Exhibition at Nassau County Museum of Art reconsiders Abstract Expressionism

ROSLYN HARBOR, NY.- Artists of the Abstract Expressionist school rejected the mass cultural values which were being formulated in America at mid-century, searching for alternatives to the consumer and advertising culture that had become prevalent in post-World War II America.

AB-EX / RE-CON: Abstract Expressionism Reconsidered, opening at Nassau County Museum of Art on March 9 and remaining on view through June 16, explores both the best known and less familiar practitioners of abstract and gestural painting who dominated American art, criticism and commentary during the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s Included in the exhibition are works by the stars of Abstract Expressionism, among them Richard Diebenkorn, Helen Frankenthaler, Hans Hofmann, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell and Mark Rothko. The exhibition also offers viewers the excitement of discovering some of the lesser-known but highly-regarded artists of the movement, among them Fritz Bultman and Jon Schueler. Bultman, a member of the inner circle of Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock and a close associate of Motherwell and Hofmann, is the topic of The Last Irascible, a talk presented at the museum on May 5 by the noted art writer Charles A. Riley II, Ph.D. Schueler, the subject of Jon Schueler: A Life in Painting, a 28-minute film being screened four times a day throughout the exhibition, was influenced by Clyfford Still (his teacher) and Milton Avery, and became a part of the New York School of artists.

Jon Schueler, Small Painting #3, 1949. Oil on canvas, 19 x 24 inches. Collection of Bruce Clark.

Three focused installations included in AB-EX / RE-CON are devoted to Abstract Expressionists working today: Judith Godwin in New York City, Stan Brodsky on Long Island, and Rita Rogers in Rhode Island. On April 27, independent curator Kenneth Wayne, Ph.D. presents a talk on Stan Brodsky.

The museum is offering several other programs in conjunction with the exhibition in addition to The Last Irascible, Jon Schueler: A Life in Painting and Dr. Wayne’s talk on Stan Brodsky. A 20-minute film, Abstract Expressionism, is being screened four times a day throughout the exhibition. Three Brown Bag lectures are offered, April 11, May 9 and June 6, in which Museum Docent Riva Ettus presents a 1 p.m. talk on the exhibition, followed by a 2 p.m. public tour. The films, the Brown Bag talks, and daily exhibition tours are free with museum admission on a first come, first served basis.

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2. Abstract Expressionism and Its Discontents at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
3. Milton Avery & the End of Modernism to Open at Nassau County Museum of Art
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5. Karl E. Willers, Ph.D. Appointed Director of Nassau County Museum of Art