Rail, October 2012, p. 20.

40 “Expressionism Today: an Artists’ Symposium,” Art in America, December, 1982, p. 66.

41 “Louise Fishman by Cora Cohen,” Bomb, 37, Fall, 1991, p. 61.

42 “Jack Whitten by Kenneth Goldsmith,” Bomb, 48, Summer, 1994, p. 40.

43 Kellie Jones, “Energy/Experimentation; Black Artists and Abstraction, 1964-1980,” Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 2006, reprinted in Kellie Jones, EyeMinded, Duke University Press, Durham and London, 2011, p. 374.

44 Jack Whitten letter to David Driskell, quoted in Henry John Drewal and David Driskell, Introspectives: Contemporary Art by Americans and Brazilians of African Descent, California Afro American Museum, Los Angeles, 1989, p. 83.

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