Art Chronicles 1954-1966 by Frank O'Hara (Art Ebook).pdf

G. Braziller | 1975 | Pdf | Eng | ISBN10 080760755X | 165 pag | 17.2

In the 1950s and early sixties Abstract Expressionism became the major American tradition in art; and like so many artistic movements, it was as much an atmosphere and a sensibility as a precise program. Pollock, Kline, Smith, Motherwell, Nakian, Cavallon, Rivers, Frankenthaler, Spaventa, Guston, and Katz — the prominent artists of our time-all worked together in New York.

One of the major poets of his generation, as well as a curator, playwright, and art critic, Frank O'Hara was a vital part of this world. To quote Amei Wallach, "If he was not precisely the center of all art— painting, sculpture, music, dance, Literature - in the 1950s, Frank O'Hara was firmly in the center of what is often called the New York scene."

In the essays selected for this volume, O'Hara takes us on a walking tour of the decade— spiraling down the ramps of the Guggenheim, visiting Cavallon's studio and Larry Rivers's cold-water flat, stopping to chat at galleries and museums, collaborating with his friends on works of art. At times whimsical and lyrical, he creates a cultural backdrop, then adds his profound perception to acute analytical scrutiny of the works of art, A unique portrait of the period emerges, one that only this extraordinary man who was central to it, who experienced it, could create.