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Absence / Presence: Richard Pousette-Dart as Photographer November 9 thr ough Januar y 4
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he Museum of Art proudly announces the opening of Absence / Presence: Richard Pousette-Dart as Photographer, the first museum exhibition of photography by this artist who is best known as a painter of the Abstract Expressionist era. Organized by guest curator Charles H. Duncan, Executive Director of the Richard Pousette-Dart Foundation, Absence / Presence examines this important but little-known aspect of Pousette-Dart’s artistic practice.
effects of sunlight upon ice, flowers, and other flora, and developed a body of nature studies that functions in dialogue with the visual language of his abstract painting.
Absence / Presence opens with a members’ preview 4:30 p.m. Saturday, November 8 in the Museum of Art Auditorium with Mr. Duncan’s illustrated presentation, Through the Painter's Lens: The Photographs of Richard Pousette-Dart, followed by a reception in the Edward W. Root Sculpture Court from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The exhibition remains on view through January 4, 2015. Pousette-Dart concentrated considerable energy on photography in the 1940s and 1950s, focusing particular attention on portraiture and nature studies. He created several images of family, friends, and associates in the arts, and often merged two photographs into one as a means to associate attribute objects with Richard Pousette-Dart (1916-1992), Joanna with Cat, 1952, gelatin silver print, 13 1/2 x 9 in., Estate of Richard Pousette-Dart. his sitters. He was equally captivated by
Like painting, photography for PousetteDart was a vehicle for refashioning the visual matter of the world. Photography, however, was not universally accepted as a serious art form, particularly among painters, so this facet of the artist’s oeuvre has not been well understood until now. Pousette-Dart himself believed the trace of the artist’s hand in darkroom processes was essential for a photograph to be elevated to a status beyond mere documentation. He noted in his journals: "Photographs are reflections through light and mechanics, processes, machines, and if they are to be more they must be altered, distorted, extended, rearranged, transformed and in so doing we may find a work of art.” Today, Richard Pousette-Dart’s work in photography sheds light on the interplay between all of his visually creative pursuits. Absence / Presence: Richard PousetteDart as Photographer is sponsored by Citizens Bank and the Estate of Richard Pousette-Dart. KeyBank is the opening reception sponsor.
Permanent Collection Show Commemorates Historic Photograph The Irascibles November 8 thr ough Januar y 4
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n 1950 The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, organized an ambitious exhibition, American Painting Today 1950, that was intended to showcase new art at the venerable institution, the administration for which had been notoriously hostile to contemporary practices. The most advanced artists of the day, painters who have come to be known as Abstract Expressionists, protested that the jurors selecting the exhibition were unsympathetic to the most progressive developments in art. During the jury process, 28 of them wrote an open letter of complaint to the Metropolitan’s president and, on May 21, 1950, the New York Times featured an article on its front page about the controversy. Later in the year, when the exhibition opened to the public, Life magazine published the article, “The Metropolitan and Modern Art,” which was illustrated with a photograph of fifteen of the protesters. The image’s caption, “Irascible Group of Advanced Artists Led Fight Against Show,” gave the title to this picture, taken by Nina Leen, for it has been known ever after as “The Irascibles.” Richard Pousette-Dart is among the pictured artists in Leen’s famous photograph. In conjunction with the exhibition Absence / Presence: Richard Pousette-Dart as Photographer, the Museum of Art presents The Irascibles, a show of paintings and drawings—nearly all from the permanent collection—by Pousette-Dart and his avant-garde compatriots.
Nina Leen, The Irascibles, portrait of a group of American abstract artists, collectively known as “The Irascibles,” New York, New York, November 24, 1950, reproduced in Life magazine, January 15, 1951. Left to right, seated: Theodoros Stamos (1922-97), Jimmy Ernst (1920-84), Barnett Newman (1905-70), James Brooks (1906-92), Mark Rothko (1903-70); middle row: Richard Pousette-Dart (1916-92), William Baziotes (1912-63), Jackson Pollock (1912-56), Clyfford Still (1904-80), Robert Motherwell (1915-91), Bradley Walker Tomlin (1899-53); back row: Willem de Kooning (1904-97), Adolph Gottlieb (1903-74), Ad Reinhardt (1913-67), and Hedda Sterne (1910-2011). Time Life Pictures/Getty Images, used with permission.