Against Nature: Hard Edge Abstraction

http://www.graham1857.com/gallery/

GRAHAM, in Association with Abby M Taylor Fine Art, is pleased to present Against Nature: Hard Edge Abstraction. The collection on view offers a survey of the movement over the previous fifty years and examines the impression hard edge abstraction has left on the art historical landscape. Early examples of the movement are featured in the form of works by Leon Polk Smith, Howard Mehring and Sidney Gordin who demonstrate the monumental change occurring in the stylistic tendencies of the late 1940’s and the development of a new visual language. Hard edge abstraction emerged as a response to the prevailing style of gestural painting. Borrowing from the reductive qualities of cubism and the flattened compositions of color field painting in an effort to provide an opportunity to experiment with the architectural and geometric capabilities of the canvas. These core tenets are echoed throughout the subsequent decades and epitomized by artists such as Sir Terry Frost, Perle Fine, and Robyn Denny. Their work collectively embraces a formulaic approach to painting characterized by meticulously arranged, spatially compressed compositions meant to supplant the perceived spontaneity of gestural painting. IMAGE SHOWN: Thomas Downing, Grid Fourteen Saranac, 1971.