2col leger.jpg (via mail)

Fernand Leger (French, 1881–1955), “Deux Brosses et un Saca de Main,” 1950, oil on canvas, signed lower right, 17½ by 12½ inches.

FOR 5-11

AMT FINE ART WILL PRESENT ‘ABSTRACTION’ MAY 18 w/1 cut

avv/gs set 5-2 #698114

GREENWICH, CONN. — Abby M. Taylor Fine Art will present “Abstraction: American and European Art in the Twentieth Century,” on view May 18–June 18.

The exhibition will include works by Fernand Léger, George Valmier, Andre Lanskoy, Norman Bluhm, Mark Tobey, and Theodoros Stamos.

On both sides of the ocean, abstraction in art is considered a broad term. It encompasses many movements, which grew out of previous movements or were completely separate in motive, philosophy and technique.

Many historians consider the birth of abstraction to begin with Wassily Kandinsky in 1910 and his theory on abstract art called “On the Spiritual Path,” 1912. Artists represented in this exhibition, such as Pierre Dmitrienko (French, 1925–1974) and Albert Wein (American, 1915–1991) often show the influences of Kandinsky’s early works in their own.

Other movements within abstraction include Cubism, Neoplasticism, Expressionism, Futurism, Fauvism and Abstract Expressionism. George Valmier (French, 1885–1937) is considered one of the first-generation Cubist painters, and his 1918 gouache and collage “Composition Abstraite” was created only four short years after George Braque and Pablo Picasso’s partnership from 1908 to 1914, which is considered the beginning Cubism.

Fernand Léger (French, 1881–1955) was a member of the Putaux Group, which began in 1911 as an offshoot of the Cubist movement. Léger took his works a step further from the original Cubists’ desires to change the way people viewed art by literally distorting their view of the subject, and reflected his interest in the Machine Age and political interests of the working class. His 1950 painting “Deux Brosses et un Saca de Main” possibly depicts the personal items of his wife, who died that same year.

Moving away from Cubism and rejecting their philosophies were artists working within the frame of Lyrical Abstraction at The École de Paris, such as André Lanskoy (French, 1902–1976), who is considered the movement’s key role-player. Lyrical abstraction is characterized by intuitive and loose paint application, spontaneous expression and illusionist space, as exemplified in Lanskoy’s “1960 Composition.”

Other artists such as Jacques Germain (French, 1915–2001) are more difficult to categorize within any particular group, but are easily compared to counterparts such as Jean-Paul Riopelle. He was renowned for the works he created in the 1950s and 1960s using heavy impasto and paint squeezed directly from the tube and applied with a palette knife.

Leaders in American Abstraction were the Abstract Expressionists in New York during the 1940s and 1950s, such as Jackson Pollock, Theodoros Stamos, Mark Tobey and Norman Bluhm.

As seen in both of the gallery’s exhibited works by Norman Bluhm (American, 1921–1999) there is a sense of spontaneity and improvisation as he allows the paint to literally drip, splatter and take on its own life beyond him.

The gallery is at 43 Greenwich Avenue. For information, www.amtfineart.com or 203-622-7561.