Customer Reviews

New York School Abstract Expressionists: Artists Choice by Artists: A Complete Documentation of the New York Painting and Sculpture Annuals; 1951-1957

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New York School Abstract Expressionists: Artists Choice by Artists is an important contribution to the study of Abstract Expressionism. 265 artists are documented and 86 are featured. If you are like me, a bit tired of the usually featured artists of the New York School(Pollock, Rothko, Tobey, etc.) then you will be pleasantly suprised by the "Other Talented Artists" that comprised the New York School.

The starting point is the historic 9th Street Show of 1951. This is thoroughly discussed as are the subsequent New York School Artist's Annuals of 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, and 1957. Numerous charts, posters and photographs are included, showing which artists were in which shows. Scholars have pretty much neglected these significant shows which featured the best of the "New Art".

As I stated earlier, 86 artists are featured. Each of these artists have 2 works shown (full page) and an artist's statement. The reproductions are excellent. There is also a Bio, and a listing of solo exhibitions and group exhibitions for each of these artists. An amazing amount of research and love went into this new production. You can discern that there were many "greats" in the NY School. You can see that the NY School was actually a bonafide community of artists. I will list the artists with an "A" and B" last name, just to give you an idea of the breadth of this work: Aach, Abbott, Abrams, Adams, Agostini, Albers, Albert, Albizu, Alcopley, Anderson, Andrews, Arnold, Asawa, Asher, Avery, Barber, Baziotes, Beauchamp, Beck, Ben, Benton, Biala, Blaine, Bolotowsky, Booth, Bouche, Bourgeois, Brach, Brenson, Briggs, Brooks, Brustlein, Bultman, Busa, and Button.

This 393 page book was sumptuosly printed and has a 12" x 9 1/2" format. It has a black cloth binding and a handsome dust jacket with ALL the names of the NY School artists. This silver dust jacket has black and red lettering which pops-out and is a stunning tribute to the artists.

I can only hope that there will be more books on these "Other Artists of the New York School of Painters and Sculptors".

Seems to be the first book that truly begins to cover the New York Crowd with any thoroughness...would truly like to have seen representative works by all the painters covered (perhaps in a series of addenda???) Otherwise an invaluable book for reference of that most fruitful ten years in American (and perhaps world) art history.

I'm grateful to have found this book. By covering so many lesser-known artists and giving them as much space as the usual suspects (Pollock, De Kooning et al.), Herskovic gives a much rounder idea of the American Abstract Expressionist scene than any other survey I've seen. The only drawback is its price (I would love a more affordable paperback version) but I do plan on buying her other two volumes in the near future. Highly recommended.