Abstract Expressionists

Discussion Questions

1. Discuss the Abstract Expressionist movement briefly (key characteristics, interests, reception)
2. Discuss how scholars think AE has influenced art today.
3. Can you point to a particular school of artists, or particular works or artists that display influence from the Abstract Expressionists?

Bibliography (taken from Temkin, Ann. Abstract Expressionism at the Museum of Modern Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2010.)

General

Abstract Expressionism: The Critical Developments. Buffalo, NY: Albright Knox Gallery, 1987.

Anfam, David. Abstract Expressionism. London: Thames and Hudson, 1990.

Ashton, Dore. The New York School: A Cultural Reckoning. Harmondsworth, England: Penguin, 1983.

Craven, David. Abstract Expressionism as Cultural Critique: Dissent during the McCarthy Period. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Elderfield, John, ed. The Museum of Modern Art at Mid-Century: At Home and Abroad. Studies in Modern Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1994.

Ferguson, Russell. In Memory of My Feelings: Frank O’Hara and American Art. Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art; Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.

Foster, Stephen C. The Critics of Abstract Expressionism. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1980.

Frascina, Francis, ed. Pollock and After: The Critical Debate. London: Routledge, 2000.

Geldzahler, Henry. New York Painting and Sculpture: 1940 – 1970. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art; Dutton, 1969.

Gibson, Ann Eden. Abstract Expressionism: Other Politics. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997.

Greenberg, Clement. The Collected Essays and Criticism. Edited by John O’Brian. 4 vols. Vol. 1, Perceptions and Judgments, 1939-1944; Vol. 2, Arrogant Purpose, 1945 – 1949; Vol. 3, Affirmations and Refusals, 1950 – 1956; Vol. 4, Modernism with a Vengeance, 1957 – 1969. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986-93.

Guilbaut, Serge. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art: Abstract Expressionism, Freedom, and the Cold War. Translated by Arthur Goldhammer. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983.

---, ed. Reconstructing Modernism: Art in New York, Paris, and Montreal, 1945 – 1964. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1990.

Hess, Thomas B. Abstract Painting: Background and American Phase. New York: Viking Press, 1951.

Hobbs, Robert Carleton, and Gail Levin. Abstract Expressionism: The Formative Years. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1978.

Kleeblatt, Norman, ed. Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940 – 1976. New York: Jewish Museum; New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008.

Landau, Ellen G. Reading Abstract Expressionism: Context and Critique. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2005.

Leja, Michael. Reframing Abstract Expressionism: Subjectivity and Painting in the 1940s. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1993.

Marter, Joan, ed. Abstract Expressionism: The International Context. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004.

The New American Painting: As Shown in Eight European Countries 1958 – 1959. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1959.

Rosenberg, Harold. Discovering the Present: Three Decades in Art, Culture, and Politics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973.

---. The Tradition of the New. 1959. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.

Ross, Clifford, ed. Abstract Expressionism: Creators and Critics, an Anthology. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1990.

Sandler, Irving. The Triumph of American Painting: A History of Abstract Expressionism. New York: Praeger, 1970.

---. Abstract Expressionism and the American Experience: A Reevaluation. Lenox, Mass.: Hard Press Editions, 2009.

Seitz, William C. Abstract Expressionist Painting in America. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983.

Shapiro, David, and Cecile Shapiro, eds. Abstract Expressionism: A Critical Record. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1990.

Tuchman, Maurice, ed. The New York School: Abstract Expressionism in the 40s and 50s. London: Thames and Hudson, 1971.

Recent Monographs

Anfam, David. Franz Kline: Black and White, 1950 – 1961. Houston: Menil Collection; Houston Fine Art Press, 1994.

---. Mark Rothko: The Works on Canvas. Catalogue raisonné. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press; Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1998.

Auping, Michael. Philip Guston Retrospective. Fort Worth, Tex.: Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 2003.

Demetrion, James T. Clyfford Still: Paintings, 1944 – 1960. Washington, DC: Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, 2001.

Giménez, Carmen, and Rosalind E. Krauss. David Smith: Centennial. New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2007.

Landau, Ellen G. Lee Krasner: A Catalogue Raisonné­. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995.

Livingston, Jane. The Paintings of Joan Mitchell. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art; Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.

Prather, Marla. Willem de Kooning: Paintings. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art; New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1994.

Taylor, Michael. Arshile Gorky: A Retrospective. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009.

Temkin, Ann. Barnet Newman. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of art, 2002.

Varnedoe, Kirk, with Pepe Karmel. Jackson Pollock. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1998.