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Ary Stillman: From Impressionism to Abstract Expressionism

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Ary Stillman was a key figure in the development of 20th century modern art, abandoning the popular impressionist techniques in his early career and becoming a member of the New York School and the avant-garde wing of modern painters who exhibited regularly. He has many accomplishments - but is relatively unknown - so any college-level art history collection needs ARY STILLMAN, a guide to his abstract works and reviewing his life and achievements in a blend of essays and full-page color illustrations. Very highly recommended.

Diane C. Donovan

California Bookwatch

In the opening essay, the noted art critic Donald Kuspit brings Ary Stillman into focus by comparing him with the much better-known Jackson Pollack: "Stillman and Pollack synthesized Cubism and Expressionism. That is, they were inventors, not simply Cubist campfollowers." This originality is evident in Stillman's paintings as it is with Pollack's. Their synthesis "was catalyzed by Surrealism in particular, by the Surrealist turn into the unconscious for inspiration [which gave their works] energetic depth." Stillman however differs from Pollack in that while Pollack's paintings evince his "inner chaos," Stillman's inventive paintings "never collapse into chaos." Another quality one sees in Stillman's paintings (not seen with Pollack's) is a surface brightness like the brightness and mercurialness of a liquid; this is largely from the bright colors of the larger and usually more uniform shapes despite their being abstract. This is presumably a quality carried over by Stillman (1891-1967) from his beginnings in Impressionism. The surfaces of many of his abstract paintings have some resemblance to the water in Monet's paintings. The second essay by the critic James Wechsler is titled "Alchemy of Light."

Besides delving into the sources and aesthetic qualities of Stillman's art, Stillman's biography and career spanning the first part of the 20th century and peregrinating from Russia to the U.S. are covered. After emigrating to the U.S., he then went to Paris in the years between the World Wars when this city was the center of major developments in all the arts. Returning to the U.S. before once again spending time in Paris, Stillman traveled to the American art center of Taos in New Mexico. While there for a few weeks, he did a series of paintings inspired by the "indigenous Pueblo culture and desert landscapes" for a scheduled exhibition when he returned to Paris. It was during this period of the 1920s when Stillman began to get wide recognition as an artist, fulfilling his dreams from when he was a child in Russia.

Another vein of the essays is the different types of Stillman's paintings. Although he is identified with Pollack for purposes of placement in the spectrum of modern art, Stillman worked in different styles during is career, including figure painting, still life, and drawings.

The seven essays and scores of illustrations go as far as anyone can go in defining and revealing Stillman. But he nonetheless remains beyond ultimate definition or image. Unlike Pollack, Stillman seemed to glide over the displacements, disturbances, and demanding. often torturous visions of his time rather than assimilate and reproduce them. He is notable in the development of modern art; and artists as well as art historians and critics can learn from him so as to be influenced. But Stillman is not notable or influential for one simple thing. With other themes and topics such as Stillman's "doubling back" at points in his career and Jewish identity as embodied in his art, this distinctive work on this artist reflects his many facets.