The Irascibles painters against the museum, New York, 1950 Bradford R. Collins, Manuel Fontán del Junco, Inés Vallejo, and Beatriz Cordero (eds.) ; with texts by Daniel Belasco [and ten others] ; translation, Spanish/English, Nuria Rodríguez Riestra
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.) Search this
American Painting Today (Exhibition) (1950-1951 : Metropolitan Museum of Art) Search this
Physical description:
291 pages color illustrations, portraits, maps 30 cm
Type:
Exhibitions
Expositions
Exhibition catalogs
History
Place:
New York (State)
New York
New York (N.Y.)
New York (État)
Date:
2020
20th century
20e siècle
Notes:
Errata sheet mounted on first preliminary page
Translucent sheet with cut-out circles laid in, identifying the painters on page 117
"Published on the occasion of the exhibition "The Irascibles: Painters Against the Museum, New York, 1950" by Fundación Juan March, Madrid. March 6 - June 7, 2020"
DONOR NOTE: Purchased with Adopt-A-Book Funds
Contents:
Angry with the Museum: from the Salon des Refusés to the Irascibles / Inés Vallejo and Manuel Fontán del Junco -- The history of a moment / Sanford Hirsch -- The Irascibles, Life magazine, and the story of modern art / Bradford R. Collins -- Convergence and divergence: the Irascibles and the Museum / Beatriz Cordero -- The Irascible sculptors / Marin R. Sullivan -- The Irascibles were... -- 18 artists, 18 paintings -- Nina Leen: the photographic session : letters, documents, and publications -- The other protagonists -- New York and the Irascibles (1935-1955) / Beatriz Cordero -- Catalogue of works and documents in the exhibition -- Bibliography
Summary:
In 1950, 18 American abstract painters signed an open letter addressed to the president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art to express their intense disapproval of the museum's contemporaneous exhibit American Painting Today: 1950. The artists were William Baziotes, James Brooks, Fritz Bultman, Jimmy Ernst, Adolph Gottlieb, Hans Hofmann, Weldon Kees, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Richard Pousette-Dart, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Theodoros Stamos, Hedda Sterne, Clyfford Still and Bradley Walker Tomlin. This artistic coalition, which included many members of the New York School and is now considered a watershed movement in mid-20th-century American art history, challenged the museum's policies for their narrow understanding of what made certain art worth exhibiting. Though they resisted being labeled as a collective, media coverage of the museum boycott, which included a now-famous group portrait in Life magazine taken by photographer Nina Leen, ultimately contributed to the success of the 18 "Irascibles" in what became known as the abstract expressionist movement. This publication collects 18 paintings by the artists, images from Leen's photoshoot and extensive documentation of the letter-writing process with relevant catalogs and magazines. Featuring more than 230 illustrations alongside original essays by several art historians and curators that examine the complex history of the New York School, this volume serves as a time capsule of the exciting period of early abstract expressionism in the United States. Exhibition: Fundación Juan March, Madrid, Spain (06.03.-07.06.2020)
