Rediscovered Masters, the organization dedicated to identifying largely under recognized late-career artists with historically significant oeuvres and raising institutional, academic and public awareness about their works, is pleased to announce its appearance at the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair. The exhibition continues Rediscovered Master’s program of curating exhibitions of its elected artists at major international art fairs. From February 12th through the 15th, 2015, representative paintings by six intriguing masters will be unveiled at the Palm Springs Convention Center, Oasis 2.

Art historian and curator Peter Hastings Falk points out that five of the artists were of the first generation of Abstract Expressionists. William Fredericksen [1914–2010] was lauded as one of the leading students of Archipenko and Moholy-Nagy at the Chicago Bauhaus. After graduating in 1948 he exhibited at several galleries including the prominent André Emmerich Gallery in New York — a leading proponent of the Abstract Expressionists. His collages of the late 1940s through to his late paintings are consistent in their sophisticated composition and exuberance of color.
 
Tony Narducci [1915–1999] was an original member of the group of Abstract Expressionists that met at the notorious Cedar Tavern in Greenwich Village.  He had emigrated from Italy in 1929 and, like many artists working for the W.P.A. quickly assimilated into the city’s art scene. He counted Franz Kline and Willem de Kooning among his best friends. But he suffered two tragedies in the early 1950s that resulted in a depression that made him retreat to his New Jersey studio and become agoraphobic. Even the entreaties of Leo Castelli failed to draw out the prolific recluse. Instead, Narducci remained in the private world of his studio, choosing resolutely to never exhibit. While he acknowledged that he and his colleagues had indeed kicked down the front door to a new way of seeing, his quest was to discover how to break down what he called the “back door.” He believed that Abstract Expressionism had yet to open a spiritual door that would reveal new aesthetic secrets held in the universe. This show reveals his breakthrough paintings — which he referred to as “Transcendental Aesthetics.”
 
The late Dr. William Innes Homer, once dean of American art historians, was the first to conclude that the discovery of Arthur Pinajian [1914-1999] presents one of the most compelling discoveries in the history of twentieth century American art: “Even though Pinajian was a creative force to be reckoned with, during his lifetime he rarely exhibited or sold his paintings. Instead, he pursued his goals in isolation with the single-minded focus of a Gauguin or Cézanne, refusing to give up in the face of public indifference. In his later years he could be compared to a lone researcher in a laboratory pursuing knowledge for its own sake. His exhaustive diaries and art notes make it clear that he dedicated all of his days to his art. He was passionate and unequivocally committed….Ultimately, Pinajian’s work reflects the soul of a flawed, yet brilliant, artistic genius. When he hits the mark, especially in his abstractions, he can be ranked among the best artists of his era.” Critics and collectors enthusiastically agreed, and in 2013 Pinajian was featured on ABC’s “Good Morning America” program as “the unlikely discovery that has rocked the art world.”
 
Another recent and extraordinary discovery is that of Matthew Troyan [1913–2007]. Like Narducci and Pinajian, he was once an original member of New York’s group of Abstract Expressionists. In fact, his best friend — Franz Kline — described Troyan as one of the best colorists, if not the best, he had ever known. Troyan’s life story and his art are even more compelling owing to the fact that he was the only Abstract Expressionist to have survived the Holocaust. Because he had endured years of brutal violence at three Nazi concentration camps, he had no tolerance when one night in 1953 a drunken Pollock started a fight at Cedar Tavern. Troyan simply quit the scene for the bucolic countryside of Connecticut. Kline begged him to return but Troyan painted in seclusion for the rest of his life. While the introspective Pollock was delving into Jungian psychoanalysis, Troyan’s horrific experiences of the war served as the wellspring of his imagery. His gestural brushstrokes, made even more powerful by his acute sense of color, are testament to his spiritual quest.
 
Rex Ashlock [1918-1999] was a Figurative Expressionist, a movement that paralleled Abstraction Expressionism in New York and the Bay Area. The artists of that movement are finally receiving greater critical recognition. Ashlock arrived in New York just after Pollock died in a car crash. An alcoholic, too, Ashlock became another regular at Cedar Tavern and was friendly with many of the members of the New York School. Although he taught classes at MoMA and exhibited at several New York galleries, he gradually ceased to pursue the promotion they afforded. Living instead what he called “a lifestyle of extreme independence to its fullest,” he became reclusive yet always painting. In 1980, he returned to San Francisco. An old Chinese friend who was a calligrapher and philosopher gave him the name, “I chen bunán,” which means “One small grain of sand, unstained.” Here is an artist who may well have felt like a grain of sand left behind in that curious and continuous sifting between art history and art promotion while never losing his dignity in the struggle to render a vision of art, unstained.

The sixth artist on exhibit, Gil Cuatrecasas [1936-2004], was of the next generation. Cuatrecasas was a master colorist who received significant critical acclaim in Washington in the 1960s as an important member of the Washington Color School. He enjoyed a solo exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 1964. His friends included Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, masters who have been enshrined in the pantheon of great American Color Field painters — a movement that paralleled Abstract Expressionism in New York. On exhibit are paintings from his “Torino Collection” — named for the Italian city in which Cuatrecasas painted in a grand villa from 1970 to 1976.  Paintings from this series had originally been slated for a solo exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum of Houston in 1976. But that year brought upon him a devastating sequence of events that began with a destructive flood, was followed by a bout with alcoholism, compounded by tuberculosis, and ended with cancer. Although prolific, Cuatrecasas never painted after 1976 and instead carefully placed his entire collection into storage. “Cuatrecasas was a genius of single-minded pursuit who created his own unique style,” says Falk, “Then he suddenly slipped from sight. Now his collection presents a new and compelling chapter in art history, shared by America and Spain.”
 
Contact Information
Peter Hastings Falk, Chief Curator
(p) 203.496.2885
Rediscovered Masters
210 East 73rd St.
New York, NY 10021
 
Exhibition Information
Location
Booth #716
Palm Springs Convention Center, Oasis 2

277 North Avenida Caballeros

Palm Springs, CA 92262

800-333-7535

 
Fair Hours
Thursday, February 12:  5pm – 9:30pm Opening Night Preview Benefits Palm Springs Art Museum
Friday, February 13: 11am – 7pm
Saturday, February 14: 11am – 7pm
Sunday, February 15: 11am - 6pm 
 
For art fair information go to: http://www.palmspringsfineartfair.com/