Post War — Ways of Seeing Abstraction
Seo Soo-Kyoung, known by the artist name SEO, is a South Korean contemporary artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Her artist name comes from her family name Seo written in capital letters.
Seo Soo-Kyoung, known by the artist name SEO, is a South Korean contemporary artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Her artist name comes from her family name Seo written in capital letters.
Seo Soo-Kyoung, known by the artist name SEO, is a South Korean contemporary artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Her artist name comes from her family name Seo written in capital letters.
Seo Soo-Kyoung, known by the artist name SEO, is a South Korean contemporary artist who lives and works in Berlin, Germany. Her artist name comes from her family name Seo written in capital letters.
Marcia Jean Hafif was an American artist known for her contributions to the Minimalist and Conceptual art movements. She began her artistic career in the 1950s, exploring various mediums and styles before finding her distinctive voice.
Hafif's work often focused on the exploration of color, light, and the essence of materials. She was particularly interested in the interplay between perception, process, and the physicality of paint. In the 1970s, Hafif embarked on her groundbreaking series titled "The Inventory," where she meticulously painted a series of monochromatic works, each dedicated to exploring a specific color. These paintings emphasized the qualities and variations of a single hue, challenging traditional notions of representation and expanding the possibilities of color as a subject matter.
Later in her career, Hafif extended her exploration of color to include a broader range of media, such as photography, film, sound, text, installation, and printmaking. She continued to push boundaries and experiment with different materials and processes, always striving to deepen her understanding of color's impact on perception and experience.
Theodoros Stamos was a Greek-American painter. He is one of the youngest painters of the original group of abstract expressionist painters (the so-called "Irascibles"), which included Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Mark Rothko. His later years were negatively affected by his involvement with the Rothko case.
Aurélie Nemours is a French abstractionist painter.
Aurélie Nemours created abstract geometric paintings, developing her own style based on pure colors and geometric shapes taken from the square, but without dogmatism or systematism. Her compositions are strictly arranged on a plane based on the intersection of horizontal and vertical. This painstaking work culminates in a meditative asceticism confined to squares and rectangles, black or gray, space and matter.
Ulrich Erben is a German painter. From 1980 to 2005, he was a Professor of Painting at the Kunstakademie Münster (University of Fine Arts Münster). He is known as a master of the color field style of abstract painting, closely related to abstract expressionism, in which he creates tension between a defined surface structure, his own method of applying paint to a canvas, and the relationship of various shades of white or color to each other in their placement as part of a composition on the flat plane of a canvas. In 1986 and 2008, he was awarded the Konrad-von-Soest Prize for Visual Arts by the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (Landscape Society Westphalia-Lippe).
Gotthard Graubner was a German abstract painter associated with the post-war Zero and Informel movements. Graubner's work is known for its focus on color and its relationship to space and perception.
Graubner studied at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf under the painter Georg Meistermann. In the 1950s, he became associated with the Zero group, a movement of artists who sought to create a new art form that was free of traditional artistic conventions and focused on the use of unconventional materials.
In the 1960s, Graubner began creating his signature "color-space bodies," large canvases that were mounted away from the wall and filled with thick layers of pigment. These works were designed to be experienced as three-dimensional objects that were both paintings and sculptures, and they often created a sense of depth and spatial ambiguity.
Graubner's work was exhibited widely in Europe and the United States, and he was the recipient of numerous awards and honors throughout his career. He also taught at several art schools, including the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf and the Städelschule in Frankfurt.
Graubner's innovative approach to painting and his exploration of the relationship between color, space, and perception continue to be an important influence on contemporary art.
Georges Noël was a French artist, a representative of French informel.
In the mid-1950s he moved to the United States and began to create works in impasto, or, as he called them, palimpsests.
Palimpsests are old handwritten pages that have been partially scraped and then reused. Georges Noël uses the concept of palimpsest and creates his canvases with sand, crushed silica and raw pigment, giving each work a three-dimensional and energetic feel.
Georges Noël was a professor at the Minneapolis School of Art before returning to Paris.
Samuel Lewis Francis, an American painter and printmaker, was known for his pivotal role in postwar American painting and his contributions to the Abstract Expressionism and Color Field painting movements. Born in San Mateo, California, Francis' early life was marked by a deep personal loss and a significant injury during his service in the Army Air Corps, which led him to pursue painting while recovering in a hospital. His work, characterized by splashes of bright contrasting colors against expansive white canvases, drew international acclaim, particularly in Europe and Japan, underscoring his influence on the global art scene.
Francis' art evolved through various phases, from monochromatic works to vibrant, large-scale pieces, and was deeply influenced by his time in Paris and Japan, reflecting elements of Tachisme and possibly Zen Buddhism. Notable for creating large murals and his "Edge" series, Francis also founded The Lapis Press, further contributing to the art community by producing visually compelling texts. Despite facing health challenges towards the end of his life, he remained prolific, leaving behind a legacy celebrated through the Sam Francis Foundation, which aims to perpetuate his creative legacy.
Francis' artworks are held in prestigious collections worldwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Centre Pompidou-Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris, highlighting his enduring influence on contemporary art. His auction records and continued recognition in solo exhibitions posthumously underscore the lasting impact of his work on both collectors and the art community.
For those passionate about modern art and its history, staying informed about Samuel Lewis Francis' contributions and the ongoing exhibitions of his works can be enriching. Sign up for updates related to Francis to ensure you don't miss out on new sales and auction events showcasing his vibrant legacy.
Hann Trier was a German abstract expressionist watercolourist and graphic artist. Hann Trier is best known for his giant ceiling paintings in the Charlottenburg Palace. He was the older brother of the art historian Eduard Trier (1920-2009).
Hann Trier was a German abstract expressionist watercolourist and graphic artist. Hann Trier is best known for his giant ceiling paintings in the Charlottenburg Palace. He was the older brother of the art historian Eduard Trier (1920-2009).
Mary Hildegard Ruth Bauermeister was a German artist who worked in sculpture, drawing, installation, performance, and music. Influenced by Fluxus artists and Nouveau Réalisme, her work addresses esoteric issues of how information is transferable through society. Beginning in the 1970s, her work concentrated on the themes surrounding New Age spirituality, specifically geomancy, the divine interpretation of lines on the ground.
Walter Stöhrer is a German painter and graphic artist, a representative of gesture-figure painting.
He studied painting at the Academy of Arts in Karlsruhe and was a member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin.