Editing Abstract expressionism (section)

== Art critics of the post–World War II era ==

{{blockquote|At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another as an arena in which to act. What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event.|[[Harold Rosenberg]]<ref>Abstract Expressionism, by Barbara Hess, Taschen, 2005, back cover</ref>}}

In the 1940s there were not only few galleries ([[The Art of This Century]], [[Pierre Matisse]] Gallery, [[Julien Levy Gallery]] and a few others) but also few critics who were willing to follow the work of the New York Vanguard.
There were also a few artists with a literary background, among them Robert Motherwell and [[Barnett Newman]], who functioned as critics as well.

While the New York [[avant-garde]] was still relatively unknown by the late 1940s, most of the artists who have become household names today had their well-established patron critics: [[Clement Greenberg]] advocated [[Jackson Pollock]] and the [[Color Field|color field]] painters like [[Clyfford Still]], [[Mark Rothko]], [[Barnett Newman]], [[Adolph Gottlieb]] and [[Hans Hofmann]]; [[Harold Rosenberg]] seemed to prefer the action painters such as [[Willem de Kooning]] and [[Franz Kline]], as well as the seminal paintings of [[Arshile Gorky]]; Thomas B. Hess, the managing editor of ''[[ARTnews]]'', championed [[Willem de Kooning]].

The new critics elevated their protégés by casting other artists as "followers"<ref>Thomas B. Hess, "Willem de Kooning", George Braziller, Inc. New York, 1959 p.13</ref> or ignoring those who did not serve their promotional goal.

In 1958, [[Mark Tobey]] became the first American painter since [[James Abbott McNeill Whistler|Whistler]] (1895) to win top prize at the [[Venice Biennale]].<ref>Tomkins, Calvin. ''Off the Wall: A Portrait of Robert Rauschenberg'' [Deckle Edge] [Paperback], p. 5. Publisher: Picador; Revised and Updated edition (November 29, 2005) {{ISBN|0-312-42585-6}}</ref>

[[File:Newman-Onement 1.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Barnett Newman]], ''Onement 1,'' 1948. During the 1940s Barnett Newman wrote several articles about the new American painting.]]

[[Barnett Newman]], a late member of the [[The Art of This Century Gallery|Uptown Group]], wrote catalogue forewords and reviews, and by the late 1940s became an exhibiting artist at [[Betty Parsons Gallery]]. His first solo show was in 1948. Soon after his first exhibition, Barnett Newman remarked in one of the Artists' Sessions at Studio 35: "We are in the process of making the world, to a certain extent, in our own image."<ref>''Barnett Newman Selected Writings and Interviews'', (ed.) by John P. O'Neill, pp. 240–241, [[University of California Press]], 1990</ref> Utilizing his writing skills, Newman fought every step of the way to reinforce his newly established image as an artist and to promote his work. An example is his letter on April 9, 1955, "Letter to [[Sidney Janis]]: — it is true that Rothko talks the fighter. He fights, however, to submit to the philistine world. My struggle against bourgeois society has involved the total rejection of it."<ref>''Barnett Newman Selected Writings Interviews'', p. 201.</ref>

Strangely, the person thought to have had most to do with the promotion of this style was a New York Trotskyist: Clement Greenberg. As long-time art critic for the ''[[Partisan Review]]'' and ''[[The Nation]]'', he became an early and literate proponent of abstract expressionism. The well-heeled artist Robert Motherwell joined Greenberg in promoting a style that fit the political climate and the intellectual rebelliousness of the era.

Greenberg proclaimed abstract expressionism and Pollock in particular as the epitome of aesthetic value. He supported Pollock's work on formalistic grounds as simply the best painting of its day and the culmination of an art tradition going back via [[Cubism]] and [[Cézanne]] to [[Monet]], in which painting became ever-'purer' and more concentrated in what was 'essential' to it, the making of marks on a flat surface.<ref>Clement Greenberg, "Art and Culture Critical essays", ("The Crisis of the Easel Picture"), Beacon Press, 1961 pp.: 154–57</ref>

Pollock's work has always polarised critics. Rosenberg spoke of the transformation of painting into an existential drama in Pollock's work, in which "what was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event". "The big moment came when it was decided to paint 'just to paint'. The gesture on the canvas was a gesture of liberation from value—political, aesthetic, moral."<ref>Harold Rosenberg, ''The Tradition of the New'', Chapter 2, "The American Action Painter", pp.23–39</ref>

One of the most vocal critics of abstract expressionism at the time was ''[[The New York Times]]'' art critic [[John Canaday]]. [[Meyer Schapiro]] and [[Leo Steinberg]] along with Greenberg and Rosenberg were important art historians of the post-war era who voiced support for abstract expressionism. During the early-to-mid-sixties younger art critics [[Michael Fried]], [[Rosalind Krauss]], and [[Robert Hughes (critic)|Robert Hughes]] added considerable insights into the critical dialectic that continues to grow around abstract expressionism.