Monthly Archives: May 2009
May 01, 2009 – 8:14 pm
ARTISTS’ SESSIONS AT STUDIO 35
In April of 1950, about two dozen of the artists who came to be known as the “Abstract Expressionists” met for a series of discussions about their own work as well as the contemporary scene. Nearly 60 years after the actual meetings took place, the transcript of “Artists Sessions at Studio 35 (1950)” still pulses with the heated discussions around basic artistic issues like titling, process, relationship to history, community, and professionalism. Often referenced, but rarely fleshed out, this series of closed meetings allows readers fly-on-the-wall access to the artists’ discussions. The goal of the current reprint is to refresh this document by giving it a new life in a new form.In addition to the transcript, the book includes a contextualizing postscript, and the text of the letters of invitation and participation that were sent to participating artists.
The Artists’ Sessions transcript first appeared in–and was organized in direct relation to–the publication, Modern Artists in America (Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc., 1951). Though it is often referenced in Ab Ex literature, the references to this event are usually made in passing, despite the fact that this is one of the few texts documenting the Abstract Expressionists in conversation. To my knowledge, the transcript has been reprinted in its entirely only twice: Ann Eden Gibson’s Issues in Abstract Expressionism: The Artist-Run Periodicals (UMI Research Press, 1990) and Ellen Landau’s Reading Abstract Expressionism: Context and Critique (Yale University Press, 2005). The former book is, due to its distribution, relegated primarily to University library stacks; the latter book weighs in at 716 pages, making it an unlikely purchase for the casual reader. All of this informed Soberscove’s decision to price the book at an affordable $10.00.
ISBN 978-0-9824090-0-8, 5.125 x 7.5 inches, 64 pages, $10
Co-published with Wittenborn Art Books
Available for purchase at www.soberscovepress.com
Discount Information available upon request
ISBN 978-0-9824090-0-8, 5.125 x 7.5 inches, 64 pages, $10
Co-published with Wittenborn Art Books
Available for purchase at www.soberscovepress.com
Discount Information available upon request
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Excerpt from
THE FIRST DAY–APRIL 21, 1950:
LASSAW: I would consider a work finished when I sense a
“togetherness,” a participation of all parts as in an organism.
This does not mean that I entirely understand what I have cre-
ated. To me, a work is at first, quite unknown. In time, more
and more enters into consciousness. It would be better to con-
sider a work of art as a process that is started by the artist. In
that way of thinking, a sculpture or painting is never finished,
but only begin. If successful, the work starts to live a life of its
own, a work of art begins to work.
ERNST: My work consists of two separate stages of develop-
ment. I consider a painting almost “finished” when I am half
finished with it, when I have reached what seems to be the
greatest measure of surprise. The rest of the action is discipli-
nary on my part. When I see that I am beginning to destroy the
surprise—the basic element of that surprise—then it is time
for me to stop.
POUSSETTE-DART: For me it is “finished” when it is inevitable
within itself. But I don’t think I can explain anything about
my painting, just as I can’t explain anything about a flower or
a child. When is anything “beautiful” or finished? I can’t dis-
cuss things about my paintings. The true thing I am after goes
on and on and I never can completely grasp it.
LIPTON: I think that we require time and intimacy and
aloneness.
BIALA: I never know when it is “finished.” I only know there
comes a time when I have to stop.
NEWMAN: I think the idea of a “finished” picture is a fiction.
I think a man spends his whole life-time painting one picture
or working on one piece of sculpture. The question of stopping
is really a decision of moral considerations. To what extent are
you intoxicated by the actual act, so that you are beguiled by
it? To what extent are you charmed by its inner life? And to
what extent do you then really approach the intention or
desire that is really outside of it. The decision is always made
when the piece has something in it that you wanted.
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